Lorraine

3 Ways To Better Hold Your Visitor’s Attention On Your Blog Posts

While getting people to come to your blog is a victory in and of itself, this victory can feel a little cheapened if you notice that those who are visiting your blog are bouncing right off after just a few seconds on your page. Luckily, there are things you can do to mitigate this issue once you recognize the problems.

So to help ensure that the people you’re working so hard to bring to your blog actually stay and consume some of your content, here are three ways to better hold your visitor’s attention on your blog posts.

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Originally posted on June 30, 2019 @ 8:58 pm

Rhetoric & Design – Introduction

Note: This post comes from the Whitespace archive and was originally posted by Scrivs on January 28th, 2004. Links referred to herein may have been moved or modified.

Rhetoric is a framework that allows us to quantify valuable information as having a beginning, middle, and end. This philosophy can be carried over to your websites to create an effective experience for your users. However, the three steps differ slightly in that they become attract, inform, and invoke.

Attract Them

The ability of blogs to attract customers is directly related to the quality of the content on their site. This also involves the topics discussed on a site. However, another element that generally gets overlooked is the aesthetics of the site. If the aesthetics of a site compliment the content, then you are already one step closer to a better design.

Just because you start another web design site, what differentiates it from the rest that will make people want to visit? How will it attract people? Will it be through the looks and feel of the site, the content, or both?

When attempting to attract people to your site and your message there are two main questions that must be answered by you, “Why should I listen to you?” and “What’s in it for me?”.

To answer the first question you must achieve credibility and in this community that can be a difficult thing to do. Over time if you continue to write quality content that others link to then over time you will develop a credibility for yourself. One should not expect credibility from simply placing a website on the web. Another way to gain credibility is through the endorsement of someone else who has high credibility. If Bowman was to one day write an entry talking about a designer that taught him everything he knew then that designer would be given instant credibility and people would be more willing to listen to his words.

The quick answer to the second question is that you will provide the audience with something new to learn and share. If there is nothing to be gained from your site, then there is no reason to visit it.

Inform Them

Once you have attracted users to your site it becomes your job to inform them. Certainly they have showed some interest because they are on your site, but how do you go about informing them? Of course the answer is content, but there are other issues that are involved with informing someone.

To effectively inform an audience you have to convince them of the relevance, importance, and timeliness of the message. This opens your audience up and allows them to more readily receive your message. The best example of this occurred when Zeldman began his tract on Web Standards with the article, To Hell With Bad Browsers.

Invoke Them

There are a lot of “call to actions” in the web community. Examples range from building accessible websites to getting rid of “www” in urls. A major problem with these movements is that they do not address anyone’s needs. To invoke individuals into action (eg. purchasing something online) their interaction with your message must address their real motivations and their real needs. It’s no use saying everyone should develop sites with CSS if making quick money is the intention of the audience.

The Three Steps

If you are consciously aware of the three step process and use it to relay your message over time then you should have no problem developing an audience that is willing to listen. All of the great writers on the web have captured this ability to implement the 3 steps in almost all of their writings whether they intended to or not.

Many of these ideas can be found in John Lenker’s excellent book, Train of Thoughts.

Originally posted on June 18, 2010 @ 5:17 pm

Why Twitter Is So Addicting

Obviously we have established so far on Wisdump that social networking such as MySpace and Facebook hits off well. They are sites in which you can simply post up who you are and keep in touch with friends. Then, on MySpace for example, you can build fancy, custom, ~~invalid~~, profile designs and basically create an empire out of your corner of the community. Then, there is Twitter.

A Social Community Too

When Stuart wrote ‘The Ebb and Flow of Social Networking’, Twitter was not included on the growth chart. Why though? Is Twitter not a social community? You get a page of your own that you can customize the colors and background image of, you have a friends list, you have a display name, there are mobile features, and some form of interaction through instant messaging, and of course those spam accounts that are so bothersome. Therefore, we can safely call Twitter a social community too.

Simplicity is Key

Now, wait, if Twitter is a social community in itself, why do we not see Twitter vs. MySpace? Or Twitter vs. Facebook? Well, because Twitter is so simple. Yes, you have a page to yourself with a personal design and it requires a separate account than other social communities, yet all there really is to do is post your status, and reply to others. Simple, and as well integrate-able with your profiles on other social websites. How genius, eh? You don’t see Facebook allowing you to integrate your Facebook status into your MySpace profile, do you?

Following the Trend

So, we have already seen that Twitter is a social community of its own, yet really shows no competition, and is integrate-able with other communities. It currently is quite popular, and some would say it’s at its “self-sustaining growth” stage, although some would also say its past it’s peak. Although, will Twitter even follow the same path that Stuart described before?

Not to bring opinion in, but I will have to say no, Twitter will create its own path. Why though? Well, Twitter is useful to some people, fun to some people, and annoying to others. The concept is much different, you are not there so much to interact with and send messages and comments to your friends, you are more-so just stating your current mood or status for interested people to know whats up. Sure, some people are starting to use it to gather opinions with Twitter’s feedback feature, although the majority are still posting their current happenings either through the online form, instant messaging, by a mobile device, or widget.

Twitter users aren’t bound to leave when they ‘get-too-old’ or fluctuate between active and inactive based on whether they are having a hot conversation with another user. Rather, if they have no one to talk to, there are still other ways to use Twitter, such as implementing it on your personal site or blog to share with viewers.

So, Why is Twitter Addicting?

Well, it can obviously be seen that most Twitter users are pretty consistent with their updates, and that there are those fun little features that do bring you back. Although, overall Twitter will be, for some time actually, a very active community mainly because it is integrate-able and easy to use. Seriously, when you can send a simple IM message and you update a section of content on your blog, MySpace, Facebook, and the other places you linked your status to, why would it not be addicting?

Originally posted on June 15, 2007 @ 8:16 pm

7 steps to a good company name

Note: This post comes from the Whitespace archive and was originally posted by Scrivs on March 28th, 2006. Links referred to herein may have been moved or modified.

When I came up with 9rules back in 2003, the only other company that I was aware of that used a number to start off their company name was 37signals. I am sure there were more, but at that time on the web they were the only ones I could think of and therefore I didn’t see any issues with using a number for my company. If I were to start all over today I would think twice about using a number simply because there are so many sites and companies out there that employ this naming scheme.

So what are the criteria for coming up with a good company name? Well the list is short and sweet, but that doesn’t make the process any easier. So many names have been taken up that now you are either starting to see some recycled goodies or names that come from words that don’t even exist.

In his book The Brand Gap, Marty Neumeier has come up with a wonderful list of seven characteristics that you should consider while coming up with your company name. Here they are along with my own thoughts.

Distinct. Is it unique and does it help you stand out from the crowded field that you are more than likely entering?
Short and sweet (aka brevity). Can people get it out without having to take a breath in between words? The longer the name, the more likely people will come up with an abbreviation that probably won’t make sense to the person they are talking to. Does anyone even care what IBM, GE, or GM even stand for anymore?
Is it appropriate? This one is a bit more flexible because unique names are rarely ever appropriate. Yahoo and Google don’t signify what the companies really do, but Bob’s Plumbing should be a plumbing business and not a pizza delivery service.
Easy. Can you say the name easily? Can you spell it easily? It’s hard enough getting people to talk about your company so don’t make it even less enticing by calling yourself Xzving.
Popular. Are people going to like the name? I like saying Yahoo and Google. They are fun names and that already leads to a favorable impression.
Extendability. Can the name be used for multiple purposes. This is the beauty behind 9rules. You can come up with your own set of 9rules if you wish or simply 9 types of anything.
Protectability. You probably don’t want to go with a name like Apple today because it’s nice to be able to trademark your name. It’s also nice if the name is actually available on the web to use.

So if you can’t afford to buy a 3-4 letter domain like everyone else seems to be doing, I suggest you follow these guidelines when thinking of the next great thing you are creating. Don’t let a bad name put you back 10 paces before the race even begins. A lesson that Pajamas Media definitely learned with their original name of Open Source Media.

UPDATE: Great. Today Jon Udell linked us up in his entry about 9cays. Of all the numbers they chose…

Originally posted on May 30, 2007 @ 4:26 pm

Wisdump Logo Contest – The entries are in!

As mentioned previously, Wisdump needs a new logo. The following entries have been received and the choice is down to you.

Whilst the designs vary in quality (in my opinion), each and every design submitted is here.

Cast your vote for your favorite in the comments below. The design with the most votes received by the end of Wednesday will be the winner. Please ignore colors as these will be changed to suit the new design anyway.

01 – Submitted by ‘Stalker B.’ :

02 – Submitted by ‘DDAG’ :

03 – Submitted by John Proctor :

04 – Submitted by Bartus F. Teipel (www.bybartus.circuscircus.com.br) :

05 – Submitted by Chris Moyer :

06 – Submitted by James Smart :

07 – Submitted by John Stansbury :

08 – Submitted by Jernej G. :

09 – Submitted by Krystian – Sunlust (ignore the typo!) :

10 – Submitted by Dan Burke :

Note: Only one submission included a URL to the designers website. If your design is listed above and you would like a link to your site, drop me an email.

Originally posted on June 9, 2007 @ 9:03 am