The CNN 10: Thinkers is an inspirational and fascinating look at ten thinkers in the field of technology. The first thing I noticed about the list was that it is not all white males. The second thing I noticed was – wow! these people are amazing. Hat tip to @redcrew for bringing the post to my attention.
Speckyboy has several free responsive HTML5 templates available. You might want one for yourself or to give students something to start with on a class project.
Oh, wow, I think someone at The New York Times Magazine has been listening to me. The article I Am Woman, Watch Me Hack deals with this: One theory about why so few women go into computer science says it has less to do with innate capabilities and more to do with cultural narratives, like “CSI” and “Bones”.
If you’ve never been on a team designing a site in one of Knowbilities OpenAIR events, it’s a great experience. You learn a lot about accessibility and have a good time. They still need 3 teams for this year’s event.
A Queer History of Computing at Rhizome is the first of five posts in a series. The first post is about Alan Turing, an English mathematician who is considered by many to be the father of computer science. This is a fantastic project, I hope educators find and use all five posts in the series. The series will be all men. A similar project on queer women would be wonderful, too.
Interview Questions and Exercises for CSS. This post is about how to interview someone you want to hire as a CSS person, but the exercises would be terrific in a classroom. Take a look.
When you are running a business, it is important to test your advertising and marketing strategy so that you can develop a better method of reaching your target audience. The primary goal of marketing is getting the name of your company and the products or services that you provide out to the public. The second goal of advertising is tempting your target audience, or the customers that your products are designed to help, to consider purchasing the item or paying for the services. One method of finding the right advertising strategy for your business is A-B testing.
What Is A-B Testing?
Before it is possible to actually apply A-B testing in your business, you must understand what it is and how it works. If you do not know the basics of the testing strategy, then it is hard to use it in a practical manner.
A-B testing is a term that describes a systematic study of different parts of your marketing strategies, website or other tools that you use to gain the attention of your potential clients. MarketingLand.com write about what to test. You have two items or elements that you are comparing in a controlled setting. If you’re looking to test more than one variable, have a look at this post on multivariate data analysis here. The comparable elements or items are labelled as A and B during the systematic test. Another name for the experiment is split testing or controlled randomized tests. It is a literal comparison of two items to find the element, statement or item that is better at attracting potential customers or getting the results that you want.
Although it seems like a simple experiment, the testing strategy does require a little work to ensure that it is a controlled study. Before you attempt to determine if your new strategy is appropriate for your goals, set your control.
In A-B testing, the control element of the experiment is A. It refers to the original strategy that you employed, such as a button on a company website or a design that you use for the current advertisements that you send in the mail. Depending on your current strategy, the exact item that you are comparing to the new strategy will vary.
The B in an experimental test is the new strategy, item or element, such as a new design on the mailed advertisement or a different design for a website button to encourage visitors to click on the button. The first item acts as a control because you already know how well it is reaching your target audience. The second item is the strategy or change that you are testing for comparison purposes.
Compare the results of each item in the experiment for a set amount of time, such as one to two weeks. After you see if one color choice, design element or phrase on your website or advertisement is better than the other, you can make changes to ensure that your business is making the most out of the ads, website and tools that help you reach your target audience.
Reasons That A-B Testing is Important
Although it is obvious that testing the variables in your advertisements is essential to getting the results that you want, there are several reasons that split testing is recommended for businesses. A company can benefit from testing even the smallest variables on a website, email or even just an ad that you send in the mail.
A key reason to start adding A-B testing to your marketing strategy is the potential improvements to your website, advertisements or other elements of your business. It is not necessary to make everything perfect on the first try. The tests help you determine different ways that you can improve so that your customers are happy with the services that you offer. Even small improvements can make the user experience better.
Another reason to add A-B testing is the impact on profits. A business that makes changes and identifies the items that customers are looking for in a website, email or ad will see an improvement in the amount of profits that come in. Customers like to see changes, particularly if they make the experience more user-friendly or appeal to a personal aesthetic sense.
Although the impact on profits and the improvements to different marketing elements are essential reasons to use A-B testing, the impact on finding the right headlines and writing style is also important. A-B testing is not only related to the aesthetics and small changes. It can also be applied to finding the right language to communicate your products and services to your potential clients. Even if the headlines are similar, some potential clients may respond differently to minor wording changes than others.
The final reason to use A-B testing as part of a business marketing strategy is the real-time data. Instead of relying on reports about other businesses that have similar products or services, A-B testing gathers information about personal clients, blog readers or other individuals who happen across your company website or advertisement. Your customers might not have the same aesthetic sense or interests as the customers of a competing company. What works for that company might not be the best option for your business because of the variation in clients and client relationships that you develop. A-B testing helps you find the tools that work for your business rather than using the elements that work for a different company.
Making the Testing Easier
Although it is important to test your ads, website and wording, it is difficult if your hosting services are slow. Finding a great host is essential if you want your company to see positive changes during the test.
Take the time to find a host service that allows immediate access to your website and does not have any problems with downtime – this post on VirtualHosting.com has a list of hosting reviews you can read through. You do not want your potential customers to struggle to gain access to your website and it can help speed up your A-B testing process so that you can move forward at a faster rate.
Reaching your target audience is the primary goal of testing different products, services and tools. Among the tests that can help you find the right advertising strategy, wording or tools for your business is A-B testing. By using the original design features, element or idea as the control, you are able to establish if the new idea will work for your business or if it is better to make another change for the best results. The immediate data that you gather from your results allows you to find the right combination of colors, wording and design to reach the customers that are buying your products or services.
Guest Author Cormac Reynolds is a writer and a technology buff who writes about hosting and other areas of the web for VirtualHosting.com. He believes that A/B testing is too overlooked and wishes to showcase the importance of it.
There may not be a Nobel Prize for Bloggers, but there are plenty of prizes to be won if your blog reaches people, offers great advice and insights and affects lives. Those are, after all, the goals of an effective blog. If you can find a niche, and get specific, chances are that you can develop a winning formula. If you are thinking about starting a blog, here are seven considerations to ensure that your efforts are not wasted:
Passion, Purpose, Personality
While the three “Ps” of blogging might seem obvious, they are perhaps the most important concepts for a beginning blogger to grasp. The mechanics of writing a blog post can be mastered; but your basic reason for blogging must be born of your passion for the subject, your “obsession” with your topic. You will attract readers because you have something of value to offer them. You will keep them returning to your blog because they can relate, they learn something useful, and they recognize that you offer a unique perspective.
Choose Your Name Carefully
Spend some time choosing your domain name, and select your blog name carefully. No matter how cute or clever it is, if it has no relationship to your subject matter, it will not be effective. Your name need not be an award-winner. It should, however, be “good enough” as Henri Junttila of www.WakeUpCloud.com says. The best names are unique, concise, memorable and easy to spell.
Web Hosting
A lot has been written about the relative advantages of free sites and paid sites. The truth is that, unless you simply enjoy seeing your words in print, a blog is an investment. You are investing your time, your energy and your money in a venture that you hope will return benefits to you. If your ultimate goal is to earn a living as a blogger, you may employ different tactics from those of a hobby blogger. Only you can make those decisions.
If, indeed, you intend to make blogging your business, you must first develop a business plan and define your goals. Be clear about them. Gather all the information you can. A good source for comparing hosting sites is www.WhoIsHostingThis.com. When you have the facts, you can make an informed decision, and launch your blog.
Who is hosting this?
Investing In Your Blog
There are myriad ways of investing: Time, energy and money are only a few. But, make no mistake about the facts. Creating a successful blog requires a multi-faceted investment of your talents, commitment that will test your limits, an ongoing effort that may be all-consuming, and time. No successful blogger has ever been an overnight success. And, no successful blogger retains that success without continuing effort.
If you have the grit to succeed in this field, you will continue to learn every day. You will continue to seek out and implement better methods of utilizing your time, being consistent, refining your design, monitoring results, testing reader response, effectively monetizing your blog, and employing social media marketing to expand your reach.
None of it is easy. All of it requires analysis. Much of it requires time, either yours or time you pay for. Some of it requires money, too.
Analytics — Getting Answers
There is an old expression about trying various strategies to see what works: It has to do with throwing strands of spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. That is one way to analyze results, to be sure. A better way, however, is to employ proven analytics, institute A/B testing procedures, utilize measurable techniques and monitor the results. If your end goal is to monetize your blog, you need to know what attracts readers, what your readers like, what prompts them to action, what they find exciting and what causes a response, whether positive or negative.
There are services you can use to track all this information; take www.Moz.com or Google Analytics. It is an essential part of the blogging success that you seek. Otherwise, you could be just writing on the wind. Neil Patel speaks of three ways to increase and retain readership on your blog. They are worth consideration; they are:
Survey your readership to determine what they like (or don’t like)
Build a community, by making your readers feel a part of something larger
Collect emails, to increase your return visitor count
Be Consistent to Build a Following
Most blog analysts mention consistency as a key component of success. Readers, particularly those who are looking for useful information or advice, appreciate routine. If your readers come to expect a recipe every Wednesday, be sure they get one every Wednesday. Likewise, if a popular feature of your blog is a Q&A forum on the second and fourth Fridays of each month, don’t disappoint them. If you publish new posts three times each week, and suddenly miss two weeks in a row because you go on vacation, you may lose loyal readers.
Outreach, Community, Expectations
Remember, that your blog is not all about you. It is, and should be, very much about your readers. It is their needs, their concerns and their actions that have a direct effect on your success. While it is your passion that drives it and your personality that defines it, your blog represents a community of interested participants — or, it should. The best and most successful blogs have an active group of commenters, “sharers” and responders who all have a stake in the continuing success of the venture.
That is what makes starting a blog so exciting. Just as the digital world will continue to change and develop, so will your blog. You will respond to changing times, and to the evolving needs of your visitors and subscribers. Maintain ties with other bloggers in your field; write guest posts; link occasionally to others. Be interested, and interesting. Be involved. Be successful.
Guest author M-J loves blogging and reading other blogs. She is currently studying business part-time and has two children.
