For the Online Service, the home page is a Landing Page. It's job is to sell the trial. Here is a good example of an effective home page, complete with the opinions of fourteen smart conversion marketers.

 @Hubspot-One of the Unexpected Formulas from my new book is: "Choice is a conversion killer." How is that? Don't buyers want choice?

It turns out that choice requires us to delay our decision to say "yes." Tell your visitors which choice to make, why that is a good choice, and why you are the best company to supply that choice.

For those of us with short attention spans, here is almost every best practice in conversion each described in two sentences or so.

I particularly appreciated the distinction of "Lift Versus Shift."

Why is conversion testing important? Well, get 12 experts in a room and you'll not find a great deal of agreement on what is right and wrong with a web page.

I will add that, had we all been given access to analytics, we would have come to some more common conclusions. Measure and test.

If you want to understand the importance of charging your marketing batteries TODAY, just listen to Seth Godin, who has been building a following for a decade with daily blog posts, books and presentations: "[Kickstarter is] the LAST step, not the first one. I started working on this Kickstarter 9 or 10 years ago. That's the way you maximize your results. Dig your well before you're thirsty."

Seth was able to raise well over $100,000 to fund his new book using Kickstarter. He didn't set out to do that nine or ten years ago. When you've got a list and have built a relationship with its members, you can invite them to participate in new things as they arise. Start now.

I've put forth in my new book that adding social media icons to a landing page is a bad idea. I get a lot of pushback on this. Here's some support for my position. Simplicity sells. "Engagement" doesn't. This article highlights three components that consumers need to make it easier to buy. They need to trust the information they receive.They need to learn effectively without distraction.They need to be able to weigh options confidently. Help your visitors choose and choose confidently. Worry about your social media strategy after the sale.

 @gaspland The customer equation for an Online Store seems to be the least content intensive, with online proprietors being satisfied with manufacturer stock photos of products. High converting online stores, however, take pains to help the visitor "touch and taste" their wares. Here are some great ideas on how to generate content for your online store.

Barry Feldman @FledmanCreative leads this article off with a most vivid depiction of our end goal: "Start with a dead mouse." This is the ultimate goal of our content marketng. We want to accomplish something. The rest is equally as creative. My new book discusses content in the conversion process at length. I hope it is as entertaining as Barry.

The folks at ConversionVoodoo give us two simple questions we should ask before creating a landing page. The "elephant in the room" here is that one landing page probably isn't going to work, as different people respond to different ads, and thus need a different landing page. What you know about them will make all the difference in your conversion rates.

Video has a relatively small part in my book, so I wanted to give you some more depth with this article by Joe Watson.

One of the things that freezes us when we're going to do video is the question, "what will we do?" From a conversion standpoint, the question is, "what will we test?" This implies more than one version of a video. There are ways to cut a video to test for length, style and focus, but testing implies multiple treatments. That's why we've been offering a video piloting service called Video Science.

Storyboarding may be the thing that gets you past considering. I know it works for me.

I only touch on the issue of Mobile Apps in my new book Your Customer Creation Equation. So I'm happy to share this very helpful infographic on Mobile websites vs. Mobile apps.

Is it just me, or is it clear that mobile websites are the way to go (except in extreme situations)?

In my upcoming book, I make the case that email is preferable to social media for storing market attention. You might think that, in the era of mobile devices, my preference for email may seem quaint.

Think again.

Clearly, mobile devices and email go together like milk and Cap'n Crunch cereal. Only healthier. Enjoy these stats and keep that email coming!

I only touch on the issue of Mobile Apps in my new book Your Customer Creation Equation. So I'm happy to share this very helpful infographic on Mobile websites vs. Mobile apps.

Is it just me, or is it clear that mobile websites are the way to go (except in extreme situations)?

How is this touching video different from your corporate press release? In every way. "The Human Voice is Unmistakeable." In Your Customer Creation Equation (coming in June) I make the point that your business should be using the content it naturally makes to feed your audience.

Clearly Michael Lazerow is good with an iPad and Keynote.

What are you good with?

It is a great sign that @SEOMoz included Conversion in their grand plan for Content Marketing. This infograph considers conversion a key component of content marketing, but in my upcoming book on conversion I make content a key part of conversion marketing. Different approaches, same result.

Enjoy the Infograph.

I'll be presenting on Killer Conversion Copy at @convcon in Chicago, and one of my basic premises is "Killer copy comes from killer copywriters." If you are deciding how get your site to perform better, this list of copywriter attributes is spot on.

You can still save on Conversion Conference Chicago June 25-26. I hope to see you there.

This is a very geeky look at what makes video go viral. Very geeky. That's why I love it. Dr. Brent Coker introduces us to the Branded Viral Movie Predictor (BVMP). Yes, it even has an acronym. If you've considered doing a video in the hopes that it might "go viral," read this first and be sure you have the appropriate doses of congruency, emotive strength, network involvement and paird meme synergy. Don't you love science?

This is a very geeky look at what makes video go viral. Very geeky. That's why I love it. Dr. Brent Coker introduces us to the Branded Viral Movie Predictor (BVMP). Yes, it even has an acronym. If you've considered doing a video in the hopes that it might "go viral," read this first and be sure you have the appropriate doses of congruency, emotive strength, network involvement and paird meme synergy. Don't you love science?

 @KISSMetricsYou want to have a high-converting website. You really do. I'm not kidding.

It makes all of your marketing much cheaper by turning more of your paid and organic traffic into sales. It grows your business more efficiently because your visitors are finding what they want. It gets you off of the "more traffic" treadmill so you can focus on providing great products or great services.

Here is another awesome summary of the things you could be doing to make your site convert better.

Consistency is key in conversion. Automation helps us stay consistent. That is why I like this article from Christopher S. Penn. Best takeaway: Install "Shortcode Exec PHP"