Issue 145 of the Excess Voice newsletter for online copywriters

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Excess Voice Newsletter
December 2007, Issue # 145

In this issue:

>> Intro: The last issue for 2007
>> Review: Business Jargon Protest Gifts
>> Article: Do visitors read your primary navigation links?
>> Survey: Taking time off?
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Greetings,

The next issue of the Excess Voice newsletter will arrive in the new year. So, before anything else, let me wish everyone a happy holiday season. I hope you're taking some time off!

This issue comprises the usual line-up, including a reminder to check out our line of Business Jargon Protest Gifts, and an article on the topic of ensuring that site visitors get to see your most important links.

Thank you for subscribing to the Excess Voice newsletter, and I'll be back with the next issue in 2008.

Nick

Nick Usborne

>> Feedback: mailto:nick@excessvoice.com

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REVIEW: Business Jargon Protest Gifts

Those of you who have subscribed to this newsletter for over a year will already know about our Business Jargon Protest Gifts. If you are a more recent subscriber, you are in for a treat...

Over the last few years Excess Voice subscribers have contributed some wonderful lines that poke fun at the awful jargon we come across at work. The best of these are available printed on mugs and T-shirts.

As a gift idea, you can either get something for yourself, or buy mugs as gifts for those people at work who are the worst offenders when talking about "integrated solutions" and the like.

Enjoy!

You'll find all the current favourites here...
http://www.cafepress.com/jokegifts

Previous reviews:

#1. The 2008 Landing Page Handbook from MarketingSherpa

Whether you purchased the first edition of this handbook or not, you should be running to get a copy of this latest edition. It reveals the latest best practices for optimizing a broad range of landing pages, with data drawn from over 3,000 online marketers.

Read my review:
http://www.excessvoice.com/landing-page.htm

#2. Desktop Marketing

A course for freelancers who want to increase their income by offering writing AND design services. For writers with even basic design skills, this is a great way maximize revenues from every job you do.

Read my review:
http://www.excessvoice.com/desktop-marketing.htm

#3. The Freelance Copywriter Fee & Compensation Survey, Volume 2.

This is the second volume of this survey, fully up to date, and with a lot more information on what to charge for 40 different types of freelance copywriting work, how to find new assignments, and more.

Read my review...
http://www.excessvoice.com/copywriting-fees-survey.htm

#4. Michael Masterson's Accelerated Program for Six-Figure Copywriting

This is the only copywriting course I wholeheartedly recommend to any copywriter who wants to write copy that drives results.

Read my review:
http://www.excessvoice.com/michael-masterson.htm

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ARTICLE: Do visitors read your primary navigation links?

I imagine various experts who conduct eye-tracking studies know more about how visitors interact with a site's main navigation links, but here's my take on it.

When visitors, first-time visitors in particular, arrive at your site, I don't think they bother to read those primary navigation links presented as horizontal tabs at the top, a list of links in the left margin – or however else you display them.

When someone comes to your site for the first time, it would be nice to think that they would browse your major navigation links and get a broad view of what they can find on your site.

But I don't think this is the case.

I think people's eyes go directly to that central area, beneath the header and to the right of the left column, if there is one.

It is there that they look for answers to their questions.

And first-time visitors always have questions. The first of these questions are, "Am I in the right place? Will I find what I'm looking for here?"

This may sound fairly obvious, but it places a great deal of pressure on that first screen of the center column of your site.

You can't expect people to read all your navigation links. Nor can you expect them to read through two or three hundred words of explanatory text during the first few moments on your site.

At best, a visitor will give you the benefit of one, brief, impatient scan.

This means you have just a few moments in which to express your primary value proposition. Use images. Use text. Just be sure that within two or three seconds your visitors will be thinking, "Yes, I am in the right place."

So how does navigation fit into all this?

On many sites I see that the first screen is indeed used to communicate the main value proposition of the site.

But then visitors are left hanging.

It's as if the site designer assumes that after reading a few sentences and seeing a few images, every reader will then refer to the primary navigation links to find the next page they should look at.

I don't think this is a safe assumption.

I think if you have two or three important "next pages", those pages should be described and linked to from within that first screen on your home page.

On a site where you are selling just one or two products or services, this is pretty simple to do. And most sites like that are already designed with those "next page" links in place. "See demo...", "Buy now..." and that sort of thing.

But this is a much tougher task when you have a site comprising hundreds or thousands of pages, organized within numerous categories.

In these cases you have to think a little harder, study your site analytics data, and ask yourself the question, "Of all those who come to our home page, which three or four pages do 80% of visitors want to see next?"

When you have the answer, then feature links to those three or four pages within your first screen.

These links don't replace your primary navigation links. They simply repeat them in an area of the page where your visitors look first.

I guess what I'm saying here is that it's dangerous to assume that visitors will pay immediate attention to your top or side navigation links.

I think the study of those links occurs only after a first-time visitor feels your site can answer their questions and deliver what they are looking for.

It's only then that they will feel, "OK, this looks promising. It's worth checking this site out in more detail."

Until you get to that point, be sure to include links to key pages within the body of that first screen.

>> Feedback: mailto:nick@excessvoice.com

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JOB BOARD

** Looking for an online copywriter or web content writer?

Post your job on the Excess Voice Job Board and reach over 15,000 copywriters a month.
http://excessvoice.jobcoin.com/

** Looking for a copywriting job?

Copywriting jobs:
http://excessvoice.jobcoin.com/

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SURVEY: Taking time off?

We all need to charge our batteries from time to time. So how much time are you taking off this holiday season?

[ ] Less than a week

[ ] A week or more

[ ] 10 days or more

Comments:

(NOTE: Any comments and your name may be published in the next issue, or on the Excess Voice web site.)

Cut and paste your replies to me at mailto:nick@excessvoice.com

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NICK USBORNE'S SERVICES:

Yes, I do more than write articles and publish newsletters.

Ask me to give a training seminar or webinar for your writers or web team.

http://www.nickusborne.com/speaking.htm

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