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So, should you use a carousel, those rotating hero images now found at the top of most B2B and B2C websites?

The answer is "carefully."

This clever little site illustrates the reasons rotating banners are so frustrating. The timing, the amount of text and the order all come into play.

We have been able to tune a rotating hero on an ecommerce site so that it outperformed a static image. But it took several test cycles and didn't work in every case.

Have a little chuckle at yourself and enjoy the content on this site -- if you can read fast.

@tim_ash doesn't mince words, and his post on the pitfalls of stock photogrphy is no exception. "Marketers have turned to stock imagery as a crutch - hastily grabbing an image off the web rather than taking the time to develop an effective page design that will move visitors into the conversion funnel," he says.

Read on to learn how to NOT be one of these hasty marketers.

Do you get a shot of adrenaline every time you see an uptick in conversions? We do. However, we often find our early excitement tempered when a test turns out to be inconclusive.

It can be hard to announce to a customer that you didn't find a winner. In fact, it's a discipline here.

Find out what you can do to keep from getting addicted to good test results.

 @peeplaja has put into one blog post most of the hard lessons we've learned over the years of testing here in the Conversion Lab. Peep doesn't mince words ("There is no best color").

Don't let all of this scare you. It's better to try and learn from your mistakes than to not make any mistakes at all. Test away!

Rotating headers, called "sliders" are losing their favor on landing pages. Ultimately, this is a good thing. But these hedges don't have to be conversion killers.

In the article's summary of our tests on sliders, we've been able to make rotating hero images work by first testing the order. A large part of the increase in revenue per visit was from putting the most important panels first.

Notice that the two panels that delivered the best result were offer oriented (Same Day Shipping and Super Saver Shipping). It's possible that we could remove the conceptual panels ("Make a bold outdoor impression" and "Leader in digital mesh banner printing") without impacting the revenue per visit. This would save some load time.

HDRC provides Tally Data Recovery Services and helps in recovering your lost password of important tally data without any time loss with in an hour.

Thousands of directories are available on the Internet to connect you with a number of sites. Some Paid and some Free online directories are available for this purpose. Some directories take one time fee while some take reoccurring fee. When you make a submission to a paid or free directory, then your site is also accessible with these sites by the search engine. By directory submission, you can be confident of getting traffic on your site. In this way you can enhance the Google Page Rank for site as well as your SERP also grows up. Directory Submission helps in creating relevant and long lasting link building.

by @chiefmartec It's time to stop making excuses. Most interesting to me is the UX Fund, that invested in companies commited to design and user experience. They outpaced the market by over the past five years. Scott also puts a nail in the excuses: "We want to be simple, like Google", "It pays to be cheap," and "The CMO doesn't get it."

I rarely find "Top Ways" lists for which I agree with everything. This one is spot on, 12 times out of 12. If you are running a blog, these are the things to look at (and I need to make some adjustments to The Conversion Scientist blog).

Part 2 of Stéphane Hamel's Web Analytics primer. Warning: Beware of averages in time series.

 @ReelSEO Having just completed my first two videos for my up-coming book, I was grateful to have these nine reminders of what makes video convert.

It's about time I started investing in video. The research and case studies I've read show that video is a powerhouse conversion tool, in almost all industries, B2B and B2C. Video isn't to boost your ego (although I like putting a little of myself in the footage). It has a job to do. These nine will help you get results.

Shopping Cart abandonment is one of the first places we look when helping e-commerce sites increase their conversion rates. Why spend time and money optimizing a site if the buyers can't get through a shopping cart? Pricing and shipping offers are two issues we have to address at a strategic level. Here is a very informative article from @SeeWhyInc. I particularly like their cart value vs. abaondment rate graphs. Check them out.

 @KISSmetrics - Google Analytics has become a very important tool in helping us diagnose your site and increase conversions. I'm spending much more of my time showing businesses how to setup Google Analytics to give them amazing insights into their visitors. This list is pretty intense, but if you're getting up the learning curve on GA, it can't be beat.

A new tool for our online conversion lab! Facebook is apparently going to give us more insight into the behavior of individuals on our Facebook pages. The more we know about the success of these pages, the better decisions we can make about spending our marketing time and dollars on social media.

Despite all the hype, social networks are not a panacea for businesses, and many are putting too many resources into them without knowing the payoff.

Conversion math is sometimes hard to understand. How can really small increases in website conversion rates LOWER the cost of all f my marketing? Well, that is a discussion for another time. Now you don't have to think so hard about it.

Google has laid it out very clearly: If your landing pages are good, they will send you more traffic for less money. You don't have to be a math genius to figure out the importance of conversion optimization anymore.

Ready to take conversion seriously? Finally? If you want a great place to start, here are fifty bit-sized posts to get you started up the learning curve. I even got a mention. There are lots of ways to increase the performance of your website, and this list is organized into very helpful categories. Spend some time here.

Ready to take conversion seriously? Finally? If you want a great place to start, here are fifty bit-sized posts to get you started up the learning curve. I even got a mention. There are lots of ways to increase the performance of your website, and this list is organized into very helpful categories. Spend some time here.

Boomers spend more time and money online than any other demographic.

 @CrazyEgg If you asked 14 conversion experts what they consider important for increasing the performance of a website, you would learn a great deal in a short time. This article delivers, with some very smart people (including me) weighing... for you.

@widerfunnel "We have tested rotating offers many times and have found it to be a poor way of presenting home page content." Enough said.

Businesses love rotating banners because they are cowards. They are afraid of picking something and running with it. They don't want to lose a chance to get everyone. Well, when you try to sell to everyone, you sell to no one. If you won't listen to me, please, read Chris Goward's article. When it comes to testing, the Wider Funnel people konw what they're doing.