Glenn Beck, Chocolate Milk
and Web Gremlins
(Oh, my!)
Dear Business-Builder,
Right up front, I need to thank EVERYONE who has given us feedback on our new NewsBlarg.com site since Monday.
And by “everyone,” I’m including the three or four of you who had only negative things to say. In fact, you may be helping us most of all!
I won’t lie: I’m also thrilled with the more than 90% of your comments that were positive, even GLOWING. And we’re already working to implement all the positive suggestions you gave us.
For instance …
- Thanks to Nathan, Ron and John Klein, we’re balancing our line-up of news commentators by adding a whole passel of links to left-wing pundits. At the very least, their views should prove to be great fodder for user-generated comments and full-length articles.
- We’re taking Caleb’s advice — adding the author’s byline below the title of our news and opinion articles.
- Tracy wanted to make sure it was easier to use our RSS feature to add our feed to MyYahoo, myMSN, iGoogle and more – and we’re all over it.
- The banner at the top of this page is in response to Roger Due’s suggestion to make it easy for Total Package readers to find the NewsBlarg.com site …
- Aaron and Glenna Cottrell suggested that we add a free e-newsletter about the culture wars – specifically on the pop media assault on religion. Our staff will be voting on this today.
- Thanks, Cathy, Eugenie Verney, Brian Duvall and DG, for your suggestion that we should pay greater attention to the overall look and organization of the site. The team and I are meeting on that at lunch TODAY!
- Christopher Dittemore’s suggestion that we make it easier to invite friends to the site is definitely a winner – a change we will DEFINITELY MAKE.
- Johanna and others remarked on the formatting of the comments you leave on the site.
This problem ONLY occurs when you write your comments in WORD, then copy and paste them into the comments window. We’re adding instructions to the comments sections to make this clear.
- We’re busy adding pages listing proposed and pending legislation on the site and as soon as we can find a legal beagle to analyze the impact they’ll have on your life, we’ll be adding him/her to the site as well. Any takers?
- Also, as I read your comments, I came up with an idea of my own: A daily DEBATE! We give you the topic and YOU carry the ball. Should be an informative, stimulating knock-down, drag-out – and lots of fun for everyone involved.
- We’ve also been looking for the official NewsBlarg.com charity – an organization that does great work and that we can recommend to visitors. Since Wendy and I make regular monthly contributions to Disabled American Veterans, they win the prize: A free banner on our home page!
Now let me ask you a NEW question …
If this was YOUR site, what would you do
to convince millions to check it out?
Time to put your marketing hats on!
Gimme every idea you got.
Suggest a petition subject for July that’s so edgy, even outrageous and compelling enough to get the media buzzing about us …
Ideas for using social networking sites to drive humungous traffic …
What you’d do to better optimize the site for the search engines …
Ideas on partnerships, affiliate marketing, PR, PPC marketing …
And especially, how you’d promote the site OFFline – on TV, satellite radio, print ads and even direct mail.
Thanks in advance for giving this some serious thought – can’t wait to see what you come up with!
Yours for Bigger Winners, More Often,
Clayton Makepeace
Publisher & Editor
THE TOTAL PACKAGE
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46 Comments »
Join the Discussion!
Let us know what you think. Or ask us anything. Or offer your own sage advice.
The only rule: RESPECT THIS HOUSE! Postings that contain abusive language and/or personal attacks will be cheerfully VAPORIZED. One cross word and – POOF! – your well-thought-out post will be gone in a puff of smoke.
– Clayton
Comment by I.A. — June 17, 2009 @ 1:39 pm
Hello again Clayton….
Here’s some ideas:
1 - Every article must have a “Spread The Word” feature
where the reader can send the article to his/her friends.
I believe it’s standard “share this” link that’s available
on most popular blogs.
2 - One click button logo that brings people back to NewsBLARG, logo acts as a banner but smaller and can be
pasted anywhere there is space on a website that cannot
accomodate a big banner.
Logo is more visually appealing than a link.
3 - A Twitter like “What are you thinking right now about xxxxx?” right on your home page. 10000 X Faster than a poll and more fun.
4 - Video debate.
Care to spill your guts and defend your views?
There’ll always be someone with a different view point and
when two opposite sides of a story collide they can choose
to duke it out via “VeeDebate” (short for Video Debate, and it sounds like We Debate) which could have an audience
watching too.
Debates on hot stuff by a self appointed champion of
one side of the story versus another champion from the other
side, me thinks this will add more fire to your website.
And people love staring deeply into a dancing flame.
5 - In the first beginning months or so launch a “Who Can Put Links of This Website On As Many Other Websites As Possible” contest.
I was tracking the advance of one seduction ex-guru and
when he did this for his radio show… his traffic burst
from a dead shrivelled up leaf to a nuclear mushroom.
6 - “Psycho A Celeb”
This is where your readers can get a chance to change the
minds of your celebrity radio guests who come on to
share their views.
Not sure why this idea popped in my mind… but there
you go. Enjoy.
7 - “Campaign For Real Change Not Obama’s Change”
Every month, you’ll hold a contest(no need for prizes, just
bragging rights will do, maybe a space above the fold for
the winner’s name and picture) to see which person
is able to get the most number of people to move to their
beat and demonstrate OR hand-cuff a crooked politician.
You could give a task and they’d report via video what
they’ve done.
_____________-
That’s all I got for now Clayton : )
I’ll share as more ideas develop…
Peacefully,
I.A.
Comment by John Klein — June 17, 2009 @ 2:22 pm
The central figure -not only in your debates- but in the whole world today is Obama.
To improve the Blarg’s visibility, you need to connect with him/his office somehow.
If there is anyway you can get postings, surveys, summaries from the Blarg onto Obama’s desk you’ll have scored a winner. Could generate lots of publicity.
I’m not active politically these days, but some of your readers may be positioned in the Democratic Party and might help get really representative statisics from Blarg surveys to Obama or his close staff.
Comment by Denny — June 17, 2009 @ 2:32 pm
How about a weekly contest picking the most outrageous comment by a celeb or politician. Monday thru Thursday the comments are posted by your staff or readers and then readers vote Friday.
Comment by Doberman Dan — June 17, 2009 @ 2:36 pm
Hey Clayton,
I love the new site.
I’ve got an idea I’d like to throw out.
I mentored under Gary Halbert and saw the success he had with newspaper ads.
I know… there’s a lot of waste in newspaper ads and circulation is declining… but I’ve still had a fair amount of success with certain newspapers.
A while back, Gary wrote a full page newspaper ad to promote his website at thegaryhalbertletter. He bought remnant space and got it cheap. It completely kicked butt. He said it brought in more subscribers (and at a lower cost) than his online stuff.
In addition to all the online stuff you’re doing, do you think a remnant ad in targeted publications like Investors Business Daily and the Wall Street Journal might be a cost-effective way to bring in new subscribers?
All the best,
Doberman Dan
Comment by Caleb Osborne — June 17, 2009 @ 2:40 pm
Clayton!
That ole Eye of the Tiger must be kicking in.
Everyone else is going to chime in on online stuff probably — I’d look into Google’s TV ads feature.
Like PPC you only pay if someone watches past the first 5 seconds of your tv commercials — and it’s an auction system for pricing like adwords PPC.
I’d try to get the most placements I could for commercials on the most political channels you can find. Go after the conservative channels or channels with those demographics, etc.
All this would be a lot cheaper than traditional TV advertising and I’m sure with your marketing skills you could make it cost effective.
I’m no expert on this stuff of course, just thought I’d pass it along because it’s such a “mass appeal” site and you specifically mentioned TV adverts …
And of course press releases are a great thing to do. But I’m not expert there either.
Food for thought
Caleb
Comment by Jerrell Holloway — June 17, 2009 @ 2:55 pm
Clayton,
I’m sure some to the conservative talk show hosts would tell their listeners about your new web-site, if they were given a chance to read what you have to say.
Send a link to Rush, Shawn and Glenn Beck and see what happens. They all have e-mail addresses they promote on their shows.
I think this is a great service and hope Americans wake up to what’s going on in the new adminstration before it’s too late.
Thanks for what you’re doing.
Jerrell
Comment by Anita Braun — June 17, 2009 @ 3:48 pm
Petition suggestion: Anything that Congress passes “for” the American people should apply to every Congress person as well. For instance, everyone in Congress should be required to pay into Social Security and Medicare and then have to get their retirement money and healthcare the same way as the rest of the Americans. Only then can they truly represent the best interest of their constituents.
Comment by David — June 17, 2009 @ 3:51 pm
Clayton,
The biggest service your site could provide viewers is to illustrate what the key issues “mean” in terms of their impact on people’s lives and well being. Research has shown that people vote their “emotions” more than they vote the “issues”. I think that’s largely because people don’t know the real impact or “consequences” of laws under consideration or the actions of the government.
If you narrow your blarg to “facts” or substantiated information surrounding issues and laws, you’ll be doing people a great service by giving them actionable “information”…rather than emotinalizing issues and creating more polarizing entertainment.
This alone will make your site a “must see” for politicians, news sources and average citizens who need intelligence, balance and fair reporting.
Comment by Karen — June 17, 2009 @ 4:15 pm
To Anita (#7) … YES YES YES!!
Comment by Jeff Veesenmeyer — June 17, 2009 @ 4:55 pm
Clayton - I agree with Doberman Dan. Run a full page ad in the Wall Street Journal or USA Today. But don’t clutter it up with your eloquent copy. Just run 5 lines, centered in the page and surrounded by 100 inches of white space. Use your question above as the teaser message.
“If this was YOUR site, what would you do
to convince millions to check it out?”
Go to http://www. NewsBlarg.com
Check it out and please comment.
Thanks - Clayton Makepeace
Who could resist such a tease? Free publicity will ensue. If you use this do I get royalties?
Jeff
Comment by Stephen Davies — June 17, 2009 @ 4:59 pm
Me again ;0)
As far as promotions go, I would definitely do a major PR campaign sent out specifically to conservative radio talk shows and Fox News. Also hit the big on line news sites as well, such as NewsMax.com
Comment by Barry — June 17, 2009 @ 5:02 pm
Great new site!
How about an “all in fun” Pin The Tail On The Jack-Ass (political jackass that is)rant column linked from a caricature style banner on the home page to amuse the more immature - such as myself - amongst us.
Heck, find an unemployed programmer to whip up a little on site game where readers get to take a break and while playing, use their cursor to try and pin a tail on these political look alike characters (jack asses) as they run around the game attempting to loot this great country.
Time for my meds…gotta run -lol
ps; you’d be amazed at how much individual traffic a page equipped like that would draw.
Comment by Bill Murray — June 17, 2009 @ 5:05 pm
Every congressperson has a Staff and is in effect a “small business” (without the minor need to meet a payroll, of course). But all the other red-tape garbage about employment quotas and u-name-it should apply to them, with the same penalties as for a Real Small Businessperson (the kind that create jobs, not destroy them). Maybe a greater penalty, since these are (supposed to be) “Role Models.”
This experience should help prepare them for Real World life, since my next suggestion is (drum roll…or maybe heads roll, figuratively)….
TERM LIMITS.
PS- I was going to suggest they should be required to do their own taxes, but if the Great Guru of the Treasury isn’t smart enough to do that (or dumb enough to cheat on it), heaven help the poor congress. (Or rich congress, as the case may be.)
Bill
Comment by Roger Due — June 17, 2009 @ 5:53 pm
I would suggest that you test NewsBlarg.com with at least the following browsers: IE, Firefox, Chrome, & Opera, plus whatever the popular ones for the Apple computers are. You probably also want to test with various PDA devices to see how well they read your pages.
Although Opera has a low percentage of traffic, it is my favorite and it is also closest to standard’s compliance. It is having trouble with formatting of the “What Is Your Favorite News Commentator Saying Today?”.
Using IE6 on an older Win2K system with screen at 1024×768 causes the 3rd column to be displayed below the first 2 columns instead of the their right. IE6 is full screen. Opera & Firefox display as 3 columns here.
I sent an email to the editor of
http://www.weeklystandard.com/
about what you are doing since I think many of your ideas match theirs. You might want to consider contacting them directly to see what you can work out.
Another thought that you probably already have is to make maximum use of the guest contributors on the makepeacetotalpackage.com site. Every one of them has a huge list and surely they can help.
– Thanks
Comment by Nathan — June 17, 2009 @ 6:30 pm
Hey Clayton,
I’m honored to have had my angry rant
featured in your subject line.
My advice is to support the troops… in a very large and very public way.
Steven Colbert’s support for DonorsChoose.org is kicking ass and it allows him to cross party lines like no one else.
Your book launch campaign with the charitable component was brilliant. And no one is more capable of persuading people to part from their hard-earned cash than you.
Maybe challenge the ‘Colbert Nation’ to a 72hr Smack Down Donate-athon?
Make fun of Stephen and his audience (bunch of stoned slackers)publicly and he’ll plug you on his show.
(If he thinks your heart’s in the right place)
Anyway, thanks for calling me an asshole yesterday.
Comment by Cathy — June 17, 2009 @ 6:59 pm
Clayton,
Follow your own great advice: tap into the dominant resident emotion… and in this case, the resident emotion is helplessness and anger… but also a sense of overload.
Every day some new debacle unfolds: another liberty threatened, another disgusting case of corruption or incompetence, another idiot bill about to be signed, another trillion pissed away…
Any marketer who’s seen success with viral campaigns will tell you that the emotional triggers that produce the best campaigns are a) humor and b) outrage.
BUT… You need to help us manage our outrage, because quite frankly, we’ve all got a serious case of “outrage fatigue.”
We’re exhausted and overwhelmed. So you have to pick your battles carefully if you want us to show up for them.
You are going to have to slash the amount of content on that site by more than half - and have a laser focus on the issues that your audience identifies as the most important… Just get rid of everything else.
If this was a DR letter you were writing, you would RUTHLESS about chopping out every word that didn’t contribute to making the sale. Do the same here.
Don’t try to be CNN or Drudge. Stay on topic. Choose three or four themes at the most.
I’d rather read one good article from Clayton than 30 rehashed news stories. This contributes to the fatigue.
Don’t just be ruthless with the content - be ruthless with the number of “extras” you’re tempted to add - and that some have even suggested in the comments. Every gimmick you distract people with, every quiz you ask them to take, every game you encourage them to play etc. means a wasted click.
Since when is playing a game a call to action??? Don’t go there. Do you really think you can compete with the game sites?
Stay with what you’re BEST at, your WORLD CLASS TALENT which is writing passionate, intelligent calls to action. Leave the gimmicks to millions of time-wasting sites that do it better.
Back to the viral and social marketing aspect… it’s a hit and miss thing and notoriously slippery to track, which is an anathema to our DRM souls.
But there may be a solution out there. I’ve not used them but am seriously considering switching: check out Silverpop, a very reputable email vendor. They have a great feature called Share-to-Social.
Here’s the blurb from their site:
“Share-to-Social feature, making it the first email service provider to bridge the gap between email marketing and social networking.
“Silverpop’s new Share-to-Social feature allows marketers to quickly turn emails into socially-enabled viral messages. With a click, marketers can place links within an email allowing recipients to easily post the message to their profile page on Facebook or MySpace, where friends can see the message, make comments and even post the email on their own profile pages.”
Best of all its TRACKABLE! So you know EXACTLY which messages are going viral and which aren’t!!!
This is so huge.
Six months from now you’d have so much intelligence on what resonates with your audience instead of shooting from the hip.
You don’t have to reinvent the technology - its already there.
On the “outrage fatigue” point I made: I honestly think you need to test how many “issues” a week or a month your audience can respond to. What’s the threshold for engagement? One, two or three issues a week? At what point do we stop caring and stop clicking?
Related to the fatigue is the sense of helplessness. People wonder if they can make a difference.
So help them answer that question. As a DR marketer you’ve spent years testing and analyzing how humans respond to certain stimuli and recording what happens.
After a while, you have pretty good idea of what it takes to produce a certain result… so use the same approach on politicians.
How many phone calls, how many emails, how many petition signatures, how many youtube videos etc does it take to bring about change?
At what point does the needle start to move? What is the critical mass for each type of campaign?
Not only does this give you invaluable strategic data, but it can be tremendously empowering if you share it with the end-user.
Suddenly, instead of being swallowed up in a vague sense of dread, battling a monolithic enemy, we now can make ourselves feel better because we understand how our bite-sized contribution is helping achieve a specific target threshold that represents the tipping point.
So closely monitor and track the outrage triggers and choose the top ones and then also monitor the impact of the community’s actions. If you give people a way to feel like they’re making a real, measurable difference, you’ll get major loyalty.
And a good dose of humor mixed in is essential. Sometimes a good laugh is just what we need to help us see another perspective. Political cartoonists discovered this years ago.
Comment by Tesla — June 17, 2009 @ 8:28 pm
All you have to do to get a huge kick-start is submit one of your articles lambasting the current administration to infowars… Or, turn it into something like Bob Basso is doing with his We The People Stimulus Package videos on Youtube.
I could put you in touch with Jason Bermas of Loose Change if you want to email me.
-Mike
Comment by Web Guru Live — June 17, 2009 @ 8:48 pm
Hi Clayton,
As a big fan of your political rants I must say how happy I was to see you moving in this direction.
My suggestion would be to make the topics all relate to the “freedom movement”…
Home page, Biggest FREEDOM stories of the day and directories. (for example 30 states decaring sovereignty! States passing new gun laws.. that kinda thing.) It will give us hope!
Politics… Every new bill that is unconstitutional or a bad idea. That should keep someone busy…
Start with HR 1966, HR 875, HR 256, HR262, HR1444!
Finance: Come on Big Guy… Expose the Fed… You know you want to. You have been writing in the finance business long enough to know this game is fixed… just say it!
Health: Cover the poisonous GMO foods and all the stupid things we do like drink aspartame and floride….
Better Living: Organic gardening, healthy eating, exersize and how to get off the power grid. Home canning, self sufficiency….
Blogs: This section could go in all sorts of directions with guest authors.
Petitions…. Against the unconstitutional Bills and make a lot of noise about the poisons in the food. You know as well as I do that Monsanto and the like are controlling the food supply.
Basically… Why the Government should be smaller and less intrusive into private lives. I know you are a libertarian at heart… Join The Freedom Movement!
See ya at the Tea Party?
Comment by greg mciver — June 17, 2009 @ 11:55 pm
A charity suggestion? laptop.org. I wrote my blurb about it on my occasional blog. Here’s what I wrote back in November:
http://gregmciver.wordpress.com/category/charity-is/
Look what people are doing with computers in Iran.
Clayton, you rock!
Comment by Jim Tour — June 18, 2009 @ 1:05 am
Clayton… What you’re doing is great.
But if you don’t include information & Articles from guys like David Wilcock (@www.divinecosmos.com)… NewsBlarg will greatly suffer for it because it won’t reveal WHY Washington is behaving the way it is.
David will tell you all the “secret agendas”… the “Main goals”… (which have nothing to do with the interests of the American people)… and who’s “REALLY” running the show.
Jim Tour
Pingback by ‘Glenn Beck, Chocolate Milk And Web Gremlins’ - ‘The Total Package’ — June 18, 2009 @ 3:02 am
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Comment by Ray — June 18, 2009 @ 9:19 am
Clayton,
Just wanted to let you know that I didn’t use word and the formatting of the text came out wonky (as described by other posters.)
Thanks for everything!
Comment by Michael — June 18, 2009 @ 11:13 am
Start a petition requiring every sitting congressman and senator be required to read every bill personally before signing or passing into law - at least it would slow the bastards down!…lol
Comment by ron — June 18, 2009 @ 11:17 am
Clayton if you really want to explode that websites traffic with the cost of literally pennies…then I would suggest “PPV” pay per view. Which basically means when a searcher goes to visit a certain site, instead of it popping up first, your site will come up in front of it and the best part is that these searchers expect something like that to happen so these are not people who are being annoyed by random pop up ads. And you can pay anywhere from .01 to .10 cents per view.
Then I would suggest banner advertising.
Best of Luck
Ron
Comment by Dainis — June 18, 2009 @ 11:24 am
If this was YOUR site, what would you do
to convince millions to check it out?
–I’d make it a fair place that values integrity, and I would recommend that Clayton and Wendy study verbal abuse and logical fallacies in order to confront and convert the pervasive rhetorical style present here.
Comment by Lance — June 18, 2009 @ 11:30 am
Clayton,
How about a TV documentary/film? Try and keep it light and with a sense of humour… a top comedy name supporter
Or a teaser movie for youtube to push traffic to your site,
good luck!
Lance
Comment by Gregory Barros — June 18, 2009 @ 11:38 am
Hi Clayton,
Capital Idea!
NewsBlarg is right on the money as a virtual venue where every individual can be heard, freedom (of association and expression) is the only watchword and civil discourse and respect for others’ rights to disagree are the operating imperatives.
As well, we prospective members of the NewsBlarg community presume each individual benefiting from this resource understands the distinction between fact and opinion and that ad hominum attacks serve no other purpose than to enflame, incite and provoke, most negatively so.
I respectfully suggest you include the following references:
Posts/Links to our country’s founding documents:
01) Declaration Of Independence
02) Articles Of Confederation
03) US Constitution, highlighteding our Bill of Rights: our first 10 Amendments
Post/Link to Western Civilization’s first contract limiting the power of the government:
04) Magna Carta Libertatum
Generally called Magna Carta, which King John of England signed; June 15, 1215 at Runnymede.
05) Shadow Government Statistics
An eNewsletter service that John Williams publishes that analyzes U.S. government economic data and reporting, exposes and reports flaws in that reporting and provides an objective assessment of real underlying economic and financial conditions without commercial and political hyperbole: http://www.shadowstats.com/
Cordially,
Gregory Barros
Comment by Neil — June 18, 2009 @ 11:50 am
Clayton
I am only good at online SEO and will try to share some thoughts to hep your blog get ranked faster and attract more viewers to your new webiste.
Your blog is a new blog in googles eyes so it will take a few months before they make this an authority site.
I have tested one strategy that will increase your rankings almost overnight and within weeks that will make your site rank extremely high in your category.
The one assumption i will make is that you have the relevant keywords on your blog.
Google and Alexa will rank your blog extremely high if you are a brand new web site if you get a significant amount of comments on your blog. The trick is where possible when someone leaves a comment, they somehow reference the keywords of the blog post or title. I can go into the mechanics later but if you have hundreds of comments for each of the posts some with keywords, watch your blog skyrocket.
As of today you are ranked 2,796,583 on ALexa. I bet that if you get comments on your blog post and on different ones, you can get into the top 500,000 in rankings within the next 2-3 weeks high up on the SEO scale.
I have tested this and it works like crazy.
Google has come up with a new feature called the “wagon wheel”. What this does is tell you the path a reader takes to find items of interest on the internet. So basically shows you what keyword they start searching on and how they get to their final destination.
Just by creating a few posts based on the keywords used in googles wagon wheel you can increase your readership almost “overnight”.
This is a million dollar search engine technique right here for people who are looking for relevant information to attract the right viewership on their blog site almost immediately.
These two tips alone can get you thousands of new readers immediately and push you high on the SEO scale even if your blog is new.
And of course i would be happy to show you or anyone on your team how this works and you will see the the results for yourself
Awesome blog.
Neil
Comment by Carole — June 18, 2009 @ 12:09 pm
Hi Clayton,
Boy, there’s a lot of stuff! I really like the new site.
I tried to leave comments, and even though I typed them right in, I could not get the formatting to work. It did not put line or paragraph breaks.
Is that the ‘wonky’?
Comment by Larry Foster — June 18, 2009 @ 12:42 pm
Clayton and Wendy.
An idea whose time has come. Thank you.
If this were my site, I’d have a discussion forum.
Also, not sure I’d dilute the message with health, better living…
I would limit it to Politics and Finance-2 things are really intertwined
Being of the opinion that time is short before the damage is irreversible, a focus on getting the message out would be key (if it were my site)
If the reason that some of the things that are here were chosen for monetization, I’m cool with that. You shouldn’t provide this place without the opportunity to <at least, recoup costs.
Thanks for all you do
Larry Foster
Comment by john whitehead — June 18, 2009 @ 1:52 pm
Clayton, your web site is well organized and functional. You enjoy a number of positive comments as well as good ideas for additional information. I suggest you be sensitive to keeping the available information to a manageable level to keep it from becoming too busy to browse quickly.
Good Luck!!!
John
Comment by Ruth — June 18, 2009 @ 4:00 pm
My beginning words were just obliterated, so I’ll try again:
All the above are good. Try these links…join if you want.
They are active, with a lot of good stuff: Here ya go:
http://www.OurCountryDeservesBetter.com
http://www.resistnet.com
(new, and growing like crazy! involved in Tea Parties, planning a march on Washington.)
American Family Association. (don’t know the link.)
I’ll add more later.
Comment by Kammy Thurman — June 18, 2009 @ 4:28 pm
I’m sure you’ve seen the website eye-tracking maps that Marketing Sherpa and other experts have come out with. I encourage you to follow those maps in presenting your material. Essentially people view web pages in an F shape, so your most important information should follow that shape — horizontally about 1/4 of the way down the page is where your most important headline should be (the top line of the F)
Information down the left-hand column is read more frequently than information in the right-hand column.
On newsblarg the all-important top line is being taken up with the welcome paragraph and the Manifesto. What is THE MOST IMPORTANT headline for this page? That’s the headline that should sit in that space. And make it obvious that this is where I should start reading. Your readers need an anchor point visually, and editorially to pull them into the page. The headline on the top line of the F map is the place to do this.
The welcome paragraph can be shifted to the left or right-hand column because, although it’s a nice salutation, it’s not paramount. The Manifesto can sit underneath the red graphic in the right-hand column.
Widen the center column to showcase the important stories better. The center column must have prominence over the outside columns, but the right-hand column is so close in size that it’s competing for attention. This makes is hard to figure out where to start reading, and dilutes the importance of what’s in the center column.
Put more white space between your columns to make it obvious these are separate sections, and to give our eyes some relief.
Personally, I don’t mind the amount of red of the page. This is to be an emotionally HOT website, and red is the color to use when you want to scare people to death or get their blood boiling. You have enough accents in other colors to balance it.
Hope this helps.
Comment by John Anderson — June 18, 2009 @ 4:37 pm
Hey Clayton,
You gotta do something contreversial on the site and then do a Press Release and get onto some talk shows ‘defending’ (promoting) the contreversy.
Let’s face it - THE WHOLE FOX NEWS NETWORK LIVES, BREATHES AND FEEDS ON CONTROVERSY. (Real news, hmmm 1% of the time)
So they will have you on for sure, if you do something dishing out in a merciless, controversial way on decency and gooodness.
“Fair and Balanced”…(in our support for conservatism, and narrow mindedness)
I am being sarcastic (And yes, venting) but seriously Clayton a Press Release and Controversy -definitely the way to go. Like what you did with Martins Weiss’s book.
All best wishes,
Jhn
Comment by BRIAN DAVID DELANY STARR — June 18, 2009 @ 7:47 pm
OK CLAYTON,
I’M STILL IN YOUR CORNER ROOTING FOR THE “OLD HOME TEAM”
FIRST…THE TOPIC, “WHAT’S REALLY BOTHERING YOU”
SECOND…THE TOPIC “COME TOGETHER…HOW CAN WE FIX THE WORLD?”
THIRD…”SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES AND NEW IDEAS”
FOURTH…”WHAT’S YOUR RELIGION AND WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT FOR YOU AND THE WORLD?”
FIVE…”THE ANSWERS!” IF SOMEONE HAS AN ANSWER TO ANY SITUATION… POST IT”
SIX…”THE QUESTION IS…?” ASK A QUESTION AND WE’LL SEE IF WE CAN’T FIND THE ANSWER THAT SUITS YOUR TASTE TO THE “T”
WELL HERE ARE JUST A FEW FIRESTARTERS.
I HOPE THAT THEY GIVE YOUR SITE POWER!
GOD BLESS YOU AND WENDY!
SINCERELY,
BRIAN DAVID DELANY STARR
Comment by John TryingToBeHelpful — June 18, 2009 @ 10:11 pm
First off, I love your copywriting advice, Clayton. You’re tops!
COMMENTS ABOUT THE NEW NEWSBLARG.COM SITE:
=> First off, the link in the email I received asking me to comment about the NewsBlarg site DOES NOT WORK. I had to surf here manually. Not good if you really want comments.
=> Listen, there is some good stuff in here. But I’m losing the theme of this place right off the bat. WHAT’S THE MAIN PURPOSE OF MY COMING HERE? I’m losing that a little bit with all the diversity. I’m not saying there is too much… There just needs to be more cohesiveness and reinforcement of theme. What is it that should make me come to this site frequently? That’s just not clear to me(maybe it’s just me though… I’m a typical schizty and impatient internet surfer).
=> ***Major Problem***: the new site is far too busy. Just way too ’scattered’ and ‘thrown together’ looking => Too much scrolling for value discovered. A web site can be as complex, as diverse, and as intricate as you want it to be. However, the landing page needs to be clear, concise, compact and inviting. The current NewsBlarg.com landing page is anything but the above. I would run screaming AWAY from this web page unless I knew Clayton Makepeace was involved. Study the World Net Daily site, how they do their WND directory. You’re going to have to simplify the landing page like that with a directory and make some of these things hyperlinks. You could expand the capability of the (hyperlink) pulldowns at the top. However, cautionary to that, let me comment: I personally dislike hyperlink pulldowns that are monolithic and do not show subtopics with a “mouseover”. Just unilateral, vaguely described links at the top of a page are foreboding to me. I usually won’t take the trouble to explore unless the menu is interestingly put together and there are a plethora of interesting sub-topics upon “mouseover”. In regards to commercials, I think commercials are fine, but yours need to be integrated into the web site more colorfully and gracefully. Rense.com does a beautiful job with commercials. Study the way they do commercials. The commercials there are interesting in and of themselves (to me). Possibly restrict sizing of commercials to two or three sizes that can be integrated easily.
=> “Today’s Funny” needs to be at the top of the page.
=> After an initial period, “The NewsBlarg.com Manifesto” needs to be relegated to a hyperlink pulldown. Like concentrating on a good title and a good intro in a copyright sales piece, make the top of your landing page the most fascinating and inviting part of your page. You have to hook people at the very top of your landing page. Lose the side stuff and the extraneous at the top.
=> “What is Your Favorite News Commentator Saying Today”. By sticking to such mainstream political commentators (mainstream as far as the rowdy and rabid internet crowd goes), you’re tuning out a lot of the potential internet audience. If you can’t make that list cover a wider spectrum of political opinion (like Justin Raimondo, Gerald Celante, Jerome Corsi, Darryl Robert Schoon, Bob Chapman, Jim Marrs, and maybe even Alex Jones), I’d say lose that functionality entirely. You’re, by definition, pre-LIMITING your audience demographics (no need to limit demographics AT ALL; especially accidentally). Many (like moi) will get turned off at the blase and basically-eh-h-hhh group of political commentators you have assembled. I would immediately make a value judgement that this site (and crowd) is NOT for me, judging by the kind of meek and mild political commentators you’ve assembled. I can get plenty of spin from ABC, CBS, FOX, CNBC and so forth, if that’s what I’m really looking for.
=> Minor detail, but GET A NEW MASCOT! That mad-looking, stuffed-up pillow creature just isn’t getting it done. Nobody’s going to buy a t-shirt with that guy on it. Try putting the recently-deposed Miss California on your t-shirt. Now there’s readership interest in SPADES! That is one nice-looking lady, yes-siree-bob (check her out, I think it was, World Net Daily).
=> In general, I love the heart and mind behind your new site (Clayton Makepeace)… but man, this site sure isn’t getting it done for me. Needs lots of work, man. Best Wishes, John T.
Comment by Venkatesh — June 18, 2009 @ 10:47 pm
Clayton,
Most of the time, I get the feeling that Americans forget that they are only about 300 million out of the world’s about 6 billion madding crowd strength.
Yet, America plays a major role in influencing the rest of the world - for good or better, bad or worse - in economic, social, and so many other terms.
If you could open up NewsBlarg to cater to a more international audience, maybe responses over the long term would let Americans learn what the Republicans and the Democrats are doing not just to Americans, but to the rest of the world - knowledge that the average American, with all due respect, either lags badly in or doesn’t give a damn about.
Maybe you could have some articles about, and invite some educative feedback from, people in Iran, North Korea, Somalia, Iraq, Tibet, Afghanistan… the list is quite long.
You must be having many people all around the world - people like me - who avidly follow your postings. They would love to contribute, I am sure.
Comment by Clayton Makepeace — June 19, 2009 @ 5:15 am
TO EVERYONE!
Thank you all so much for your helpful comments!
Yesterday, I had a 2 1/2-hour meeting with the entire NewsBlarg.com staff and we discussed every single suggestion you’ve given us — and frankly, we’re going to implement just about EVERY ONE OF THEM.
The vast majority will be incorporated by the July 4th launch and the rest will be addressed throughout the summer.
So thank you — once again, you’ve proved that The Total Package has the most gifted, creative and skilled readers of any marketing blog online!
– Clayton
P.S. Oh — and Nathan? I never called you any such thing and you know it. Didn’t your Mama teach you it’s not nice to lie about other people?
On the other hand, I thank you for referring to NewsBlarg as my own “pile of reeking feces.” Says a lot more about you than it does about us.
Comment by Sam — June 19, 2009 @ 7:22 am
Clayton,
Giveaways: Limited amount of silver American flag
lapel pins for best suggestions. Silver red, white and
blue butterfly pins for the ladies.
Autographed photo of you - headshot or on your hog.
Ditto for The Redhead, to contributors of ideas who re-
quest one. Also, celebrities who volunteer their names.
Could be from sports, media, astronaughts, etc.
Tie-ins:the best contributed essays getting paid for
meals at best rated restaurants. Or golf clubs and so on. … Enough already…
Comment by M. A. Noel — June 19, 2009 @ 11:44 am
NewsBlarg looks interesting. I will check it out regularly.
Hopefully my next statement will not come across as negative. However, I detect some strong sentiments in the tone of “Let’s Take Back Our Government !!!” or “Let Keep Our Country from Going Down The Tubes !!!” which seem to be directed at the current Obama Administration. I didn’t detect as much sharp criticism toward the previous 2 Bush Administrations during which many of the problems were accumulating. A comparable sense of urgency then may have helped … then again maybe not.
M. A. Noel
Comment by Cathy — June 19, 2009 @ 1:07 pm
No ugly little glob-person for a logo please!
Comment by Bill — June 19, 2009 @ 5:42 pm
I really have to stay away from politics…some day. So far as petitions, how about this?
Is Obama the ultimate price we will pay for slavery?
I mean, residual racial guilt has allowed this man to get away with what nobody else could have done. The irony is, we have come full circle, and now the entire country is being enslaved by one man with African heritage very carefully playing the victim card. After he destroys the country, can the races at least call it even? (Maybe that should be the question.)
Comment by Don West — June 20, 2009 @ 6:14 am
I ask myself that very question on a daily basis it seems. You see, I am currently going through the painful(at times) ritual of attempting to LEARN this business, and at times I am finding it bewildering. There are SO MANY resources on the internet to utilize,so many “gurus”, which one to choose for the best “bang for the buck” if you will has made it extremely difficult to choose. I am beginning to find much of the information seems at times to be rehashed and repackaged. Again, cutting through all of the clutter is at times quite a challenge.Any suggestions you and your staff could offer would be greatly appreciated.
Comment by Clayton Makepeace — June 20, 2009 @ 8:07 am
DON: I feel your pain! I had almost no help getting started, you have an abundance of help available.
My advice:
1. Go to our FAQ page (under “About Us” tab above. Scroll about three-fourths of the way down the page and copy the list of recommended reading. Then go to your local library and check out everything you can find that’s on the list. This will cost you approximately zero dollars.
2. After you’ve devoured and taken copious notes on those books, come to this blog and go to other marketing and copywriting blogs and forums and ask other writers which courses on copywriting they recommend.
– Clayton
Comment by Crystal — June 24, 2009 @ 8:56 pm
i would like to know how you got my opinion because i did not have internet service until 6-24-2009. can you please tell me how this is possible and if it was from my web address?
Comment by Margaret — June 25, 2009 @ 10:58 am
Hey Clayton,
I like your website, Newsblarg.com. The fact that we can write blogs on it is cool. I am going to check it out often and see what is happening.
I didn’t like Obama when he was running for president and I like him even less now. He has been a deciever since day one. I am not ususally political, but I have seen this country go to pot in my fifty years, I don’t like like what it has become. So many of our freedoms have been taken away and it is becoming more evident that it isn’t stopping anytime soon. Government has too much control and we are paying the price for bigger government but not better government.
All I can say is I hope God will save America, cause the people can’t seem to.