Blogger Jason Fried makes a compelling case why the Drudge Report website is the one of the best designed sites on the web and a good reminder what marketers can do to build website loyalty and increase conversion results.

In brief Jason shows how the Drudge Report site is straightforward, timeless, unique, “good cluttered,” simple to run, fast, and keeps people coming back.  Of course Drudge also has a good nose for finding relevant news content, and sensational headline writing that keeps people clicking the links and coming back.

The lesson: When it comes to website design, simple is best. Let people find what they need quickly and get on with their lives. The result: Loyality to your website and product or service. It’s something every one in charge of website marketing should keep in mind.

Searching for the right video online has generally been a pain in the butt. Because sites like YouTube index their videos based on the metadata tags, it’s easy to game the search results by adding misleading tags.

Thankfully there a search engine dedicated to searching video that’s trying to change that. VideoSurf claims it has “taught computers to ‘see’ inside videos to find content in a fast, efficient, and scalable way. Basing its search on visual identification, rather than text only… [it] provides more relevant results and a better experience to let users find and discover the videos they really want to watch.”

VideoSearch search content from about 60 sources like YouTube, Hulu, and MSN Video. Instead of displaying them with a single, frozen screenshot, is shows 10 clips from the video which gives you a better idea of its content and whether it’s worth watching.

So how does it stack up with the searches on other video sites?

I typed in the name of my favorite television show, LOST, to see what it came up with.  All 15 videos on the first page were promos or clips from the show. Compare that you YouTube where approximately two-thirds of the results were relevant while the other third weren’t related at all to what I was looking for. On MSN Video, only one-third of the results on the first page were relevant.

VideoSurf is still in its infancy so the jury’s still out on whether or not VideoSurf or another video search engine will succeed. However, as more and more B2B and B2C companies are using video to get their message to their audience, sites like VideoSurf could be a boon for advertisers and organizations looking to tell their story visually rather than through the written word alone.

In fact, I can see the future of search engines could be one that not only pulls up relevant web pages but relevant videos and displays the content in an easy-to-read fashion side by side. Don’t be surprised if at some point Google buys VideoSurf’s code and ends up making its popular search engine, even more powerful and popular.

It’s a perilous time to be in the newspaper and magazine business. Advertising revenue and subscriptions continue to fall. Staffs are being slashed. Many wonder how much longer if newspapers and magazines even have a future.

They do. But it will take some creativity to survive.

The Christian Science Monitor and U.S. News & World Report have taken the first step to surviving well into the 21^st Century: Abandoning their print editions and becoming internet-focused publications* (see CSM story here and U.S. News story here).

Changing to a web-only publication is a win for publications because it eliminates one of their biggest expenses: printing, delivery, mailing costs. With the right analytic tools, the move provides publishers and editors more information about their readers. Not only can they know who’s reading their publication but what they’re reading and where they’re coming from and what advertisers to target.

However, their move to online publications should be welcome news for advertisers who are looking for effective advertising avenues and ways to make sure they’re getting the most for the money they spend. The move is also a win for advertisers who, instead of going on ineffective print ads, will be able to know about those who will be to their ads and how effective there advertising campaigns are. As a result, they’ll be able to squeeze the most from every dollar they spend advertising with these web-only publications.

That’s not to say the move isn’t without its challenges. Both the CSM and U.S. News need to find a way to make this move profitable. When it comes to news, consumers have pretty much rejected paying for it online. That means these publications are going to hope that the amount and type of traffic they generate to their websites are enticing for potential advertisers.

For advertisers, there’s little downside other than hoping their marketing campaigns resonate with prospects and the publications are able to provide an attractive target audience.

Whether or not The Christian Science Monitor and U.S. News can make the transition to the web a profitable one remains to be seen. Either way, look for many more publications to take the same leap in 2009.

*  U.S. News & World Report will continue a monthly publication mostly in the form of their annual consumer guides. The Christian Science Monitor will publish a weekly print magazine.

A slow economy is no excuse for an empty sales pipeline. There are plenty of qualified prospects out there. You just need to use more creative and effective ways to find them.

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