Pay attention to the area "above the fold"
This is the area on a web page that is visible without any vertical scrolling. It is one of the most valuable assets in your revenue generation plan because this is where your visitors will look before they do anything else on your site. You want to use this area for your navigation bars, and more importantly for advertising.
If you want to kick up the revenue from your Google Adsense campaign or another advertising source, place them on the side, above the fold. As your site builds up enough traffic to allow you to sell your own ads, put the ads with the highest revenue payout in this area.
Stick to text ads in this area if you can. If you use banner ads above the fold and they don’t load properly, your visitors will think that the entire page is not loading properly. They might scroll down, but most likely, they’ll click the back button and move on to another site.
Showcase valuable content with great headlines and hyperlinks above the fold. Start by highlighting the main sections of your website, or by showcasing your most valuable product.
If you are not selling your own product, but relying on Google Adsense, you can still make use of the area above the fold. You can place newsletter subscription boxes, new books, news alerts, scam watch and email alerts in this area as well.
Navigation bar
To increase click through rates and to make your navigation bar more effective, turn your Navigation bar into a series of text links. Use keywords or natural phrases to let your customers know what type of benefits they’ll receive by clicking on a particular button. When you use graphical buttons, you‘ll probably be limited to a word or two.
By using a text link, you can turn the headline of an article or the complete description of site section into a link. This will increase your click-throughs, and readership on your website.
Opt-in Newsletters
Opt-in is an arrangement where customers must give their explicit permission to receive any type of communication from a website. The type and scope of information that is opt-in varies from site to site. On some sites, everything is opt-in. On other sites, only the newsletter is opt-in. On large retail sites, once you make purchase, you automatically opt-in to receive all kinds of communication and must “opt-out” or unsubscribe for the information to stop.
Set up an opt-in newsletter to build your subscriber base. You can add paid, contextual advertising later on, or use it to promote your own products to your customer base.
If you follow these three guidelines you can design the top of your website to automatically increase your site revenue.
About the Author
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Syd Johnson
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