So your friend shows you this book he can’t stop raving about. After giving it the old dust-cover/random-flip-through examination, you pretty much decide to buy it. Now, when you arrive at amazon.com, my question is: are you at all interested in the book recommendations that Amazon has for you?

Absolutely not, right?  Or at least not yet.

You came to buy a specific book.  You’ve already got a task in mind and browsing random books aint it.  You’ll likely…

...continue to read "Does Online Browsing Bend the Laws of Scent and Relevance?"

At around 1:20pm, while presenting at the “Survival of the Fittest 2.0″ session at Search Engine Strategies last Tuesday, I get the text message from my wife “I am in labor.” At 11:32 pm Matthew David Eisenberg joined our family. Baby and mom are doing well. My daughter and other son are enamored with our new addition.

Driving home that night from the hospital brought memories of my Mom and Dad and their great words of wisdom around parenting. “Your job…

...continue to read "You’ll Screw Up!"

Bryan Eisenberg was recently asked the following question via e-mail:

“I know you are very busy, but I would like your help. I have read your blog(s) about Unique Value Proposition over and over (and others too).  I am perplexed.  How do you distinguish between a Unique Value Propostion and tag line. For example Fedex, ‘When it absolutely positively has to be there overnight’ – tagline or UVP? Your site ‘Keep Your Goals On Target: Increase Conversions, Get More…

...continue to read "UVP or Tagline?"

After the first dot-com bust, “content is king” was the rallying cry of any competent Web worker. Back then this revelation was novel online. Soon after, this mantra became a cliché. As it often goes with clichés, they start out as something true and meaningful. Eventually, the words become common, outlive their value, and are so overused that they’re easily ignored.

Saying content is king is the equivalent of saying money is valuable; it’s true but obvious. Tell that to the…

...continue to read "The Value of Content Marketing"

One of the great things about testing and optimization is that you can use it to challenge assumptions and keep your site design’s effectiveness up-to-date.  No website element, no matter how pretty and well-designed, should be excused from an occasional test to make sure it’s giving you ROI.

In our fast-moving industry, what gave ROI six months ago might not today.

Take, for example, the design pattern I like to call the “SEO Footer.”  This design element takes many forms,…

...continue to read "Free Optimization Test Recommendation: The SEO Footer"

Throughout my career as a conversion analyst, I’ve had the opportunity to work with a large variety of clients in a variety of industries, and in very different circumstances. Some may be getting a large amount of traffic, but having a really difficult time converting their visitors due to a lack of branding or a lack of scent on their site. Others might be getting very low traffic, while some others might have a hard time converting early and middle…

...continue to read "Which of the Three Layers of “Fogg” Are You Stuck In?"

My grandma used to tell us that she was too poor to buy cheap.

Tom Crandall in his iMediaConnection SEO column explains “why the traditional thinking on ‘cheap’ no longer applies”. I think he’s right for several business categories but not all.

Our new service OnTarget is by far the least expensive and most effective proven system for companies to continually improve their conversion rates.

So why don’t we just call OnTarget cheap?

Hmmm… The answer is simple.

We never want the type of client who is…

...continue to read "The Value of Cheap"

Did you miss my webinar last week with ClickZ? A recording of Post-Click Marketing: Maximizing Conversions Once Visitors Arrive was just made available.

Roy William’s published the 10 things never to do in your advertising. How many are you doing?

Why Advertising Is Failing On The Internet – I don’t completely agree with the author but Danny Sullivan strongly disagrees.

Which one of the 14 Types of Twitter Personalities are you? I am most like the Link Mogul/Retweeter.

Linda does a great job explaining Personalization: What Sort-By…

...continue to read "TheGrok’s Not-To-Miss Links for the Week 3/23/09"

Is American Idol’s newest judge an attempt to cover all 4 temperaments and create the natural dynamic that comes with that?

According to the American Idol Website:

“We had originally intended for American Idol to have four judges,” said executive producer Cecile Frot-Coutaz. “We’ve seen from our international series that having a fourth judge creates a dynamic that benefits both the contestants and the viewers.”

Of course, this just means they wanted 4 judges, and not necessarily that they wanted the judges to line…

...continue to read "Personality Secrets of American Idol’s Judges"

One of the things that makes being a Persuasion Analyst at FutureNow fun is watching clients –> partners –> friends grow as an organization.  Many start off skeptical about the process of site optimization, or unrealistic about what can be gained in a given time frame.  But after working through some of the challenges, it’s great to see them thinking about their sites and their businesses in completely different (read: better) ways, and subscribing to a culture of continuous…

...continue to read "The Development of an Optimization Culture"