Although, I do agree. The topics/keywords are fairly week, there should be an ad within the text itself and a stronger call to action further up. Maybe even two calls to action, one above the fold and another at the end of the article.

In response to the person above – I was always told that people read websites in an “F” pattern

Something to keep in mind when working on your layouts

Really useful post.

I hope he takes some action on it.

BTW
Did you know if you enter a wrong captcha and hit the back button it empties the comment box. Not a problem for me but a pain in the ass if you’ve just typed a long diatribe in.

I think that the opt in box could be moved to the upper left corner.

Also, I agree with JC that the subtitles on the page-header and opt-in box are not easily seen. Make sure all of the words can read. You know what the words are, but the reader will not.

All the BEST!

Question: I’m using an article from the merchant’s site (yeah, I’m a bit lazy at times) and their title sucks. Is it kosher to change it with something more keyword/call to action specific? Yes, I asked the ‘affiliate manager’ back in….July!

I’m considering changing it and wait to see if they respond:)

Kudos for giving that away for free.

(Of course, to make an info-product out of it, you’d have to fluff it up a little. )

Over the years of webdesign and best practices it was drilled into me (and likely professional web designers at the time) that the upper left hand side was best suited for navigation. Of course I was never concerned with monetizing the site.

I believe this mindset.. along with years of common practice has influenced and set expectations of the web browsing public to expect navigation (which acts as a visual index of expected content), on the left hand side. So the eye is automatically drawn in this direction, and the compulsive ‘clicker’ will follow links out of habit as they scour for info. Next comes bold actionable forms/graphics mid-screen among the content which draws the eye.

My biggest pet peeve, this may be just me, is having to scroll to the bottom of a page to access the actionable item. I have no need to see 100′s of testimonials.. nor a three page explanation of why I ‘need’ the widget whether is is free or otherwise.

I have heard some say that your audience should be treated as if they are in Grade 4.. is there truth to this? Maybe I give everyone far too much intellectual credit..

Thanks again..

I have been more focused on links and banners just below the articles. That’s probably because I was thinking that all my visitors read my articles and once they got to the bottom, they wanted more

Remember if your website is english then the readers read from left to right and as they continue to read they skim more.. which means they go less and less to the right.

There are two specific things I am going to do now, after watching your video.

1) Focus on the left sidebar. Didn’t know that this was more important than the right sidebar.
2) Only add things that can make me money above the fold.

Thanks for the advise. And a Happy New Year to you.

- Jens