WebProNews - April 9th, 2001 The Daily eZine for eBusiness Executives ====================================================================== ====================================================================== FREE AUDIOBOOKS! Choose any the following titles free: Left Behind, Robin Williams, Star Trek, 2 weeks of The New York Times, or the latest issue of Scientific American. That's right FREE. No Gimmicks. No Commitment. No Risk. Or get Stephen King's best seller Blood and Smoke for the special price of $2.95. Plus The Hobbit for $1.95. It's easy: download and listen at your computer or on the go. Collect your free offer at: http://www.ezined.com/rd/audible.html ====================================================================== ====================================================================== IN THIS ISSUE: 1.)... Editor's Note by Peter Thiruselvam 2.)... Today on eZined.com 3.)... Getting and Keeping People's Attention at Your Site ====================================================================== 1.) EDITOR'S NOTE Hi WebPro Readers, This article by Linda Carlson has an interesting perspective of how your viewers react to your site. It was something that I hadn't seen before and I thought that some of you might find it interesting. On another note, I was looking at this week's Interactive Week and I came across some noteworthy information. How much is the budget for the average website? According to Interactive Week's recently completed annual survey of 553 Webmasters, most Web site operational budgets are expected to increase this year over last. Web site budgets for 2000 averaged $404,500, and Webmasters say they expect to see that increase to $508,000 for this calendar year. On the high end, 7.5 percent of Webmasters we surveyed say their budgets for 2001 will be $1 million or greater, up from 6.2 percent who say their 2000 budgets were in the same range. However, these averages are screwed up by the higher-end websites bumping up averages. When we look at another break-down in the same article of website budgets, we see that 60.7 percent of website owners spent $50,000 or less in 2000 and 56.2 will do the same in 2001. In the "Between $50,000 and $1 million" website budget, 33.1% percent of the website owners spent that much in 2000 and 36.3% will expect to spend that much this year. In the $1 million or more category, 6.2 percent of website owners dished out that kind of money last year and 7.5% will be doing the same this year. No wonder we have so many dot-gones. Source: "2001 Webmaster Survey" Interactive Week, March 26, 2001, Volume 8, No. 12, page 74 and 75 I hope that you enjoy this issue. Best Wishes, Pete ====================================================================== ====================================================================== 2.) Today on eZined.com Let today's ActivePro teach you how to ensure that your first impressions will never be your last. People internalize so much about you from that first meeting. You need to be very careful about how you behave and what you say. http://ActivePro.com/2001/0405.html Learn how to make pages that disolve, box-in and out and other crazy stuff when a visitor clicks to enter or leave the page. http://DevWebPro.com/2001/0406.html Check out today's great selection of free downloads on WebmasterFree. http://WebmasterFree.com ====================================================================== 3.) Getting and Keeping People's Attention at Your Site A new discovery says that people are born to respond to information a certain way. It also indicates that when we use our in-born or natural style to process information, we relax and feel good. The same research also indicates that 92% of thousands tested have changed that style to one they think works better. The change causes stress. So 92% of the viewers of your site are stressed. Because people often visit your site and click off almost instantly, you face the problem of getting their attention and keeping it long enough to persuade them to buy. The fact is that people today have shortened attention spans. If you don't get them in the first few seconds, you lose them! You can either build a terrific web site -- or just end up with "click throughs." Many site owners think it enhances a site to add animation or cool sounds. But the answer is to make your site appeal to the individual. Great sites of the future will know how to "individualize" their message. Even though we all have to learn how to use a computer, high tech has not made people think the same way. You are not battling high technology; you are fighting to keep the attention of three (3) basic in-born styles. This may sound overwhelming, but it is really a simple matter of anticipating a viewer's response before he or she gets to your site. Anticipation of responses makes or breaks your site. So how do you anticipate how a viewer responds before it happens? It is really simple. You start by learning how you personally respond to information. Why is this the beginning place? It is because you and the way you react when receiving or giving out information influence everything about your site. Next you learn about the other ways people respond to information. It is easy to begin anticipating reactions as you get a whole new perspective on how people are born to process information. Things start to make sense to you and people are no longer such a mystery. These conclusions are drawn after over 20 years of research. The research verifies that it is possible to appeal to most views rather than 2 - 4 in a thousand. So, when someone tells you how to write killer copy, or make your site jazzy with new technology, you are hearing from only one of the basic in-born styles. Take everything with a grain of salt until you evaluate it according to the simple guide that lets you appeal to ALL styles rather than only one. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ABOUT THE AUTHOR Linda Carlson is a world-renowned expert on effective communication through individualization. She and her partner Tom put the results on the web for you to benefit from immediately. You can assess your own style free at http://www.styleworks4u.com. For a FREE article about constructing a site that appeals to the three basic styles and gets people to relax, go to http://www.styleworks4u.com/anticipation.htm ====================================================================== ====================================================================== We at the Editorial Team would like to thank all our readers for reading WebProNews. We hope you find this information useful. Be sure to check http://WebProNews.com for some free downloads and more great information. Sincerely, Peter Thiruselvam mailto:Submit an Article to WebProNews..com Editor ====================================================================== Invite your friends to subscribe to WebProNews or any of the other newsletters provided by eZined.com, part of the iEntry Network: http://www.eZined.com/newsignup.html ====================================================================== --- WebProNews is an eZined.com publication --- http://www.eZined.com http://www.WebProNews.com ======================================================================