Jazzing up my guide

[Chris]

I was considering jazzing up my guide to building a successful website. I was checking out referrers and on one forum they were discussing it and called it boring. I thought perhaps if I vaguely listed my income and included some third party testimonials it'd make it a little more attention grabbing.

Also I was considering making a new section of the site for Interviews & Success Stores, as people seem to like to read those.

Any thoughts? Any volunteers?

[Mike]

Aye, interviews and success stories would be good, I really like those.

[pas]

What forum?

[Blue Cat Buxton]

Chris

Your guide tells it like it is, from someone who has been there, done that and knows how it works. It is full of valuable information. Do 'Jazzier' sites offer the same?

But I gree people do like to read 'real life success stories'. It shows that success is possible etc.etc.

[Emancipator]

the key is people telling HOW they got to where they are. For example when I started I would have loved to know how to get to 1million hits a day. Or how to setup ads correctly which I still dont have :P

Westech?? You reading this?? give us a tutorial. lol

[Chris]

There are lots of people selling ebooks by listing their income, I'm not trying to sell anything but if I qualify my information by listing my income perhaps it'll make it a little more exiting to those.

[Cutter]

I'd be happy to give an interview/success story.

The funny thing is, once you start listing incomes som people begin to think its a scam :D

[Chris]

I know, I wasn't going to be specific, just say six figures.

[LuckyShima]

Although I have no problem with the guide as it is, in response to what you have read I would take a completely different approach. Instead of thinking about the content I would be thinking about the presentation.

For exampe, you might create a simple flash sequence showing something like:

1/ a website with no advertising (just a plain looking site)
2/ add some advertising to the website
3/ bag of money appears
4/ websites multiply
5/ more bags of money appear

Pretty corny, but that is what might be required to 'jazz' up the guide to make it appealing to a certain user. You could also include your personal experience to back up the flash, such as "I started with one site, put some ads on it, made some money, built lots more sites - just have a look at them all! - and now I make lots money and give away bonus prizes to the best advice I get from my forum" ;)

Anyway, just something to consider a bit different from the actual 'content' of what you are presenting.

Remeber, every year that passes there are more and more semi-literate people around who respond much more positively to visual images than they do to text.

The flash idea might be a bit of overkill, but the general concept of a different approach to the visual presentation is what I am suggesting.

[James]

Ooh interviews and success stories sounds good *thumbs up*

You should also maybe hire a few people to write articles, or at least try to get some people to participate in writing articles for free.

[Chris]

1/ a website with no advertising (just a plain looking site)
2/ add some advertising to the website
3/ bag of money appears
4/ websites multiply
5/ more bags of money appear


I don't like to give the impression of getting rich quick/easy.


You should also maybe hire a few people to write articles, or at least try to get some people to participate in writing articles for free.

I have a standing offer of allowing someone to put adsense code on 50% of the pageviews of their articles so long as the articles are unique to this site and they agree to providing articles on a regular basis (such as monthly).

I'm really not good at taking interviews, I was hoping someone would like to do that.

[ozgression]

Yeah, case studies would be good.

[LuckyShima]

I don't like to give the impression of getting rich quick/easy.

You are focusing on the content of what I have suggested be done rather than the form. I am not concerned with what the message is, I am saying that if you want to achieve your stated objectives then you should consider concentrating more on the visual presentation of the message.

[Cutter]

I don't know, I don't really like the flash idea either. If someone is having trouble reading & understanding concepts then they are going to have a hell of a time building their own websites.

[Emancipator]

i wouldnt read a flash guide of the nature being described.

[LuckyShima]

Here is the problem outlined by Chris:

I was checking out referrers and on one forum they were discussing it and called it boring.
I assume that we are all happy with the guide and we don't find it boring. Therefore, any solution to the problem will not be targeting us, it will not be what we want to see, instead it will be targeting the people who were discussing it and called it boring.

Every suggestion except mine has been to do more of the same. Every suggestion has been to add more content. My suggestion is to think outside the box. The reason why the guide might be perceived as boring is because of the visual presentation of the guide. No amount of new content will change that.

It doesn't matter if you are not interested in seeing some flash on the guide, this is only an extreme example of how the visual presentation can be redeveloped. Other ways include logos, font type and size, layout, navigation, even just a photo or two.

I am happy with the guide. If Chris asked me what I wanted to see I would say more content. However, Chris's problem is that people who are not me or you find it boring. I am suggesting that no amount of content will change that if those people who find it boring just find the experience of being at the guide boring.

If you reject the idea that a visual makeover might lessen other people's perception that the guide is boring, then I would say that the articles themselves could be made more snappy, with more point forms, small blocks of text, recapitulations, and some interaction such as quick click surveys asking: did you find this article helpful? what else would you want to see?

These changes are not being suggested for my benefit. I prefer the guide to stay the same and provide more content. I am personally not interested in any visual makeover. Chris would also have to do a cost benefit analysis of any such changes. However, I offer this suggestion in response to the problem.

[Emancipator]

great writeup Shima.. alot of thought went into it. I think the guide would get me reading it more if it touched on more how to's. For example

- how to effectively setup default ads to increase your income
- how to effectively use google ads
- tips and tricks

The amazon AWS articles I read at least 10 times and have since taken them to the point where I could probably contribute 4 or 5 articles as somebody who is new but has also done what I think is some pretty cool stuff :P

[Chris]

In anycase I hate flash so I wouldn't use it regardless. :p

[James]

Maybe they were just retards? Quite frankly, if they think that getting link exchanges, hunting down good domains and optimizing for keywords should be as exciting a, (well, to use a quote from Bungie:) "[Being] on fire going 260 mph through a hospital zone getting chased by helicopters and ninjas. And the ninjas are on fire, too", then they're probably not cut out for this sort of thing.

Maybe if you upgraded the layout to look like so?: http://www.adsense-secrets.com/google.html

If anything, I'd say that your article requires no changes. It's in nice short bits that are easy to digest, and it's well organized. I'd say the only change you COULD make is to maybe add some images (or just boxes with round edges) and change the layout to be more like... oh, say, http://orderedlist.com/ 's colourfulness, but more pastel and less contrasting + Amazon.com's sort of 3d-looking gel buttons. But that could be at the expense of a bit of professionality in the appearance.

[michael_gersitz]

I think it is a very good guide. Just it should be updated more often. Say every 2 weeks, or month at least. There should be a set day when new articles come in.

[AndyH]

Maybe just a few images through it. Linking examples or simply just "1", "2", "3" images with a red circle around them if you are listing a few things.

That might help.

Edit: Down the track if my newest site goes to plan I will do a success story for you. ;)

[Westech]

I think that listing your income could be a great motivator and really grab peoples’ attention as long as you don't make it sound too much like a sales letter like the one James linked above. That would set off my BS-detector and turn me off immediately.

What really grabbed my attention and got me motivated when I first discovered this site was the real life success stories people posted on the forum. The main things that grabbed my attention were:

1. The traffic and income that the top couple of people were getting.
2. The fact that these were just regular people, not large companies, who were able to create these successful income-generating websites.
3. Being able to watch one particular user (Shawn Weeks) who obviously came into this not knowing much about monetizing webpages ask questions, stumble around, and eventually build up some very good online income using nothing but the advice from this site and a lot of hard work. This is what really got my attention, made me think that I could do it too, and kept me coming back to WP.

I think that if you were able to put together an article and some testimonials that captured this information in a way that both kept the readers' attention and came across as honest you would motivate a lot more people into reading the rest of the articles.

I feel that my site is fairly successful now and I owe a large part of that to websitepublisher.net for the information and motivation that it's given me over the last two years. I'd be willing to do an interview or testimonial if you're interested.

[Chris]

I'd love some self-written success stories, but also it'd be cool if someone wanted to go out and find successful independent webmasters to interview.

[Mike]

Would DigitalPoint's guy fit the bill?

[Chris]

Probably, but I was thinking more of non-webmaster site webmasters.

[chromate]

Maybe if we could take a look at the thread where they were discussing it we could come up with more targeted ideas? I can't figure out why it was called "boring". What do they want exactly? It's like saying an automotive manual is boring :)

I'm a huge fan of the guide. I make no secret of the fact that I owe a lot of my success to it - not that I'm *hugely* successful - but I'm doing alright. Web publishing has been my main line of income for about a year and a half now. The guide serves as a solid starting point and a springboard into making money from a website.

Personally, I would love to see the guide developed into a detailed eBook.

[Chris]

Well I edited it a little bit.