Props to Jill and Kevin for infusing their own personalities into an ageless routine. It’s amazing what a little tweaking can do. They took something good and made it BETTER. What started as a treat for about 100 of their closest friends and family… the JK wedding entrance has accumulated over 1.6 Million views and 8K comments on YouTube in just 4 days. And this isn’t even the party — this is only the ceremony!
This video makes me want a wedding do-over. It made my day. I think it’s probably making Chris Brown’s day too. ‘Forever’ is now No. 29 on iTunes, No. 28 on Amazon — and climbing fast! I’m totally diggin’ the red-headed usher… he can groove that aisle!
**Update: 3 hours after this post, YouTube views of the Wedding Dance were at 1.9MM and comments at 11.5K
**Update: 24 hours after this post (7/25/09), YouTube views of the Wedding Dance trippled to 4.4MM and comments also tripled to 22K. The video was featured on The TODAY show. ‘Forever’ is up to #3 on Amazon and #12 on iTunes.
Have you been a victim of thoughtless landing page design? Or worse, are you a guilty perpetrator? It amazes me that some companies make any money, given how hard they make it for prospects to become customers. Honestly, I have very little patience for this. Following is an email I sent to an unnamed company (HINT: They’re a job-search site and their name rhymes with “The Matters”).
Here’s the scenario: Every year I pay to have my resume re-written by an expert. This year I decided to try out a new company.
Dear Marketer,
How is this page performing for you? Are you getting tons of customers? Well I would argue you’re nowhere near where you could be if this page was actually designed with me in mind. For one thing, it would be nice if there was a button, checkbox, something–to start down the resume re-write path. There isn’t. I fiddled around your site for 8 minutes (yes I counted) without finding what I came here for.
Lucky for you I’m motivated (or dissatisfied) enough to write this email — most people won’t be. They’ll just forget you and move onto the next company on their list.
I optimize conversion funnels for a living, so I promise you that your customers are spending too much time in “unsupervised thinking” mode. If only you would at least provide a clear path to conversion – you might be awed by the lift that will result.
You Should Provide Two Distinct Choices:
1. Get your FREE critique (for those who need a little more convincing)
2. Get your resume re-write (for people like me who are ready to buy NOW)It really shouldn’t be this much trouble for me to give you my money. Whats more, I’m not interested in the auto-responder bucket you’re going to drop me into — I’m past that point so please have a real human being contact me with a quote. You don’t need to market to me anymore — plus, you’re really not that good at it anyway. I’ll just take my business somewhere else because you’ve already annoyed me and I’ve already wasted too much time.
Yes this is very direct and somewhat rude — if you’re smart, you’ll politely respond with a “thank you”, then take this as a wake-up call and change your page!
~Tameesha
P.S. If I get an auto-responder, I’m blogging, twittering and updating the status on all my networks about you — and you definitely don’t want that.
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If you’re establishing an online presence, you know how difficult it is to find an available domain name that communicates who you are and what you’re offering (the keyword being “available”). You’ll likely run into lots of dead-ends before finally settling on one that works. Many of the best domain names are already registered and sell or auction for a pretty penny. Unless you’re willing to fork over the money to make the acquisition, you’re going to have to settle for a good alternate.
We’ve assembled a list of our favorite domain research tools. With great features like bulk checking lists of domains, management tools, and suggesting alternates – they eliminate a large chunk of the inevitable trial and error you’ll endure.
Check out these 5 web tools designed to help you discover your best domain:
1. Domainr — What’s innovative about Domainr is that this service makes it easy to explore the entire domain name space beyond the .com, .net and .org. Great examples include burri.to, del.icio.us and last.fm — How creative can you get with the end of your domain name — if a .com is not essential (and more and more these days it isn’t) — Go for something unique! I already own the .com for my own name – Whew! As I am 100% certain it’s gonna be worth a gajillion dollars one day (yeah right) — but I was seriously impressed by all the additional variations I didn’t know about that domai.nr uncovered for me. Who knew?
2. Dotomator — If thesaurus’s were magical rings — Dotomator would be like the Ring of Power — The one wordsmith to rule them ALL – Seriously – because it does the heavy lifing in the name suggestion department. You can narrow your search by prefix or assign a suffix to the cue. You can even tell it to provide a list of suggestions based on category- Dotomator takes brainstorming to a whole NEW level. Looking for the latest Web2.0 name for your startup? How about Kiblix or Yozoom – Hmm…
3. BustaName — Now this is a tool after my own heart. Intuitive and helpful, not only will BustaName help you find a suitable (and available) domain name, but it also provides a management interface so you can come back later and pick up right where you left off. Not sure where to begin??? Watch the video tutorial! BustaName’s DomainFriend feature makes life easier for the busy person. Hey BustaName I’ve got this massive pile of papers that need filing — can you come over later?
4. DomainTools — Useful because it aggregates all available information about a domain name in one interface. DomainTools is your one-stop shop for finding a great name, researching ownership information, scanning lists of domains ‘for sale’ and ‘for auction’, and for conducting your own search with the help of their suggestion tool. If you haven’t got a lot of time to invest in the process of finding the perfect domain name, or if you’re willing to spend the going rate for acquiring it through auction or sale — this is the tool to use.
5. Domize — These guys tout themselves as the “Fastest Domain Name Search Ever” but what I really like about them is their iPhone app and their widget. Domize just gets it. People aren’t always sitting in front of their computer when they think of great domain name ideas, also they shouldn’t have to find you to use your services. Spreading the widget and iPhone love to make accessibility a cinch is just the smart way to trump the competition.
What other Domain name search tools incorporate neat features? Let us hear about them in the comments.
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