Call to Action?

Hello Everyone!
I decided I would blog mostly about the project. The last post was really helpful for me, and I think what the previous team on wednesday is correct-- it really helps organize ideas and make sure your team actions are working towards the results you want.

Additionally, as I said in my previous post, I have been working on my ad and have found so many great articles and free tools that have really helped me optimize my ad space.
The article below discusses 6 tips for an effective call to action, and it really helped my team rethink our website redesign strategies. Our client, BassDownload.com , has a blog-style website that isn't engaging the demo/geographics as effectively as we hope. They have a really high bounce rate on their mainpage, almost 60%, however they also have a really high average time on the same page: around 8 minutes & 45 seconds (our theory is that they leave the website open and listen to music while web surfing on another tab). This leads me to conclude that people are clicking on the page, looking around for a long time, and then leaving. Between 45-60% of the visitors are new visitors (depending on the month and concert being promoted) and never return again (or clear their cache).

In order to try to convert those unique visitors that spend a lot of time on the page, and engage them, I looked at our current call-for-action and searched for effective call-to-action examples.

The following website really brought up some good points about call-to-action:
http://www.webseoanalytics.com/blog/6-tips-for-effective-call-to-action/
One of the things I hadn't thought of was tip 5. Our client has a lot of activity on the entire website-- the logo is big and bright, there are tons of music videos, java plug-ins, music playing-- so it could be a little overstimulating to add a call-to-action to that as well. Currently, Bass Download has 3 call to actions: they have are a facebook plug-in to "like" the page,  a "leave a reply" the field after comments and the ability to download music from the site.
So far we've modified the "leave a reply" field so email is required, and changed the color so it's easier to read.
However, both the facebook and reply fields are passive fields. Following tip 4, we need to create a call to action that is persuasive. Also, according to tip 6, emphasize on design. When it comes to downloading music BassDownload only highlights that call-for-action with a basic link. Since that is the clients primary goal-- to increase downloads and music awareness, I feel a redesign is in order.

Below are some awesome websites that highlight how to change a call-for-action and gave me some great ideas for a redesign to get people interested in the website.

This website is full of unique call-to-action buttons:
call-to-action examples
the website really is a great way to brainstorm for ideas.

The following websites are very similar but reinforce how design can make or break a call-to-action:
good tips & examples
Techniques for a good call-to-action
A ton of examples

The next two websites are case studies about call-to-action buttons. I found these very interesting and helpful.
Case Study 1
Case Study 2

Overall I found all of these websites both very informative and interesting.