"Listen UP!"

I've been saying this repeatedly ... now, here's the PROOF!

"An overwhelming 77 percent of all consumers surveyed prefer to receive promotional messages from companies via email compared to five percent who prefer text messages and four percent who prefer Facebook. Email is also one of the most utilized apps on every smartphone - right up there with the phone, text messaging and the browser itself."

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"Avoid 4 Common Internet Scams"

In the latest issue of the magazine warns about some recent popular online scams that can steal your money, identity, or damage your computer. Here are four they mentioned, along with advice on avoiding them …

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"One BIG annoyance that Can Lose You Sales"

Several things are annoying me, these days. Nothing earth-shaking, but I can see why some people are losing online sales.

You may, or may not, agree with me. But, I know if one person is annoyed, it's always just the tip of the iceberg.

I think most of us use the Wild, Wild Web for research these days. Since so many sites are blog based now, I don't understand why this is a problem.

I find dates missing from blogs and articles. I can't tell when most of the articles were written. How current is this information? Half the time, I can't tell.

Now, if I want that information for something I'm writing myself, I need to know whether it's out-dated!

My next pet peeve is videos on web sites ...

On many news sites, I will watch a short video. Unfortunately, they slam an advertisement in front of me before what I want to see starts rolling.

I don't have the time – or the patience for that. So, I'm gone.

Now, I don't mind a short video at the top of a site that gives me a brief blurb about what the site is all about. But, the videos that really annoy me are where someone puts their mug on the upper fold and proceeds to tell me ALL about what's on the page!

These are always on sales pages. And, maybe they get a lot of illiterate visitors. I can't think of another reason why they would do this. It's distracting if you prefer to read the page – which I do. Always.

I can read a whole lot faster than they can give me their verbal sales pitch. I can listen to a radio or a television infomercial if I want to see and/or see someone. Online, I expect to read!

Part of the problem is so many people who make these videos “pad” them. They'll spend the entire first third of the presentation telling you what they are going to tell you. I've seen this is some writing too, but it's most prevalent in videos. The only reason I can think of that makes people think longer is better is ... everybody's a STAR!

Don't waste my time with this! Just tell me, fer cryin' out loud! The length of anything should be just as long as it takes to say what you need to say. Anything else is padding, irrelevant and annoying.