Jon Samsel

I’ve been working in online marketing or e-commerce since the late-1990’s. Heck, I still own my first Mac PowerBook 5300 (and it works!). Technology, software, Internet connectivity–everything has pretty much changed over the years. But one thing I can tell you that has not changed much is the relationship between online marketers and web developers.

Like two star-crossed lovers meeting in the night, these two disparate groups are intricately intertwined and dependent on each other. But like oil and water, togetherness is sometimes a four letter word. The result: Bruised egos, project delays, blown budgets, finger-pointing, and soured relationships. Worst of all, it’s bad business to let interdepartmental issues impact a company’s bottom line. Frankly, it’s unacceptable.

In looking back on my dealings with IT development managers over the years, I am struck by the fact that nearly all of my interactions have common threads that include ALIGNMENT, QUALITY, and COMMUNICATION issues. I’ve identified nine specific pains points common to marketer/developer relations that, if improved early on, can really boost a company’s web productivity. An added benefit is improving interdepartmental relationships BEFORE they spiral out of control.

Mutual SLA(s)

1. Deadlines: Are deadlines being met? Are key milestones being hit?
2. Quality: What is the caliber of the deliverables? Are they meeting or exceeding expectations?
3. Value Add: Assess the subject matter expertise of the people we’re interacting with. Are people thinking outside the box? Are we getting any value add?
4. Trust: Do we respect our partners? Do they have our back? Can we take them at their word or do we need to document everything up front to cover ourselves later?
5. Teamwork: Does the other party have a shared desire to help us achieve our goals? Is it easy or difficult to resolve unexpected challenges?Are people listening?
6. Flexibility: Can our partners adapt to changing market conditions? Will they put in the extra effort needed to be successful? Are they working at web speed or legacy software development speed?
7. Surprises: Do we encounter frequent surprises or changes in direction? Are delays common?
8. People: Are we dealing with like peers or is their disparity in skill sets and maturity levels? Do we have weak links that are dragging us all down?
9. Support: How effective is the quality & style of communication? Is the other party easy to work with? How accessible are they in times of urgency?

Monthly Relationship Scorecard Review

One technique I have used over the years in a monthly relationship scorecard, or mutual SLA review session.  SLA stands for Service Level Agreement and serves as a contract between a service provider and a customer that specifies what services the service provider will furnish, and how those services should be measured. A mutual SLA simply applies the terms of agreement to both the provider (web developers) and customer (marketer).

The way a mutual SLA review session works is for both sides to rate each other (monthly) based on the nine variables mentioned above. Typically a marketing manager and web development manager sit down face to face to compare scores and review feedback. As uncomfortable and contentious as the first few review sessions usually go, the ensuing sessions using turn into effective get-togethers that resolve problems before they get too large to solve.

The goal of these sessions is to close the gap between self ratings (perceptions of our own performance) against partner ratings (how are peers actually rate us).

Challenge Resolution Sessions

A more professional and systematic approach to problem resolution can be attained via regularly scheduled Challenge Resolution Sessions. Rather than resorting to emotionally-charged finger pointing exercises (as if often the case after unresolved issues boil over), a challenge resolution session can be a healthy and effective way to air dirty laundry while solving critical impasses.

Sessions topics to consider include:

• What went wrong
• Impact the “challenge” is having on the business
• Why this issue is important to us
• How this “challenge” is making us “feel” (feelings, if left to fester, are like a cancer within)
• Root cause of the problem
• Recommended solutions
• What we’ve learned
• How we can prevent this type of situation from happening in the future

Conclusion

There are several ways that marketing professionals and their web development partners can have a more effective and productive working relationship that can help a company attain its online goals less arduously.  Mutual SLA(s), monthly relationship scorecard reviews, and challenge resolutions sessions are three ways I have personally actualized better relationships between marketers and web developers.

Communication is never easy. Neither is love; Ask any married couple. Perhaps my suggestions for documenting, discussing, and resolving online development and communication issues will prove helpful to both marketing professional and e-commerce/web development teams as they work together to improve their mutually-dependent relationships.

Ain’t love grand?

Recently, I wrote a blog post titled, “Which SEO Agencies Practice What They Preach?” The article generated a lot of comments from professionals within the creative agency world–most of them lukewarm. Respondents fell into two camps: 1) Those who disagreed with the methodology of utilizing a free site grading service to evaluate and compare SEO companies, 2) Those who were embarrassed by the results. After rereading my post, I not only stand by my words, but I have decided to expand the concept of comparing leading class companies by WebsiteGrader Score into a regular feature on my blog.

Why compare firms by WebsiteGrader Score? Because looking under the hood can tell you a lot about what companies are doing to promote their brands–both on site and off site.

So which category would I zero in on next? Well, it didn’t take me long to decide. I stumbled across an interesting article by Linda Tischler published on FastCompany.com on Feb 11, 2009 titled, “The Fast Company 50: The Most Innovative Companies in Design” that purported to profile extraordinary design enterprises across the nation, part of a larger article looking at firms across various industries.

Prepping the List to Grade

I had only heard of two of the design companies profiled by Fast Company, so I looked up each company on Google and verified the corporate URL for each firm. Then went to Websitegrader.com and evaluated each site.

Here are the top 10 design firms ranked by Fast Company along with their WSG score:

1. Ideo 98.3
2. Marcel Wanders Studio 71.0
3. Rockwell Group 77.0
4. Pentagram 97.3
   
5. Whipsaw 53.0
   
6. Ammunition 71.0
7. Frog design 95.0
8. Fuseproject 88.0
9. Smart Design 93.0
10. NewDealDesign 59.0

Big Ah-Ha’s

Ideo had the highest WebsiteGrader score and they were also ranked #1 design firm by Fast Company. That’s a fairly compelling confirmation that this firm is as good as they appear to be. Pentagram, Frog Design and Smart Design each scored above 90%, so my takeaway is that they each made a respectable showing and deserve some props.

Most of the other firms on the list scored lower than I would have expected. These are not big dumb brands…these are cutting-edge design companies. It just doesn’t seem acceptable that any of the firms on this list score below ninety percent, yet 6 out of 10 did!

The two design firms that scored that lowest were Whipsaw and NewDealDesign. Yes, it’s true both sites were built using Flash. But in 2009, there are plenty of ways to optimize a Flash website in a way that makes them accessible to humans, search engines, and social media sites. These two firms, for whatever reason, chose not to put the extra effort in to make their online content and code up to par. Tsk, tsk.

Digging under the hood at NewDealDesign.com, you will see that basic SEO best practices were not performed at all. According to WebsiteGrader, meta descriptions and keywords were missing from the NewDealDesign website. Images on the site were missing ALT text. There were a surprisingly low number of pages indexed by Yahoo: 26. One of the most important measures for a website is how many other sites link to it. The more links the better. NewDealDesign had only 577 inbound links, and the domain is 9 years and 9 months old. One would surmise that a leading design firm would have many, many more inbound links. No blog, no RSS feeds and no contact forms were detected on the site either.

In Conclusion: There May Be A ‘Return On Awesomeness’ After All

To be fair, NewDealDesign appears to be an offline design firm (packaged goods, industrial design, etc.) and doesn’t appear to offer web strategy & design services. Their client list is impressive: Puma, Samsung, Microsoft, Epson, Dell, HP, Kensington, Nokia, Logitech, SAP, Sun, Toshiba, Verison, and more.

But some of other design firms included on The Fast Company Most Innovative Companies list appear to do a fair amount of web strategy & design work. It seems fair to expect a design company’s website and online brand strategy to be deployed professionally and thoroughly. It surprises me when this is not the case–and the Fast Company list of innovative design firms did not disappoint.

So while many of the design firms profiled in this post failed the ‘practice what you preach’ smell test, they appear to be lauded by the press for their exceptional creative abilities nonetheless.  And the fact that they are being hired by the world’s top brands to transform the ordinary into extrordinary–through design–may be proof positive that generating a ‘return on awesomeness’ is possible after all.

1. Apple’s design process revealed!
2. Hilarious video about ‘Death By Committee’ group decision making processes. Love the logo designs!
3. Naming tools to help get your creative juices flowing.
4. The Components of a Writing Business Plan.
5. Website up-time tool.
6. What every web designer needs: A handy Lorem Ipsum generator!
7. An online font tester!
8. 100 things on the Internet that might be of interest to you.
9. Type in a word to find rhymes, synonyms, definitions, and more.
10. Life of Pi - Interactive promo. The mood that this creates is almost like a movie. Awesome.
11. The website is down: Sales guy vs. web dude. Funny!
12. ZeFrank’s song about social networking
13. Good site for hiring freelancers to work on social media gigs or web dev projects.
14. Quantcast - Free, competitive website analytics.
15. See every mouse movement and every click on your website. Record & more.
16. Fun brain teasers and exercises.
17. Need to quickly translate text into another foreign language?
18. Nice gift idea - give a personalized book to your child or relative.
19. SEO tool. How many desired .edu or .gov links does your site have?
20. Over 1,500 stories about coffee’s impact on real lives. Very cleaver marketing.
21. Social search engine. Pretty cool.
22. Where’s WaldObama? 1,474 mega-pixel picture of the Inauguration. Wow.
23. Mint or Rudder - which is best online tool to manage your money?
24. Runners. Track your distance, pace, progress & calories with this cool NIKE tool.
25. Looking for the perfect Web 2.0 domain name? Try Dot-o-mator.
26. Download free Web 2.0 logo designs!
27. UGC traffic to triple by 2012, according to Cisco.
28. UGC / user reviews are critical. See latest Nielsen findings.
29. “The Crying Game” of viral marketing. So well done. Click till you see the surprise ending!
30. U.S. real estate prices from 1980-present plotted to a roller coaster ride!
31. I just love Howcast - learn about almost anything!
32. Creepy girl. Watch as her eyes follow your cursor.
33. Amazing interactive simulation by Motorola.
34. Heatmap simulation for any image you upload. Sweet.
35. Design for Emotion and Flow.
36. Website User Journeys, Needs, and Trust: A Volkswagen Case Study.
37. Very helpful usability blog site by Craig Tomlin.
38. Net Promoter Score: Pro’s? Con’s? Full of bologna?
39. Get Elastic’s landing page optimization webinar recap.
40. Consumer purchase preferences by zip code.
41. Free version of the Word of Mouth Manual Volume II.
42. Social media marketing case study: Will It Blend.
43. Free 34 page ebook - The New Rules of Viral Marketing.
44. Social Web Analytics eBook 2008.
45. Introduction to Good Usability - Free PDF Ebook.
46. How to think virally w/ Jeff Benjamin, the creator of  Subservient Chicken.
47. Customer Feedback Usability Insights.
48. 5 new skills for the future of marketing.
49. Bring Holistic Awareness to Your Design.
50. Long live the Cluetrain Manifesto! 95 theses ahead of their time.

Source: http://twitter.com/jonsamsel

Unless you’ve had your head buried in a hole for the past few months you have probably stumbled upon a blog post or two touting Google’s interest in purchasing Twitter as a way to leapfrog forward (and dominate) the real-time search market. Whether or not Google is actually interested in acquiring Twitter is not as important as what is says about the prospect of social search as the next big thing. Move over SEO, SEM and social media. Social search (as its own channel) has arrived!

Social search is an emerging new marketing channel. It’s not paid search, nor organic search, and it’s not social media either. It may be a close cousin to each but it’s a channel in its own right–and it is growing at a fantastic clip.

Trust is the Linchpin

As many of you have already heard in popular search marketing presentations, Google currently functions as every company’s home page. Seventy-two percent of all U.S. searches are done using Google, and people tend to type in branded URL’s even though they could just type it into the address bar to get to the site directly.

Most people trust Google but if you asked these same users if they trust Google’s results, you might elicit a difference response.  For many, trusting Google’s results depends on what they’re searching for compared to what’s presented on the results page.

A recent search for the branded term, Allstate Insurance, for example, yielded 3,210,00 results. Something tells me the majority of these results are bogus, spam, or at least, somewhat insignificant on the relevance scale. So does a Google user trust only the results that appear on page one or should all 3 million+ results be trusted as well?

Compare Google with your own person social network. Most people trust their social network. And this trust seems to be manifesting into actions.

Take a look at these recent statistics that showcase social media’s impact on the retail purchase decision and consumption process:

“60% of consumers are actively involved in generating and sharing buzz.”
- Forrester Research

“80% of consumers say recommendations are the best sources of information.”
- Universal McCann

“Over 90% of consumers say WOM influenced their purchases”
- DoubleClick

Social Search Is Not Paid Search *

• Community is at the heart of the web experience, hence the rise of social media
• Hundreds of these communities are emerging
• And there are thousands of services that help connect these communities and share data amongst these communities
• Brands haven’t been invited into these communities, it’s about individuals
• Brands are trying to figure out how to become part of these communities because they know that effective listening is critical to business success
• Social media advertising is an oxymoron. You can’t buy your way into this club
• Social is not about advertising at all

Social Search Is Not Natural Search

• The big search engines are already playing a role in social search
• Most engines are morphing their algorithms and business models to account social content (Microsoft’s Bing comes to mind)
• Some social networks, like Twitter, have built in search (and user love it)
• New vertical search engines and social listening services are emerging to help people tap into this mountain of real-time, word-of-mouth content that can appear in many formats
• But is social search similar to natural search optimization?
• It’s not about tweaking a web site’s content & code
• It’s not about adding localized content pages to a website
• It’s not link building
• Social is not really about optimization at all

Social Search Is Not Social Media

• Social media is more about testing, influencing and monitoring
• It’s about user-centric conversations
• For companies, activities inlcude actively monitoring brand, reputation, and threats
• It’s also about tracking sentiment and buzz volume over time
• And its also about customer service outreach
• For some companies it’s about sales & promotions too
• But social media is not social search

The Social Web (of Opportunity) Is Huge

From a size & scope standpoint, the social web is already huge (and it’s growing!). It’s made up of content that lives as DATA, which does not necessarily reside on a single, traditional website. Consumers are publishing unprecedented quantities of data across all types of networks, sites, services, and feeds.

And the scary part is that the social web is already impacting opinions, brand perceptions, purchase decisions, along with the public psyche.

Social search can be thought of as the mechanisms used to tap into this emerging mass of trusted knowledge. These mechanisms are a combination of popular search technologies we already know and use today (Google, Bing, etc), new platforms (Hunch, Collecta, Cha Cha, etc.) and intra-search tools that help users navigate the popular social platforms (Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr, etc).

New types of search engines are entering the fray, allowing users to:

• Conduct real-time searches
• Review conversations, reviews, comments, ratings & tags
• Helps find multimedia content, RSS feeds, blogs, and other web 2.0 content

The big takeaway around social search is the enormous opportunity–and challenge–it presents to companies around the globe. To be successful in social search, businesses must formulate a proactive strategy that directly influences and impacts who, what, where and why certain results are FOUND whenever, wherever, and however a social search is performed.

That’s no easy task. The good news is that nobody has mastered it yet and it will be years before the rules of engagement and optimization best practices are etched into stone.

* Several of the bullet points in the ‘Social Search Is Not Paid Search’ section of this post can be attributed to Rob Key, a panelist at SES NY, March 2008.

Terry Borst is a terrific writer of new media and motion picture screenplays. I met Terry in the mid-1990’s when I was working as a multimedia publisher. With a college major in English and an impressive resume of writing credits to his name, I thought it would be fun to touch base with Terry again after so many years to see what he’s been up to. If you’re a fan of interactive stories, Hollywood movies, or educational simulations, you’ll enjoy what Terry had to share. Read on!

Q: What types of writing projects are you working on these days?

A: Books!  I’m currently co-writing my second book for Focal Press, on the topic of serious game and simulation development and production (from an independent game/low budget perspective).  The book will probably be published in late 2009 or early 2010, and follows up on my earlier co-written book, Story and Simulations for Serious Games.  (See the Amazon listing, or go to my LinkedIn page or terryborst.com to find out more).

The 2 books derive from several of the projects I’ve worked on the last few years:  scripting videogame simulations for the military and first responders.  These are pretty exciting because, as a writer, you get to enter new worlds and then see if you can build a convincing enough replica for professionals to test out tactical and strategic decision-making.  You’re quite involved with the design of the experience from the ground up, which is very creatively satisfying.

Q: Tell us about some of your previous projects.

A: For 20+ years, I’ve worked as a professional screenwriter and scriptwriter.  I co-wrote a sequel to the feature film MIDNIGHT RUN, and for years wrote episodes of a BBC action-adventure series syndicated in dozens of countries (which I still receive royalties for).  I scripted other independent and TV films, and got paid to write a lot of feature screenplays and pilot scripts that didn’t get produced.  And more than a decade ago, I got hired to co-write scripts for one of the most popular videogames in the ’90s:  WING COMMANDER.  I’ve written scripts for other entertainment videogames since then, before the recent migration to the simulations mentioned previously.  (You can find out much more about these titles on my website).

Q: What inspires you as an artist?

A: I think it’s impossible to answer this without lapsing into gauzy sorts of cliches.  Life inspires me; great art inspires me; all those moments when “a terrible beauty is born” (to quote Yeats).

Q: What creative mediums do you prefer to work in–and why?

A: While I may aspire to art, I pride myself on being a professional writer – and so I prefer to work in creative mediums where I get paid!  That said, there’s nothing like executing a feature screenplay really well:  creating a great story arc within a contained world is an incredible challenge.  I believe in art that takes us on a journey and provides closure:  a great painting or sculpture or piece of music can do this, and a feature screenplay is a kind of sculpture through time and space.

Q: Briefly describe your creative process–how do you get your ideas…how to you develop that idea…what steps do you take to bring that idea to lifeﾅwhat tools do you use?

A: Ideas are everywhere:  the trick (for new, original work) is to find the ones you’re willing to obsess about.  If I’ve got an obsession, then I keep thinking about it, and start to think about the kind of journey that can be taken within this obsession.  If necessary, I’ll do research, and I’ll start writing down ideas about scenes, parts of scenes, and characters.  You build something like this over time, and eventually you try to find some dramatic structure for the story that’s been accreting.

I’ve been fortunate that most of the work I’ve been doing the last 15 years has been work for hire.  So the initial concept for the project might not start with me.  Still, I have to brainstorm how to get into and get out of a scene.  Or, I might know that I want a videogame player to undertake a new mission.  But what’s the setup for the mission?  And what obstacles will confront the player on the mission?  Ideas are then frequently found by 1) figuring out the obvious way to reach my goal in a scene or sequence, and 2) then throwing out the obvious way and looking for the surprising way to reach my goal.

As to tools: At a very early stage, I still use 3×5 index cards to capture story beats, scenes, moments, etc.  But I’ve also used StoryView to construct outlines, and I’ll use Word for other outlines.  Then it’s on to Final Draft or Movie Magic Screenwriter, or sometimes other tools for more interactive projects.  These days, you could use a tool like Google Notes and use your cellphone to outline acts or missions or scenes.

Q: Do stories really need to be told interactively? What’s the advantage of this medium?

A: Interactive storytelling offers us (as creators) a new way to engage the “receiver”.  We can create new kinds of immersive narratives, and entertain and teach in ways we never could before.  WORLD OF WARCRAFT, BIOSHOCK and GUITAR HERO all create unique and even profound experiences for players, just as The Canterbury Tales, Dream of the Red Chamber, Middlemarch, Waiting for Godot and 2001: A Space Odyssey created unforgettable experiences for earlier generations.

Q: Looking back on all that you have accomplished throughout your career, what are you most proud of working on? Would you do anything differently if you could? What was your greatest lesson learned?

A: Most proud of working on: 1) The WING COMMANDER series, because we really did break some new ground; 2) a screenplay for a historical novel called The War Train, which sadly went unproduced to a regime change at Paramount.

Would I do anything differently? Probably lots, but all of this is about career management decisions, and hindsight is always 20-20.

Greatest lesson(s) learned:  1) You can’t write too much.  2) Plan for a career:  always consider where you want to go, and what can get you there.  3) Be entrepreneurial.

Q: Any advice you’d like to provide to people hoping to find work as a digital storyteller?

A: I think you have to find your own work.  The tools are within everyone’s reach now.  You should know how to shoot video, edit media, and work in Flash.  If you’re a good enough creator, you can launch your own YouTube channel and wind up making money.  If you’re just starting out, you need to wear multiple hats to succeed.

Q: Do you know of any useful online resources for budding digital storytellers?

A: Interestingly, my wife (Carolyn Handler Miller) actually wrote the book (literally!) on digital storytelling, titling it Digital Storytelling.  You’ll find a lot of references to it online.  That might be a start.

Game Developer magazine has most of its content online; gamestudies.org gets into the more esoteric side of videogame theory.

Assuming we’re really talking about interactive storytelling, then the novice creator needs to immerse him- or herself in interactive experiences.  Play games, spend time in Second Life, study webisodics.  You should discover what’s unique about interactivity when married to narrative (whether structured or post-hoc).

As a college English major, I always knew that reading the Cliff’s Notes was no substitute for reading the book.  Get in the game! as the console advertisement used to go.

Links:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/tborst
http://www.terryborst.com

What type of website experience causes visitors to come back repeatedly? Great ones! Oh, if creating awesome website were only that easy, we’d all have one. Right?

While tactical approaches to designing websites vary widely, successful web strategies are based on a few simple principles –– something I first wrote about nine years ago in a book I co-authored with Laurie Windham about doing business online. In that book, “Dead Ahead: The Web Dilemma and the New Rules of Business,” Laurie and I warned businesses that they needed to fulfill the demands of their site visitors, or face their wrath.

The four demands of the empowered customer are:

1. Give me what I need when I need it
2. Don’t waste my time
3. Give me meaningful content, not fluff
4. Don’t exploit me

When you factor the demands of the empowered customer together, you realize that people want a Holistic Experience that is based on their interpretation of the rules. Playing on that concept, a Holistic Website integrates marketing, sales and customer usage activities to enable shopping, buying, receiving, and consuming –– in one cohesive site. It puts the user in the center of the universe, anticipating, stimulating and facilitating their behavior. It fulfills the promise of the company’s value proposition by satisfying user needs.

Companies who can combine these holistic insights with solid user centric design and testing will find themselves much better prepared to develop a website that truly delights their customers.

After several requests, I have decided to publish my eight stage website planning process. If you are a web designer or developer tasked with building a new website, or if you are a web executive contemplating a redesign of your corporate site, think of this outline as a handy checklist for each stage in the web planning process–from discovery through optimization.

I have also included a PowerPoint version of the 8 stage website planning process here.

Stage 1: Discover
Purpose of site
Top 5 business goals
Top 5 user goals
Approximate page count
Style, tone & brand positioning
Top 5 unique features
Traffic sources
Onsite advertising
Calls to action / lead routing
Domain name / URL
How site complements current strategy
How site augments current strategy
Websites this site might emulate
Competitive sites
Timeline / launch date(s)
Definition of successful launch

Stage 2: Plan
Project team & roles
Financial overview
Marketing overview
Communications overview
Project management process
Key project phases
Content requirements
Assumptions & dependencies
Visitor personas & task paths
Major site features & functionality
Design, navigation & architecture
Publishing platform/CMS
Databases, integration & technologies
Tracking & reporting
Natural search & ADA requirements
Hosting & service level agreements

Stage 3: Build
Wireframes & design mock-ups
New content / rights clearance
API’s and RSS feeds
Prototype pages
Usability testing
Searchability testing
Source codes & phone #’s
Landing pages / transactive pages
Legal & compliance
Change control process
Quality control
Staging & user acceptance testing

Stage 4: Publish
Article creation / RSS feeds
Asset management
Publishing sign off process
Syndication
Publishing calendar
Subject matter experts / moderators
User generated content
Multimedia publishing
Publishing platform/CMS
Legal & compliance sign off

Stage 5: Maintain
Up-time requirements
System administration
Software/hardware upgrades
Hosting/security
Documentation
Capacity
Page load times
System performance tuning
Back-up/archiving

Stage 6: Market
Paid campaigns
Natural campaigns
Inbound link building
Landing page overflow
Inter/Intra site linking
Syndication of content
Campaign tracking & reporting
Integrated / stand alone
URL promotion

Stage 7: Measure
Analytic packages
Tagging, tracking & reporting
Cookies & logic
Campaign set up / mods
Natural vs. paid breakout
Tracking to goals
Social / delayed response
Banner performance
LP funnel performance
Site load time / up time

Stage 8: Optimize
Direct response testing
Multivariate testing
Landing page testing
Banner ad testing
Best practice sharing

Every article writer needs a helping hand, from time to time, coming up with idea for a new article. Some stimulus, connection or link in a writer’s mind often leads to a new article. For example, you may feel lonely one rainy afternoon and because of this feeling decide to create an article about depression, suicide, or the end of a water shortage crisis. Perhaps a phrase you see in a magazine suggests an article. Or a blog posting like this one jump starts your creative thinking.

Here are 40 suggestions to jump-start ideas for articles:

1. An interesting fact. Here is an example: Yale Daily News reported that 41 percent of Yale undergraduates were women. This interesting fact could lead to an article on the increased number of women at top Ivy League schools such as Yale and Harvard.
2. An Event. School, civic, musical or sports events may all suggest a possible article. Example: You hear about a class reunion held by your old high school or college. After attending the reunion, you could write an article like “The Joy and Heartache of Class Reunions.”
3. A season of the year. Have you ever considered the miracle of spring and how it returns each year from March 21 to June 21? Pondering this time of the year could easily stimulate an article titled, ‘‘The Return of Spring” or “21 Ways to Get Ready For Spring Cleaning.
4. An observation. One day a friend happened to remark that he “could count the number of his real friends on the fingers of one hand.” This led to an article idea, “The Miracle of Friendship.”
5. You might also consider writing an article about a remark or statement you hear. Here is an example: One day I was watching my new car go through a supposedly reliable car wash. Two workers jumped inside the car to vacuum. Suddenly, they started joking with one another and engaging in a slap fight. When my car was ready to go, it was discovered that inside mirror was in a new position, the radio was set to a new channel, and one of the floor mats was missing. Right on the spot I decided to blog about the service of this local car wash in a humorous article. Do you see how a feeling, emotion, or mood can trigger a new article? No doubt many articles have been given life because a writer was shocked, angry, disgusted, or irritated about something.
6. A warning of danger. To begin, make a list of dangerous things. Some examples are: “Investing Can Be Dangerous to Your Wealth,” “Beware of the Little Green Mold Monster,” or “Ride the New Mega-Scream Rollercoaster at Your Own Risk.
7. Visiting a place––even vicariously. “Syracuse: Home of the Orangemen,” “The Place Where McDonald’s Was Born,” and “Nashville: A City for All Seasons” are a few examples.
8. A holiday. One way is to consider how various holidays affect people. How do prisoners feel on major holidays? What about poor people, those in hospitals, or those who live alone? Example: “Holidays Can Be the Loneliest Time of the Year,” or “Kwanza Decorating Secrets.”
9. An intriguing question. Here is an example: “Ever Dream of Becoming a Spy?” Other possibilities with this method are “Will Time Travel Be Possible in Our Lifetime?” and “Should the Big Three Automakers Get a Bailout or Face Bankruptcy?”
10. Advice someone offered, including your own. Example: Perhaps you would like to create an article that would help troubled readers facing difficulties in life. Possible titles might be: “10 Tips for Discovering Your True Purpose in Life,” or “How to Land a New Job in Less Than 30 Days.”
11. A quotation. Quotes have triggered hundreds of new articles and probably thousands over the years. Example: Oracle CEO Larry Ellison made the following remark: “Microsoft’s future is based on the idea of Windows everywhere. We think that will never happen. We think it will be the Web everywhere.” This seems like a natural article for someone hoping to write about the impact the Internet has had on our lives, or an article about Microsoft losing its dominance in the computer marketplace. A writer reads an enormous number of quotations during a career. So be alert for those quotes that may have the seeds of one or more articles. They are out there. Look between the words. Examine the quotations you like from all angles. You’ll be glad you did.
12. An obituary. For example, “Adrian Kantrowitz, 90, a doctor who performed the first human heart transplant in the United States, died from congestive heart failure Nov. 14 at the University of Michigan Medical Center.” Or this news headline: “Paul Newman, actor and philanthropist, died on September 27th, aged 83.” The passing of a celebrity or interesting person can trigger an article idea because readers out there always like summary-type articles about an unexpected death; a kind of memorial or tribute type article. Don’t overlook reading obits, for there are definite articles waiting to be written about the famous or well-known.
13. Statistical information. Intriguing, alarming, or surprising numerical reports may well suggest an article. This is one reason for not overlooking reports on all subjects. Example: “The average American’s household credit card debt in 1990 was $2,966. In 2007 is was $9,840.” These stats could be the seed for a number of articles about staying out of debt, not using credit cards, or limiting the use to one or two.
14. A belief held by many people. Reincarnation is a belief held by millions of people all over the world. Some reports have stated half of all Americans believe in it. Two possible titles for an article on reincarnation might be “Do We Live Again?” or “If Reincarnation Is True, There’s No Escape.” Another belief held by most children is that Santa Clause is real. Imagine articles such as “The Origins of Kris Kringle.” Or, “Economic Meltdown: Why Santa Clause Won’t Be Coming to Town This Year.”
15. A need to influence a certain business segment or career group. First choose the career group or discipline you’d like to direct your article to––such as sales managers or online traffic buyers––then develop a premise around solving a problem of fulfilling a need. Some examples are: “How to Motive Your Sales Staff,” “15 Ways to Optimize Online Media Campaigns,” and “How to Develop an Integrated Media Plan to Increase Revenue.”
16. A particular type of problem: business, family, or personal. Example: “Stop Snoring Forever.” Another one is “How to Avoid Bankruptcy in Five Simple Steps.”
17. A declarative statement. Declarative statements are everywhere––from the marketing copy on your breakfast cereal box, to the subtitle on that cookbook on the kitchen table, to that sales flyer tucked under your windshield wiper. Some declarative statements that might be used for articles include: “Delicious, healthy meals in 10 minutes or less,” “Landscaping can increase the value of your home” and “Bran is an excellent source of fiber.”
18. An idea. Example: Consider the often expressed idea that there will be much greater use of robots in the years ahead. This could well lead to an article. Here is another possibility: The idea that it pays for writers to know the business side, as well as the creative side, of their line of work. Such an article would be right on target for trade publications for writers or a creative writing blog.
19. A trait or quality shared by most people. Example: Millions of people are fans of Marilyn Monroe. A touching tribute was once published about her that discussed her childlike quality, which comes across on the screen. Members of the human family share this trait of being childlike. An article written about this subject might be titled: “The Child in All of Us.” Lots of people throughout the world have freckles. Why not an article for a woman’s magazine titled: “Freckles Are Fabulous.”
20. A dramatic, unusual or surprising phrase. We urge you to keep a special notebook of shocking phrases you might come across in your everyday life; they can often lead to article ideas. Keep your ears tuned for anything unusual, fresh, or captivating. For example, a veteran insurance agent claimed he got results selling insurance by asking prospects the following question: “Will your widow dress as well as your wife does?” Imagine an article with a similar title! “Surviving the Ups and Downs of a Tumultuous Market” is a title culled from today’s troubling financial headlines. “Are You Afraid to Die?” is another phrase that might perk a few ears. Or how about: “Rinsing with Vinegar Can Cure an Itchy Scalp.”

Click here to go to Part 2 of this article.

You’ve heard of the hot dog on a stick, right? Well, an entire website crammed on to a homepage is just as juicy and delicious. Check out TheRichKids.com or click on the image to the left. Hard to stomach, ain’t it?

Usually relegated to the design bowels of those annoying vitamin cures and weight loss scams, websites like this somehow manage to cram every direct response cliché into a single never-ending, vertically scrolling page.

I suppose some of these websites must be making money or else they would not be live for very long. Perhaps this type of site design is proof positive that direct response marketing really does work. Thank you Ronco!

Even though websites on a stick defy every rule of good web design, visitors must surely find themselves mousing down the elongated home page much like a driver caught in a traffic jam, rubbernecking a crash scene. Gotta…see…the…carnage.

Go direct response!