Month: April 2018

Winning the Internet: A Primer on How-to Contents

Posted on by Mario

Winning the Internet A Primer on How-to Contents

27 years after the first web browser was released to the public in 1991, debates on whether the Internet does more harm than good still rages on across all corners of the internet. The Cambridge Analytica scandal that is currently engulfing Facebook, quite possibly the biggest name in the digital world that isn’t Google, and the United States administration seems to shine a spotlight to proponents of that argument. Adding fuel to the fire, the more relatable case of the recent release of the mobile version of the popular online game Fortnite taking over students’ attention has brought the argument much closer to the homefront, with schools sometime taking drastic measures to confiscate students’ mobile phones. As with every debate though, there are always two sides of the argument and Google’s year-end report on Youtube highlights on why that video platform is so much more than just Logan Paul and cat videos. Spoiler alert, YouTube is also a valuable learning tool.

The report says that “how-to videos earn the most attention of any content category on YouTube, even more than music clips or gaming”. So yeah, before you go on a tirade on how millenials are wasting their youth on watching absurd sketch comedies on YouTube instead of reading Anne Frank’s diary, keep in mind that they might be spending their time learning how to fix that classic Monaro GTS sitting in your barn. Anyway, this also tells us that if you’re looking to increase the audience for whatever it is you do, it might be prudent to engage them with how-to contents of your own.

One of the tactics SEO specialists offering SEO services would tell you to increase organic traffic, whether it’s for your website or YouTube channel, is to offer quality content. Of course, quality here is relative, as it highly depends on your intended audience and sometimes, contents that are considered good aren’t necessarily the ones your audience is looking for, but given how almost everyone have and will encounter some problems in their life, dabbing in how-to contents are as close as you can get to a surefire bet in the crowded world of digital marketing. Now, there is no definitive step process you could take in making quality how-to contents but there are definitely some general pointers to get you started, so without further ado, these are some of my how-tos in making how-to contents.

  • Know Your Subject

Pretty much a given but the sheer importance of this part means that it still bears mentioning. How-to contents establish your authority in your field so making sure that you possess the necessary knowledge and expertise and knowing how to express it to your audience is pertinent. Trust is the world’s strongest currency and this is the first step in building that.

  • Be Specific

Don’t be like IKEA. Simple, universal design like their instruction manuals might work for mass, ready-to-assemble furniture but if you’re looking to establish trust with your audience, make sure to provide detailed steps in your article and/or video.

  • Be Concise

Sounds contradictory to the point above but keep in mind the attention span of your audience. You don’t want to intimidate people by presenting them with something that makes them feel as if they’re being told to read War & Peace. It’s a balancing act and one that would surely come with repetition.

  • Be Relatable

Used as a way to build intimacy. Remember, you’re writing for people and bland robotic statements are a big no-no, even Alexa and Siri knows how to make jokes. Personal anecdotes and popular references are my go-tos when it comes to this.

  • Do a Trial Run

The litmus test for what you just wrote or shot. Either get someone else to do it or try to do it yourself if it’s the only available option. If the results aren’t as intended or the step they’re taking isn’t consistent with what you had in mind, then there are changes waiting to be made. A good how-to should work for everyone, or at the very least, the majority of your audience.

Now as I’ve said before, this wasn’t intended to be an example of a how-to article but the hope is that this could at least provide you with a solid base in making how-to contents of your own. Blatant marketing and in-your-face sales pitch aren’t always welcomed but displaying your expertise and providing your audience with the added value of an actual education, no matter how small, could go a long way in establishing a relationship with your audience, not to mention the traffic it could generate as more and more people pop how-to queries each day.

How “View More” Button Works More than Pagination

Posted on by Mario

How “View More” Button Works More than Pagination

In this modern era, new stuff are coming, starting from modern food, trendy fashion design, modern house design, even to web design. However, just because everything is new, people tend to think its quality is better than old styles. While that might be true sometimes, it doesn’t always mean like that. Unfortunately, some people fell for the hype and chose to buy things that might turn out to be another useless choice.

Now with so many updates in the future, new businesses are coming too. Do you know what that means? Tight competition between businesses, competing to be the number one in their own industry. With that in the mind of every business owners, they have no choice but to keep up with the trends and technology. The question is, are you one of them? Well, if you are a business owner, one thing you should know is that one of the ways to prevent you from being left behind is that you own a website to promote your business. However, having a website alone is not enough if you don’t pay attention on its design. If your website lacks of something unique in its design, then it would not attract more visitors to your website. On the other hand, if your website has too much design in it, it would also do no good for your SEO.

Nowadays, there are web design trends that are popular and people rush to use some for their website. Some of them are “View More” button and Pagination. Some people prefer to use “View More” button for their website, instead of pagination, but which one works better? In this article, you will discover the reasons why we recommend using “View More” button instead of pagination. But wait, stop. Before we discuss further about that, let’s define pagination and “View More” button first.

Pagination and “View More” Button

Pagination is a pattern of a user interface dividing content into separate pages. At the bottom of the page, you can see a row of numbers, and that is what we call “pagination.” On the other hand, as for “View More” button, at the bottom of the page, you will see a button that says “View More” and once you click it, the page shows more content for you to read. Not to be confused with infinite scrolling, which loads more content without you having to click a button, “View More” button is more convenient than that.

The Disadvantages of Pagination

While pagination has its way of showing its strengths, such as providing a neat set of pages with 20 items that each may be preferable to a bottomless page of item listings for products or services, showing easier searching experiences for users since it is not just scanning the flow of information, and users can control what they want to see, since it is neatly arranged in a row of numbers that if you choose not to click it, then it won’t show you more content and therefore save you from being absorbed into one page, pagination has more problems than “View More” button, which are:

  • Very few users ever use pagination links. Even if users know that there are more results, most of them would simply assume that if what they need isn’t among the first few results, they should try elsewhere.
  • The links need the entire page to reload before offering the next set of choices.
  • People will be confused with how many pages in your website, since it only shows this “<< 1 2 3 >>” and therefore makes users skip some pages, which may result in them missing out on the important part that they might have been looking for.
  • Since it offers many page results, it can sometimes make the page easily crash and slow in loading time.

Why We Recommend the “View More” Button

  1. “View More” button uses AJAX to load additional results quickly, while the rest of the page stays in place.
  2. The choice is not ambiguous.
  3. It allows users to view all choices at once without slow loading time.
  4. It is not intrusive visually, because it only has a single button at the bottom of the page. Also, it is easy to find the items they want to see, since they can easily find the button when they reach the end of the list.

While there is no grand perfection in the world, and there are times and circumstances where pagination might be a better choice, but if we’re talking about the practicality and time efficient, the “View More” button is the right choice. Of course, in order to achieve your web design goals, you have to know what you need in a website first and then adjust to each design to find out which one is the right choice for that.