How is a movie like a Web site? Before a single scene of a blockbuster gets filmed, the production crew has a complete map of the end product. They le...
View articleHow does traffic arrive at your site? Which users make up that traffic? How do users interact with your site? And what are the results of their visits...
View articleDespite what many information architects believe, good navigation schemes have little to do with prospects' recall ability. Instead, what's at work is...
View articleCorrelation is the engine under the hood of many market- research methods. According to Michael, knowing its proper uses and limitations will improve ...
View articleProgrammers dream of elegant code. To them, simple is elegant. That's true of the language the rest of us use: The best writing is often the simplest....
View articleDespite the proliferation of Web sites, many don't work well enough to drive e-business success. Why so many breakdowns on the information superhighwa...
View articleIf your site is not a part of the selling solution, you have a big problem. You certainly won't be making it into the history books. In fact, you'll b...
View articleSure you appreciate the pothole-free roads, the prominently displayed signs, and the smooth and straight highways of the Land of Usability. But are yo...
View articleTo sell, you must appeal to what motivates people. Use words that evoke, not words that baffle. In other words, translate features, which appeal to th...
View articleFor market researchers who think in terms of the "average customer," there's a tool they must learn about. Segmentation is its name, and Michael shows...
View articleThe market's down. That doesn't mean you have to be. Just adhere to these 12 laws, and you'll become a model of sales citizenship. Read More...
View articleYou don't need a B.A. or M.S. or Ph.D. to know that beyond the ABCs of running a site are the GTC and POA. Bryan spells it all out for you. Read More...
View articleThe pre-post analysis, while a fundamental type of market research experiment, has countless tricky applications. Luckily, Michael stresses the key po...
View articleEven in the age of the Web, people buy the way they always have. That means to get them to buy, you need to sell. For your Web site to sell, its infor...
View articleYour Web site's home page is both sales funnel and salesperson. You've got to pull your potential buyers through the funnel, showing them the way to w...
View articleWhy would anyone want to do business with you? What's so special about you? What makes you think you're any different from anyone else? No, that's not...
View articleThe definition of conversion ratio may be a mouthful, but you need to think with your head, not your stomach. A gut feeling is not the best way to mak...
View articleHear ye, hear ye! Ads fail if they don't respect the workings of the brain. In advertising -- and the brain -- the killer app is sound, whether heard ...
View articleIf you want to measure site traffic, you'll have to count what counts. So... What counts? What tools count what counts? What measurements do the tools...
View articleWe love baseball. All those stats! Ks, ERAs, and HRs... If you also love baseball analogies -- and just maybe also want know how to increase your Web ...
View articleIt's time for a little statistics. Wait, come back! This isn't a flashback to your college stats course. No scary formulas, just an overview of key co...
View articleThe only thing customers care about is what your product or service can do for them. To engage customers, you need a Web site with strong copy that sp...
View articleWant to know what your customers want? Ask them. The customer satisfaction survey can be a very useful tool in making critical business decisions. Mik...
View article"Ask a silly question, get a silly answer." This playground put-down contains a hard kernel of marketing truth. If you want to gather actionable custo...
View articleTo increase your online sales, you have to begin at the beginning: your home page. If it doesn't do what it should, visitors won't go deeper into your...
View articleSo Statistics 101 wasn't your favorite class. But chances are you recognize how important sound sampling methods are to conducting an effective resear...
View articleMeasuring your site's traffic is crucial to assessing where you're going. In this new column Internet analyst and statistician Michael Hochster will g...
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