Summary:
Web users spend 80% of their time looking at information above the page fold. Although users do scroll, they allocate only 20% of their attention below the fold.

In Web design, there’s much confusion about the “page fold” concept and the importance of keeping the most salient information within a page’s initially viewable area. (That is, in fact, the definition: “above the fold” simply means “viewable without further action.”)

During the Web’s first years, users often didn’t scroll Web pages at all. They simply looked at the visible information and used it to determine whether to stay or leave. Thus, in usability studies during that period (1994–1996), sites often failed if they placed important information below the fold as most users didn’t see it.

This reluctance to scroll made sense at the time, because people were used to having computers show all their choices. Dialog boxes, CD-ROM multimedia shows, and HyperCard stacks all worked that way, and didn’t require scrolling. (Although users sometimes encountered scrolling text fields, they didn’t need scrolling to see the commands and options, and could thus make all decisions from the visible info.)

In 1997, however, I retracted the guideline to avoid scrolling pages because users had acclimated to scrolling on the Web. This was a rare case in which usability guidelines changed quickly. Typically, usability findings are stable across many years: 80% of Web usability guidelines from the 1990s are still in force.

Today, users will scroll. However, you shouldn’t ignore the fold and create endless pages for two reasons:

• Long pages continue to be problematic because of users’ limited attention span. People prefer sites that get to the point and let them get things done quickly. Besides the basic reluctance to read more words, scrolling is extra work.
• The real estate above the fold is more valuable than stuff below the fold for attracting and keeping users’ attention.

So, yes, you can put information below the fold rather than limit yourself to bite-sized pages.

In fact, if you have a long article, it’s better to present it as one scrolling canvas than to split it across multiple pageviews. Scrolling beats paging because it’s easier for users to simply keep going down the page than it is to decide whether or not to click through for the next page of a fragmented article. (Saying that scrolling is easier obviously assumes a design that follows the guidelines for scrollbars and such.)

But no, the fact that users scroll doesn’t free you from prioritizing and making sure that anything truly important remains above the fold.

Information foraging theory says that people decide whether to continue along a path (including scrolling path down a page) based on the current content’s information scent. In other words, users will scroll below the fold only if the information above it makes them believe the rest of the page will be valuable.

Eyetracking Data

Last month, we conducted a broad eyetracking study of user behavior across a wide variety of sites. To investigate whether the “fold” continues to be relevant, I analyzed parts of the study with a total of 57,453 fixations (instances when users look at something on a page, typically for less than half a second).

To avoid bias, I only analyzed data from 21 users accessing 541 different Web pages, even though our full study was much larger. To convince you that I didn’t limit the data for nefarious reasons, let me explain why I excluded some parts of the study from the present analysis.

Because our research goal was to generate fresh insights for our annual conference seminars, we targeted large parts of the study to test:

• sites with novel navigation features for the IA courses;
• corporate blogs, interesting FAQs, etc., for the seminar on Social Features on Mainstream Sites and the two-day course on Writing for the Web; and
• Web-based apps for the Application Design seminars.

For each specialized topic, it’s perfectly valid to target a study and test sites that have features that we want to investigate. For example, to gain insight into carrousels for our navigation seminar, we should track users’ eyes as they encounter carrousels. To do this, we simply ask them to use a site that happens to include a carrousel, but we don’t draw their attention to that design element.

When we deliberately ask people to test sites that contain particular design elements, we can’t conclude that their behavior is representative for average sites. Sticking with the carrousel example, people might well scroll less often than normal if the carrousel successfully keeps their attention on the upper part of the page.

Our study also featured a component that let users go to any site they wanted, for the sake of our broad-ranging seminar on Fundamental Guidelines for Web Usability. These non-constrained tasks are the source of the data I’m analyzing here, because they tested the regular websites people use, as opposed to sites we picked for their design features.

Attention Focused at the Top

The following chart shows the distribution of user fixations along stripes that were 100 pixels tall. The bars represent total gaze time, as opposed to the number of fixations. (In other words, two fixations of 200 ms count the same as one fixation of 400 ms.)

Even though 5% of users’ total time is spent past the 2,000-pixel mark, they tend to scan information that far from the top fairly superficially: some pages are very long (often 4,000+ pixels in my sample), and thus this 5% of user attention is spread very thinly.

In our study, user viewing time was distributed as follows:

• Above the fold: 80.3%
• Below the fold: 19.7%

We used an eyetracker with a resolution of 1,024 × 768 pixels. These days, many users have somewhat bigger screens, and we’ve conducted many (non-ET) usability studies with larger resolutions. Although using a bigger monitor wouldn’t change my conclusions, it would somewhat increase the percentage of user attention spent above the fold simply because more info would be available in the initially viewable space.

Scrolling Behaviors

Sometimes, users do read down an entire page. It does happen. Rarely.

More commonly, we see one of the two behaviors illustrated in the following gaze plots:

Gaze plots showing where three users looked while visiting pages during three different tasks (one test participant per page). Each blue dot represents one fixation, with bigger dots indicating longer viewing time.

On the left, the user scrolled very far down the page and suddenly came across an interesting item. This viewing pattern gives us many fixations that are deep below the fold. We often see this pattern for well-designed FAQs, though the best FAQs present the most frequently asked questions at the top (so that many users won’t need much scrolling).

The left gaze plot also illustrates another point: the last element in a list often attracts additional attention. The first few items are definitely the most important, but the final item gets more views than the one before it. (That’s also why the bar chart shows more attention to the 701–800 pixel area than to the 601–700 pixel area: the bottom of our study monitor fell within the former area.) The end of a list’s importance is further enhanced by the recency effect, which says that the last thing a person sees remains particularly salient in the mind. (We discuss the design implications of the recency and primacy effects in our seminar on The Human Mind and Usability.)

The two other gaze plots show more common scrolling behaviors: intense viewing of the top of the page, moderate viewing of the middle, and fairly superficial viewing of the bottom. (I picked examples where users scrolled more or less all the way down — often there’s no viewing of the bottom because users don’t scroll that far.)

It’s as if users arrive at a page with a certain amount of fuel in their tanks. As they “drive” down the page, they use up gas, and sooner or later they run dry. The amount of gas in the tank will vary, depending on each user’s inherent motivation and interest in each page’s specific topic. Also, the “gasoline” might evaporate or be topped up if content down the page is less or more relevant than the user expected.

In any case, user attention eventually peters out, and the further down the page users go, the less time they generally spend on each additional information unit.

The middle gaze plot shows a category page with 50 sofas:

• The top 2 rows get about 5–10 fixations per sofa.
• The next 4 rows get around 2–4 fixations per sofa.
• The next 8 rows typically get 1 fixation per sofa.
• The bottom 3 rows get 2 fixations for one sofa and no fixations for the remaining 7 sofas.

This is only a rough pattern, and users will deviate depending on the content. For example, the Cameon Loveseat and the Custom Hugo Loveseat both get 4 fixations despite being 2,750 pixels down the page. Presumably, the user found these two sofas particularly appealing.

Design Implications

The implications are clear: the material that’s the most important for the users’ goals or your business goals should be above the fold. Users do look below the fold, but not nearly as much as they look above the fold.

People will look very far down a page if (a) the layout encourages scanning, and (b) the initially viewable information makes them believe that it will be worth their time to scroll.

Finally, while placing the most important stuff on top, don’t forget to put a nice morsel at the very bottom.

Check out CPAWAY: The Leading Affiliate Network doing it Your Way!

—–
Jakob Nielson is the leading expert in Internet Usability

Sponsored by the Great Affiliate Team at AffiliateWise. Sign up Today!

A landing page is a place you send traffic when you really want some action. And no, this has nothing to do with Craig’s List personals. It can be a sales page, an email opt-in page, a video landing page, or even a content landing page designed to rank well in search engines. As you might have guessed, there are a lot of ways to screw these up. Here are five of the most common mistakes people make with their landing pages. More importantly, I’ll tell you how to avoid making them yourself.

1. Blowing the headline

Landing pages live or die by the quality of the headline. It’s your two-second chance to overcome the swift and brutal attention filters we’ve developed due to information overload and poorly-matched promises.

Often, a better headline alone will boost the effectiveness of your landing page, and even overcome some of the other mistakes below. Split-testing different headlines is relatively painless, and can bring you much higher conversions compared with multiple other tweaks.

2. Using your regular site design

Most of us who use content marketing as an attraction strategy use a content management system, such as WordPress. That means we’re using design themes for the visual presentation of our sites.

While your typical sidebar and header approach to a blog post is fine, when it comes down to traffic hitting a landing page with a singular focus on specific action, all of that extraneous stuff causes confusion, distraction, and reduced conversions. Lose the clutter and create the cleanest page possible when you want some action.

3. Asking for more than one thing

The idea that more choices make people happier has been proven to be a psychological fallacy time and again. This “paradox of choice” reveals that when given multiple options, the decision ends up being not to choose at all.

An effective landing page asks for one specific action, and that’s it. And don’t forget to actually clearly ask for that one specific thing, which is an even bigger conversion killer if you don’t.

4. Ignoring basic aesthetics

Why is it when some people decide to ask for some action, they lose their minds on the appearance of the page? Bad fonts, garish colors, cheap highlighting, and silly clip art do not make for better conversions in most cases. What they do is crush your credibility.

While using your standard blog theme is distracting and confusing in the landing page context, there’s no need to become the typographical equivalent of a carnival barker, either. Great landing pages use fonts, colors, and visuals that are tailored specifically to the audience and action you desire, thereby enhancing the experience and boosting conversions.

5. Being lazy

Did you know that web users spend 80% of their time above the fold? Does that mean people won’t scroll down the page? No, it just means you can’t take it for granted that they will (instead of leaving).

Don’t be lazy about grabbing and holding attention. Don’t assume everyone instantly “gets” the benefit of your offer the way you do. Don’t overestimate your credibility. In short, don’t drink your own Kool-Aid. Think about it from their perspective, and you’ll realize you might not be all that (until you unequivocally prove you are with compelling copy).

Learn how to get Free Mass Traffic

—–

About the Author: Brian Clark is founder of Copyblogger and CEO of Copyblogger Media. Get more from Brian on Twitter.

When we’re not “in the know,” it’s human nature to exercise our curiosity and seek out the truth. When we’re kept in the loop, we feel special and privileged.

Your email marketing can appeal to those emotions, too. You want subscribers to feel privy to select information about your company. After all, that’s one reason you have an email campaign in the first place – to keep customers and prospects in the loop.

By positioning promotions as “secrets,” you can create buzz and start a game of whisper down the lane with your subscribers, hoping they will spread the word to their friends who weren’t as lucky to hear from you first.

When it comes to secret persuasions, Bloomingdale’s certainly has the right idea.

For their first ever online secret sale, they rolled out invitations only to email subscribers. The beauty of this tactic? It’s not really secret at all. Bloomie’s wants their readers to forward the message to friends and chat the event up.

How You Can Do It:

At first glance, it may seem like Bloomingdale’s can execute this kind of campaign because they have hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend on email marketing. Looking closer, however, there’s no reason that you can’t have the same impact with your own campaign.

1. Create a broadcast message that promotes a “secret” limited time event. Use urgent language to inspire quick clicks.
2. You don’t have to make a coupon code or get technical about sales deductions. Notice that Bloomie’s never mentions a code, they just include a link to the “sale” page on their site.

Everyone loves scratch-off coupons. It’s like playing the lottery, but always winning!

Overstock offers email subscribers a virtual scratch-off coupon in this genius email. The added element of the unknown inspired me to click through and see what item I could get a good deal on that day.

How You Can Do It:

1. Pick an item on your site that you want to make the special sale item and copy the URL.
2. Save the following coupon images to your computer, then upload one to your website and use it in your next email. Link it to the special sale item, and you have a mystery sale item instantly!

Rue La La’s Secret Suite invitation is another brilliant use of secrecy. The very idea of a guest list oozes exclusivity. If you’re not on the list at the hottest club in town, you’re not getting in, right?

How You Can Do It:

1. You’ve already got your guest list, so the hard part’s complete.
2. The trick is writing an email that uses language to paints a portrait of limited access. Using phrases like “under-the-radar” and “exclusive” lets your subscribers believe that they are special for receiving the email from you, which increases the odds that they will click through and purchase something from you.

Have You Ever Run a Secret Sale Campaign?

What kind of language did you use to inform subscribers of the sale? Were your emails successful? Share your experiences below!

Brought to you by Aweber

“Is Article Spinning a bad idea,” asks a reader.

By article spinning (sometimes known as article cloning) I assume that you’re referring to the practice of reformatting others’ articles in order to create content on your site and avoid penalties for duplicate content by the search engines.

Or perhaps you’re spinning your own article in a dozen ways to disguise the duplicate content.

Though you mention that you plan to do this manually, many use software programs that automatically replace words or phrases in an article with synonyms from some kind of database thesaurus. They also move blocks of content from their original position in an article to another position to make it appear that this is a different article.

Article spinning from others’ article is akin to scraping techniques in which websites pull content off of other websites and put it on their own to attract traffic. Because of massive scraping and repurposing of content, there is a huge amount of useless clutter that shows up in searches. You have, no doubt, gone to webpages that match your keywords, but all you find are a lot of Google AdSense ads and a few random paragraphs that are unhelpful. Yes, they sometimes achieve search results, but they are neither helpful nor relevant.

I don’t know if Google has an official position on article spinning. I do know that they are actively working to disallow scraping sites the ability to earn money using AdSense Ads and that they are trying to help their search clients find relevant material. Article spinning takes what is bad about search and makes it worse.

I oppose article spinning on several grounds.

• Morally, it is wrong to use someone else’s work for your own benefit without permission or payment. It is stealing, even if it is thinly disguised.
• Legally, much article spinning is in violation of copyright laws, which protect authors from “derivative” works that are based on their original work.
• Educationally, writing clear, easy-to-understand articles is difficult enough. But when people replace words for close synonyms, they often distort the precise meaning intended by the author. The ignorant can’t tell the difference, perhaps, but the ignorant are not well-served by articles that are misleading. Switching the order of paragraphs or blocks of material to disguise the source obliterates the logical flow of an article. Computers can’t produce good articles. Neither can amateur re-writers and re-spinners who haven’t studied subjects carefully and precisely. Who is hurt? The reader who is desperately trying to learn.
• Socially, the common good is impaired as people fill the Internet with scrapings, spinnings, and regurgitations. Knowledge isn’t increased, but hindered, and finding useful material becomes harder and harder.

It is important to note, however, that the line between rewriting an article and mindless article spinning is a fuzzy one. All writers learn from other writers, especially from the work of experts. Writing an article is often a reformulation of others’ ideas in your own unique way for your own unique audience. But honest writers usually indicate their reliance upon others’ insights in various ways.

Yes! By all means study a subject and, once you understand it, write an article about it. That’s article marketing at its best. But don’t take others’ work and just change a few words and paragraph positions. That’s not rewriting, but plagiarism. It makes hash out of what was once a perfectly good meal.

I know that teachers and professors are seeing more and more article spinning submitted to them as original papers. Sleazy students do it to manipulate their grades. After all, the end justifies the means. Sleazy Internet article spinners do it to artificially manipulate search rankings. After all, the end justifies the means.

William, I hope that as you investigate article spinning, you’ll conclude, as I do, that article spinners deserve an “F” on moral, legal, educational, and social grounds.

Dr. Ralph Wilson is an Internet marketing pioneer and author of a dozen books on Internet marketing, including Planning Your Internet Marketing Strategy, Report on Article Marketing, Guide to Search Engine Optimization, the Shopping Cart Report, How to Develop a Landing Page, and others.

Despite repeated proclamations of its extinction, rumors of the death of email marketing have been greatly exaggerated — especially since email and social media are a powerful combination. You might not reach the average college freshman, but for slightly older types (you know, the ones with the money), email is still the way to go in many lucrative mainstream niches.

You must first, of course, get your emails read. And it all starts with the subject line.

Email subject lines are a form of headline. They perform the same function as a headline by attracting attention and getting your email content a chance to be read.

So, headline fundamentals still apply. But the context is different, with the email space having its own funky little quirks that need to be accounted for.

Here’s the good news — email also implies a special relationship with the reader; a relationship that will get more of your messages read, even with subject lines that wouldn’t work in other headline contexts. Let’s take a look back at headline fundamentals, the specifics that apply to subject lines, and the “secret sauce” that makes email your top conversion channel.

1. The Fundamentals:

When you’re writing your next subject line, run it through this checklist, based on the Four “U” Approach to headline writing:

• Useful: Is the promised message valuable to the reader?
• Ultra-specific: Does the reader know what’s being promised?
• Unique: Is the promised message compelling and remarkable?
• Urgent: Does the reader feel the need to read now?

When you’re trying to get someone to take valuable time and invest it in your message, a subject line that properly incorporates all four of these elements can’t miss. And yet, execution in the email context can be tricky, so let’s drill down into subject-line specifics for greater clarity.

2. The Specifics:

Beyond headline fundamentals, these are the things to specifically focus on with email subject lines:

• Identify yourself: Over time, the most compelling thing about an email message should be that it’s from you. Even before then, your recipient needs to know at a glance that you’re a trusted source. Either make it crystal clear by smart use of your “From” field, or start every subject line with the same identifier. For example, with our own Internet Marketing for Smart People newsletter, every subject line begins with [Smart People].
• Useful and specific first: Of the four “U” fundamentals, focus on useful and ultra-specific, even if you have to ignore unique and urgent. There are plenty of others who work at unique and urgent with every subject line — we call them spammers. Don’t cross the line into subject lines that are perceived as garbage. But do throw in a bit of a tease.
• Urgent when it’s useful: When every message from you is urgent, none is. Use urgency when it’s actually useful, such as when there’s a real deadline or compelling reason to act now. If you’re running your email marketing based on value and great offers, people don’t want to miss out and need to know how much time they have.
• Rely on spam checking software: We all know that certain words trigger spam filters, but there’s a lot of confusion out there about which words are the problem. Is it okay to use the word “free” in a subject line? Actually, yes. All reputable email services provide spam checking software as part of the service or as an add-on. Craft your messages with compelling language, let the software do its job, and adjust when you have to.
• Shorter is better: Subject line real estate is valuable, so the more compact your subject line, the better. Don’t forget useful and ultra-specific, but try to compress the fundamentals into the most powerful promise possible.

3. The Secret Sauce:

Getting someone to trust you with their email address is not easy. Twelve years ago when I started in email publishing, people would sign up for anything remotely interesting.

No longer.

But if you do gain that initial trust, and more importantly, confirm and grow it, you can write pretty lame subject lines and people will still read your messages. Just as with that ditzy friend from high school who nonetheless always has something interesting to say, trust and substance matter most.

Don’t get me wrong, writing great subject lines combined with the more intimate relationship email represents is much more effective. And you have to get your initial messages read to establish the relationship in the first place. Regardless, your open rates will improve based on the quality of your subject line.

But there’s something special in this jaded digital age about being invited into someone’s email inbox. You just have to over-deliver on the value to ensure you’re a treasured guest who gets invited back.

The inbox can be a stressful place. How do you make it brighter?

Learn More About How to Generate Free Traffic Here.

Some affiliates like to fly “solo” and others prefer to utilize their Affiliate Manager’s knowledge and resources to maximize their opportunities and payouts. Over the years, I have had numerous negotiations with affiliates on offers and payouts. Before negotiating or discussing payouts, it is important for affiliates understand a networks business model and take full advantage of maximizing their relationship with the affiliate manager. Here are 4 keys to negotiating that I believe will create a “win-win” for both the network and the affiliate.

1. Understanding Margins
A network’s business model is similar to a manufacturer/distributor/retail sales chain. The Manufacturer (Advertiser) creates the product and utilizes the distributors (Network) resources and capital to generate sales through retail stores (Affiliate/Publisher). The network makes a margin for assuming the risk of acting as the middleman between the advertiser and publisher. Some affiliates receive payments daily or weekly which leaves the network assuming risk as most advertisers have longer net terms.

2.  Integrity
Just be open and honest! If you are interested in an offer and need a certain payout, then just ask. There have been times when I have told an affiliate that I couldn’t payout what they were requesting. Conversely, there have been instances when I approached management about giving a particular affiliate a certain payout with very slim margins. Bottom line, you have to be able to trust the affiliate manager and vice versa.

3. Capabilities/Results
Before entering any negotiation it’s imperative to know what’s important to you and what you’re willing to ‘give up’ for the sake of getting what you want. What’s the least you’re willing to accept in order to pick up the offer? Do your research and know what the going rates are. Let the affiliate manager know what type of results you anticipate and discuss any previous success or failures. There will always be “hot” offers, but you shouldn’t place all your focus on what’s hot. You know your business, what you’re good at and what you’re not.  Focus on what you know, and specialize in it.

4.  Communication
As I stated earlier, some affiliates prefer no or minimal communication with an affiliate manager which is perfectly fine. However, if you decide to actively work with an affiliate manager it is important to talk with the affiliate manager about your intentions. Communicate your goals, strategies and what you expect of the network and your affiliate manager. When it comes down to it we all have the same goal – to make money while not compromising our ethics. Be candid with your AM about your experience level. Everyone starts somewhere so don’t be shy; the affiliate managers job is to help you grow your business.

Keeping these four points in mind when talking and negotiating with your network affiliate manager helps foster a good working relationship and ultimately will create a long term relationship.

Colleen Darwent
is an affiliate manager
at RevenueStreet,
a division of TheMediaCrew
She loves affiliates big time.

So, what is Affiliate Summit? Having survived a canceled flight back from Vegas and the craziness that ensues after being out of the office for a few days, I have finally had the chance to reflect on my experience this year at Affiliate Summit West hosted this year at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas.

I find myself thinking about how much the performance-based industry has grown and matured over the past few years. At ASW this year I found myself talking to more and more brands who in the past would have never attended this type of show but now attend since they see affiliate marketing as an integral part of their marketing efforts.

These leading brands are making a statement by putting in the time to understand the space, attend the sessions, and overall get a better understanding on how the affiliate marketing process works. Their presence and dedication really attests to the change in the overall industry.

In terms of publishers, I spoke with more dedicated and professional people who were serious about how they run their business. The newcomers along with the more experienced affiliate marketers were looking to have a business conversation about partnering and working together successfully, rather than looking for ways to just make money quickly.

In addition, affiliate marketers from all over the world were in attendance at this year’s show just proving once again that we live in a global business environment where it is necessary to expand beyond one’s comfort zone. I personally held several conversations where both clients and affiliates were interested in growing their conversions and effective CPMs in Europe and other areas outside of the U.S.

Of course the show was full of a lot of the same faces and companies from previous years but the underlying vibe of the show was more professional due to the increased attention brand advertisers are now putting into the performance-based advertising industry.

While there will always be companies trying to stick to the old way of doing business, I believe that those who are unable to make this change may not survive in our increasingly professional and growing industry. I look forward to continuing to be a part of this ever-changing industry!

—-

Megan Conahan is responsible for training, developing and advising the advertising sales team of Direct Agents, a full service performance-based interactive advertising agency. Megan started with Direct Agents in 2005 and is currently excelling in her role as VP of Advertising Sales. She has played a crucial role in expanding Direct Agents’ client base into the UK and Germany. In 2008, Megan was recognized as a Stevie Awards for women in business finalist. Megan is very active in the online advertising industry and recently spoke at Affiliate Summit West 2011 on the topic of Email Marketing and the Brand.