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I’ll be speaking on a panel at the Politics Online conference next Tuesday (register here) on the topic of “Does Good Design Matter” in the context and political/advocacy websites. The panel was put together by Colin Delaney of e-politics and will also feature Margaux O’Malley (Grand Junction Design) and Susan Finkelpearl (Free Range Studios).

In thinking about this topic, one example from our work on the Fred Thompson campaign where good design didn’t matter immediately jumped to mind.

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Last week on Thursday, February 21, a 6.0 earthquake rocked northern Nevada and was felt in Idaho and Utah as well.  In response, the Salt Lake Tribune wrote a traditional article about the event.  However, its coverage didn't stop there.

The paper decided to ask readers who felt the quake to describe what they noticed and where they were at the time.  These responses were mapped on a MapBuilder map to give a graphic representation of where people felt the earth shake. 

In Monday's E-Media Tidbits column, Amy Gahran of The Poynter Institute highlighted this nifty map.  Kim McDaniel of the Tribune explained to her that this map wasn't originally designed to examine the quake; it was originally used in November to show where holiday lights were located in the Salt Lake area.  After the quake hit, she and her team had a great idea and implemented it.

It is very important to note that newspapers of all sizes can launch great interactive tools.  This ability is not reserved for large papers like the New York Times that can create sexy flash presentations like the one about box office data that Todd mentioned yesterday. 

Granted, it is easier said than done, but creativity and fast thinking — sometimes coupled with services like MapBuilder — can go a long way for any newspaper trying to report better and connect with its audience in meaningful ways.

So while reaching the $21 billion plateau for the first time sounds great, the growth of internet ad revenues is also slowing down.

The data, collected by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, suggests revenues grew an estimated 25 percent last year, up from $16.9 billion in 2006. That’s a whole 10 percentage points lower than the previous year’s growth.  Even the dollar figure was lower, with a $4.2 billion increase compared to $4.3 billion in 2005.

The increasingly torpid growth was forecasted by many analysts though. As the internet continues to soak up more of the advertising stream, this has meant less money for traditional outlets like newspapers. Still, the internet only occupies about 10 percent of all American ad spending, which means plenty of room for growth, albeit slower.

There are some variables that may contribute to the slowdown in growth not accounted for IAB's figures. We’re arguably in a recession, and one of the first things companies do when the pockets get thin is cut ad spending. Some of the big boys like MSN, Yahoo!, and AOL are even having a rough go of it lately.

A full breakdown of the numbers is expected to be released by the Interactive Advertising Bureau in May.

One thing I am seeing more and more of on newspaper websites are interactive features that provide rich ways to look at otherwise flat data. Today, Gary forwarded me a great example from the New York Times website. Check out The Ebb and Flow of Movies: Box Office Receipts 1986 – 2007, an interactive piece that shows box office receipts by month/movie for the last twenty years. This Flash piece is really well done, and is definitely the kind of thing that will get past around and get eyeballs to the Times website. It also provides ways to discover other Times content, as when you click on the movie names you get a little pop up window that provides a summary of what the movie is about and a link to a full review.

I was excited to see Tina Fey host Saturday Night Live over the weekend since the episode basically marked the return of new scripted TV after the writers’ strike ended (further, it is helping me stave off the cravings for new 30 Rock). After laughing during most of the skits, I visited the SNL site on nbc.com to watch the “I drink your milkshake” skit again, and that’s when I noticed the official SNL wiki.

Of course, there are already other SNL wikis — like the one on Wikia — but I was a little surprised to see one on NBC’s site. Don’t get me wrong, I see the value of such a feature for a popular TV show website, but it seems to me that SNL doesn’t attract a crowd that is inclined to use wikis like the audience of a science fiction show like Star Trek. Granted, a wiki doesn’t need too many people to thrive, but why does NBC think that SNL needs a wiki before another show like ER or one of the Law & Order series? (more…)

My post yesterday about the use of images in email got me thinking about what the best days or times are for doing bulk email sends. There really isn’t one answer, as each list is unique and finding the best times is a matter of trial and error. But I’ll take a shot at providing some general guidelines.

Based on my own experiences and everything I’ve read, for business to business emails (or any list that consists mostly of work addresses) the best days are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

The rationale for this is pretty simple. Most people don’t check their business email accounts on Saturdays or Sundays. On Mondays people tend to be in heavy delete mode, as they try to clear all the email that has accumulated over the weekend. On Fridays, people tend to be less focused, as they look forward to the weekend. Friday is also an extremely popular day of the week to take off, meaning your email could end up not being seen until Monday.

In terms of time for business-focused email, it is best to send email out during normal business hours. If you send your email before or after work hours, there is a good chance folks won’t see the email as they try to clear their email queue first thing in the morning and go into delete mode. Assuming you are trying to reach a US audience, I think between 12:00 and 4:00 EST is the best time, as you’ll catch people at work in all time zones.

For business to consumer emails (or any list made up mostly of personal email accounts), the situation is more fluid. Some studies show that these audiences tend to be more responsive to emails sent after work hours and on Fridays and weekends, as this is when people tend to check personal email accounts.

It makes sense – lots of people with desk jobs might not check their personal email accounts during the day and others don’t even really use email in their jobs. Just as importantly, business to consumer email tends to be about action. You want users to buy something or enter your contest or whatever. Most people are more comfortable performing those type of activities on their personal computers during their off hours.

My sense though is that there is more room for error for business to consumer emails in terms of time/date. In my experience, volume to personal accounts is lower and spam tends to be less of a problem. So I don’t think people get as delete happy as they do with their corporate email accounts.

Ultimately though, every list is different. Email Labs suggests looking at when people register for your list and trying to send during the days/time you get the most sign ups. But the best way to figure out when to send is through trial and error. Try sending out messages on different days at different times and see when you get the best open and click through rates. This will allow you to figure out your own best practices for your list.

We’ve written a bit here about how some of the Presidential campaigns this cycle have embraced stripped down emails that don’t include a lot of images or fancy formatting. In that previous post, the focus was on how this format can make emails seem more personal, and not on the technical reasons to avoid using a lot of images. Josh Levy’s post yesterday about John McCain’s email mistakes inspired me to look at the issue from a more technical perspective.

The most compelling reason to limit the use of images in HTML emails is that tons of people are never going to see them. Some people actively turn off images. Others don’t see them because their email programs turn them off by default (Campaign Monitor has a great chart showing a breakdown). Some people work at companies that block images in emails to save bandwidth/stop porn. And yet more people are accessing email on cell phones that can’t read images. I have yet to see a percentage I trust completely, but it is estimated that somewhere between 25 and 50 percent of email users block at least some images in HTML emails. That is a lot.

Speaking anecdotally, I’m a lot less likely to see images in email than I did a year ago. At work we upgraded recently to Outlook 2007 which has images blocked by default. I never changed the setting and now follow the process of opting in to see images based on whether I trust the sender. I use Gmail for my personal email and follow the same procedure. (You really should check out that chart breaking down default settings for major email clients.)

So what to do. Stop using images altogether? Use them sparingly? Although a bit old, the useful Campaign Monitor blog provides a great guide to email design. Here are their six tips on how to send emails that actually gets to the recipient in a readable format:

1. Never use images for important content like headlines, links and any calls to action.
2. Use alt text for all images for a better experience in Gmail and always add the height and width to the image to ensure that the blank placeholder image doesn’t throw your design out.
3. Add a text-based link to a web version of your design at the top of your email.
4. Ensure your most compelling content is at the top (and preferably to the left).
5. Test your design in a preview pane, full screen and with images turned on and off before you send it.
6. Ask your subscriber to add your From address to their address book at every opportunity.

Anyone that has sent bulk emails out knows that it is a really stressful thing. Even if you do your job perfectly (no typos, valid web links, good HTML, etc.), your email is going to be garbled for at least a small percentage of people who have weird settings or are using funky email clients (Hello Lotus Notes). And those small percentage of people will inevitably complain to your boss’ best friend from high school and you’ll hear about it.

Given the high probability for mistakes, email is really a format where you need to keep things simple. If you have to use images, design the email so that it will degrade gracefully if images are turned off. The emails we design that use images typically look like an online version of letter head, with a single header image. If you keep it simple, you’ll get yelled out less for supposed mistakes and your click through rates will increase since more people will be able to actually see the content of your message.

Note: I just saw this post from Michael Whitney at Tech President that looks at the use of email by Presidential candidates and expands on Campaign Monitor’s tips. Great minds. Give it a read, as it goes into things in a bit more depth than my post.

My friend David Cohn has written an excellent post about social bookmarking sites.  His aim is to coax journalists into using these sites to better research, report, and reach out to their audience.  Although the post has a journalistic focus, it does an excellent job of explaining the differences between the user bases of several major sites that virtually anyone interested in social media will learn from.

As someone who has spent some time on sites like digg, reddit, and Newsvine, I know how different these sites — and perhaps more importantly, their users — are.  That’s why reading David’s post can help the uninitiated since he explains the specific appeal, audiences, and objectives of the sites he spotlights.  The fact that he explains the objective and niche of these sites is really valuable since this helps the uninitiated more efficiently select a site that best meets their needs.

Although I’ll admit that at times I feel overwhelmed by the seemingly endless list of bookmarking sites that pop up, I do see utility in the major ones that David features.