Affiliate links should use the TITLE attribute
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Increase your affiliate conversions by using the TITLE attribute on your links.
The TITLE attribute for links has been around for ages. It’s one of my basic usability rules. Yet, no one respects my authority! Fools!The purpose of the title tag is to give users a preview of the link. This helps in 3 ways:
- Keeps surprises to a minimum
- Increases click-through rate
- Increases overall user satisfaction
If you don’t know, adding the TITLE attribute is easy. If you’re using WordPress, the pop-up window for the link button has a field called “Title,” which lets you specify a link title. Do this from now on. If you link to an affiliate page about, say, web hosting rates, title the link “Web Hosting Rates.” This title will then pop up in a little yellow box when the mouse hovers over the link.
In short, users hate surprises on the web when it comes to navigation. If your anchor text indicates one thing yet leads to something else, you then have one pissed-off user. Use link titles to increase user satisfaction. Please. Think of the children.
Blog about Your Blog is having a contest
Blog about Your Blog is having a contest. I would like to win something for once in my life, and these prizes are better than the JACK SQUAT that I’ve won so far. Yeah, baby, I’ve worked for everything I have! Huzzah! Rules and description.
5 unconventional motivational techniques for lazy bloggers
5 unconventional motivational techniques to help bloggers when their motivation is gone.
Sometimes it just leaves you. Motivation, that is. The desire to continue onward, upward, forward! In the words of Andrew Carnegie, “People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity, no matter how impressive their other talents.” Here’s some cynical, unconventional ways to to help regain that inner motivation when it slips away.1. Observe the least successful person in your life
The platitude goes something like, “You are who you associate with.” This is mostly true. However, sometimes it pays to watch failure in action. Find that one guy you know who always complains about being a loser (we all know one). Find the one person who treads water in a stagnant sea of mediocrity. Do you want to be that guy? Then get motivated, you lazy ass.
2. Tell everyone your unrealistic blogging goals
Whenever you talk to someone, even if it’s your regular liquor store clerk, always mention your grandiose blogging goals. “I will have the most popular blog about funny cat pictures ever!” for example. If you burn this thought into their minds, eventually they’ll ask you about your progress every time you see them. Nothing is a better motivator than fear of social shame, so you’ll be bound to achieve some of your goals.
3. Invest some money into your blog
Want to see the most motivated people on the planet? Look at an entrepreneur who has sunk his entire 401(k) into a business venture. An entrepreneur with a start-up company will make anyone look lazy by comparison. I’m not saying you should get a second mortgage just to promote your funny cat picture blog. However, if you’re serious about making money with a blog, isn’t it worth it to spend some money on it? At least you’ll be motivated to break even, and that’s more than most bloggers can say about themselves.
4. Stop judging yourself against the most successful bloggers
Ever wonder why blogs such as BoingBoing, ProBlogger, and the others are always highly ranked? It’s because they had first-mover advantage (sort of), which means that they claimed and branded a certain market space before anyone else could. Thus, they became the benchmark against which other blogs are judged. Don’t judge yourself by these market anomalies. It would be the same as complaining that your site is not as popular as MySpace (interesting side note: MySpace technically has second-mover advantage, after Friendster failed to utilize its first-mover advantage; now you know, and knowing is half the battle).
5. Think of all the time you’ve wasted doing useless activities
So, you started your blog with dreams of being the next John Chow. Instead, you find yourself looking at midget porn and checking for ProBlogger updates every 2 minutes (perhaps this is just my problem). In economics, there’s a concept called “opportunity cost,” which basically says you screw yourself out of a certain amount of economic benefit by passing up the best possible activity at the time. So, while you were wondering where they got all those midgets for that video, you could have been doing something more valuable, such as blogging.
Bloggrrl is having a contest involving booze
It’s all about the booze.
Yep, Bloggrrl is having a contest about booze. Well, it’s sort of booze related. She’s giving away a set of shot-glass checkers. I think shot-glass checkers is played like regular checkers, except there’s a good chance you’ll wake up in a pool of your own vomit.Contest Rules
Why I unsubscribed from John Chow dot com
John Chow dot com has fallen into complacency. Is it even worth reading anymore?
I unsubscribed from John Chow’s RSS feed this morning. Let me tell you why.
Two requirements exist for a blog to remain in my subscriptions:
- It must be entertaining
- It must be informative
JohnChow.com failed at both of these. A cult of personality is not enough to sustain my interest in reading paid reviews, posts about his car fetish, or posts about what he ate for lunch.
My God, people, the man posts about what he ate for lunch, and people fucking comment on it. How banal can it get?
I’ve kept the blog in my subscriptions to this point only because I’m too lazy to unsubscribe (Bloglines, please make your user interface better).
“So, Michael,” some of my dear readers will certainly say, “why is your blog still titled ‘Make Money Online,’ just like Chow’s?” The answer: I’m lazy. I used it as a working title while building this site, and I’ve never changed it. I will, however, be changing it this week to something that closely fits my personality.
Have any of you unsubscribed from the “big boys” lately? And why? Let me know in the comments.
Gone fishin’
I’ll be in Key West until September 7. I’ll be back in full writing form on September 9. See you guys on the flip side.