TMBA 204 – “Above the Fold is Dead” – 8 Design Tips For Non Designers

On Thursday mornings at 8AM EST, we publish the Tropical MBA Podcast (iTunes link).

You might have noticed that as we’ve been combining our two websites into one (we are gradually moving “Lifestyle Business Podcast” content over to this domain), we have been changing some of the design elements of this site. During this process, my good friend Jon Myers has been giving me hell about it. “Your site looks dated! 

And I can’t deny it. This guy knows what he is talking about. So I decided to invite him on the show this week to walk us through an 8 point checklist. How can entrepreneurs improve the performance of their websites?

On the show this week:

• What Mark Manson changed in his site’s branding and design that increased sales by %50 !
• Why “above the fold” design is dead.
• What most business owners don’t understand about the role of color and imagery on their sites.
• The concept of “site hierarchy,” and why it’s at the core of great design.

People on this episode:

• Jon Myers – Twitter / Website / Online Portfolio
• Mark Manson – Twitter / Website
• Dan & Ian

A quick look at some imagery on Jon’s personal site.

Mark optimized his site for the reading experience.

Here’s some site designs Jon loves:

• Mailchimp
• Campaign Monitor
• Sumall
• Triplagent
• Shopify
• Medium
• 6WunderKinder
• AirBnB
• Great landing page from AppSumo – “How to Make Your First Dollar”

Resources for designers:

• Typecast.com
• Treehouse
• The Future of Web Design Conference
• Codepen
• “Why Pageless Design is the Future of the Web“
• “The Web is All About Typography Period”

What we’re excited about this week:

• “Why You Should Stop Working at 12 Noon Everyday”
• “A New Metric For Thinking About SaaS Cancelation”
• “SaaS Metrics Guide to Saas Financial Performance”

Listening options:

• Subscribe via iTunes.
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• Or click here to get sent to the top of the page where the on-site player is.

Thanks for listening to our show! We’ll be back next Thursday morning 8AM EST.

Cheers,

Dan & Ian

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