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This article on ebooks comes at an important time at Conversion Sciences as we put the final touches on a unique ebook of our own (preorder Business Video Through the Eyes of Your Prospects).

Content is the way you charge and release the power stored in your marketing batteries (customer lists, email lists, social media networks).

And don't forget that ebooks now outsell print books.

 @smexaminer While images are important for social media to help break through the noise, they are also very important on our landing pages, home pages and other web pages.

Unfortunately, we often resort to what I call "business porn" in my book. Business porn includes stock photos of multi-racial smiling people, of graphs going up and to the right, and of cheerful women with headsets.

So if you are struggling with what to use for visuals on your site or in your emails, here are 26 excellent ideas. 

If you've ever wondered what "business porn" is, this post covers pretty much all of it.

The superhero, the running businessman, the meaningless graph, and the sexy business hottie.

If I was to add one more, it would be the suited handshake.

Megan Leap is available to take a look at your website and online strategy.

We've been studying business video in the lab using eye-tracking equipment. Cisco offers some very helpful tips on how to choose the right video for your business. 
You can request to be notified when our ground-breaking study is complete. 

If you're a frequent reader of our blogs, you won't be surprised by this report from Custora stating that email is a more effective marketing channel than social networks.

In fact, I say in my book that email is the biggest social network on the planet. Business people plan their days by their inbox. They program audible notifications when new items come into their inbox. It's not smart, but it's true.

Of course, this doesn't mean that you should send self-promotional crap. That won't work in email, mail or social media. But certainly don't eliminate email from your marketing mix.

Bryan and Jeffery Eisenberg often say, "You can't read the label from inside the bottle." It means that you can't really see the solution to a problem if you're too close to it.

This may be a good argument for bringing in consultants for your most important business processes. After working with a client for a year or more, we often find ourselves inside the bottle with them and have to get outside influences to read the label.

Apparently, there is a firm psychological principle at work here that can be measured. What does the label say on your business bottle?

I love it when designers talk about hypotheses and tests. "I use this process to help teams frame their work as a business problem to solve (rather than a solution to implement) and then dissect that business problem into its core assumptions. We then weave those assumptions into hypotheses. Finally, we design experiments to test our riskiest hypotheses."

In their own words:8. Conversion Sciences Blog Conversion Sciences is another A/B testing conversion optimization agency that has stood the test of time (it was founded in 2007). In this blog you can find some remarkable and noteworthy ideas about A/B testing and conversion optimization. What to read: AB Testing JavaScript: Great Power, Great ProblemsHow to Avoid Mobile-Friendly Redesign DisastersAB Testing Inspiration: Using Emotional TriggersHow Google Reviews Drive Conversions for Local Businesses

Our pages must persuade. This is even true of B2B sales, where we feel we must speak like an adult to other business people. When we speak like an adult we lose our ability to persuade, much as a parent has little ability to persuade a teenager... of anything. Here are eight terms that thrive in business writing that keep us from persuading the visitors who WANT to be persuaded. They have a choice to make. Help them make it.

 @flabastida lists ten "steps" for a "Total Content Approach." Taking these all together, it becomes clear that a business or a brand is fully realized only through its content. We can no longer rely on slogans and manipulation. A brand now has hopes, fears and dreams. Businesses must express opportunity as well as possibility. Don't worry. Our customers are there to help us understand ourselves.

@neilpatel collects some of the most interesting eye-tracking images available and provides seven insights that can help you design your pages and choose images. We have done our own eye-tracking study of business video and you can get the full report now. The report offers similar conclusions for the use of video in a landing page. It includes over 30 minutes of embedded video that you can watch yourself.

Neil's conclusions include:Be careful you you use [images of] peopleThat people love media (especially on search results pages)That men and women look at images differentlyThat simple images can be more effectiveThe power of the left side of the pageThe power of facesThat people love hand-written notes (my favorite)Enjoy the images he provides.

 @trackur takes a bold position to take for a social media tool. Spoiler alert: the one metric they suggest you obsess over if Conversion.
You see, conversions is why your business is, well, in business. We couldn't agree more.

Google Analytics can intimidate business managers, but it really is a tool to help business managers answer important questions. This overview from @lisabarone gives you  an idea of some of the good questions you can be asking your Web team to help you guide your online investments.

We are honored to be on the list of Ecommerce Platform's top 100 Business Blogs. There are some amazing blogs on this list. You should check them out and add them to your Flipboard.

I love the way The Conversion Scientist looks on Flipboard.

Dustin Sparks is another fixture in the Conversion epicenter we have here in Austin, an epicenter that includes both Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg.

Dustin provides a very comprehensive and easy to consume list of the landing page mistakes that are costing businesses money across the Web. To find out how you can get a free copy of the Kindle edition of my new book join my Friends of the Author list now.

 @peeplaja "People have an infinite attention span if you are entertaining them."

I get a lot of questions about sales letter styled landing pages. Do they work? Do I need to write that much?

My stock answer is that they do work, but that your copywriter needs to know what they are doing. These kind of landing pages typically work with visitors that already know and follow your business.

Peep says it best: "Buyers are readers." There is more wisdom in this entertaining post.

.@ConversionXL: The best UX designers are using low-cost behavioral tools to make better decisions about design on business websites. Here, we learn that the trend in "Ghost Buttons" is probably bad for sites that want conversions.

One of the things we rely on our designers for is their knowledge of how font typeface, size and color work on our pages. This is a nice primer for marketers and business owners who want to understand this skill a little better.

I geeked out a bit on this. It's a fascinating discussion of how online experimentation fits into the broader picture of business experimentation. Great references and links.

A great list for designers of experiences, as designers of live.