Unfortunately, traffic usually jumps on a topic when it moves “up.”

I’ve tried training users to both scroll down and go inside, by keeping content in those spaces for lengths of time, but I’ve never had the guts to leave them alone in those spots long enough to ‘teach’ them.

I’d offer that many people selling for the Web and similar platforms still don’t fully understand the platforms or how people use them. Saying you want it “on the homepage” is quick and easy. Following that up by saying you want it “higher on the homepage” is just as easy.

When one of Google’s creators was asked why other sites like Yahoo did not mimic their successful minimalist design he correctly observed that each department on Yahoo had constituents within the company (department heads, sales execs) who would scream bloody murder if “their” link was removed from the home page.

And trust me, users ARE frustrated. I get calls from people every day who cannot navigate our site (or our competitors) and can’t find the content they are looking for through site searches.

In the traditional newspaper model, for example, above the fold applies, but it doesn’t in the tabloid model. But both of these suffer from the reality that everything else is within.

The earliest iterations of the web were all text-based, so we followed the newspaper model. The terms associated with most sites are all print: pages, columns, display ads, above-the-fold, etc. We even follow the print model of everything else being “inside” by creating links off the “front” page.

(We should be developing “channels” anyway)

Blog software, however, takes a different approach, one that assumes every story has equal weight based on the time it is posted. Truly, there is no fold with this type of content presentation, which is why TMZ.com ads deep in the right “column” have such value.

If you look at each of their entry pages, however, those ads don’t exist, because people only view the one entry.

In as much as this type of presentation is becoming a web standard, it’s important we consider how different it really is. The length of the home page of a blog is determined by the number of entries, and that is preset according to the tastes of the author.

Personally, I spend most of my time with RSS feeds, so I don’t give a crap how anybody’s home page is designed. But as Brink noted, most people are still browsing.

Finally, in a browsing world, the ad at the top of the page will always be the most expensive, which is a statement of the real estate when people first arrive on a page.

People will scroll, if they know there will be content, but that which you put up top is guaranteed to be seen.