New portfolio today

Cross Post from A4D Newsletter:

I’m sure everyone reading this has come across a lot of advertiser offer pages in their career as an affiliate marketer. Have you ever noticed any conventions within the design of these offers? For one, the form on any offer page is always “above the fold”. The fold refers to the point on the page requiring the user to scroll to see any further. Elements above the fold are seen first, given the most attention, and placing a form here greatly increases conversions. Another convention in the design of offer pages is the inclusion of social proof. Social proof is the evidence that other people are having success with that product or service. These can be testimonials, celebrity endorsements, or even news logos. Often social proof is placed on the edge of the fold, pulling the logical flow below it to engage the user in each element of sales copy on the page. This logical flow dominates most placements in affiliate offers, pulling the audience through a funnel in which to generate leads. The flow is always from left to right and from top to bottom, simply based on the way people read. Most offers have a form that is on the right hand side of the screen allowing the audience to read the sales copy directly to the left of the form before actually filling it out. This information next to the form needs to be reaffirming the decision to actually fill it out. Usually bullet points about the benefits of the offer work well here. Although there are a million ways to be creative with the design of these offers, adhering to these conventions can greatly increase conversions – they’re conventions for a reason. These offers have been split tested time and time again and more often than not these conventions prove effective.

Looking to re-brand the whole jongougeon.com franchise to take a more conversion based approach to design.

Trying a crack at starting my own SEO powered content gateway blog over at http://www.volumevideos.com. I’ll be sure to keep you all updated if I ever start to generate some real traffic.

So I’ve been at Ads4Dough for a little over three months now, and recently I was given the opportunity to create my first affiliate offer.  I’ve been designing for a little while now, but I’ve never designed pages with the explicit goal of conversions (making sales).  It’s a different mindset, and very useful skill to master as there is always demand for landing page designs.  I learned a lot about proper form formatting, color use, calls to action, and effective sales copy.  Applying these skills as I learned them was a challenge, but in the end I’m really proud of what I created.  Watching the stats, I have to admit I’m pretty proud of the way the offer is performing as well.  Based on the success of the first offer, we’re creating a ton of new versions for mobile phones, the UK, and are looking into doing a click to call model.

check it out

It seems there are a lot of stuff coming up as well, and I’ll do my best to keep y’all updated.

Till next time,

Jon.

Recently I’ve taken a real interest in typography and it’s affect on not only design, but usability and user experience.  Typography is often overlooked in the design of many major websites.  Taking the time to adjust a few simple factors can have a great affect on the look and feel of a site, and ease the user through the content you’re looking to deliver.  Here’s a quick and dirty list of some stuff to take into account when formatting your next content heavy site.

1) Line Height – the CSS line height property can be a useful tool to make your site more accessible to your audience.  Increasing the line height slightly can greatly improve a user’s ability to absorb the content in that block of text.  Text that appears too scrunched together gives the impression of a college paper…that isn’t double spaced, and no one likes reading that shit.

2) Font Face – it is important to choose a font face that works well with the content of your site.  Many news related sites use serif fonts as a throwback to the fonts of their paper ancestors.  By using a familiar font in this way, the user already has a subconscious indication as to what to expect from the content of your site.  Sans-serif fonts seem to be the popular choice in the design community for their slick, clean appearance.  I use Century Gothic, a font family that is usually pretty dependable across browsers (I have Verdana as backup, just in case).  Choosing a font is an important decision, and special attention should be paid to it if you decide to incorporate other fonts across your site.  For example its usually best practice to not mix serif fonts with sans-serif fonts across your design.

3) More coming after lunch.

Here’s a repost of something I wrote for my friend mike’s blog over at mikenavarini.com:

Hey everyone, I’m a friend and co-worker of Money Making Mike and he asked me to do a brief post about design and its implication in affiliate marketing.   I think it goes unsaid that good design and copy can be the difference between a good CTR and a piss poor one.  Your design can communicate the facade of a well-respected company or a dead-beat scam. Choosing a good color for the theme of your ad can help conversions immensely. In the spirit of the holidays I’m going to focus on three specific ones – red, green, and white.  Although running your own split tests with different colors for your campaigns is always the best way to find the right color for the job, this small list can help guide you in the right direction:

Red:  Possibly the most vibrant color in the spectrum is known to incite thoughts of power, energy, passion, desire, and/or love.  It is known across cultures to symbolize importance and action.  What does this mean for your ads? For one, these associations are deep in the audience and using a color besides it to imply emotions of love or anger simply won’t convert.  Take a look at the market, how often do you blue dating ads that work?  Red is also a popular color in the Biz Op space, used to try and incite the user into acting quickly on the offer.

Green: Often a sign of growth, green is universally seen a positive sign.  Physically it is the easiest color for the eye to associate with and can relax the audience through thoughts of calm and rest.  Looking at our current situation and the thunder the word “green” has behind it these days, it can be a powerful marketing tool.  From promoting sustainability to encouraging the thought of money – green can be extremely successful.

White:  It’s power might not be obvious, but white can be amazingly powerful at highlighting content in an ad or on a landing page.  White space allows the reader of your ad eye’s time to adjust and digest content at a comfortable rate.  This is especially true in line spacing for text.  A pure white background can signify credibility because your product appears to stand alone.

Color can be a great mechanism to provide subconscious messages to your audience, and its power shouldn’t be underestimated.  Next time you run a campaign, pay special attention to the colors used in your ads and on your landing pages.

Till next time,

Jon