Copy Writing For The Web

Tips on Writing for the Web
Writing is possibly the most important things in reference to marketing on the Internet. The way a site look is important but if your sales copy is not good it can make even an excellently designed website useless.

For most websites it is best to write in simple English so most people can understand what you are saying. If you are writing for intellectual or technical sites it has been found that readers can better understand language written for the level of the readers.

As many people do not like to read things on a screen, you should try to make your point using less words then when writing for the printed page. Also if you have a lot of text you may consider making the page web friendly for printing.

When you have a large amount of text about a subject, it is a good idea to make hyperlinks to other pages where they can read more information.

Use text size of 10 point or more for the main body text of your site, as smaller sizes than this can be hard to read for long periods of time. It is usually best to specify your fonts in percentage terms and not in pixels terms. Because then your readers can change the size of the website text by going to View, then Text Size in their browser window.

When I have to view a large amount of text I usually try to set it at the largest text size possible, which makes it easier and in some case even possible for me to read it. I have seen many people change the size of the text to make it bigger. I often see big time news sites that have small text size and because of the way they have their site made up I can not make the text larger using the web browsers, I often immediately leave (and often never come back) because I cannot read anything on those site. In some cases when I cannot increase the text size and I really want to read the articles, I cut the text off the site with really small print and paste it into a word-processing program and increase the point size to read the article.

Spell check your site, as misspelled words make you look bad and often people don’t take you. People who have found spelling mistakes on my site have written me several letter complaining about the spelling mistakes, so I know from personal experience. I have thousands of city names on my sites from around the world and I have found that if you misspell a city name that residents from that city can get pretty angry at you.

When writing for sales purposes you have to have an understanding of who you audience is and what is in it for the. Talk about the benefit you offer to them.

Testimonials sell.

Use headlines that are exciting and explain what is below giving a reason for the viewer to read you text.

In the main body text give details about your product or service and make a call for action. Do not make the mistake of not asking your customer or donor to give.

It is best when you have a large amount of copy to have your text black with a light background. It is usually not a good idea to have images as the background behind the text. Sure it may look good but often when images are used in the background it can make it difficult if not impossible to read. Write in small blocks of text and separate paragraphs with space. White space helps to make body text more readable.

It is important to describe the benefits of a product to your readers and not to just describe the features of the product.

Headlines are the most important because if they do not inspire interest no one will read the copy. Also the introduction text and first paragraph of the site are important.

Introduction Page
The first paragraph of a page is the most important and if someone reads it there is a good chance they will read the rest of the article. The first paragraph should clearly give the benefits of why and what you are selling to the reader.

Sub-Headlines
Subheads divide the text up and give the reader more reason to read the article. It also breaks up the text into subject so people can just read the section they like.

Often the reader will only read the sub-headlines and go through the entire page like that.

Make sure you make a call for the readers to go to the order or payment page.

Remove the Risk for Your Readers
You should make an effort to remove any risk the reader may have about your product. You should offer a money back guarantee with no questions asked. If they download an Ebook that they have only seen a few pages of advertising, if you give them a 30 day guarantee, the customer cannot lose. Because if they don’t like the product they can get their money back.
Money back guarantees are practically essential as it is hard to trust someone you do not without it.

Using a P.S.
When writing a letter it is a good idea to use a P.S. as readers often first want to read what was forgotten first. In the first line of the P.S. you should restate your main benefit. It is also here that you tell the readers some extra gift or benefit they can receive. The P.S. is like another headline. Readers often only read the main headlines, sub-headlines and the P.S.

Get as many testimonials that you can. The more unimpeachable they are the better. A good testimonial can often be the most effective sales point you can have. Put some testimonials on your main sales page and if you have a lot of good one than give a link to more at another place.

Usually long copy is more effective than short copy despite the fact that people believe people will not read long copy. Some readers will prefer short copy so you should provide both a long and short version of the same copy. You can state you most effective benefit and then give a link for people who would want more details.

A sales letter should be for the most part on one page as people are more likely to scroll down the page rather than clicking to go to another page to read more. With each click that potential customers make, you will lose some of them

With testimonials listing the name, email address and website of the person giving the testimonial can help.

You can find a nice script that will rotate your
testimonials at Willmaster.com.
http://www.willmaster.com

Give readers a no risk money back guarantee.

Consider giving the user a feedback form to ask question rather than just giving them an email address.

A personal answer to a potential customer can really help to make a sale.

Your personal response to your potential customers can
literally determine whether or not you're going to make a
sale.

You can find a nice feedback script at Willmaster.com.
http://www.willmaster.com

When make a sale to a customer online you should make you’re your order form is on a secure server. Stating that it is so give confidence to people placing an order online. A secure service is one that encrypts the messages when they go across the phone lines and therefore someone can not steal financial information.

Copyright information should be placed at the bottom of each page. You should include both the word Copyright and the symbol
© because some countries accept one but not the other.

Copyright © Spiritual Guides Company.

 

Copyright ©2001 John Howley and Spiritual Guides