HOT: Don't do it!!!

How do you know when someone is serious about succeeding in this industry? When they go from an awful splash to a powerful thing of beauty like this splash page in the course of weeks. It shows dedication, both from the fact that he's obviously searched for, and found, a mentor; and that he's doing as he's told. The results are stunning, and if it was my place to do so, I'd give him a medal (though the money that will be made in the coming months will probably be more appreciated anyway :)).

Great job - the splash catches the eye, and immediately triggers an instinctive strong emotional response in the brain, which is an innovative idea that I don't really recall ever having seen yet. I'm willing to bet that a lot of people that surf without looking on a normal basis will find themselves scrolling down and reading the page (or at least a few lines of it) before they even realize that they're doing it.

I think that the bottom portion of the splash (not shown here, sorry) can still use some work, but after such a drastic improvement, I look forward to seeing what's next.

Seen first today at TS25

HOT: Caveman discovered the rock... and the laptop!

This is a great eyegrabber. It's cute and funny and that's the top priority a splash page needs to meet.

However, I don't know that I'd actually opt-in (despite the TRUSTe seal, which is a VERY powerful trust enhancer, and the "We haven't discovered spam" which is funny & trust building) for the form for a number of reasons. It's vague - I'm not sure what kind of information is being offered beyond "Make money online". Big friggen, whoop.

It's also a bit overdone. The smile face, the person (this is important for personal branding - but it's just adding to an already over-busy splash), the arrow and the money.

It's a great start and I think with a couple of bullets in the top-right part of the splash it can still be fixed

Seen first today at I Love Hits

HOT: I know you - you're the Ketchup guy!

Here's an example of great audio marketing. Do you all remember Paul, the Rice & Ketchup (above the headline, in reeed) guy? Apparantly I do. I was surfing and came across this site and saw abvsolutely nothing interesting about the page, so I clicked on. But as my hand was going for the button, I heard a familiar voice, and though my eyes were moving on, my ears picked up on that and my brain said "Hey, that's Paul the Ketchup Guy!"

So good work - 3 months of telling the world about rice & ketchup has marketed you (well, your voice) really well!

Seen first today at TS25

Update (1 hour later): So I was looking for a link to the ketchup and rice page (I found it here), and it turns out that it's not even the same Paul! Foolish me. But that doesn't make the audio branding any less effective.

HOT: Where do you stand?

Another classic example of a good use of splash pages. Anyone who's been around the TE industry for the past 3 months should only need to glance at this for a moment to think "TrafficEra" (it's branded in case you haven't been around that long - or have just been living under a rock). But it's different enough to grab attention which is what a splash is supposed to do. Good call to action, slick graphics. No personal branding, but hey - not every splash needs to do that. I like :)

Seen first today at Traffic Splash

NOT: I can type not english good

C'mon folks. The only reason I noticed this at all is because someone probably set this to 10 at TrafficEra. I don't have a problem with your not knowing English, but you have to realize that people looking at your site are native english speakers, and bad english projects unprofessionalism to them. If you've got something else to make up for it, good - but all you've got going for you in this splash is the text, so if you screw it up, you've got nothing!

Seen first today at TrafficEra

UPDATE: Apr-2-08

I just saw this again (at TS25) and was very pleasantly surprised to see a face and a name. The english is still bad, but now there's personal branding which makes a big difference. It's now HOT as far as I'm concerned. I can hope that this was due to seeing my post :)

HOT: Cindy Battye's a Copy Cat!

Fortunately for her, she's copying from herself - taking a good idea and making it better! I refer to, of course, the new spash page she has for TrafficBunnies which is a twist on the personalized splash page that I raved about last week. Unfortunately, my browser crashed whilst writing this (the first time) so I lost the URL. Feel free to post a pointer if you see this, Cindy!

Seen first today at TrafficEra

NOT: A 2 Year Birthday Celebration

This has annoyed me for a while (but it's harder to get NOTs than HOTs because I tend to instinctively click on so fast). I really don't understand how Traffic Roundup could possibly be celebrating their 5th birthday now, given the copyright notice at the bottom of the page (Copyright (c) 2006). Either their 5th birthday was in 2006 and they're still keeping this outdated splash up, or they started in 2006 and the 5th birthday isn't until 2011 (and I haven't been active in the TE community long enough to know one way or the other, but I assume the former is the correct assumption)

In all due fairness, I'm going to assume this is a really well converting splash which would explain why it's up, but still, I have a bone with such an obviously outdated ad - personally, it turns me off of the exchange because it subconciously associates them with "liar" in my head, regardless of their intentions. (NOTE, I'm not out to call the TE owner - or anyone else - a liar. I'm just stating what initially went through my head the first time I saw this splash...)

Seen first today at Traffic Era

HOT: What does YOUR list look like?

I didn't even know YourLuckyList had splash pages! Nothing like a good wad of bills to catch your attention and curiosity. Stark and simple, you can't notice anything else (and good timing with Solomon's "The Money Is In The List... We'll Give You A List!" campeign, without which many newbies wouldn't necessarily be familiar enough with the catchetism to "get it").

Seen first today at RejectXchange

HOT: Me & My Page

This is actually a bit late in posting (since it took me a day or so to figure out the whole thumbnail thing for myself), but these pages are amazing for personal branding, your website branding, AND TrafficBunnies branding. Big Kudos to Cindy from TrafficBunnies for this revolutionary concept - I'm sure we'll be seeing copycats fairly soon...



A+ job, Cindy!


Seen first today at Traffic Splash

HOT: Bringing back the boogie!

I loved this. The color and pictures stopped me in my tracks. 50% commissions gets the scent of money in the air to catch your brain's attention too (after the colors caught your eyes') and viola, I clicked the first time I saw it.

I just wish that the landing page was as good (I lasted all of 2 seconds there) :-(

First seen today at Traffic Era

HOT: The Live Business Center

This isn't anything new, but one of the nice things about the beginning of a blog is all of the "back posts" that I can get away with. I really dig this, and if I wasn't already involved with an MLM it would probably appeal to me.

I mean, all you seem to need is a headset, webcam and time (and everyone on the TE's has that) and the membership fee (I think $25 a month or so) and I've seen Jeff in action and he's a killer closer. I'm not quite sure what they do though (and I guess I'm not interested enough to watch their videos). But they've got a huge network of websites with content (and their monitor system) which is not cheap to run, so I assume there's good money to be made there... And any CEO of what seems to be a sucessful company who's regularly seen wearing sweats is worth listening to ;-)

http://www.funeasyprofits.com/

First seen today at I Love Hits

HOT: Ugly dog? I think not...

Wow. This is really freaky, but I love it. Great job with the superimposing, whoever did it! Everyone loves a cute doggie, everyone feels bad for a sad doggies, and all-too-human facial features are magnetic for our human eyes & brains.

The ad is for the new PayPal replacement that I've seen around (offering $5 referal bonuses, I think), which I personally distrust (I have no problem with PayPal skimming money off of my income as long as they're big and trustworthy enough to make people pay me).

If anyone takes him up on the $25 offer, I want a 10% finders fee ;-)

http://www.tetoolbox.com/splash/3407/

Seen first today at Traffic Era

HOT: Don't start a project unless you have the right resources

I love this picture :-) It's also big and bright and smack in the middle of the page where it does a wonderful job of attracting your attention. It wasn't enough to convince e to click on the ad, though, so not sure how well it's converting...

http://www.bizport.eu/nocturnal.php

First seen today at Traffic Era

HOT: You're surfing too fast!

OK. This is annoying as anything, but it's effective for that same reason. It's charm is the audio, so you'll need to head over to http://www.tetoolbox.com/r/ottawafs/ to get the full effect. It definately stops you in your tracks, which it should do (, even if it's just to find the annoying audio and turn it of, but that's equally effective).

Seen first today at TS25

NOT: Cat seriously needs to get laid

NO. NO. NO. NO. And NO! Have I made myself clear?

I don't know what the guy who made this intended it to look like, but I know what I think it looks like, and don't you dare call me a horny freak, because you know you thought the same thing yourself.

Seen first today at TrafficEra


P.S. The cat's new friend the weasel isn't much better...

NOT: Exposed enough for you?

Noone will click on the "surf next site" link without looking at this. Guaranteed. So why is this rated "NOT"?

Let's remember that beyond getting you to look, it's supposed to make you click, and in the TE world, more people than not are going to want a free lunch (or something that they perceive as easy). At least an opportunity for something free with a paid upgrade incentive.

But if I see that I have to pay, even $5, just to test this out? Forget it. I'll happily pay if it's worth it, but I want to try before I buy (if this is how I found you, at least).

Seen first today at TS25.

(N.B. There is admittedly another type of splash page whose purpose is served just by making you look, and that's personal branding, but this doesn't do such a hot job of branding WordLinx - it does it adequately, but that's about it.)

I love pages that highlight your name. I do this all the time on my splash pages, and it makes a HUGE difference. The human eye will immediately latch-on to that and will instinctively read around it a bit - just to see what context their own name is being used in. This is human instinct in everyone, and when properly done, generates incredible results! It doesn't matter what the content on the page is, having that one element automatically makes the page 10x more effective.

First seen today at Traffic Splash

HOT: More SouthPark.

OK, So we've already established that I love RejectXchange's new SouthPark theme. So what? It's funny (and a great quote - as long as you're a SouthPark fan - if you're not, you won't get it, so this isn't A+ quality even if it's HOT) :-)

First seen today at TrafficEra.

HOT: Don't fry your servers

I like this :-) Not sure if everyone understands what "Frying a Webserver" means (I do, but I'm a techie by background), but everyone should get the general gist. It's also personally branded which is always important, small splash page, takes you straight to a signup page (which is in line with the call-to-action of "Join Now").

A+

Seen first today at Traffic Splash

NOT: I don't *want* to be noticing this...

What can I say. Udders just don't turn me on (on a cow, anyway ;-)) And that's what pops out at me. I don't have anything against others, but this picture just seems to focused on them. I'm probably getting a bit carried away, but rather than wanting to click on it, I found myself waiting, counting every nanosecond, for the click timer (it was on TrafficEra and I clicked off at the count of 10!) to run out.

Seen first today at TrafficEra

HOT: SouthPark comes to RejectXchange!

Every one loves SouthPark (well, I do, and it's my blog so that's what counts :)) I was pleasantly surprised to see the characters pop up on RejectXchange (which has an awesome grand-opening deal, by the way, and I've found to be well worth spending some time surfing). Now all they need is a bonus page where you need to guess how many times Cartman says Kyle's mom is a b*tch!

Seen first today at RejectXchange

HOT: Scratch 'n' Win Cash-Pig

Everyone loves scratch'n'win games, and online is no exception. This cute page started all covered up with the headline "Scratch a Cash-Pig Card below to see if YOU win $20.00!" Now, I don't know if there IS such a prize, and I certainly wasn't expecting to win it, but it was fun to scratch :-)

My prize was the join form beneath, which may not be the smartest thing to do (I'd rather see you win "some free gift" with

some PLR "prize" and a link to "redeem" it after joining which would in turn go to the signup form). Cute gimmick, and everyone's likely to scratch once - if there really was a prize promotion (and it explained that) people might even scratch more than once, the next time they saw it!

As an unfortunate side-effect, signing up will break frames (and cause many TE surfbars to make trouble rather than letting you sign up).

The Cash Pig ScratchCard

Seen first today at TrafficEra

HOT: Stop Burning Your Money

OK, OK. So it's corny. So the burning money looks like a poor touchup job in photoshop. So what? It does the job it's supposed to do by catching your eye, and that makes it good advertising.

The only thing I dislike is the fact that this should be the squeeze page to allow access to the download, instead of going to yet another page (which is the squeeze page) - especially since the call to action is "Download Now", which it doesn't deliver on.

http://trafficexchangeprofits.ws/r/5daywkend/splash03.html

Seen first today at Dragon Surf