There is a deceptively simple method of increasing sales that some of the top sites know about. Here is how to apply it to your site.

First an experience of mine which will help relate the point of this article...

I was recently in Washington DC on a business trip. A few of my friends and I came across a Piano Bar in Georgetown, just outside of D.C. It was a long day and I was tired. Truthfully I was wondering if I was in the right frame of mind for a piano bar, with people singing along with the piano player.

What powerful transformation happened?

I had quickly found my emotions conforming to those of the group. I found it hard not to be influenced by the fun that I was witnessing everyone else having.

Now the question is, how does this apply to your website?

Visitors to your site can be influenced by what they are viewing on your site. For example, you could affect their mood by having pictures of happy or smiling people on your site. I intentionally put smiling photographs with articles when it is appropriate.

"Don't Bring Me Down"

What subtle messages are your visitors picking up with this picture?

Just as you can affect someone's mood in a good way, you need to be careful about not "bringing down" your customer's mood when they come to your site.

As an example, have you ever walked into a room in a great mood, only to find everyone frowning about some bad news they just learned about? Your emotions change instantly from "everything's great" to "Uh oh, what's the matter?". This can happen without anyone saying anything.

That is the psychological power of visual cues to humans. You would find it hard to keep smiling with everyone frowning. Even if you didn't know what it was that they were frowning about. You would quickly lose the smile on your face.

I usually avoid any photographs that may send any subtle messages about being unsatisfied or someone having troubles.

Visual Cues

Its important to realize that people pickup many feelings and thoughts based on visual cues alone. Sometimes the expression on someone's face means more than what they actually say.

It is smart to keep this in mind as you develope your site.

Real World Examples

Now that you know about this, you will likely take notice of it pretty often. I did some quick surfing recently and came across these successful sites which appear to understand the importance of this concept.

A quick sampling of some sites which apply this technique

Applying This To Your Site

• Take a look at your site, if you have pictures on it, do they portray a positive attitude?
• Is there an opportunity to put some positive image pictures on your site?

If you are in need of some photographs which you can use, make sure you check out this article which explains a great source of stock photography.

I have a strong feeling that if you did some split testing of the results as explained in this article, the positive image pages will win out every time.