Re: [epub] Is ezine link clickability really a big deal?

[Ravi Jayagopal <ravi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The web is all about bringing "a world of information" to your fingertips.

It would be hard for me to even imagine a web (or a newsletter) without 
hyperlinks.

Imagine having to cut-n-paste every single link into my browser - WHOA!! - 
nothing would be more nightmarish for me than having to do something like that!

 >>Personally, I read most ezines offline and
 >>don't click on links in them.

When people do this to save bandwidth (ISP costs are extremely expensive in 
many countries), then there is not much the publisher (of the ezine) can do 
about it.

The ezine is meant to provide the subscriber with exclusive information 
about a product or service, but at the same time, be short and concise and 
not run into tens of pages (that would be boring, ineffective and make the 
ezine extremely long and bulky - resulting in more ISP costs) and provide 
them with a "Click here for more information" resource link for those who 
are interested in details of that article/offer/piece of information.

>I'm curious to know if someone has (or knows of)
>data on just how many readers CLICK on clickable links
>in ezines, versus cut and paste them into a browser
>window?

Q : How many times were my links (bannners) clicked on?
A: There are many software and web sites available which can provide you 
with these exact statistics.

Q: Were they clicked on or directly cut and paste into the browser?
A: Can't say (as far as I know), mainly because both of them accomplish the 
same thing and will not provide the link tracking software with details 
about the referring page, because technically, they're both new "http" 
requests.

>If there's something I
>like, or am interested in, I either cut-and-paste them
>into a folder for later browsing or write down the URL
>on a piece of paper.

This is every publisher's nightmare. We all want people to click on the 
links as soon as they read our ezine, visit our web site, and purchase our 
product immediately :-)

Out of sight is out of mind. I don't know how many hundreds of sites I've 
bookmarked wanting to go there 'later' - that 'later' never comes - not for 
me, not for most people, anyway.

>Obviously one of the reasons HTML ezines are being so
>strongly praised is the clickability of links, but is
>it really such a big deal?

Not just HTML ezines - the web itself is what it is today only because of 
hyperlinks - links are what make the web so powerful.

A newsletter without links is like trying to work your computer without a 
mouse.
You could - but it would make life darn difficult!

So, IMHO, links really 'ARE' the *biggest deal*.

My 3 cents :-)

Ravi Jayagopal
My Portfolio - http://www.BabyNamesIndia.com/portfolio.html



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