Clickstream Study Reveals Dynamic Web - fa Summary: A new browser study revealed a shift in how we interact with the Web. University of Hamburg researchers found the Web moving from static hypertext information to dynamic interactive services. Clickstream heatmaps and web page statistics show rapid interaction over smaller areas of the screen. A recent clickstream study revealed new information about how we use and peruse the Web. The Hamburg researchers also found an F-shaped pattern of clicking activity similar to results found in eye tracking studies (see Figure 1). Figure 1: Clickstream Heatmap Closeup Shows Navigation Bars Web Navigation Study: A Clickstream Analysis In the largest web browsing study to date, Harald Weinreich and colleagues analyzed over 135,000 page visits by 25 experienced volunteers over a mean period of 105 days (Weinreich et al. 2006). The Evolution of Web Navigation The researchers found that the nature of web navigation has changed over time. Search Query Length Figure 2: Number of keywords per query
How to Make Money From Your Blog StevePavlina.com was launched on Oct 1st, 2004. By April 2005 it was averaging $4.12/day in income. Now it brings in over $200/day $1000/day (updated as of 10/29/06). I didn’t spend a dime on marketing or promotion. In fact, I started this site with just $9 to register the domain name, and everything was bootstrapped from there. Would you like to know how I did it? This article is seriously long (over 7300 words), but you’re sure to get your money’s worth (hehehe). Do you actually want to monetize your blog? Some people have strong personal feelings with respect to making money from their blogs. If you have mixed feelings about monetizing your blog, then sort out those feelings first. If you do decide to generate income from your blog, then don’t be shy about it. You can reasonably expect that when you begin commercializing a free site, some people will complain, depending on how you do it. Can you make a decent income online? Yes, absolutely. Can most people do it? No, they can’t. Perks
50 Ways to Take Your Blog to the Next Level Blogging is as varied in its applications as using the telephone or taking a picture. The tool doesn’t predict the output. You might be using your blog to post recipes, or to inform the local community about information you find elsewhere on the web. If you’re looking to go beyond that, however, you’ll need to take steps to improve your blog from at least five different perspectives. 50 Ways to Take Your Blog to the Next Level Make Your Goal and Target Audience Crystal Clear My point with this entire post, but most especially this section is to ask you to admit what your real goals are with your blog. If your goal is to be an entertainment or news blog, be very clear that it’s that and not a “fun” blog. Beauty Is More Than Skin Deep Consider the design elements of your blog. Get your own unique URL. Make Your Content Top Notch Growing quality blog posts isn’t magic. Put your blog posts on a diet. Promoting Your Blog Building Business From Your Blog Build conversion opportunities.
Creating Passionate User My Favorite Graphs... and the future This blog has always been about optimism, creating better user experiences, helping users spend more time in flow, and learning. There are 405 posts here. More importantly, there are nearly 10,000 comments from y'all that add so much more to the topics, and from which myself and others have learned a great deal. So, I've moved my original "threats" post--something many people find very difficult to look at-- to a different web page -- rather than keeping it as a post here. But I want the thing people see when they come here now to reflect what this blog has always been about, so I'm including a few of my favorite pictures from the last two years here. As for the future of this blog, I know I cannot just return to business as usual -- whatever absurd reasons have led to this much hatred for me (and for what I write here) will continue, so there is no reason to think the same things wouldn't happen again... and probably soon. Please help. Dr.
10 Stupid Mistakes Made by the Newly Self-Employed Having been a non-employee for about 14 years now, I’ve made my share of stupid business mistakes. I’ve also coached a number of people to start their own businesses, and I’ve seen many of them make similar mistakes. This advice is geared towards small business owners, particularly people who are just starting (or about to start) their own business. 1. Selling to the wrong people. While sales are important to the survival of any business, you don’t need to push your business on everyone you meet, including friends and family. Selling to the wrong people includes trying to sell to everyone. Just because someone is interested in doing business with you doesn’t mean you should accept. 2. Until you have a steady cashflow coming in, don’t spend your precious start-up cash unless it’s absolutely necessary. In 2004 I started this personal development business with only $9 cash even though I could have spent much more on it. 3. It’s also a mistake to be too stingy with your cash. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
If I Started Today Okay, so you’ve heard from someone that this social media and social networking stuff is great and you should get involved, and it’s really going to help you out. Maybe it will help you in the economic downturn. Maybe you have heard how you can use Twitter for business. Where would you start? If I Started Today Here’s what I’m going to do. This post is brought to you by the Genesis Premium WordPress Theme: Before it All: Listening (Note: this was updated after Lucretia pointed out that I probably inadvertently forgot to mention it.) Listening is my first move in starting to understand social media. And then, start here. First Platform: A Blog No matter what, the very first piece of social media real estate I’d start with is a blog. Don’t worry as much about the features, although certain companies make blogging platforms that go above and beyond simple content publishing. Now, let’s break that into three potential scenarios. Second Step: Outposts Twitter LinkedIn Facebook Third Step: Audience
GENERATION C | An emerging consumer tren First published in February 2004 | No, this is not about a new niche generation of youngsters born between March 12, 1988 and April 24, 1993; the C stands for CONTENT, and anyone with even a tiny amount of creative talent can (and probably will) be part of this not-so-exclusive trend. So what is it all about? The GENERATION C phenomenon captures the an avalanche of consumer generated 'content' that is building on the Web, adding tera-peta bytes of new text, images, audio and video on an ongoing basis. The two main drivers fuelling this trend? Examples? It's Canon telling aspiring directors and photographers that "professional digital photography is no longer just for the professionals", while Sony speaks directly to Home Movie Directors and DVD Producers. It's the Vodafones and Oranges and AT&Ts and T-Mobiles and O2s and Sprints and NTT DoCoMos enticing consumers to go snap-crazy with their camera-phones, uploading pics to dedicated MMS websites. And so on.
Podcast #009 – Kick-start Your Own Business StevePavlina.com Personal Development for Smart People podcast #9 This podcast will give you some tips on how to kick-start your own business, especially a part-time, home-based business. Incidentally, I know the iTunes podcast subscription for this podcast isn’t working. You can still subscribe to it, but for some reason it isn’t displaying all the previous shows. I haven’t changed anything with the feed, so I contacted iTunes support (twice) to ask them why the iTunes listing suddenly stopped working and received no response after two weeks. I guess I’m supposed to “think different” if I want to get in touch with an actual human being. Enjoy the podcast…