Hosted By:
Don Nicholas, Kim Mateus,
and Peter Schaible
Jane E. Zarem
Jane E. Zarem is a freelance editor, researcher, and writer. She is a senior editor for the Library on general publishing issues and on topics related to ancillary product opportunities.
Jane has written for B-to-B magazines such as Folio:, Circulation Management, 1to1 Magazine, Customer Support Management and Catalog Age as well as white papers and marketing materials for clients in or related to the publishing industry. For several years, she was editor of The Qualified Source, the bimonthly newsletter of the National Trade Circulation Foundation Inc., an association of B-to-B circulation professionals, and editor of Ancillary Profits, a monthly newsletter that was targeted to publishers and ultimately became a quarterly column in Folio:. She also researched and wrote “Travel Solutions in CRM 2003,” a 62-page special report published by PhoCusWright and Hershel Sarbin Associates. And in 1986, she compiled the Connecticut Citizen’s Handbook, a guide to state government, published by Globe Pequot Press for the League of Women Voters of Connecticut Education Fund.
In addition to her focus on business topics, Jane currently contributes travel articles to several magazines and newspapers, updates guidebooks for Fodor’s Travel Publications and writes quarterly reports on global real estate issues for Cartus.
Contact Jane.
Reports by Jane E. Zarem
Computerworld Mequoda Media Brand StudyComputerworld's websites are very different in approach from typical consumer sites. They are not designed to sell products directly. They are not designed to maximize "impressions" on a general target audience. They are more of a lead generation service.
Several techniques are used to turn Computerworld's websites into lead generating machines, but the general rule is to frequently provide specific information in as many formats as possible, including articles, blogs, columns, newsletters, reports, white papers, RSS feeds, video and audio.
The Computerworld site is designed to get qualification information from its visitors so it can be sold to advertisers. A variety of media products are employed to gather and disseminate information.
This chapter is part of a handbook titled Multiplatform Publishing Strategy.
- Handbook: Multiplatform Publishing Strategy
- Chapter 4: Computerworld Mequoda Media Brand Study
America's Test Kitchen Mequoda Media Brand Study
Chris Kimball, CEO of Boston Common Press, is a master of multiplatform publishing. Chris has gone from a publishing a single cooking magazine, Cook's Illustrated, to a growing media empire that spans books, another print magazine, membership websites, a TV Show on PBS, email newsletters and DVDs.
While other media operations stumbled into new media, America's Test Kitchen was born as the "uber-brand" to provide cooking enthusiasts with recipes that work. Revenue has increased a staggering 20 to 30 percent every year since 2001 and will exceed $46 million for 2006.
There are lessons for every publisher in the ATK experience.
This chapter is part of a handbook titled Multiplatform Publishing Strategy.
- Handbook: Multiplatform Publishing Strategy
- Chapter 2: America's Test Kitchen Mequoda Media Brand Study
Forbes Media Network Mequoda Media Brand Study
With 2006 revenues estimated at more than $510 million, up from an estimated $460 million for 2005, the newly formed Forbes Media Network is on a roll.
Forbes Media currently includes print, online conferences, radio and TV properties. At this time, an estimated $330 million still comes from the American edition of Forbes magazine, however, senior executives Steve Forbes and Jim Spanfeller both tell Mequoda Group that online publishing revenues will pass print in 2008 or 2009—if the current growth rates for both print (up 6% for 2006) and online (up 57% for 2006) continue.
They are a great example of a multiplatform publishing company that successfully uses the Internet as a nexus for all things Forbes.
This chapter is part of a handbook titled Multiplatform Publishing Strategy.
- Handbook: Multiplatform Publishing Strategy
- Chapter 8: Forbes Media Network Mequoda Media Brand Study
The Motley Fool Mequoda Media Brand Case Study
The Motley Fool is not your typical investment website. It is more like a court-jester offering stock tips and news updates than it is a traditional stock-ticker. The company’s main mission is to “to educate, enrich, and amuse individual investors around the world.”
The Fool.com website gets about four million visits monthly, and has about three million "members," i.e. visitors who have registered to receive one or more free email publications.
The Fool now anticipates a product mix of ancillaries including free and paid reports, relationship email, audio conferences, tele-seminars, and online courses.
They have a weekly radio program heard by several hundred thousand listeners on more than 100 National Public Radio stations. Also, a syndicated news column by David and Tom Gardner appears in 200 newspapers in 43 states and Canada.
This chapter is part of a handbook titled Multiplatform Publishing Strategy.
- Handbook: Multiplatform Publishing Strategy
- Chapter 12: The Motley Fool Mequoda Media Brand Study
FDAnews Mequoda Media Brand Study
FDAnews is the premier provider of news and information on regulation, business and legislation for executives in industries regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
FDAnews.com is now a gateway to pharmaceutical drug and device news, newsletters, books, conferences, buyers' guides, white papers and all manner of FDA information. Monthly page views exceed 530,000, with unique visitors topping 68,000.
FDAnews has over 75,000 unique names in its marketing file. Each of these is a subscriber to at least one of seven free email newsletters and is worth an average of $65. In the past six years, the publishing company has increased revenues four-fold, aggregating 80 percent of its new business from online marketing.
This chapter is part of a handbook titled Multiplatform Publishing Strategy.
- Handbook: Multiplatform Publishing Strategy
- Chapter 6: FDAnews Mequoda Media Brand Study
Johns Hopkins Health Alerts Mequoda Media Brand Study
University Health Publishing enjoys an interesting — if perhaps unusual — relationship with Johns Hopkins Medical Center. UHP is licensed to use the Johns Hopkins name and work with its faculty to create a publishing enterprise.
At the same time, Johns Hopkins is a competitor, since it has its own publishing and online operations. The relationship, however, has been a huge benefit for UHP.
At the very top of the UHP world is the Johns Hopkins Medical Letter: Health After 50. They also publish white papers, bulletins, reference books and free special reports.
They now publish 13 free email newsletters that are based on the content of their 13 existing white papers and use the Internet as the nexus to distribute those free newsletters and sell more products.
This chapter is part of a handbook titled Multiplatform Publishing Strategy.
- Handbook: Multiplatform Publishing Strategy
- Chapter 10: Johns Hopkins Health Alerts Mequoda Media Brand Study
The Daily Reckoning Mequoda Media Brand Study
The Daily Reckoning is Agora Financial Network's Internet hub. With more than half a million subscribers in the United States alone, The Daily Reckoning is the gateway into a business relationship with Agora's customers.
Agora learned early on that providing a wealth of free information to a group of thoughtful, affluent investors would create an opportunity to eventually sell profitable information products to a reasonable number of them.
The business model Agora created with the Daily Reckoning
This chapter is part of a handbook titled Multiplatform Publishing Strategy.
Harvard Medical School Mequoda Media Brand Study
The Harvard Health Letter was launched in 1975 under Harvard University's Harvard Health Publications. Today, total circulation of the Harvard Health Publications newsletters exceeds 650,000.
Harvard Health Publications expanded into mass market book publishing about 10 years ago. In cooperation with Simon & Schuster and McGraw-Hill, it publishes 25+ titles, including The Harvard Medical School Family Health Guide, and launches about eight new books annually.
Harvard Health Publications also maintains a premium access, membership library at health.harvard.edu and a searchable database for all of its newspaper articles, magazines, books, newsletters and special reports.
Harvard Health Publications’ website is a single portal for all of its publications. An informative interview with Ed Coburn, Publishing Director, Harvard Health Publications, provided valuable insights into a profitable business model whose highest priority isn't profits.
This chapter is part of a handbook titled Multiplatform Publishing Strategy.
- Handbook: Multiplatform Publishing Strategy
- Chapter 9: Harvard Medical School Mequoda Media Brand Study
Introduction to Multiplatform Publishing
The Internet has transformed every print publisher into a possible television producer, radio broadcaster, writer, blogger, CD publisher and website developer. The affordability of offering all these platforms is lower than ever and it has provided a huge opportunity.
Instead of delivering one product to one audience, your potential audience size has exploded. You can market to readers through print while making video and podcasts with the same content online to reach your non-reading audience.
Best of all, you can take a chunk of information, alter it, put it into a different platform, and voila, you have a new product to reach a new area of your market while keeping costs under control.
This is called multiplatform publishing strategy, and it is an extremely profitable way to turn your print publication into an online revenue machine.
This introduction is part of a handbook titled Multiplatform Publishing Strategy.
- Handbook: Multiplatform Publishing Strategy
- Introduction: Introduction to Multiplatform Publishing
Real Simple Mequoda Media Brand Study
Little was simple about the launch of Real Simple back in 2000, but after about a year and a half of tweaking, Real Simple hit its stride. Within the first few years, the magazine became profitable, and that gave the publisher an opportunity to see what else the brand could do for its readers.
One of the first places they expanded in was in books, which go deeper into a subject area. They now boast a syndicated newspaper column, a relationship with XM radio, a TV program on PBS, physical products like home office accessories and live events.
They are a great example of a successful multiplatform operation and now have a heavy focus on how they will make their website any easy to use, one-stop shop for everything Real Simple.
This chapter is part of a handbook titled Multiplatform Publishing Strategy.
- Handbook: Multiplatform Publishing Strategy
- Chapter 13: Real Simple Mequoda Media Brand Study
Martha Stewart Mequoda Media Brand Study
Beyond being a mere household name, Martha Stewart has become synonymous with home decorating, cooking and gardening—bringing beauty to all things domestic. Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc (MSLO), is an integrated media company distributing the "art of everyday living" to us in many different channels.
All these channels circle and promote each other, as Martha talks about her paint color used in the kitchen on her show, advertisers buy across the media outlets, content can be re-purposed in books and DVDs, and so on.
Martha’s multiplatform strategy is one of the most robust we’ve seen. Getting her website optimized to make it easy for the user to find and consume her entire suite of products should be priority number one for Martha’s team.
This chapter is part of a handbook titled Multiplatform Publishing Strategy.
- Handbook: Multiplatform Publishing Strategy
- Chapter 11: Martha Stewart Mequoda Media Brand Study
Ask the Builder Mequoda Media Brand Case Study
Tim Carter started as a building contractor and decided one day to tell homeowners about remodeling and residential construction by writing a newspaper column. The column started in 1993 and continues today. In 1998, he launched AskTheBuilder.com.
In addition to that column, Carter expanded Ask the Builder’s reach into radio, television and the Internet. He now sells ebooks, DVDs, sample blueprints, bid sheets and house plans.
He uses the Web as the nexus to sell all those products and relies on the Google Adsense program to generate lots of advertising revenue.
This chapter is part of a handbook titled Multiplatform Publishing Strategy.
- Handbook: Multiplatform Publishing Strategy
- Chapter 3: Ask the Builder Mequoda Media Brand Study
Fine Woodworking Mequoda Media Brand Case Study
Taunton’s Fine Woodworking launched in 1975 as a black-and-white quarterly, followed by books on woodworking.
A few years ago, they started publishing special newsstand editions, which they now do seven times a year. Most are created from repurposed content from the magazine.
They have been producing video for 20 years and with the advent of DVDs, finally turned a profit on their video content. They also have a membership website at FineWoodworking.com.
They are now putting more emphasis on the advertising component and plan to use the same multiplatform model (or a variation of it) for their other brands.
This chapter is part of a handbook titled Multiplatform Publishing Strategy.
- Handbook: Multiplatform Publishing Strategy
- Chapter 7: Fine Woodworking Mequoda Media Brand Study
20 Platforms Publishers are Using to Distribute Content
To date, we’ve identified 20 platforms publishers are using to deploy and monetize content. Most publishers we studied began as traditional print publishers. But thanks to the explosion of the Internet, platform origination now becomes less important than most publishers would like to admit.
What’s more important is the willingness to explore and extend a brand across multiple platforms to meet the varying needs and habits of their audience.
This chapter describes the 20 platforms and provides examples of each.
This chapter is part of a handbook titled Multiplatform Publishing Strategy.
- Handbook: Multiplatform Publishing Strategy
- Chapter 1: 20 Platforms Publishers are Using to Deploy Content
Fodors Travel Mequoda Case Study
Venerable guidebook publisher, an early adopter of the Web, continues to refine its Internet strategy
Executive Summary
Fodor's Travel, a division of Random House, Inc., has been recognized as the premier guidebook publisher for more than 70 years. Today, the Fodor's Travel brand exists firmly in print, online, and on mobile devices.
Fodor's target audience is what Publisher Tim Jarrell calls "age 25-plus travelers who are interested in attainable luxury." The huge array of print guidebooks and the Fodors.com website are resources that the Fodor's audience uses to discover the best places within their budget to stay, eat, shop, and explore.
Fodor's Travel publishes guidebooks-- 14 different series that include about 450 separate titles that cover 300 destinations worldwide—and sells more than a million units a year. The company hosts a website, Fodors.com and also provides mobile applications that customers can add to their mobile devices. Product development depends on the product. "We're certainly defining what it means to be Fodor's content," says Jarrell, "Then, we use that as a prism through which we evaluate everything that we do." For digital content, Fodor's often works with partners, such as Garmin or Expedia, to develop products.
Fodor's Travel launched Fodors.com in 1996 "just as the World Wide Web was beginning its dramatic expansion," according to the publishing company. Shortly thereafter, Fodor's began to "nuggetize" its text by requiring its editors, writers, and updaters to reformat the entire content of every book into "minimum information units," where each bit of content the contributors and updaters produced was written and tagged as a stand-alone unit that could be created once and used, repackaged, repurposed, and re-monetized elsewhere—over and over again. "Nuggetizing was critical in allowing us to shoot our content out to the Web, as well as to our licensees," says Jarrell.
The company posts free content from many of its guidebooks on Fodors.com and supplements that content with general travel advice, the offer of a free weekly email newsletter, and a community for registered users with areas such as discussion forums and user-generated ratings for hotels and restaurants.
"We're now entering the next phase of our website development," he adds, "where we believe we need original online content. We realize that the Web can do certain things better than print in terms of providing information, so we are now investing in creating original content for the Web."
Fodor's generates revenue from its vast array of travel guidebooks that are sold in brick-and-mortar bookstores, online at either Fodors.com or RandomHouse.com, and through third-party e-retailers such as Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com. Fodor's also licenses content to various partners, both online and offline, and that has become a valuable piece of business for the publishing company.
"Online, I would say that, overwhelmingly, we are ad-driven," says Jarrell. Fodor's digital income comes mostly from ad sales but also from content licensing and e-commerce affiliate programs, the relationship with Expedia's booking engine being the primary example. Fodor's receives a percentage of all bookings on Expedia that are generated through Fodors.com.
Using Retail Distribution to Drive Website Traffic
How to Profit from Relationships with Bricks and Mortar Stores and Third-party Ecommerce Websites
Online sales represented a tiny 2.2 percent of total retail sales in the first quarter of 2006. That means publishers who want to prosper selling ancillary products to consumers should look to broaden their retail distribution channels rather than simply posting additional product offers on their e-commerce websites.
Some publishers already use retail distribution channels in the same way they’ve historically used direct mail or public relations. Rather than trying to generate revenue, they view product sales as a loss leader or breakeven source. Their primary objective is to build a database of qualified customers to whom they can sell directly.
Their reasoning? It’s a lot easier and less expensive to market your products if you can identify your best customers. And capturing customer information on your website is easy, inexpensive, and effective.
To drive website traffic via retail distribution:
- Find a third-party retail message channel and ride along on that medium with a product containing a great offer.
- Include a response mechanism on the product itself or in the packaging that entices readers, users, viewers, listeners, or buyers to visit your website and register for additional useful information or a free download.
- Install appropriate conversion architecture on your website to capture the registration data and also offer a free email newsletter or other regular contact device that allows you to begin a relationship with each new site visitor.
That, in a nutshell, is a successful deployment of the Mequoda Internet Marketing Strategy.
Website Design Guideline Wrapup
Website Design Guideline #14: Promoting and Supporting Brand Preference and Awareness
How to Create a Single, Consistent, Online Branding Message that Avoids Confusion and Instills Trust
Usability and design are two key factors in publishing great websites. You may have a clear strategy and great content, but if your site is unusable and unattractive, it will be difficult for users to find what they're looking for, difficult for you to get users to do what you want them to do and difficult to get users to become loyal customers and revisit again and again.
Creating user-friendly websites begins by following the 14 Mequoda Website Design Guidelines for successful website design. By reviewing a site's score for each of the 14 items, along with the overall average score, the areas of the site that operate well, and those that need work, become evident.
In this chapter of Website Design for Publishers and Authors, we take a close look at Guideline #14: Promoting and Supporting Brand Preference and Awareness.
- Discover why brand does matter in this new, search-dominated world... page 6
- Understand how to integrate your website with your offline brand... page 6
- Learn which brand elements you shouldn't mess around with online... page 6
- Use this tactic to avoid confusing and annoying the user about your brand... page 6
- Don't forget this little tip about branding and ways to ensure you follow it... page 6
Making the Most of PR & Earned Media
Using Public Relations and Free Information Products to Drive Targeted Website Traffic, Build Email Newsletter Circulation and Sell Information Products in the Internet
Using public relations to drive website traffic and build relationships with an audience is rather simple on its face—so simple, in fact, that many publishers don't "get it".
- They understand the importance of coming up with a free online giveaway to drive traffic to the website.
- They certainly understand the value of publicizing the promotion.
- But where many miss the boat is in understanding the benefiting of converting that website traffic into a loyal audience of people who are interested in their products and keep coming back.
Those three steps are core to the Mequoda Marketing System and making the most of earned media. It’s not enough to do just the first and second steps. Without completing the third step, the site visitors are simply left hanging. The publisher has given them no reason to come back to the site on a regular basis. And there’s no opportunity to build a database of loyal individuals to whom revenue-generating products may be promoted on a regular basis.
The shame of it is that the third step is no big mystery. It just requires the proper conversion architecture on the website:
- Request an email address to download the giveaway.
- Ask them to check a box to subscribe to a free email newsletter.
- Once permission to contact is granted, start building the relationship.
It’s that simple.
Those three steps are core to the Mequoda Marketing System and making the most of earned media. It’s not enough to do just the first and second steps. Without completing the third step, the site visitors are simply left hanging. The publisher has given them no reason to come back to the site on a regular basis. And there’s no opportunity to build a database of loyal individuals to whom revenue-generating products may be promoted on a regular basis.
The shame of it is that the third step is no big mystery. It just requires the proper conversion architecture on the website:
- Request an email address to download the giveaway.
- Ask them to check a box to subscribe to a free email newsletter.
- Once permission to contact is granted, start building the relationship.
It’s that simple.
Website Design Guideline #13: Designing Aesthetically Pleasing Websites
Users Respond Best When the Site Appears as a Simple, Reliable, Secure, Trustworthy Online Source of Information
Usability and design are two key factors in publishing great websites. You may have a clear strategy and great content, but if your site is unusable and unattractive, it will be difficult for users to find what they're looking for, difficult for you to get users to do what you want them to do and difficult to get users to become loyal customers and revisit again and again.
Creating user-friendly websites begins by following the 14 Mequoda Website Design Guidelines for successful website design. By reviewing a site's score for each of the 14 items, along with the overall average score, the areas of the site that operate well, and those that need work, become evident.
In this chapter of Website Design for Publishers and Authors, we take a close look at Guideline #13: Designing Aesthetically Pleasing Websites.
- Learn what the average user expects from professional websites - page 6
- Discover what corporate-style B2B websites should conform to in terms of color and design - page 6
- Understand how the aesthetics of a consumer-oriented site might differ from a B2B - page 6
- Learn how to avoid sending the wrong message with use of color - page 6
- Discover the criteria for grading your own site's use of aesthetics - page 6
Website Design Guideline #12: Speeding Up Website Load Time
Slow-Loading Pages Will Cause Losses in the Number of Readers, Page Views and Advertising Impressions, and, as a Result, Losses in Revenue
Usability and design are two key factors in publishing great websites. You may have a clear strategy and great content, but if your site is unusable and unattractive, it will be difficult for users to find what they're looking for, difficult for you to get users to do what you want them to do and difficult to get users to become loyal customers and revisit again and again.
Creating user-friendly websites begins by following the 14 Mequoda Website Design Guidelines for successful website design. By reviewing a site's score for each of the 14 items, along with the overall average score, the areas of the site that operate well, and those that need work, become evident.
In this chapter of Website Design for Publishers and Authors, we take a close look at Guideline #12: Speeding Up Website Load Time.
- Learn the standard connection speed you should be optimizing your pages for - page 6
- Discover which page on your site most people enter by and the challenges associated with optimizing that page - page 6
- Understand how to implement a simple technique that can help relieve the user's expectations of load time - page 6
- Learn 12 ways to make a web page load faster - page 6,7
- Discover a great tool for testing your website's load time - page 7
Website Design Guideline #11: Providing Urgency and Content Freshness
Update your Website Frequently—and Make it Clear and Apparent that You Do
Usability and design are two key factors in publishing great websites. You may have a clear strategy and great content, but if your site is unusable and unattractive, it will be difficult for users to find what they're looking for, difficult for you to get users to do what you want them to do and difficult to get users to become loyal customers and revisit again and again.
Creating user-friendly websites begins by following the 14 Mequoda Website Design Guidelines for successful website design. By reviewing a site's score for each of the 14 items, along with the overall average score, the areas of the site that operate well, and those that need work, become evident.
In this chapter of Website Design for Publishers and Authors, we take a close look at Guideline # 11: Providing Urgency and Content Freshness.
- Understand the single most important feature users expect from websites - page 6
- Learn the quickest way to plummet your credibility and how to avoid it - page 6,7
- Discover the minimum update frequency your website should be adhering to - page 6
- Learn new ways of posting content more frequently - page 6,7
- Discover the one secret weapon to use if you don't generate enough content on your site - page 6,7
Website Design Guideline #10: Organizing Homepage Real Estate Logically and Profitably
While Strategies Do Exist for Placing Messages and Links on your Homepage, the Most Important Goal is to Facilitate Action that Will Benefit the User and Lead to Revenues for the Company.
Usability and design are two key factors in publishing great websites. You may have a clear strategy and great content, but if your site is unusable and unattractive, it will be difficult for users to find what they're looking for, difficult for you to get users to do what you want them to do and difficult to get users to become loyal customers and revisit again and again.
Creating user-friendly websites begins by following the 14 Mequoda Website Design Guidelines for successful website design. By reviewing a site's score for each of the 14 items, along with the overall average score, the areas of the site that operate well, and those that need work, become evident.
In this chapter of Website Design for Publishers and Authors, we take a close look at Guideline # 10: Organizing Homepage Real Estate Logically and Profitably.
- Learn which primary links should be appropriated effectively to the page's marketing quadrants - page 6
- Understand how to prioritize the tasks that each page is required to fulfill - page 7
- Discover which quadrant is most appropriate for logging in, registering for a newsletter or emailing an article - page 6
- Learn which is the most viewed area of any page - page 7
- Understand which content must always appear "above the fold" - page 7
Website Design Guideline #9: Improving Readability and Content Density
The Ultimate Goals of Website Readability are to Make the Site Inviting, the Format Clean and Well Balanced, and the Experience Pleasant.
Usability and design are two key factors in publishing great websites. You may have a clear strategy and great content, but if your site is unusable and unattractive, it will be difficult for users to find what they're looking for, difficult for you to get users to do what you want them to do and difficult to get users to become loyal customers and revisit again and again.
Creating user-friendly websites begins by following the 14 Mequoda Website Design Guidelines for successful website design. By reviewing a site's score for each of the 14 items, along with the overall average score, the areas of the site that operate well, and those that need work, become evident.
In this chapter of Website Design for Publishers and Authors, we take a close look at Guideline # 9: Improving Readability and Content Density.
- Discover the optimal use of white space, the number of columns and the use of bolding, margin size, etc., to increase reader pleasure - page 6
- Learn which design principles apply on the Web - page 6
- Understand why employing the principles of continuity, similarity and proximity become even more important when formatting news content for the Web - page 7
- Discover how users behave on your web pages - page 7
- Find out what will trigger visitors to leave before they buy - page 7
Website Design Guideline #8: Applying User-Centric Labeling and Language
Far Too Many Websites Use Labels and Language that are Better Understood by the Site's Sponsoring Organization than by its Audience.
Usability and design are two key factors in publishing great websites. You may have a clear strategy and great content, but if your site is unusable and unattractive, it will be difficult for users to find what they're looking for, difficult for you to get users to do what you want them to do and difficult to get users to become loyal customers and revisit again and again.
Creating user-friendly websites begins by following the 14 Mequoda Website Design Guidelines for successful website design. By reviewing a site's score for each of the 14 items, along with the overall average score, the areas of the site that operate well, and those that need work, become evident.
In this chapter of Website Design for Publishers and Authors, we take a close look at Guideline # 8: Applying User-Centric Labeling and Language.
- Labels should be simple and easy to understand—that is, plain English.
- Their purpose is to help users find the information they want or get directly to a particular area of the site.
- No matter how appropriate the labels seem to the site owner, jargon should not be used as navigation labels.
- The easiest way to determine which words to use to describe the various departments, sections and categories on a website is simply to ask: "What would a user call this?"
- At the end of the day, the only words that will work are those that the intended users associate with what they are trying to find at the site.
Website Design Guideline #7: Ensuring Links and Buttons Do What They Afford
Affordance Simply Means that Something Behaves in the Way you Think it Should Behave. Good Affordance will Dramatically Improve the Usability of your Website and your User's Experience with your Brand.
Usability and design are two key factors in publishing great websites. You may have a clear strategy and great content, but if your site is unusable and unattractive, it will be difficult for users to find what they're looking for, difficult for you to get users to do what you want them to do and difficult to get users to become loyal customers and revisit again and again.
Creating user-friendly websites begins by following the 14 Mequoda Website Design Guidelines for successful website design. By reviewing a site's score for each of the 14 items, along with the overall average score, the areas of the site that operate well, and those that need work, become evident.
In this chapter of Website Design for Publishers and Authors, we take a close look at Guideline # 7: Ensuring Links and Buttons do What they Afford.
- Affordance is a term that simply means that something does what it looks like it will do, or behaves in the way that you think it should behave.
- For websites, good affordance means having clear, intuitive and logical navigation with no confusing or misleading links.
- If the user is expected to execute an action, use a button with a clear, unambiguous label, placed in a logical location for the desired outcome.
- Text links should be underlined and change in appearance once the user has visited that page.
- Many times, site pages or search results display so much information that it's difficult for the user to keep track of the pages already visited or articles already read.
Website Design Guideline #6: Encouraging the Next Step with Effective Task Completion
User Task Depth is a Critical Step that a Website Owner Must Succeed In—If a User Can't Accomplish a Simple Task on Your Website, the Frustrated User Will Give Up and the Sale is Lost.
A user commonly will want to complete just five or six tasks on a website and those tasks account for 80 percent of online activity. Browsing and searching are common to all types of websites, but other tasks—finding an article, signing up for a email newsletter, buying a product, checking on an order, changing a profile, submitting information... whatever—are different for the various website archetypes.
Mequoda researchers have found that users often will complete a task in an unanticipated way. And when that happens, it's good. It means that the global architecture of the site provides multiple paths to the finish line.
Creating user-friendly websites begins by following the 14 Mequoda Website Design Guidelines for successful website design. By reviewing a site's score for each of the 14 items, along with the overall average score, the areas of the site that operate well, and those that need work, become evident.
In this chapter of Website Design for Publishers and Authors, we take a close look at Guideline #6: Encouraging the Next Step with Effective Task Completion.
- To succeed in user task depth, a website should encourage clearly defined "next steps."
- Users should be able to manage their offline and online accounts in a single online location.
- Links to free information should be well organized and clear.
- One click on a highly visible link or shortcut should take the user directly to the location where the next steps can be accomplished.
- Don't disguise or hide pricing information.
Website Design Guideline #5: Keeping Navigation Intuitive, Persistent and Consistent
While Persistent Navigation is Now Rather Common, Site Owners Mustn't Become Complacent. Users Must be Crystal Clear About Where They Are, Where They Can Go and How they Can Get Back to Somewhere They've Been.
Usability and design are two key factors in publishing great websites. You may have a clear strategy and great content, but if your site is unusable and unattractive, it will be difficult for users to find what they're looking for, difficult for you to get users to do what you want them to do and difficult to get users to become loyal customers and revisit again and again.
Creating user-friendly websites begins by following the 14 Mequoda Website Design Guidelines for successful website design. By reviewing a site's score for each of the 14 items, along with the overall average score, the areas of the site that operate well, and those that need work, become evident.
In this chapter of Website Design for Publishers and Authors, we take a close look at Guideline # 5: Keeping Navigation Intuitive, Persistent and Consistent.
- Persistent navigation is the simple concept of ensuring that the navigation to complete an online activity is the same experience each time that the user returns to the site to pursue that activity.
- Five years ago this was a real problem, as site navigation changed frequently. As a result, the user was constantly lost or having to figure out how the website worked.
- A website is really an interactive piece of software.
- The navigation facilitates user goals of: 1) easily accessing content, community and commerce and 2) finding any desired feature or information page.
- The site should be straightforward, relatively simple to use and unchanging—with no surprises or misleading cues, such as design elements that look like links but instead are static graphics.
Website Design Guideline #4: Increase the User's Connection to your Site by Promoting Community
The Ultimate Goal of Community-Building Programs is to Increase the Consumer's Connection to the Site by Fostering a Sense of Camaraderie Among Unique Groups of Individuals.
Usability and design are two key factors in publishing great websites. You may have a clear strategy and great content, but if your site is unusable and unattractive, it will be difficult for users to find what they're looking for, difficult for you to get users to do what you want them to do and difficult to get users to become loyal customers and revisit again and again.
Creating user-friendly websites begins by following the 14 Mequoda Website Design Guidelines for successful website design. By reviewing a site's score for each of the 14 items, along with the overall average score, the areas of the site that operate well, and those that need work, become evident.
In this chapter of Website Design for Publishers and Authors, we take a close look at Guideline # 4: Increase the User's Connection to your Site by Promoting Community.
- The Mequoda criteria for community building expect visitors to feel enthusiastic and loyal to the site. Are they inspired with feelings of belonging and encouraged to contribute?
- Websites that encourage a feeling of belonging among users, that offer mechanisms for being involved in the site and that motivate them to become involved are good at community building.
- For a marketing site, community-building tactics function as word-of-mouth marketing tools and increase both site traffic and search-engine visibility.
- For membership websites, providing a space for members to communicate with one another and to interact with the association or site editors should be a high priority.
- The ultimate goal of community-building programs is to increase the consumer's connection to the site by fostering a sense of camaraderie or belonging among unique groups of individuals.
Website Design Guideline #3: Building Relationships with Email Capture
Website Success Depends Largely on Providing an Incentive—i.e., a Free Email Newsletter—to Encourage Visitor Registration and an Email Address
Usability and design are two key factors in publishing great websites. You may have a clear strategy and great content, but if your site is unusable and unattractive, it will be difficult for users to find what they're looking for, difficult for you to get users to do what you want them to do and difficult to get users to become loyal customers and revisit again and again.
Creating user-friendly websites begins by following the 14 Mequoda Website Design Guidelines for successful website design. By reviewing a site's score for each of the 14 items, along with the overall average score, the areas of the site that operate well, and those that need work, become evident.
In this chapter of Website Design for Publishers and Authors, we take a close look at Guideline #3: Building Relationships with Email Capture.
- Acquiring email addresses is the first step toward creating lasting relationships with site visitors.
- If a website does not attempt to capture the visitor's email address, the individual may never revisit and the relationship is lost.
- A detailed description of the free email newsletter, and its benefits, should appear in a "can't miss" space on the homepage.
- In addition to signing up for the free email newsletter, a site may offer access to blogs, RSS feeds, tools, favorites and other special content if the visitor signs up with a username and password.
- The ultimate goal, of course, is to escalate the messages to revenue-producing product offers.
