Linked-In user, Harekrishna Patel, asked which web design layout give the best conversion rates– 1 column, 2 column or 3 column? Of course, as most usability and design professionals should know, best results are usually discovered through testing. There really isn’t a set “science” in this regards, though as with anything else, there are plenty of best-practices to use as starting points. Click here to read the full discussion and other user’s responses.

The best advice would be to create a few concepts and then use eye-tracking testing or other usability testing methodology to have a better idea of what works.

Having said that, here are some general thoughts that might help guide you:

The usual approach to page layout is to consider your customer-response priorities. So, if you have multiple “actions” you are going to offer, those should be laid out according to priority (the most important element should stand out, be above the fold, and preferably towards the left where the eye first tends to scan).

If you are going to have a lot of copy, this can be laid out on one column, with a second column providing Call To Action banner or button that summarizes what you are asking the customer to do (Sign up, subscribe, contact us, download, etc.).

Home pages tend to work well with 3 column because most of the times you are providing a menu-list of various topics, services, or product offerings — the customer would choose where to drill down.

Once you start looking at inside pages, a 2 column approach will probably provide you with the most useful real estate for your content, which you’ll want to test as far as what works best.

Overall, web design best-practices really isn’t as simple as “1 column, 2 column or 3 column” — You’ll want to take usability, navigation, layout, color, your customer’s demographic, and other unique factors related to your industry or/and products to develop an effective web site.

You can pretty much summarize it into 3 basic steps:

• It’s best to focus on organic growth
• Don’t require so much info that it keeps people from filling out the form
• If you must, choose a reputable list-rental service

This is rather simple and very basic, but so many organizations don’t take the time to execute on these baby steps.

The good news is that there are several ways to grow your lists organically that will enable you to amass a loyal following of happy customers. The first thing you want to do is put a sign-up link on every page of your website — and don’t hide it with small text or bury it at the bottom of your page. Put it in a prominent position that won’t get ignored. As you drive people to your website through various marketing and advertising programs, there should be an obvious path that leads respondents to a simple form for opting into your list. Making it easy to sign up is key, and that involves careful consideration about the number of steps that you require and the amount of information you request.

“The economy has energized this channel,” said Ryan Deutsch, VP-strategic services and market development at StrongMail. “It’s become the rock star of direct marketing in a lot of these retail organizations because it’s the most cost-effective and most trackable.”

Thanks to its cost-effectiveness and retailers’ recession-era emphasis on retention — Shop.org says that the number of companies focused on retention has nearly doubled in the past year — experts say few cuts are being made to e-mail budgets, while areas including paid search, affiliate marketing and social marketing are coming under scrutiny.

And I thought being an email marketer made me “sexier”…but I guess not.

“It’s not sexy, but it delivers results, and it’s focusing on existing customers,” said Scott Silverman, executive director of Shop.org. “E-mail technology continues to advance and allows retailers to be smarter. It’s not about sending more e-mail; it’s about more-targeted and more-relevant e-mail.”

I’m glad to see someone is saying, “It’s not about sending more e-mail…”. I hope more marketers get that message, “…it’s about more-targeted and more-relevant e-mail.”

It’s all about the results.

Email lives at the center of a conflict between things that are urgent and things that are important. In a recent interview, I asked an email manager at a Fortune 500 retailer, “How often are you asked to execute something in email that you believe is detrimental to the long-term success of the program?” The answer: “Probably three or four times a week!” As ambassadors for the channel, we need to help our peers understand that email’s strength lies in its ability to deliver highly targeted messages to subscribers and to increase lifetime value — creating the link, creating trust, between buyer and seller. Though email can be delivered quickly and have an immediate impact, that does not mean speed of execution is email’s core strength.

In fact, speed and urgency run counter to email’s core strength. Building lifetime value takes time, planning, and thoughtful consideration. There is nothing urgent or last minute about it. “Lifetime” implies patience and meaningfulness. We need to constantly remind our peers that email only thrives when important messages are prioritized over urgent messages.

Email will only truly shine when marketers start looking at long-term strategic value of customers and how email plays a key role in building engagement. Traditional marketing professionals need to stop looking at email as the “quick & easy” way to communication with consumers.

The age of public collaboration over the Internet is still only in its infancy, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales told AFP in an interview.

The 42-year-old web guru, in an effort to show Wikipedia’s impact thus far, referenced a recent trip to a slum in India where he “met this young man on the street who told me that he had used Wikipedia to pass his 11th grade exams.”

I was glad to see Wales acknowledge that for certain creative processes, the individual is still the best way. I am all for collaborative work, but as humans we are made to create, so it is naive to think that anything will replace that.

He acknowledged collaboration has its limits, noting that if “we said we want to write a novel about loss, and redemption, probably not so much public collaboration, that’s really an individual vision and a view of the world.”

“But for basic factual information, I think having an open public dialogue and debate and democratic process, seems to be very powerful.”

I am about to start an internet marketing campaign in Canada for a product that I am importing from the USA. Their website (example) is www.CoolProduct.com, my question is: do I promote www.CoolProduct.ca, or www.CoolProductCanada.com, in my marketing? I have both registered, and one will have a redirect to the main site I end up using.

Here are my thoughts:

The focus of domain selection process should always be on usability. So, you may want to do some research on the most common used domain (whether it is .com or .ca). If .com is the most common domain, you will find that many users will mistakenly recall the CoolProducts part of the domain, and automatically assume it is a .com domain. If this is the case, I would suggest using CoolProductsCanada.com.

If, on the other hand, it is common and popular to use .ca domains in Canada, and other similar or industry brands are using a .ca domain, then the more “expected” domain would be a .ca and I would recommend going with the CoolProduct.ca domain.

The key is user memory retention — which one are they most likely to recall–and ease of use (easy to spell).

Another approach is to do some benchmark research or competitive analysis. If your competitors are using one or the other, that is an indicator. Also, look across industries or product lines to see what other retailers/marketers are doing.

The final thing would be to see if there is any research available on internet usage in Canada (or your particular country). This would give you the most factual data.

The LinkedIn user followed up via email with this thought: “If I get coolproduct.com to link to me for my Canadian customers, I think I am better off using coolproduct.ca as it is shorter and easier to remember.”

I would agree with his thinking in general there. Another key thing is he would have the need to brand the regional nature of your market (Canada only), so the .ca may do that best.