You may have noticed that some Grok contributors have been less present on our blog lately. Jeffrey and Bryan Eisenberg have left FutureNow to capitalize on opportunities in professional speaking, blogging, writing, and online marketing advisory.  Bryan’s new website can be found at www.bryaneisenberg.com. Please join us in wishing them continued success in their new ventures.

The only small change that will effect readers is that the senior analysts that have been sharing their insights and expertise in the past, will now be contributing more on The Grok.  You’ll be reading more from the analysts that are working with clients every day, helping them achieve higher conversion rates and improve their online marketing efforts.  Grok contributors will increase their focus on sharing more case studies on what is and isn’t working in actual client optimization efforts.

And, here’s what’s not changing:

• The focus of GrokDotCom:  Grokking human reactions to marketing, sales, PR & evolving media.
• Our efforts to bring you interesting industry developments, cool new tools to make your lives easier, and actionable insights for optimizing your conversion rates.

For those interested in more details, here are some thoughts from FutureNow’s CEO, excerpted from a letter that went out to clients and partners:

Bryan, Jeffrey and the rest of the team have made this Company the leading authority in the conversion optimization space.  Combine that with an unmatched proprietary database that has website recommendations that work and a software tool that manages and measure those results, we continue leading the industry.  We owe Jeffrey and Bryan, our experienced team, our customers, and our affiliate service partners a lot of gratitude for getting us to this point.

We plan to build on this success and even find ways to improve it.  Our methodology will not change, and clients will still get the same analysis they have come to expect.  Our highly skilled business analyst team, account management personnel, and software development and support group will continue to look for ways to exceed our clients’ expectations.

Having been involved in some capacity since the Company’s inception, I am excited as ever for where our Company is and for our future plans.

I welcome any questions you may have and can be reached at 718-560-3325 or by email at bills@futurenowinc.com.

Sincerely,

William Schloth

Chief Executive Officer

Here are a few others that caught my attention:

About Face: My buddy CC Chapman prepared this guide afterthe recent update to Facebook Pages. He thinks many brands and businesses will be left wondering how they can best take advantage of this upgrade and this white paper offers some wonderful advice.

The Techie Guide to Google Website Optimizer: This guide covers just about everything you wanted to know about the technical ins and outs of Website Optimizer.

How to Write a White Paper: This paper’s objective is to guide you in the process of developing effective white papers and persuasive business documents.

What interesting white papers have you read lately?

P.S. if you are marketing your own whitepapers don’t forget to read 12 Techniques to Increase White Paper Leads.

So creep past the security guard of the analytical, logical, linear, give-me-the-facts left brain. Speak to the emotional, intuitive dimension every human possesses and relies on – write to the right brain. And then listen to the fabulous tune your cyber-cash register can sing – Ca-ching, Ca-ching, Ca-ching!

We know a lot about your brain. We know it has two hemispheres – left and right – and we have a pretty good map of what goes on in the left brain, with its centers for sensory input and associated memory, motor coordination, planning, judgment, and emotion. We say it’s the seat of logic, objectivity and details. We know less about the map of the right brain, the seat of intuition, subjectivity and big pictures. But we know the left brain is always checking things out with the right brain. Just as the child glances at the parent for approval she’s on the right track.

Now hear this: Human persuasion is a right brain process. To persuade effectively, you must let your emotional hair down and snare your prospects by singing the right brain’s song.

How to do that? I’ll give you some pointers my dear friend Roy Williams, one pumped-up right-brain dude, shared with me on how to free your Grok!

Just Do It

First, don’t be afraid. Just write something. Anything. If it’s worth doing at all, it doesn’t matter if you do it badly at first. You’ll get better at it along the way. It’s called practice. We all gotta start somewhere and it’s a heck of a lot better than being stuck in analysis paralysis!

The Flow of the Process

Don’t even dream of beginning at the beginning. Instead, begin at the end. Decide what you are trying to accomplish – the ultimate purpose of the communication – so you know where and how it needs to end. Remember Alice?

`Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?’

`That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,’ said the Cat.

`I don’t much care where–’ said Alice.

`Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,’ said the Cat.

(Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland)

How many movies have you seen that have a great plot, interesting characters, thoughtful dialogue, and the whole kit and caboodle go down the drain in a lousy ending? What a disappointment. And the left-brain stomps in to take charge, discounting all that came before. Knowing where to end is that important!

When you’ve got your end, you can begin. Where? Anywhere. Pick a word and go. The more unusual the better. If you’re stuck, open the morning paper, place your finger on any word, think relevance and where you are going, and voila! You’re on your way.

Suppose you’ve got a really cool gadget that allows customers to get more traffic. Start your announcement using the word “behead” (see below for a solution one of our FutureNow guys came up with).

What to Leave Out

Much as you know and love what you do, it’s easy to get trapped trying to convey everything in one fell swoop. You need to leave stuff out. First, folks can only maintain their interest for so long. Second, when you tell them something they already know, you bore them (see the left-brain marching in). Third, the greatest magic is often present in what is left unsaid. Roy Williams says: “Speak to the customer in the language of the customer about what matters to the customer.” And the unsaid magic? Think iceberg: one-eighth above water, seven-eighths below, but nobody would mistake what it is.

End, begin, omit. Got it? Now revisit some of those ideas about revving up your writing and start writing “right.” Go on, free your Grok!

—

“Behead?” He puzzled for the briefest moment. “You’ve beheaded the monster of frustration. You’ve just installed our gadget and, suddenly, getting tens of thousands of visitors to your website doesn’t take forever.”

*originally publsihed 4/2002

If you buy that the passive voice is death to persuasive writing (which was the point of that other little piece), then I’d like you to consider that you pack persuasive punch not with adjectives and adverbs, but with verbs. You want your copy to capture, delight, motivate and excite your visitors, don’t you? You want your copy to be the next best thing to a live person eloquently speaking in their ears, right? Then let me introduce you to the under-used, over-looked but infinitely versatile verb.

The goal of your online endeavor is to get your visitors to take action. One of the cornerstones of your site is your copy (and copy exists not just as text on a page but words in graphics or videos as well) – all the words communicating not only your message but the entire realm of possibility you offer.

Your copy works to persuade and fill the minds of your visitors with images that make them eager for what you offer. Your copy engages, compels and provides momentum so your visitors move through your conversion process to the close and beyond. But screen space is at a premium, and good copy doesn’t come cheap. Every word costs you something, so you want to make the most of every word you use.

My good friend, Professor Chris Maddock, from the Wizard Academy offers the following comparison. The first sample paints its picture with adjectives and adverbs (in red), the second with verbs and verb forms (also in red).

Sample 1

I went slowly along the sandy shore. The small, cold waves lazily came on in long, thin fingers of white foam. The sky was slate-gray and blew a thin, humid wind reticently toward the dark beach. (36 words)

Sample 2

I crept close to the shore. The waves limped in and collapsed in dying fingers of foam. The sky brooded, darkened, then persuaded the reticent wind toward the beach. (29 words)

Now read the two samples aloud. Listen to how your voice sounds as you read them. Feel a difference? Do you think one delivers more punch? I sure do! Sample 1 feels slow, dull and plodding – too many modifiers. Sample 2 is crisper, more compelling, more exciting.

Not only do verbs and their associated forms (gerunds and participles) generate motion, they also convey character: creeping, limping, collapsing, dying – all create a strong mental image and mood – mandatory for effective copy. Sample 1 created its mood with ten adjectives and three adverbs; Sample 2 used only two adjectives (and one of those a verb form) and no adverbs, yet achieved a more powerful result.

“The verb is the heartthrob of a sentence,” says Karen Elizabeth Gordon in The Transitive Vampire, while Strunk and White, in Elements of Style (I’m told it’s the Grammar Gospel) instruct, ” Write with nouns and verbs, not with adjectives and adverbs. The adjective hasn’t been built that can pull a weak or inaccurate noun out of a tight place [yours truly adds the same can be said of adverbs for verbs]. – it is nouns and verbs that give to good writing its toughness and character.”

The cool thing about verbs is they can do so much for you and take up less space doing it! Here are some ideas:

Mood

Verbs can help communicate meaning and quality in a sentence without bogging down the language with unnecessary modifiers.

I go to the store.

I trudge to the store.

In both sentences, I’ll arrive at the same place (and in the same number of words), but the second example gives you a much better idea of how I’ll get there and what mood I’m in.

Verbs as Adjectives

Folks have grammar nightmares when someone mentions participles, but a participle is nothing more than a verb used as an adjective (a word that modifies a noun).

Vanquished by his foe, the commander knelt on the ground. (vanquished commander)

Dripping with rain, the mouse scurried under a toadstool. (dripping mouse)

The surrendered document lay on the table. (surrendered document)

Verbs as Nouns

Ditto the nightmare stuff when it comes to gerunds, but gerunds are just verbs with -ing endings that work as nouns.

Giving is better than receiving.

His fear is losing control.

She adores listening to bagpipes.

Verbs, in all their incarnations, breathe essence and vitality into your writing. By their very nature, they are action-oriented and quickly draw your reader into a powerful mental universe of activity, sound and feeling. They also pull your reader through the text. Verbs are like seductresses with come-hither gestures! Use them well, and your reader will stay hooked.

Want more colorful, engaging, concise, persuasive copy? Then, the next time you go to your library of word books, check out a good verb!

Consciously using rhythm techniques helps you generate sight, feeling and, yes, even sound images for your reader.

Rhythm as Visual Mood

People internalize what they read as visual images – that’s one of the great beauties of sitting down with a good book: it gives you the opportunity to create mental worlds. And the pace of your writing reinforces the mood of its visuals, in an almost movie-like way.

To inspire an excited, fast-moving feeling in your reader, punctuate intentionally, and impart motion through the use of action verbs and short, rolling words. If you want to convey a relaxed feeling, a sense of rest or of moodiness, lengthen your sentences, use abundant punctuation and appropriate descriptives, and pay very close attention to detail.

Your pulse races, hands clenching your ticket as she comes flying into the homestretch. Whispering a prayer, you watch her cross the line. A photo finish. Too close to call. Eternal silence. Bated breath. The announcement crackles in your ear. She lost. By a nose.

How do you feel? Breathing just a bit shallower? This example is full of short, incomplete sentences. Lots of periods that bring readers abruptly to the close of a moment, yet leave them hanging, so they want to move on. Visually, it’s choppy, a montage of images that gives you more information than actually appears in the words themselves.

Now read this:

Your pulse races, your hand clenches your ticket, she comes flying into the homestretch. You whisper a prayer, she crosses the line, a photo finish, too close to call, eternal silence, bated breath. The announcement crackles in your ear. She lost by a nose.

Pretty much the same short sentences, but a different scheme of punctuation. Does that change the images the passage creates in your mind? Me, I visualize this event in a softer focus. The montage isn’t as stop-and-go; instead it almost flows with a strange quality of suspended motion that is at odds with the obvious speed of what is happening.

You gotta use a technique like this sparingly – heaven forbid you should create a whole Web page or email of it. It would quickly bore your readers by becoming predictable and would lose its inherent power.

Now let’s set a different mood:

Your fingers finally uncramp and ease their vise grip on damp paper, a palpable weight in your open palm, the embodiment of hope that has become failed dream. You shred precisely, with contempt, then surrender the useless burden, and the tatters flutter like betrayal to the stained concrete at your feet, no longer distinguishable in their promise from crumpled candy wrappers and empty plastic cups.

Now how do you feel? Can you see the palm opening in slow motion, ticket fragments falling like decayed petals? Can you sense the despair?

Rhythm as Verbal Music

One definition of rhythm is: an alternating recurrence of similar elements. Songs have rhythm; jokes have rhythm in their timing and delivery. Good copywriting has rhythm that is revealed in the variation of sentence length – and it is precisely this sort of rhythm that gives your reader a sense the copy “sounds” compelling.

When you consistently write sentences that are all the same length, your writing develops a plodding predictability. To avoid this, mix up your sentence lengths: a short sentence, a long sentence, a long sentence, a medium sentence, then another short sentence. This last sentence will carry some impact, because the reader wasn’t expecting it. Another short sentence might reinforce the impact. Then a long one. Give your reader the experience of rhythm in variety.

Interestingly, there is a “rhythm in three.” When you incorporate a series of things into a sentence, three seems to be the magic number. It has a nice rhythm – we hear it as complete and satisfying. “We leap into the boat, setup the sail and venture out onto the sea.”

So plan your words to create just the right pace, then give it a good beat.

Well, we’re finally out of the bottle when it comes to our newest software offering, OnTarget™. We knew what the OnTarget software-as-a-service is; why it’s so different from everything else; how OnTarget works on your website; and even what kind of client results it produces. However, you may not be aware of those things and that is what makes your feedback much more valuable to us than our internal critique.

We’ve finished up an updated video describing OnTarget™ based on your feedback as well as a demo video of OnTarget™ in action. Thank you so much for your feedback.

Enjoy! And let us know what you think!!

Your faithful Friend and Servant,
The Grok
December, 2000

(With all due respects and a wink to the spirit of C. Dickens)

The Grok was from Mars. There was no doubt whatever about that. His arrival was duly noted and registered by the various authorities at NASA and the governmental agencies associated with Immigration and Naturalization. This must be distinctly understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going to relate.

Self-styled e-commerce guru Ebenezer Marketer followed news of The Grok’s arrival. He read the Martian decided to hook up with FutureNow, a consultancy passionately advocating the application of traditional offline sales techniques to the wild, wooly and entirely new frontiers of commerce on the Internet. “Traditional sales techniques? Bah-humbug!” Marketer blathered as he proceeded to overwhelm his staff with demands to devise many new and improved forms of e-mail, banner advertising and newsletter campaigns, and to research the latest bleeding-edge technological innovations.

One December day, one of E. Marketer’s clients called on him.

“Yes, Tiny Tom? What can I do for you?” Marketer continued at his calculations, paying little real attention to his client.

“Excuse me for bothering you, Sir Guru, but the wife freshly made these Christmas cookies. The family’s quite amazed with our Stick Shoppe being on The Internet and all. To think our sticks, canes, walking supports and umbrellas can now be available to anyone anywhere.” Then his voice trailed off, “Even though it’s nearly paupered us so far.”

E. Marketer waved a casual hand at Tiny Tom, ignoring his last comment and indicating where he might place the plate of cookies. “And so they should be amazed! And imagine how much more amazed they’ll be when we add this new layer of technology to your website.” He turned to his computer, called up a program and demonstrated an animation of an umbrella that opened and pirouetted on the screen. “This is just a small part of what we have in mind for your online 3-D store. Next best thing to being there, Tom,” he said with the certainty of an astronomer predicting the sun will rise.

“Well yes. That would certainly be novel. Can’t say as I’ve seen anything like it.” Tom hesitated, “But that’s going to cost, isn’t it?”

“Entertainment, Tom. That’s what these savvy online shoppers crave. Sure, it’s going to cost something up front. But you’ll recover that and more in no time when the profits start rolling in like never before. You’ll see.”

“Well, it’s about those profits, now that you mention it. I don’t think we’ve turned one yet. Sales just don’t seem to be what they ought to be, and I keep getting the feeling I ought to be selling these folks, helping them along like I’d do in my real store. And with my current closing ratios, I can’t see how I’m going to manage paying for this ‘new layer of technology’. There’s little enough now, I’m not even sure I’ll be able to bring home a Christmas turkey for the missus.”

“Patience, Tom. Traffic is the key. And the more cool stuff you show people, the more traffic you’ll get, don’t you see? That’s why you’re lucky to have an expert like me helping you. Besides, you can’t ’sell’ people on the web – you’ve got to lure them.” He dragged out the word ‘lure’ as if he were trolling for dupes. “I’ll have the design boys work up that 3-D store concept, and we’ll have it on the site by end of the week. Then you can sit back, put your feet up and watch the money roll in.” Marketer cut short any further discussion by clapping Tiny Tom on the shoulder and escorting him out the door. As he returned to his calculations of click-through rates, he shook his head and muttered again, “Sales techniques? Bah-humbug.”

That night, E. Marketer climbed into bed with a mug of warm milk and the latest issue of The Annals of Advertising, which contained an article on targeting banner ads so they reached the right eyeballs. During a passage about incorporating Flash, he drifted off to sleep.

E. Marketer woke suddenly to find a short, green creature with five eyeballs tapping him on the arm.

“Hey dude!” His smile reached all the way out to where his ears would have been if he had any.

E. Marketer blinked. “I know you from somewhere.” He blinked and looked again. “You’re that Grok thing from Mars.”

“Actually, just now I’m the Spirit of Commerce Past. I’ve got some cool stuff to show you.” The Spirit held out his hand.

“I’ve got a busy day tomorrow. Call my secretary and schedule an appointment, would you? Maybe we can do lunch.” E. Marketer rolled over dismissively.

“Hey!” The Spirit sounded irreverently cheerful. “The fun’s just starting, Ebbie. Let’s go.” The Spirit took E. Marketer’s arm and led him into an ethereal mist.

“Where are we?” E. Marketer pinched himself to make certain he was awake.

“We are in the past, Eb. I’m here to show you what commerce has always been about.” And with that, the Spirit escorted E. Marketer through a history of sales. They witnessed the early practice of barter, the specialization of vendors, the emergence of a money economy. The Spirit toured E. Marketer through the development of centralized markets, then retail stores, road shows, door-to-door sales, direct mail and telemarketing. The Spirit pointed out the various technological advances along the way that aided seller-buyer communications, from smoke signals and lights to the telegraph, telephone, television, fax and finally, the personal computer.

Every now and then, the Spirit stopped so E. Marketer could overhear conversations. He listened to customers asking lots of questions that salespeople happily answered. He saw the smiles on the faces of buyers as they left with parcels in hand, feeling confident of their purchases. Along the way, the Spirit pointed out dynamic examples of the critical five steps that comprise the sales process.

They returned to E. Marketer’s bedroom. Crossing his arms and tapping his toe on the carpet, he frowned at the Spirit. “So what was all that supposed to be about?”

“People, Eb. That’s what commerce is all about.” The Spirit smiled broadly. “I know it’s strange, but even after all those years, humans still cling to their basic ways of thinking about and doing things. They’ve got needs, Ebbie. They want to buy, and they want to be sold. They like getting nose-to-nose; they want to feel there’s an understanding human somewhere on the other end of the exchange. They want information, persuading, reassurance. They want to trust the dude they buy from.”

E. Marketer looked unimpressed. “Yeah? Well, it’s a brave new world out there. The Internet has changed everything. It’s revolutionized the way we do business. People will cope.”

The Grok rolled three of his five eyes. “Did you notice something real important while I was giving you the Grand Tour? No matter what technological advance was wowing the folks, successful business still sold to their customers in the same way. Wake up, Ebbie. Technology is only the medium; it’s not the message. It never was. Didn’t I just show you that?”

“Right. So, can I go back to bed now? As I said, tomorrow’s a busy day.”

“No, Spirit! Oh no, no!” he cried. “This can’t be written in stone. Oh, tell me there’s a different future possible, a happier future, one I have a hand in helping to create and not destroy.”

When last we left Ebenezer Marketer, he was standing in the middle of his bedroom after a three-Advil- night of being escorted through the Ages of e-Business Past and Present by a parade of exceptionally brilliant Green Spirits, each of which bore a striking resemblance to yours truly.

Wanna know what happens next? As if you couldn’t guess!

E. Marketer gave himself a pinch and winced at the result, then raced to his mirror. Looking in and finding his own reflection, he took to laughing a little insanely, “I’m here. This is really me! And I’m not standing on the precipice of my office building.” He raced to his window and threw open the sash, craning his head far into the crisp morning air. Everything looked comfortingly normal.

His first act was to buy a turkey, which he delivered in person, for Tiny Tom’s Christmas dinner. The missus invited him to dine, and he obliged, spending his day and evening picking more at the wealth of Tiny Tom’s sales knowledge than the meal’s trimmings. In fact, on the spot, he offered Tiny Tom a consulting position with his firm (and was to retain several other new staff with backgrounds in sales and consumer psychology).

During the days that followed, E. Marketer gnomed away in his office, leaving his staff to muse at the explosions of chuckles that would emerge from behind his closed door and wonder if they should start looking for new jobs. But the chuckles only reflected his growing enthusiasm for a whole new way of looking at online sales. Soon, they became very familiar with previously unknown considerations such as AIDAS, the sales funnel, what makes people buy, scent, trust and privacy, customer service, loyalty, web analytics, the continuous improvement process, A/B and Multivariate testing and the now-famous term E. Marketer coined: EON (Ease of Navigation).

People still marvel at the complete change that came over E. Marketer and his e-commerce philosophies. It wasn’t just that he became far less pompous in his dealings with folks; the new leaf he turned over that day wound up making both his own business and the businesses of his clients more profitable than any had imagined. Old E. Marketer was showered with praise and became a model for all thriving e-enterprises. True success and satisfaction were his at last.

Everyone knows E. Marketer wound up subscribing to Grokdotcom. What they do not know is this: every time a new issue appeared on his computer screen, the small green character in the upper left-hand corner gave him a salutary wink!

THE END

This story was originally written in 2000 by Lisa T. Davis and edited recently by Bryan Eisenberg to refresh the links in the story.

Happy Holidays from the FutureNow family.

We are letting you know before Wizard Academy fills the class: Wizards of Web: Planning, Measuring, & Achieving Your Online Goals October 21-23.

Fellow marketers, webmasters, executive decision makers, including first timers and SES Alumni, will converge to learn how to maximize their business’s Search Engine Marketing (SEM) opportunities, including Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Paid Search advertising, in addition to staying informed of the latest industry, tools, and algorithm developments and solutions. This is the one event of the year you do not want to miss.

Our own, Bryan Eisenberg will be presenting at the Pay Per Conversation session on Monday with Google’s Brett Crosby. Immediately after the session, join Bryan and Brett for the launch and book signing of the Always Be Testing book.

Never Met a Search Engine With a Credit Card

I’ve seen Flash elements improve websites, I’ve seen all Flash websites that were both engaging and usable, but those sites are rare. Search engines may now be able to index the content in Flash, but does it mean that the Flash content is useful in converting visitors to sales? If you are looking for leads, subscriptions, or sales, then traffic is simply a means to an end, not the end.

Even advertising sites want people to click through to their advertisers. If what you create is sexy, cool, [insert any other positive adjectives here], but the content fails to attract attention, interest, build desire, and call your visitors to action, then you are wasting your time and their time.

You are playing a misleading numbers game where visitors are numbers, not people, and sales today is NOT a numbers game. In a recent A/B test with a client, we were able to reduce the homepage abandonment by 28.57% by substituting a flash element, with a static image. This change reduced load and wait time, it listed product benefits immediately, and we didn’t have to hope people would be patient enough to see the right part of the Flash animation. It also helped boost sales, since before the test so many people left before they got past the home page.

Please use Flash it really is a powerful tool.

Just please remember to make sure you measure the impact on your bottom line first. Search engines are great; but they don’t register, subscribe, or have credit cards to buy from you.

What: Our most popular seminars return to New York City for this exciting two-day training event. Get first-hand advice from FutureNow’s leading experts in online conversion, persuasion and customer focus.

In order to keep things relaxed and ensure that guests have a chance to get all of their questions answered, class size is limited, so act soon!

Choose one seminar and save. Choose both and save big.

Persuasive Online Copywriting is co-led by two of our most popular writers, Holly Buchanan and Jeff Sexton. Learn how to make the words you use online more persuasive and speak to a variety of segments and customer motivations at the same time. Not only for copywriters, past guests for this class have included C-level execs, marketing directors, entrepreneurs, and others who just want to improve their online communication skills. Packed with practical, real-world examples and “how to” exercises, the focus is on giving you simple-yet-effective techniques that you can implement right away to persuade visitors to take action. (Read more about this workshop.)

• Monday, June 2 | 9 am – 5:30 pm EST
  
• Only $695 until May 9th ($795 after)

Call to Action, led by Bryan Eisenberg, best-selling author and co-founder of FutureNow, is based on the Eisenberg brothers’ best-selling book, “Call to Action: Secret Formulas to Improve Online Results.” You don’t need to be an expert in web analytics, web design, usability, social media, and search engine optimization to appreciate this seminar. Bryan will show you how Persuasion Architecture makes sense of these disciplines by merging your business goals with the goals of your visitors. If you want to boost online sales and conversion, this one’s for you. (Read more about this eye-opening course.)

• Tuesday, June 3 | 9 am – 5:30 pm EST
  
• Only $795 until May 9th ($895 after)

As an added bonus, Bryan will discuss themes from his forthcoming book, Always Be Testing.

When: June 2-3, 2008

Where: New York’s Hotel Pennsylvania | 401 Seventh Avenue at 33rd St. | New York, NY 10001

Why: Because you know that in order to get results like these, the words you use, how your website is structured, and knowing what to test is what makes all the difference. Besides, New York in June is a beautiful thing.

Early Bird Discount: Register here by May 9th to receive $100 off admission for each single seminar or $300 off when you register for both!

Group Discount: Want two or more of your staff to attend? No problem. Just register everyone at the same time and save $50 per additional person when you register.

Who: A variety of industry experts, including FutureNow’s Bryan Eisenberg, Alan Levy (BlogTalkRadio), Peter Olfe (Yojo Mobile), Dan Melinger (Socialight), Ludo Collin (Starcut), Wil Tan (MojiPage), Phil Kemelor (Semphonic), Jennifer LeClaire (Conversion Press), Eric Hansen (SiteSpect), and more.

What: The Internet Marketing Conference (IMC) promises to bring some fresh thinking about mobile marketing to New York City this June. This conference is entirely dedicated to understanding how emerging mobile technologies will affect radio, reach, widgets, multivariate testing, location-based marketing, search, promotional marketing, web analytics, marketing strategy, and more.

You can talk, read e-mail, and send text and multimedia messages through the mobile, but is it possible to do more? The speakers at IMC New York 2008 will discuss the possibilities and limitations of reaching people on the move.

Join Bryan as he discusses themes from his forthcoming book, Always Be Testing, and how proven online marketing techniques can help maximize the return on your mobile investment.

When: June 4, 2008

Where: New York’s Hotel Pennsylvania | 401 Seventh Avenue (at 33rd St.) | New York, NY 10001

Why: Because, whether you like it or not, mobile delivery is the future and you need to be ready. Besides, we like New York in June. How about you?

How much? As an extra incentive for loyal Grok readers, the people at IMC have been kind enough to extend our conference discount to all of you. When you register, simply put in code “GDC” at checkout to receive 20% off your total conference price (the discount will be shown on the summary page, the last step before paying).

For more info, visit the IMC website.

What: At webcom Montréal 2008, Bryan discusses “The Golden Rule of Interactive Marketing.”

The golden rule states that he who has the gold rules. However, today’s customers have the gold and they are clearly in control of their power that is the outcome of the transparency of choices interactive marketing offers. The voice of the consumer has never been so simple to find and so difficult to decode. Marketers are venturing into new, unfamiliar territories, juggling multi-channel strategies, allocating ad dollars among media, and trying to maximize new technologies — all at a time when consumers seem to find it easier than ever to bypass and ignore those efforts.

Today’s marketers are also being held to an unprecedented standard of accountability. The answer can’t be to A/B test everything and see what sticks. New York Times bestselling author, Bryan Eisenberg will show you a how to persuade these redefined customers as they ignore marketing.

When: May 14, 2008

Where: Head Office of the ICAO | 999, University Street | Montréal (Québec)

Why: Because you want to know more about the impact of social media and emerging technologies on your marketing strategies — and you’ve been looking for an excuse to visit Montréal.

How much? Only $ 395 CDN for the day. Other discounts apply. Visit the webcom Montréal site for details.

Who

What: Want to improve your website’s performance? Interested in learning how to get the most out of Google’s free A/B and multivariate testing tool, Website Optimizer? This one’s for you.

In previous webinars (”Introduction to Website Optimizer” and “Creating and Launching Experiments“), the Google Analytics and Google AdWords teams have shown how to use the tool. But this time around, they’ll be delving into a more fundamental question: “What should I test?”

In recent articles, we’ve shown how testing can transform your site over time. Yet it doesn’t do much good just to know you should test. Without a clear hypothesis, it’s easy to lose track of your own guesswork. Knowing how to test a hypothesis is critical. So, by popular demand after many Website Optimizer users asked for more insight on what exactly they should test, Google has invited us — and all of you — to join them for this free tutorial.

During this online seminar, Tom and Bryan will:

• provide a brief introduction to Website Optimizer for newer users
• talk about testing best practices
• discuss some of the top elements to test on any webpage, and
• review top mistakes people make when developing new content to test.

Where: Your computer

When: Tuesday, March 11th | 9 – 10 am PST | 12 pm EST | 4 pm GMT

Why: Because you’ve reviewed Future Now’s 7 free resources to get you started with Website Optimizer, and, sure enough, you’re ready to get started — almost.

Is this something you can do on your own, or should you hire a website optimization firm? That all depends on the time and resources you’re willing to put into it. But before you dive in with both feet, it’s smart to know what’s worth testing.

Register for Free! Upon registration, Google invites you to submit specific topics you’d like Tom and Bryan to cover.

What: This seminar outlines todays most effective conversion rate marketing tactics. Discover how Persuasion Architecture™ methodology can help you get the most out of your web analytics, web design, usability, social media, information architecture, and search engine optimization efforts.

Are you planning for top performance? Are you accurately evaluating that performance? Are you setting the best benchmarks for measuring success? How well are you communicating your value proposition? Are you structured for change? Can you achieve the momentum you need to get the results you want? If you have the desire and commitment to create phenomenal online results, then this seminar is your Call to Action.

Where: Embassy Suites San Francisco Airport — San Francisco, CA

When: Thursday, March 27 (8:30 – 5:00 PST)

Why: Because you know that to generate more sales, attract more leads, and reduce friction in the sales process, you need to help customers buy on their terms. This course will help you do all that, it’s only one day, and it’s in San Francisco.

More Info: Read more about this seminar and find out how to register today.

What: Learn from the experts about making your copy more persuasive and speak to all of your market segments. Not only for copywriters, past attendees include C-level execs, marketing directors, entrepreneurs, and others who just want to improve their online communication skills.

This one-day seminar is packed with practical real world examples and “how to” exercises. The focus is on giving you simple yet effective techniques that will improve your ability to sell online. The goal is to show attendees how to implement these techniques the very next day on their own websites.

A few of the Persuasive Online Copywriting topics we’ll cover…

• How writing for the Web is different from other mediums
• How to understand your audience
• Writing for diverse customer segments
• Proper Web layout
• Writing for the screen and formatting for maximum readability
• How to set a voice and tone that engages your visitors and helps them take action
• Writing effective navigational buttons and links to gain persuasive momentum
• How to write more persuasive product descriptions
• How to ensure your content is found via search engines

Where: Embassy Suites San Francisco Airport — San Francisco, CA

When: Friday, March 28 (8:30 – 5:00 PST)

Why: The surest way to improve your website’s conversion rate, average order value, number of leads generated, and even how it reflects your brand, is by improving your choice of words. If you want visitors to take the next step, you must persuade them — and to do that, you must understand how they wish to buy. This course will help you do all that, it’s only one day, and it’s in San Francisco.

More Info: Read more about the seminar and find out how to register today.

Call to Action – March 27, 2008

Persuasive Online Copywriting – March 28, 2008

Take both and get a discount

Want a bigger bang for your buck? Be sure to check out our Early-bird Special (for early registration), the “House Combo Special” (a discount for registering for both classes), and our Group Special (a discount for multiple sign-ups).

Don’t delay! We have to limit the number of participants, so these events sell out quickly!

Call To Action Seminar – March 27, 2008

Early-bird Cost $795.00 (SAVE $100) prior to 2/29/08; $895.00 after.

Improve your conversion to increase your sites revenue potential

Register Now (link takes you to our event registration site)

Persuasive Online Copywriting Seminar – March 28, 2008

Early-bird Cost $695.00 (SAVE $100)prior to 2/29/08; $795.00 after.

Write to your customers needs to drive more results.

Register Now (link takes you to our event registration site)

Sign up for Both Seminars and Get A Discount

Early-bird Cost $1340.00 (SAVE $180) prior to 2/29/08; $1520.00 after.

Maximize the impact of increased conversion and persuasive copy.

Register for Both (link takes you to our event registration site)

Most web analytics use an invisible gif to track Web traffic, but WordPress uses a small smiley face gif on their pages (scroll to the bottom-left of WordPress.com). Some bloggers are surprised to see a smiley face in their blog themes, but it’s actually part of the WordPress stats plugin.

Other than the smiley face, what images have you seen being used for data collection?

If so, we recommend you hire Future Now immediately. Or download our free white paper.

You will LEARN:

• How to find trigger words that excite visitors
• Tips for profitable calls to action
• How to optimize product images
• Tips for optimizing headlines
• How to optimize your optimizing (tips for effective testing)

Who SHOULD download this white paper:

• Small business website marketers
• Anyone looking for new ideas for testing and optimizing
• Anyone looking for an edge over their competitors
• Anyone who just getting started optimizing
• Anyone frustrated with their current optimization efforts
• Anyone looking for a more sound and logical process for optimization
• Anyone responsible for a marketing channel and needs life to be easier
• Anyone getting mixed results with their current optimization efforts

Who SHOULDN’T download this white paper:

• Lazy people
• People who hate change
• People who aren’t willing to commit to serious changes on their sites
• White paper junkies who print ‘em out and never read them (honestly, save a tree)

Jeff Sexton, our resident copywriting pro, makes his Copyblogger debut today, revealing secret techniques for alluring headlines. Here’s a peek…

I bet you didn’t know that the main characters of HBO’s Sex and the City represent one of the better examples of the four personality temperaments, did you?

Just about every personality typing system—from Hippocrates’ humors to Myers-Briggs/Keirsey or DISK—groups personalities into four primary temperaments. Only the labels differ:

• sanguine, choleric, phlegmatic, melancholic
• spontaneous, methodical, competitive, humanistic
• artisan, guardian, rational, idealist

and so on.

And, yes, each major character on Sex and the City typifies one of the four temperaments…

Want to know how it’s done? Just order up another cosmo and click here.

Recently, Seth Godin joined us for an exclusive interview on WebmasterRadio.fm to discuss his latest book, Meatball Sundae.

“What’s a meatball sundae?” Good question. Basically, it’s what happens when everyday products are out of sync with new marketing tactics. For the full story, listen to the podcast (or download it for free!) below. But first, here are a few extra scoops from Seth & Bryan’s interview. Bon appetit!

Bryan Eisenberg: In the introduction, you admit that you’re breaking your own rules about book publishing. First of all, your last book, The Dip, only came out six months ago. Secondly, Meatball Sundae is, what, two or three times the size of The Dip? We see why Meatball Sundae is, well, meatier – but why does it have to come out now, while your last bestseller’s still busy marketing itself?

Seth Godin: The ideas don’t work for me… I work for the ideas. When the book was ready, it had to go out, because the market wanted/needed to hear them. So far, every time I make a silly non-strategic decision that benefits the ideas, it seems to work out okay. So I’ve learned not to get in the way of the ideas.

BE: People are very good at saying “I agree,” and you’re an easy guy to agree with. But what are the really tough questions – outside of the 14 trends you mention in the book – that marketers need to ask themselves so they know whether they’re marketing meatball products with sundae tactics.

SG: I’m not asking for agreement with this book. Not at all. From the title on in, I’m asking for a lot more than agreement. I want action. I want organizations to make fundamental choices and to follow through with them. So, “I agree” will really bum me out.

BE: What are some of the changes organizations will have to make? What are the stumbling blocks, and how will they know if they’re headed in the right direction?

SG: The biggest change is to decide to realign to get the wind at your back. To reorganize and re-strategize to get out of the last industrial revolution and move into the new one. That’s not easy, but you’ll either do it or struggle. Now’s the time, not five years from now.

BE: When you’re talking about the lure of running Super Bowl ads and the like, you say, “The web is astonishingly bad at reaching the unreachable . . . Mass is still seductive, but mass is so expensive that marketers balk at buying it,” and the example you use is that Time magazine is much thinner these days than Gourmet. How do we stop marketers from worrying about driving all this traffic — from reaching out to anyone and everyone — and get them to focus on creating a great experience for the ones who actually want to reach them?

SG: Who is so much more important than how many. And interactivity proves it. You can measure it. You can see what happens, not in months, but in days. Smart marketers are already smelling it, which is one reason they’re running away from magazines so fast.

BE: Trend #2 in Meatball Sundae is “Amplification of the Voice of the Consumer and Independent Authorities.” This made me think of the November 2005 cover of Forbes magazine (“Attack of the Blogs: They destroy brands and wreck lives. Is there any way to fight back?”). Back then, the idea seemed pretty over-the-top. What would you tell marketers today?

SG: Fighting back is such a bad idea. Join is a much better one. Make great stuff, be respectful, tell the truth. Not so hard to describe, pretty hard to do.

BE: How do you know when your organization is ready to serve a sundae? And once you do, how do you match the toppings to suit your customers’ needs? For instance, it seems pretty clear that not every business should be blogging. Is it possible to serve meatballs to some people and sundaes to others, or is it truly either/or?

SG: Oh, I think organizations can do both, just as GE was able to sell blenders and nuclear power plants for a while. The mistake is when one division or one brand tries to do both. When you’ve got need-based, factory-driven commodities colliding with the idea-driven, speed focused web, it’s a big problem.

BE: You talk about the shift from “How many?” to “Who?” (“Just as a store in a busy mall doesn’t have to worry about converting every browser into a customer, high-traffic Web sites and advertisers get sloppy about being efficient.”) As marketing optimization experts, our firm sees this all the time and we still don’t understand why anyone would want tons of traffic with few conversions. But how does a business know when its marketing is inefficient? Are there any telltale signs across industries?

SG: I would never try to tell the guys at Ford about crankshafts. I also won’t tell them about web conversions. They need to learn it, evolve it, test it, measure it. If this is the core of the business of the future (and it is) then a rule of thumb isn’t going to cut it. My point: get in early, spend the money, do the learning.

BE: How do you like your sundaes? (Inquiring minds want to know.)

SG: I’m such a weird eater. It would be Ciao Bella chocolate sorbet, with a teaspoon of Steve Herrell’s hot fudge, a tablespoon of Marshmallow Fluff and a Starbucks Biscotti, chocolate, please. Except that if I was making it, I’d leave off the hot fudge, cause I’m an ascetic.

For the rest of this exclusive interview, click here (or right-click to download).

Click here for Seth Godin and Bryan Eisenberg

Paula Gignac, Seth Godin, Ken Wong, Joseph Jaffe, David Weinberger, David Usher, Jackie Huba, Shel Israel, John Gustavson, Christopher Loudon, Mary Maddever and our own Bryan Eisenberg were each asked to share their favorite video of the year.

Which videos were your favorites?

(To Mitch Joel, Mark Goodman, Mickael Kanfi, Aubrey Rosenhek and the entire team at Twist Image, joyeuses fêtes à vous tous! Thank you for helping to shape good ideas, as always.)

What’s a “meatball sundae,” you ask? In addition to something you probably shouldn’t eat, it’s an analogy for what happens when product development, management, strategy and tactics are out of sync with today’s “new marketing” era. But Seth will explain all of that in his own words.

So, be sure to join us today @ 2pm (EST) on WebmasterRadio.fm (home of our daily Blog Buzz podcast) for this rare conversation between two of the most respected minds in modern marketing. It’s 30+ minutes, so grab a cup of coffee, tea, or whatever you think might help you wash down a meatball sundae.

UPDATE: The podcast has been archived and is now available here (right-click to download).

Click here for Seth Godin and Bryan Eisenberg

Oh, how quickly things change. Blogs have taken over, creating a feedback loop between journalists and readers, businesses and customers, you name it — conversation has officially changed the game.

While this may not represent all of the year’s best marketing bloggery, it’s a start. Are there posts by other bloggers you’d like to see on here? Let us know with a brief comment and (so long as it fits) we’ll add your suggestion to the list. Enjoy!

December

“Best of 2007: Top 7 Tech News Stories” — Mashable (The top tech posts from the Mashable.com team.)

“2007 Brand Autopsy Marketing Book Awards” by John Moore, Brand Autopsy (Find out which books John thought were made to stick, so to say, in ‘07.)

“The Cosmo Headline Technique for Blogging Inspiration” by Brian Clark, Copyblogger (Shows how to spin brilliantly trashy headlines into useful attention-grabbers, e.g., “Headline Help: Crucial Tips That Brian Clark Forgot to Mention” [Hint: It's not just for bloggers.])

November

“The Blogger’s Guide to Search Engine Optimization” by Aaron & Giovanna Wall, SEO Book (It’s quickly becoming the go-to resource for blog SEO.)

“Close Encounter with Facebook Beacon“ by Charlene Li, Groundswell (See what happens when you back peddle into a revenue stream by snooping on your users.)

“Who Owns Your Data on Google, Facebook, Netflix?” by Don Dodge, The Next Big Thing (One of the year’s top debates, nicely distilled in a simple response to Jason Calacanis, Doc Searls, and Dave Winer.)

“Amazon Sets eBook World Alight with Kindle” by Richard MacManus, Read/Write Web (Review of a clunky internet-connected e-book reader. Will it catch fire or burn up?)

“Google’s Android Arrives . . . An Open Source Mobile Phone Platform” by Greg Sterling, Search Engine Land (It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s not a Google Phone, but a mobile operating system.)

October

“Sorry PR people: you’re blocked” by Chris Anderson, The Long Tail (If you’re in PR or have ever considered emailing Wired Magazine’s editor-in-chief, or any other blogger/author/journalist, don’t do a thing until you read this appropriately scathing post.)

“Online Copywriting 101: The Ultimate Cheat Sheet” — GrokDotCom (Resources for anyone who wants to communicate on the Web.)

“Radiohead’s In Rainbows: A Look at Anti-Marketing in the Music Industry” by Maki, DoshDosh (One band schools an entire industry on “the ROI of free,” but stumbles a bit in the process. Read our follow-up case study for more.)

September

“Dear Steve Jobs” by Robert Scoble, Scobleizer (Apple announces iPhone. Zealots and Geeks wait in lines for days. Sales are a bit slow for Jobs, so he drops the price. The blogosphere speaks up. Jobs listens.)

“Forget About Page Rank and Build a Better Blog” by Darren Rowse, ProBlogger (A terrific video post on why it’s important to put content first, then let search engines do their job. Optimization matters, but what you’re optimizing matters more.)

August

“Damn, I am so busted, yo” by Fake Steve, The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs (One of our favorite satirist bloggers, Daniel “if-that-is-his-name” Lyons, gets outed by a New York Times writer whose name happens to be BRAD STONE.)

“Moving Day” by Stephen J. Dubner, Freakonomics (In a freak move, NYTimes.com picks up Dubner & Levitt’s popular blog, breathing new life into old media.)

“See Who’s Editing Wikipedia” by John Borland, Wired (A Cal Tech graduate student makes a program that allows us to see who’s editing wiki entries. You might be surprised. Read our follow-up post for more.)

“Answer These 10 Questions Before You Charge for SEO Services” by Rand Fishkin, SEOmoz (A must-read for all SEO firms and the people who hire them.)

July

“Will The Last Corporation Leaving Second Life Please Turn Off The Light” by Duncan Riley, TechCrunch (The L.A. Times talks about the pink elephant: Are businesses making money or even wooing fans in Second Life?)

“Sphinn: Our Social Site For Search & Internet Marketing Professionals” by Danny Sullivan, Search Engine Land (Danny and crew launch a cool, 2.0-ish social news service for SEO’s.)

“FreeBurner for Everyone” by Traci, Burning Questions (Google acquires yet another important company. David Dalka gives six reasons why the deal was a mistake.)

June

“Why I disagree with Privacy International” by Matt Cutts, Gadgets, Google, and SEO (Google gets poor grades on their privacy practices. Matt speaks out.)

“Ask Launches Ask3D” by Eric Enge, Search Engine Watch (The “first” major launch of universal search.)

“Building 43” by Seth Godin, Seth’s Blog (You can’t out-SEO the team behind Google’s algorithm.)

“If Clicks Were Votes” by Andrew Meagher, Compete blog (A fun double-header analysis that tries to infer what could happen to Democrats and Republicans in the ‘08 U.S. presidential election if Web traffic on its own actually mattered.)

May

“Google Maps is spying on my cat…” by Xeni Jardin, BoingBoing (Google Street Views takes some very revealing photos, backlash ensues.)

“New Version of Google Analytics!” by Jeff Gills, The Official Google Analytics Blog (Sparks go off as Google unveils its updated analytics solution. Impressive, but is it an enterprise solution?)

“Thank You for Helping Me Write The New Rules of Marketing & PR!” by David Meerman Scott, Web Ink Now (With one of the year’s best executed and most earnest linkbait posts, David proves why everyone should read his book. Thank YOU, sir!)

“The Movie is Finally Here,” by Geert, Bring Back the Love (Have advertisers lost that lovin’ feelin’? This short film shows why it’s time to bring it on back, now.)

April

“Google beats Microsoft in DoubleClick bidding battle” by David Hunter, Microsoft News Tracker, (GoogleClick? They win another acquisition battle.)

“Google Website Optimizer Launches” by Robert Gorell, GrokDotCom (Now everyone can do A/B and Multivariate testing at zero cost. Want some free resources with that?)

“Video: RSS in Plain English” by Lee Lefever, Common Craft (Finally, someone shows how RSS really is simple.)

March

“Viacom Sues YouTube for $1 Billion…The End of the Tube?” by Pete Cashmore, Mashable (If you can’t beat ‘em, sue ‘em? The great debate rages on.)

“Why Online Advertising Economics Are So Messed Up” by Scott Karp, Publishing 2.0 (Now that “page views” are dead, it’s time to take a look at the real problem. Just beware of those zombie metrics.)

“Taking the Week Off” by Robert Scoble, Scobleizer (After receiving horrible anonymous threats, Kathy Sierra, one of the world’s top bloggers, quits blogging. A regrettable chapter, indeed — but there was a silver lining. Ultimately, greater minds prevailed and the incident fueled a much-needed conversation about balancing professionalism with free speech in blogland.)

“10 Reasons Commenting is Good for Bloggers” by Chris Garrett, ChrisG.com (’Tis better to give than to receive. Here’s why.)

February

“Why People Hate SEO…” by Jason Calicanis, Calicanis.com (SEO is Bull? Although there are likely reasons why Jason would say such a thing, at least he got savvy search marketers to link to him and even challenge him back. Mahalo!)

“National Pork Board Goes After Breastfeeding Search Marketer” by Danny Sullivan, Search Engine Land (The Pork Board shouldn’t whine about spilt milk, especially when it’s not their own.)

“7 Big Questions for Online Marketers” by Jeffrey Eisenberg, GrokDotCom (Everyone loves answers, but are you asking the right questions?)

January

“Steve’s Devices” by Nicholas Carr, Rough Type (The post that put the year of the iPhone in perspective, explaining its limitations and predicting, without saying as much, that 2008 will be the year of the open mobile platform. Oh, and Nick does this six months before the iPhone even launched.)

Did we miss something?

Probably. There were so many eye-opening blog posts this year that we need your help updating this list so that it is definitive — or close to it.

What were your favorite posts this year? Leave a comment and/or link to let us know.