• Tell users why they should sign up (rewards, discounts, interesting news, etc).
• Reward users for signing up (gift certificate, discount, access to limited information).
• Create web versions of your newsletter for users to preview.
• Simplified signup forms (don’t require too much).
• 3 things users look at: sender, subject line, the date.
• Provide interesting subjects, well-written content, and make content relevant to your readers.
• Have a call to action to get visitors back to your site.
• KISS- Keep It Simple Stupid (I also like keep it stupid sexy)!
• Attract attention using images, numbers and colors (plain text sucks).
• Use layouts based on content type (newsletter, flyer, etc).
• Use table of contents sparingly.
• Don’t include advertisements in your newsletter.
• Include links to unsubscribe without jamming it down their throats.
• ABCDs- Always be collecting data.  Use email marketing companies to track results of your newsletters.

• Links styles to target: a:link, a:visited, a:hover, a:focus, a:active
• Contrast your links with other text on the page (colors, bold, underline).  Avoid making non-links from looking like links.
• Use Title attribute.
• Create button styles to emphasize “calls to action”.
• Active Links (ones that have been clicked) styles illustrate that a new page is loading.
• Padding on links increases area of click.
• Use sprites to add icons to file links (pdfs, jpegs, etc…).
• Use icons of recognizable external links and resources (rss, facebook, digg.com, etc…).
• Avoid “click here”.  Replace with descriptive text about title of where they are clicking to.
• Main logo should always link to homepage.
• Don’t open up new windows with target=”_blank”.  Let users choose how to open links.
• Use rel attribute to describe “relationship” to current page.

Sell advertising on your low traffic blog:
Summary of: Successful Strategies For Selling Ad Space On Low-Traffic Websites

• Know thyself before selling thyself: why do people come to your blog, what pages are popular, what pages have the longest view times, what keywords are used to get to your site?
• Use polls as much as possible (get your users involved for more data to give to potential advertisers).
• How are other people talking about you outside of your site?
• Find the advertisers:

1. Look for websites that link to yours that offer a product or service.
2. Visit commenter’s websites.
3. Use Google Adwords to surface ads.  Contact advertisers in adwords directly.
4. Steal advertisers from competitors.
5. What companies “gel” with your content?

• You have your list… contact those companies with an advertising package.  Include the following:

1. Visitor interest.
2. Bounce rates, average time, and page views.
3. Monthly states (visitors, growth, etc…).
4. Track outbound links (don’t over promise results).
5. Keep your pitch personal to the company you are pitching.
6. Track conversions.

• Convey the following to your advertisers:

1. Conversion rates (how many people are clicking on their ads).
2. Promotions offered on your site.
3. Keep advertisers informed of new advertisement types available.
4. Promotions for your advertisers (half price cpcs, etc…).
5. Ask your advertisers what they think.
6. Should you use an Ad-network or roll your own?
7. Rolling your own yields higher profits but requires more work.
8. Partner with other websites.
9. Try giving away ad spots for free.

• Choose an ad-network based on your circumstances.
• Don’t blindly accept ads.

• When to use AJAX: adding large attachments, handling numerous small datasets, rating content, displaying constantly changing content.
• Ajax should not break the web experience.  Never rely solely on javascript.  Your site should work without js.
• Only request the content you want (don’t load an entire page with ajax).  You can load partials / content wrappers conditionally.  IE… only include the header and footer if the page is not requested via AJAX.
• AJAX interactions need to be defined which requires states.
• Use load indicators and progress bars for large requests.
• Provide a way to cancel an AJAX Request.
• Show errors when things go south.
• Include back button functionality to allow going back to previous steps in your AJAX actions.
• Make your AJAX accessible.  Make everything available to screen readers.
• Don’t ignore the keyboard for advanced users.
• Highlight current field.
• Clean interfaces are golden.
• Don’t use AJAX when: handling sensitive information, loading content from another server.