It has been 1785 days, 777 posts and 1103 comments, since our first blog entry on April 24th, 2006.

Now it is time to say goodbye to the VKI Studios blog, VKI Studios and our beloved Hippo.

This is not a time to be sad, but very excited as VKI Studios is merging with PublicInsite and Webshare to form Cardinal Path.

[More]

Round and round we go, and we're back to March. I remember when I first dug up this bug (that image on the right)... what... two years ago? Maybe it's time for me to retire it and try to find something new. Maybe.

Today we have a bunch of stories from across the net, including Matt Cutts on Nofollow, CSS floats, analytics math, and more.

[More]

A good headline is critical. Its purpose is to captivate your readers' attention and entice them into your body text. If it fails, all your work will be for nought and you won't stand a chance of persuading your would-be readers.

You've only got one chance, so you've got to get it right. But how do you entice readers into your copy?

Most importantly, you have to offer a benefit to your readers. Indicate that if they read on, they'll get some kind of payoff.

But in most cases, you don't actually spell out the benefit in the headline. Rather, you engage the reader's curiosity by hinting at the benefit. Do this right, and readers will find it irresistible. They'll be hooked.

It's curiosity — fueled by the promise of a wonderful benefit — that makes a great headline. Below are some proven techniques for writing compelling headlines.

[More]

Sitelinks are yet another item which should be utilized to increase campaign performance. If you're not familiar with sitelinks, it's an option which can allow you to show up to four more additional links within your text ad. This can be beneficial to your users as it allows them the ability to have more choice on which link best represents what they're looking for.

Before you start thinking that adding sitelinks is going to give you four extra links on all of your ads....it won't. In fact they're only going to show for keywords which have extremely high quality scores. Most often you'll see these site links showing up for your Brand related keywords. So for keywords with these high quality score, you have some added flexibility. They can allow you the option of adding links to special promotion pages, top selling or related products or even a store locator (if you have physical stores).

[More]

What a Month. Storms throughout the city, WAA excitement in the air, phones ringing off the hook… it's like the world has woken up from hibernation and decided it's time to kick ass.

This week we've got posts from mailchimp on how blocklist operators think, HTML5 cheat sheets, reducing your load time, segmenting keywords, the usability mindset, and more. So much for slow Mondays.

[More]

Last week, I outlined some preliminary homework we have to do before starting to write. Let's assume that's done now, and move on to structuring our message.

How do we structure messages that resonate with visitors, and lead them to take the action we desire?

We can take a cue from traditional advertising copywriters here. For generations, they've relied on a structure called "AIDA" to convince customers they simply must buy their clients' products.

AIDA stands for Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. I'll explain each step below.

[More]

If you are responsible, in whole or in part, for the success of a web site, then this post is for you.

Web Analytics is moving up the food chain as those at the top realise that it's no longer optional. What does that mean for you, how can you make this work for you and how can becoming an Analytics Samurai secure your livelihood???

[More]

Chances are you and most of your friends all have Smart Phones. With an increase in searches from mobile devices, you may want to allow users to call you directly by just clicking on your ad. Using Google's Phone Extensions will let them to do exactly that.

How beneficial Ad Extensions can be to your company, depends on the type of business that you're running. If you're a plumber, mechanic, electrician or perhaps a lawyer, people may only want a phone number and don't want to have to navigate through your website to get it. The phone extension allows your users to just click on the phone number and give you a call. Allowing users the easiest option to contact you is generally a better solution then making them work to find the information.

[More]

I need to find new sources for the roundup. This week was brutal, and even with a head start of an hour I am struggling to find a sufficient number of quality articles to fill this up. What's going on people? Has the world crushed the blogosphere? 

Maybe there's just so much happening in the world right now that people don't feel the need to add to the noise. 

Anyhow, this week we have problems with permission, Facebook and "frog in the pot" privacy and using the GA API.

[More]

Gauge 2011 is coming up on the 17th and 18th of March, and VKI Studios is presenting on a number of topics, from API features to website optimization. If you're at the conference come to one of our talks, then drop by and say hi.

At 10:30

API Basics

What is it, how it works, and the awesome things you can do with it

Leaders: Dave Eckman, Nick Mihailovski

Website Optimization

Case studies and practical how-to on integrating with Website Optimization Tools like Website Optimizer, Test & Target, and Optimizely.

Leaders: Dave Booth, John Hossack

Then later at 1:15

API Advanced + Q&A

Discuss advanced API development, apps, and Q&A with API developers

Leaders: Dave Eckman, Nick Mihailovski

More Than the Clickstream

Google Analytics is awesome, but let's face it - GA doesn't do everything. This session will delve into tools that complement clickstream data provided by Google Analytics.

Leaders: Corey Koberg, John Hossack

For more information see the gauge 2011 agenda