Are you an “Above the Fold” hardliner? There are many people that believe that users DON’T scroll down the page and that all the important information must be above that fold.  While I agree that it makes sense to keep important information highly visible on page, our analysis and research has shown that users ARE now becoming conditioned to scroll down the page.

While this is true, usability expert Jakob Nielsen focused on what areas of the page attracts a users attention and sheds a lot of light on this subject.

To summarize Jakob’s findings, about 80% of a web users time is spent looking at content that appears above the page fold. While users do scroll down a webpage, only 20% of their attention is spent viewing content below the fold.

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We’ve all used free online services or applications and have likely thought “how is that a sustainable business model?”. Some are purely for marketing and exposure, and others, like Zynga’s free FarmVille application for Facebook, allows users to fast-track the game by selling virtual currency. Some services, like Twitter, develop customers or an audience and plan to figure out the business model later. A business model that isn’t obvious at first, but makes complete sense is the “Freemium” model. In short, this is giving away a base service and charging for extra features, introducing them to your product and earning their business.

An example of a “freemium” business model is Evernote, a service that serves as a memory aid. Evernote captures and organizes things from everyday life using your computer, phone, and the web. Its services and products are free on a variety of platforms. Unlock additional features with a $5 per month subscription. [Read the rest of this entry...]

Ever wondered what parts of your site can’t be seen without scrolling?

Google’s Browser Size shows you what portion of users can see a given spot on the screen. This is not screen resolution but the area available to the browser – as gathered from www.google.com users.

browsersize.googlelabs.com/

How’s your speed? Here’s a good resource for checking.

Here’s some benchmarks. How did you measure up?

384.0 – 768.0 Kbps - DSL/Cable
1500.0 Kbps – Cable/DSL
1544.0 Kbps – Full T1
3000.0 Kbps – High Speed T3

We configure and setup a lot of websites and email solutions for our clients. Because of spam, viruses and client’s with limited IT resources, we’ve nearly gone exclusively to recommending Google’s Gmail service for email. Now that doesn’t mean our client’s give up their company’s URL for a Gmail address, but with Gmail you can keep your company URL and only you will know that you’re using Gmail.

Gmail’s features are many, but the one that stands out is the spam is completely eliminated. Gmail also has powerful smartphone applications and integrates well with all email clients. With Gmail, you can also check, write and manage your emails in any web browser. It’s so good, that I now only use my web browser for email.

This article walks you through the process of setting up Gmail for your business.

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Ever wonder about the popularity of a website, who’s going to that website or what keywords they’re targeting for search? Well there’s a way to get that information and more for free.

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The newest threat to traditional media companies: Online aggregators who profit from their content and lure their audiences away. Here’s how to beat them at their own game

Traditional media companies face fast-growing challenges from small, often one person online content aggregators, who can channel content from hundreds of sources and draw ever-increasing audiences away. By implementing an online aggregation strategy themselves, traditional media companies can use their credibility and resources to reinforce their online presence—and add to their own growth. This executive brief presents an overview of content aggregation practices and provides practical information for implementation. [Read the rest of this entry...]

Tools and techniques to scour the Web for content and news, track competitors, and monitor social buzz, industry blogs and company Websites.

This guide gives content and Web editors a strategic advantage with:

• tools and techniques for targeting a specific niche
• ways to efficiently identify breaking stories
• secrets for discovering essential information before competitors do
• methods for finding interesting and compelling content that can be reported on, featured or aggregated on their Websites [Read the rest of this entry...]