Welcome to another edition of Sites Weekly.
A few quick reminders before this week’s links.
First: don’t forget to submit your website question here.
I’m curious to know what you’re wondering about, or what you’re stuck on, so that I can tailor these newsletters and future episodes of the Sites podcast to help you take meaningful steps forward.
Second: there is a flash sale going on right now for the StudioPress Pro Plus All-Theme Pack.
The basic details are that you get $125 off (plus your returning customer discount, if you’re a StudioPress customer), and it lasts until this Friday, July 28, 2017.
Click here to learn more before the offer expires.
Okay, now on to this week’s links …
Content: When data and intuition collide
I learned this concept a few years back, and it has had a huge impact on how I write copy.
It also just makes sense: people are more likely to do something you ask them to do when you give them a reason why they should do it. Fortunately, data backs this up.
The blog post is short, so you don’t need a whole lot of preamble from me. Just click it, read it, and put it into practice … because I can tell you from experience, it works.
A Simple Copy Hack That Can Increase Conversions By 55% (Because It’s Easy)
Design: How to hack the 3 influencers of attention
If you’re an online content creator, then you’re in the business of competing for attention.
Every potential audience member has a finite amount of time and headspace they can invest in your content, and you’re competing with every other content creator and potential activity out there.
Sounds a little daunting, doesn’t it?
Which is why we need to find every little advantage we can. And one big advantage you can have is understanding what processes in the brain influence attention and how you can influence them with your design.
The article linked below is written by a cognitive psychologist and outlines what he refers to as H.E.R. attention maps, which help you understand the basics of capturing and retaining attention.
Side note: I also linked to this post because its design is remarkable.
Technology: Google Analytics is about to become more helpful
If you’re like me, the thought of opening Google Analytics can sometimes be headache-inducing.
It’s not that I don’t want to see the numbers and use them to make better decisions, it’s just that I sometimes feel intimidated by the plethora of options and menus, and I wonder if I’ll be able to easily get the information I need.
Well, it sounds like this is about to become a much more intuitive process.
As Matt Southern of Search Engine Journal explains, “Retrieving the Google Analytics metrics you care about is now as easy as asking for them using natural language.”
I’m sure this won’t be perfect right off the bat, but it’s a huge step in the direction of Google Analytics becoming more inviting and simple to use — not to mention instantly more informative.
Get the Google Analytics Data You Need Using Natural Language Queries
Strategy: Could these two sites be untapped resources for attracting new audience members?
Reddit and Quora get tons of traffic, but they can also be intimidating for new users. There are plenty of community norms to learn, and both sites require a genuine, long-term investment before you can effectively refer people to your site or offer services to the right prospects.
But that’s how it should be.
What’s great about both Reddit and Quora, and what makes them worth investigating as you seek to develop more relationships with potential audience members, is the curiosity level of each site’s users and the ability to target specific niches for engagement based on topics of interest (subreddits) and specific questions (Quora).
This post breaks down how to take a long-term and strategic view of both Reddit and Quora, so that you can invest time in each site and ultimately drive real bottom-line results.
How to Turn Your Industry Expertise Into More Sales on Reddit and Quora
Bonus article: Is it time to refresh your email signature?
This blog post offers some practical tips on how to create an email signature that goes to work for you — subtly and smartly —
with every email you send.
What Does the Perfect Email Signature Look Like in 2017?
So …
Which of the ideas in these posts will you put to good use immediately?
I’ll be back with a new edition next week.
Keep building.