We call it micro-content. First, open up a web page. Then, close your eyes and back away from your desk 4 or 5 feet (don’t knock over your printer or that plant stand behind you). Open your eyes and start absorbing the contents of the page for 5 seconds. QUICK, close your eyes! OK, what did you reaaalllly see? Here’s a likely scenario …

• First you saw the logo/company name in the upper left (we read from top to bottom, left to right, yes?)
• Next, your eyes likely popped over or down to a large headline or a large prominent image
• After that, the next image or sub-header
• Finally, your eyes will scan hyper links, text with a color other than black and titles on images

All of this is the most important information on your site! Now, ask yourself these questions:

• If a visitor does this for YOUR home page, what do they feel?
• Do they know exactly what you do with only this information?
• Does this information connect with your visitors?
• Is there a call to action?
• Are visitors engaged enough to want to click through for more information?

If none of this holds true, you’re going to have very poor results with that page. Here’s a great tip from Anita Campbell about how to get people to read instead of skim.” It’s all about the micro-content!

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Think back … take Poindexter’s “Way Back Machine” to just one or two years ago. Back to the first moment where you heard about Web 2.0. How has the world changed for your online presence? More specifically, how has your online marketing changed? Pretty amazing, yes?

Take all of these changes and imagine taking your blogging to a new level where a site out there knows your areas of interest and expertise AND tells other people about you based on their specific questions. Think “search engine” mashed with “social network” mashed with “blog directory” mashed with “dynamic content”.

Check out what the new kids on the block are doing over at Yedda.com.

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It’s 7:30PM on a Saturday and I’m “blogging for comfort”.  Michigan (my alma mater) just lost to Ohio State in, from a third party perspective, what was a really fabulous game. But, we still lost … sigh.

I am cheered up, however, after finding a great tool that you can all use in evaluating in-bound links to your web site.  Go to Yahoo’s Site Explorer (still in beta), type in your URL and then click on “Inlinks” at the top.  Compared to Google, this gives an amazingly comprehensive listing of what must be every page on the internet that points to your site.  Very cooool.

Enjoy!  I’m going back to help my wife back up HER alma mater … Cal — playing USC.  grrrah!

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Are you an online shopaholic? My wife and I estimate that 1/3 to 1/2 of all our retail purchases are conducted online. Our primary motivations are, in order:

• Convenience
• Price
• Selection

But, what if a site is slow to load? We’re OUTTA there! A study from Jupiter Research identifies the new standard of download speed is FOUR seconds! The study shows that, for most people, this is the second most important criteria after price.

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The SEC is considering whether a blog post actually counts as an appropriate medium for “Regulation Fair Disclosure.” The inquiry, posed by Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz’s web log, begs that a blog post does, indeed, satisfy the requirement of “widespread dissemination”. Although it may take a year or two, I’m sure even the guys at the SEC will be able to figure out that the Internet is actually viewed by more than a handful of people!

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