I received an email newsletter that included a link to a great article about how Perry Noble prepares sermons. Excellent content – the kind most Pastors love to consume.

I stopped reading after only one third of the article, not because it wasn’t good, but because of article pagination. Just look…

I immediately thought, “I should have known.” This particular website is locked into some outdated marketing principles that say “offer good content, but smatter it with monetization.” Let me tell you why paginating your articles is, in my opinion, bad marketing mojo…

1. It stinks from a usability standpoint. If I click the page numbers out of order, my browser’s back and forward buttons now create an illogical puzzle, and why should I have to click a link to read more twice during a single article?
2. It messes with the sharable nature of the content. If I’m on page three and tweet the current url, it’s a different url than the article’s actual primary url.
3. It costs more server load. Yes, the pages can be cached, but some elements will still load on every click. Thankfully, I have broadband.
4. The two-fold purpose is obvious: 1.) get three pageviews instead of one, thereby decreasing bounce rates and increasing the marketability of advertising spots, and 2.) make me look at more ads (which are wallpapered all over this site).

So the excuse I hear so often is that you get more content above the fold with pagination. I would argue that I still have to scroll some and scrolling really isn’t as much of a problem as loading another page. The other excuse is that it breaks content into more readable chunks. Baloney.

The bottom line is that modern content consumers are more savvy than ever before in their understanding of how websites work. It doesn’t take much more than common sense for me to realize I’m just a marketing target and you’re dying to get me to see more ads, click more ads, and sell more ads for your business.

I’m not against monetizing content. I monetize content myself and also work hard to accomplish that goal for clients. But please, please realize that your bad marketing mojo with it’s immediate “click” payoff really just turns me into an untrusting skeptic. It really seems to me that developing untrusting skeptics is the opposite of good marketing. I’m a brand loyalist but I’m only loyal to brands I trust.

Watch your marketing mojo!

Dear Google Reader,

All I want for Christmas is a tiny little “mark as read” checkbox. Today I was in meetings all day. I’m in my room with 250 items to read and here’s my dilemma…

If I “mark all as read” I miss important stories. If I “expand all” I have to do way too much scrolling, and loading. If I expand each item one at a time, well, it’s a pain.

I just want to judge a story by its title and mark it as read (or more appropriately, I don’t think I’m ever gonna want to read this one). That way, I can close my browser halfway through and when I open it up again, I have the other half, not the other half plus the hundred I didn’t read, and still don’t want to.

Just one little box…

That’s right – great design work can sometimes be counterproductive to effective storytelling. Seth Godin addresses this point in his blog on The first question every web site designer must ask. His basic conclusion is that some organizations need for the public to stand in awe of the design, but some don’t. The design can distract people from the story. How do you feature the right stuff?

• Begin with the content in mind.
• Consider the end user at every turn.
• Focus on ease of navigation before style.
• Trust the client / organization when it comes to their story.
• Choose your style wisely: loud, elegant, clean, techie, etc.
• Strip the design down to that which is necessary to the brand story.
• Respond to user feedback, but get a large sampling before making major changes.

Your portfolio is actually the last of all factors to consider, so don’t fall to the temptation to use someone else’s project to feature your own genius. But don’t forget to entertain your inner genius either. Be great, but be humble.

I’ve just finished reading an excellent and very comprehensive post at Vandelay Design’s site about at least seventeen ways your web site communicates with your users. I wanted to pass it along – it’s a lot to think about, which is one of the reasons I still stand agains the get-it-done-quick-and-cheap approach to having an online presence. Read it here.