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TIPS FOR CONCEPTUAL PICTURES # 3

This new list can hopefully further your own ideas.

Conceptual pictures function as symbols, icons or

analogies in advertisements, for book covers,

illustrating articles and features etc.

Supportive

... Arch

... Pillar

... Weight-lifter

Love

... Red roses

... Red hart

... Kissing girl and boy

... Two animals snout to snout

... Flowers of Corydalis spectabilis

Maternal concern

... Duck with small ducklings

Cute

... Animal pubs/kittens/youngs, like

... Koala

... Nanny

... Kitten

... Puppy

Spread your "seeds"

... Seeds from Dandelion (Taraxacum) beeing blown away

... Old-fashioned way of sowing a field by hand.

Send me additional ideas for these concepts,

and I will publish them with your name/website

in the next issues mailto:sb@TAKE-AWAY-azfotos.com .

Immunisation For 'What-Am-I-Supposed-To-Do-Itis'

By Michel Fortin

"What am I supposed to do?"

That's a question your visitors may be asking, and one you

need to avoid at all costs. It's like a disease that will do

nothing more than cost you sales and traffic. The solution

is to "take them by the hand." Tell or show them, literally,

what you want them to do -- even if it's simple or obvious.

Adding "hand-holding" components to your website is not just

about Web usability, it's about directional marketing. In

order to encourage longer stays, repeat visits and, of course,

online sales, you need to direct your audience to take action.

And you need to make it easy for them to do so, whether you're

directing them to click, join, enter, type, download or buy.

If you don't, with today's leery and click-happy audience your site

will be no more than a passive, electronic billboard -- a mere

blur. Your website may be a beautiful work of art, and it may

also drive traffic because of its educational or entertainment

value. But if they ask, "what am I supposed to do," you may in

turn be left asking, "why is my site not making any sales?"

Rick Olson (see http://www.ibizcenter.com/), in his Internet

Business Informer ezine, said it best: "While there is debate

on whether the Web is all about direct marketing or branding,

the fact remains that you probably want to elicit some kind of

response from your visitor." I concur. In fact, even big-brand

sites like Coke.com and Nike.com, whose purpose is to increase

brand awareness and build brand equity, use direct marketing.

On the other hand, while the Internet offers us the ability to

gain the attention, consent and response of such a discerning

audience, I also admit that succeeding in doing so is a whole

different issue. I'm far from being a Web usability guru, like

Dr. Jakob Neilsen (see http://www.useit.com/jakob/). But what

I do know, from experience and research, is that much of the

Web still lacks a certain friendliness. It lacks *direction*.

Specifically, when I conduct critique consultations I notice

that about 85% of the sites I analyse fail to adequately lead

visitors to take some kind of action, be it through the copy,

design or navigation. When I visit some of these sites for the

first time, I ask: "What am I supposed to do?" Obviously, if I

feel that way, most visitors probably feel the same way, too.

Studies show that a large majority of sites are confusing to,

or misunderstood by, their target audiences. According to Joe

Gregory (see http://www.joegregory.com/), 97.7% of the sites

that his company evaluated failed or are poorly marketed, and

82.2% of them lacked a clear objective. For example, he

found that it was difficult to find the phone number on sites

that encouraged people to call, and that it was a challenge, if

not impossible, to order online on sites that sell products.

(Joe Gregory found that some sites even omitted prices. In

my experience, websites also frequently "hide" their order

forms, making them inconspicuous at best.)

During the early days of the Web, when it was mostly populated

by programmers, the Internet was filled with technical jargon.

The need to design websites and have them communicate in a way

that most people can understand was non-existent. The pioneers

and the first "colonisers" of the Web understood the dynamics

of the Internet. They easily recognised links, mark-up, files,

tags, network protocols, and so on. This is no longer the case.

Few people will buy from a website that confuses them in the

slightest. In fact, according to Gregory's research mentioned

earlier, 46.6% of the sites his company evaluated targeted a

general audience or used a language that only experts would

understand.

As more people enter the Web for the first time, the online

population of "newbies" continues to grow. Of course, people

don't remain newbies forever. But even users who are a little

more technologically savvy can get easily confused by a poorly

thought-out website. When visiting a site for the first time,

they become newbies all over again as every site has its own

style, focus, copy and message.

Therefore, it's extremely important to use words, layouts

and navigational structures that help the visitor to navigate

your site and find what they want while strategically directing

their actions. By doing so, you will immunise your website against

this lack of direction. Now, there are many ways to accomplish

it. And to list the steps within the confines of this article

is impossible -- our resident site reviewer, Ralph Hilliard at

http://WordNetUniversity.com/, has a site completely dedicated

to the subject. But here are some of the most obvious ones:

1) Above all, start a heading with a verb, which tells people

exactly what to do or what they will be doing. For example, if

a link leads to your guest book, use the words "sign (or view)

our guest book," rather than just "guest book." If the link

leads to a product description page, include the words

(benefits, too), "Discover how life-altering widgets will give

you up to 179.3% more of [whatever the benefit is]."

2) Without overdoing it, include the words "click here" (or

something to that effect) within text links. If your site

offers thumb nailed images for example, include "click to

enlarge" somewhere near the image. In short, show visitors not

only what they must do, but also what they *can* do. You would be

amazed to know how many of your visitors fail to do something

just because they don't know it is possible.

3) More importantly, keep your links underlined. Web designers

often opt to remove them for aesthetic reasons, such as with

the use of style sheets or javascript. But underlined links

are important visual guides; without them, the majority of

people will not know the link exists and will inadvertently

ignore it. Take a look at http://www.engage.com/. The links

contain either underlines (even within graphical texts) or

the words "click here."

4) Include navigation bars with links on the top, side(s) and

bottom. In other words, make it easy for your visitors to know

exactly where they are at any time, as they read or scroll

down your webpage, and where they can go next. Of course, if

your page is small and fits within a window at the smallest

resolution, offer only one -- and use common sense. But if a

visitor needs to scroll, in any way, make it easy for them to

know at the very least how to return (such as with "back to

top" links, evenly distributed throughout).

5) The reverse is also true. If you want your visitors to do

one thing and one thing only, then don't distract them with

too many links, particularly external ones that can easily

take them away from your site. (This is particularly true with

long copy or direct response websites.) For example, if you

offer too many choices, users will find it hard to make a

decision. Instead, offer more choices further in the site

based on the specific path(s) a user follows.

Essentially, realise that directional marketing is important

and will be more important as time goes on. If your site does

not direct its visitors to take some kind of action, or fails

to lead them to some sort of outcome, then you will need to

seriously rethink your site's purpose and strategy.

The more qualified your visitors are and the more compelling

your message is, the higher will be the percentage of visitors

that will buy. Or that will refer others. Or that will return

to the site. Or that will join your mailing list. Or ...

------------------- About the Editor -------------------------

Michel Fortin is a speaker, author and consultant dedicated to

turning businesses into powerful magnets -- get a free copy of

his book at http://SuccessDoctor.com. He is also the editor of

the Internet Marketing Chronicles delivered weekly to 100,000+

subscribers. Subscribe free at http://SuccessDoctor.com/IMC/.

Find Michels ´highly acclaimed "Power Positioning Dot Com" at:

http://www.roibot.com/pp.cgi?IM9009_campaign

Take better travel pictures. Tip 3

GO CLOSE

Don't be afraid of going close on what ever you want to

take pictures of. With permission you can go more close to people

than you immediately intended. Go closer to buildings, artefacts,

monuments, plants, animals and symbols, too.

When you go closer you concentrate your picture taking - what is

the most important you want to capture? The involved cropping of

the immediate framing of the picture can also be achieved with a

zoom lens, and that is fine. But in general the mantra of "going

close" is worthwhile pursuing for some time. When you shoot

landscapes and the like, go close to one object which can function

as an interesting or decorative foreground of the final picture.

Your main object in your picture doesn't need to be in the centre.

Often the final result will be much better if you have this to one

of the sides. To have it to the left is regarded as most "natural"

by many people. Just be careful with the focusing and measuring of

the proper light for this close part of your picture. The closer,

the more delicate is a precise focusing.

In general people will regard a photo with one clear main object as

the most successful.

Have continued good luck with your travel photography.

Soren Breiting

SHARING TRAVEL PHOTOS

Do you want to share your personal photos with others?

Yahoo has a great service with free sign up and good

space for storage at

http://photos.yahoo.com/

WHERE TO FIND PICTURES FROM AROUND THE WORLD?

World Photos is a general portal for news pictures and press

photos from around the world. You will also be directed to more

specific portals, e.g. about environment or photos of war

and to press sites.

http://www.worldphotos.com/

Extra Important

SEARCHKING DEVELOPS A KILL FOR THE EZULA TOP TEXT VIRUS

SearchKing, Inc. published a webpage on August 4th, 2001 that

offers a free script to disable the effects of the Ezula Top

Text Virus. This script is a simple line of code that can

quickly and easily be installed on any or every page of a

site, effectively killing the Ezula virus and ensuring that

it no longer displays links to other websites.

SearchKing believes that any script or program that changes or

alters the code, text, or content of a third party's

website, without express permission of that third party, is

WRONG. It is not professional, honest, ethical, or even legal.

SearchKing also believes that this kind of activity must be

fought and stopped in way possible for the good of the

Internet as a whole.

Therefore, SearchKing Inc. has devoted its own time and

resources to developing a way for webmasters to defend their

sites and protect themselves from this attack. They're

offering their script free of charge to anyone who agrees with

our philosophy and who wants to be sure that their content is

not altered without their permission.

The website at http://www.searchking.com/ezulakiller has the

script available, along with instructions and other information

including links to other sites who are joining us in this fight.

It also offers a forum where we will make the source code of this

program available and encourage discussion among other

programmers and developers. We need to continue working to

provide protection from updates to the Ezula software --

as well as from any other software like it that may be developed

in the future by those whose purpose is to violate the rights of

webmasters around the world.

Please feel free to distribute this message to anyone who you

feel may need protection from this type of page theft or who may

be able to do anything to help get the message out that

there are people willing to fight.

Thank you for your support.

----------------- About Bob Massa -----------------

Bob Massa is one of the Internet's most recognised, leading

experts on top search engine placement. For a personal search

engine placement consultation, or to have Bob and his team

place your site, visit http://www.magic-city.net/ today.

LEARN FROM FREE MARKETING COURSES

You are offered a number of useful courses in marketing and

other relevant aspects of having a successful website.

Just go to

www.ALLeMarketingTips.com

PRESS RELEASE

21 August 2001:

alamy.com, the image brokers, continues to innovate and

honour its commitment of becoming the worlds first image marketplace by

releasing a revolutionary new feature for picture agencies, Agent 1.0.

Quickly responding to requests, alamy.com is now offering agencies their

very own website address where customers can search, purchase and

download images. The agency can also handle negotiations directly with

their customers - all library contact details are displayed on their

home page. Agencies can also use this tool to create collections of

images, much like a catalogue, to represent their best images for a

particular topic.

"This is a major breakthrough for the industry. For the first time,

agencies can offer their customers full e-commerce capability. Agent 1.0

is an effective and secure way for agencies to take their first step

into the digital future. By having no upfront costs, libraries can also

invest more in marketing and focus on delivering value to their

customers" said James West, alamy.com CEO.

Some of the libraries using the new service include:

Arcaid (http://www.alamy.com/arcaid) - Architecture

Garden Picture Library (http://www.alamy.com/gardenpicture) - Gardens

and Plants

Steve Bloom Images (http://www.alamy.com/stevebloom) - Breathtaking

wildlife imagery

Image Source (http://www.alamy.com/imagesource) - Contemporary business

and lifestyle

Image Farm (http://www.alamy.com/imagefarm) - Objects and backgrounds

Pictor (http://www.alamy.com/pictor) - Contemporary business, objects

and lifestyle

BBCWild (http://www.alamy.com/BBC) - images from the BBC's Natural

History Unit

Features:

No set-up costs or rental fees

Unique web address

Collections tools

Add and remove images

Amend keywords and license restrictions online

Inclusion on alamy.com

About alamy.com

alamy.com are the Image Brokers, founders of the exchange for trading

images. They run exchanges for branded stock agencies, photographers,

illustrators and a collections tool for art directors and picture

researchers. The exchange is open to anyone involved in stock photography.

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