Secrets to Longevity?

"People who don't smoke, are physically active, drink alcohol in moderation, and eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables a day live 14 years longer, on average, than those with none of these attributes." The conclusion is based on an 11-year study of 20,000 people. —UC Berkeley Wellness Letter, U.S.A.

50 Ugliest Auto Designs

Looking at really bad design is fun! I got a kick out of an article in Business Week of the Fifty Ugliest Cars of the Past 50 Years. I think the choices made are dead-on. The Hummer is on the list, as well as the Cadillac Escalade, two of the most recent monstrosities to come out of Detroit. I personally loved the design of the Delorean however, and don't agree with its place on the list. It was a pretty exotic design for its day although it may seem a bit dated now. See if your clunker made it to the list!

Consumers Hate Slow Loading Web Sites

I know how you think. You are convinced that the world is waiting with baited breath to see the spinning, gyrating, blinking, 'thingamabob' you insist must be on your home page. So, you tell your web designer to make it work, confident that any potential customer visiting your web site will be hopelessly smitten by the spinning, gyrating, blinking, 'thingamabob' on your home page. Your web designer adds it to your site . . . But it comes with a high price. That slow loading Flash animation keeps visitors waiting 20, 30 seconds or more. Worse, it may be causing you to lose customers! Here is proof:

The Gomez Survey, which was conducted in December of 2009, found that the vast majority of consumers expected web pages to load quickly regardless of what time of year the site was visited, and that goes for travel, retail and most any other type of "serious" site. If it's a business, and it's online, consumers expect near-instant page loads. Anything less, and all sorts of bad things begin to happen.

The Gomez survey had the following findings:

•A third of online shoppers had a bad experience on a retail Web site during the recent 2009 Holiday shopping season and 15 percent found the problem to be “unacceptable.”
•These bad online experiences caused nearly one in five online shoppers to shop at another site.
•In general, 41 percent of online shoppers will only tolerate one or two bad online experiences before abandoning a retailer’s Web site.

Do you want to attract online customers? Dump the Flash and give them a fast-loading website. At Newark1.com we have been giving our clients that advice for years. Prompt service is even more important online if you want to make the sale!