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The debate that never seems to go away resurfaces over at Copyblogger. To "click here" or not to click here. That is the question.

Wouldn't read more, continue to the next page, get a free ice cream sundae, something... anything, more accurately describe this link, thinks the good-natured web designer.

Well, maybe... just because "click here" proved successful in this circumstance doesn't mean we should start screaming it from the top of the user-friendly mountain. To recount the click-through results from the original study:

• “Click to continue”: 8.53%
• “Continue to article”: 3.3%
• “Read more”: (-)1.8%

As with any experiment, these results are only valid under the particular conditions tested, in this case, a marketing newsletter. I would conjecture "click" directives are very successful with certain audiences and virtually abhorrent to others. The most obvious example: content aimed at web designers.

Web designers have often considered these sorts of links beginner's mistakes, which would likely devalue the trustworthiness of such content in their eyes.

Do some A/B tests for yourself. See what works best for the particular blend of folks visiting your sites. They might just be the sort of people that find eat an octopus now far more compelling. Mmmm. Octopus.

Some might say we’re a self-centered lot, trying to carve ourselves a slice of old-school Atari Labs heaven.

Naturally, we care about us, as Maslow indicates you’ve got to take care of yourself first, but we also care a lot about Them. In fact, one of my main concerns at Go flight! is making sure things are good for Them.

The Mysterious Them

Some call them users, customers, clients, guests, visitors, eye-balls, click-throughs, hapless suckers, or droplets in the market share bucket – but all these conceptions leave something to be desired, either because they are needlessly distant, too focused on the monetary exchange portion of the relationship, exploitative, disingenuous, or just plain mean.

All of them are off the mark if you want to feel good about what you do and you want Them to feel good about how you do it. Ask yourself this question, do you want to be called any of these labels at any web site, box store, or popsicle stand you visit? We all tolerate them, but to me they always come off sounding funny. We're doing this for the customers, visitors, or eye-balls doesn't sound very inspiring either.

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