Ben Hunt’s Web Design Newsletter, April 2010

New project #1: SilverKin

The project code-named SilverKin is another we’ve been building since late last year. It is an experiment in creating a simple social space that allows older people to stay in touch with friends and family around the world.

The main channels we’ve been working on are face-to-face video chat (currently using Skype, so you’ll need a Skype account), and video messaging (which uses Tokbox).

Please check out SilverKin.com. It’s still quite rough, but we think it has lots of potential.

My Next Book: Web Design Optimization from Scratch

I’m really enjoying researching and writing content for my next book for Wiley, due out late 2010. The book will show any web site owner or designer how you can increase the conversion rate of your web site today. It will feature hundreds of tips and dozens of examples from our own research.

One of the main areas I’m researching is the work of 20th Century direct marketing and advertising pioneers, like Claude C. Hopkins, John Caples, and Eugene Schwartz. These guys learnt decades ago that simply applying scientific discipline to ad writing could multiply success rates. The same holds true today. Bottom line – if you’re not testing and measuring your messaging, you are throwing money away. It’s as simple as that.

I’m discovering the importance of a load of critical but unexciting things like:

• Researching your market
• Testing different propositions to suit your chosen market
• Learning how to write compelling copy
• And trying out a range of content to see what works best

These skills are not part of the average modern web designer’s arsenal, but they very soon will be! Those web site owners and designers who don’t apply the knowledge that direct marketers have built up over the last 125 years will soon find it harder to compete against those who can show real business results, backed up with figures.

We’re discovering a range of simple techniques that can have a massive impact on the success rates of your site. Many of these have been known for generations among certain disciplines, and it’s time we bring them into daily use in web design and online marketing.

Where Caples and Hopkins had to spend days or weeks researching their markets, and testing a range of copy, we can do the same in days – or even hours! Keyword research, web analytics, pay-per-click advertising, and website optimization tools like Google Website Optimizer put more money-making power in your hands than these guys ever knew. My new book will show you how to apply that power.

Free Optimization Webinar

Our business development guy, Marc Quinn, recently presented a seminar on web site optimization at the LOGIN2010 event in Vilnius, Lithuania, and it was a huge success!

We’re following up with a free webinar to give more time to answer attendees’ questions and to analyse a few sample sites. This will probably be on Monday April 19th around 14.00-16.00 UK time, but I’ll confirm the date & time later.

If you would like to attend, watch out for an email from me in the next week or so, and I’ll give you the link. Places are limited to 100, but we may follow up with more over the following weeks, so if you don’t get on, please let me know.

Invitation: Testing Your Site’s Proposition

I’ve learnt that one of the vital components for a successful web site is delivering a powerful proposition that suits your market. Sounds simple, but the impact of the first impression your home page gives can be boosted by using the right words for the right people.

I’m looking for a handful of web site owners or designers who would be willing to run some quick optimization experiments with me – for free – and to have the chance to have your site featured in my new book!

If you’re interested in this offer, the only constraint is that your site should have more than 50 visitors per day. Get back to me via email by 5pm UK time on Monday April 12th, and I’ll let you know what the next steps are.

A Once In A Lifetime Journey

Finally, I have to mention to you an opportunity I’ve heard about that does not come around often.

A great friend of mine, the life coach Ben Hewitt, has arranged to take a small group of people for a two-week trip into the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan. There are just a couple of places left.

If you’re not familiar with Bhutan, what is remarkable about it is that the country is run entirely along Buddhist principles. In 1972, the king introduced the measure of “Gross National Happiness” in place of the usual Gross Domestic Product, so decisions in Bhutan are made according to what will increase the happiness of the nation.

Very few people have the opportunity to visit Bhutan, so if you are interested in a magical new experience, check out the main trip site Ben’s Facebook page and have the chance of a trip of a lifetime.

That’s all for me for this month.

Best wishes,

Ben