When I was reading NYtimes today I realized that when you reach the end of the page one slider box slides into the page to give a recommendation for another article. A very novel and breakthrough idea! As soon as the reader reaches the end of the page, the website suggests something more so that the reader can be retained for a longer time on the site. These days people are getting routed to websites through shared links (either referred by some blog or website or mail etc) for some specific interesting article. So as soon as an article is done reader will close the webpage and move on. But if you recommend something to read more when the reader is done with the current page, the reader will surely be tempted to go to the suggested page provided the reference is good and interesting.
Some websites show suggestions at the start of the webpage itself. But when a reader visits a website for some specific article they are focused on that article so will not move to another article even if the suggestion at the start of the page is really good. But the suggestion at the end of the page will surely evoke my interest.
But the article that NYTimes recommends is not contextual. Even if you are reading a business article it is suggesting some political article so the reader will not be interested. Despite introducing something out of the box NYTimes lost to milk the opportunity. Am sure they will fix it very soon.
New ideas are very important but executing them to get maximum return on investment is equally important. Give your customers a reason to stay with you. And keep them happy during their stay.
PS: This post was originally posted on hoodasaurabh.blogspot.com