Online Copywriting Tips

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Web copy should do three things, and avoid doing one very important thing. In this article we'll show you what you need to do to make your copy sing, and your visitors sit up and take notice.

Web copy should:

• Get attention.

• Entice visitors to stay on your site, read the page.

• Make visitors want to buy from you.

What not to do:

We here at XYZ Corporation know what it means to be successful. In fact, sometimes we forget that at one point a long, long, long time ago we weren't the premiere information distribution technology enhancement resource agency facilitator. Times have changed though, and we have transfused our corporate mission to account for the discrepancies in the post-modern publishing phenomenon. We are...us...greatest...best...us, us, us...selfish, etc.

- Aaron Wall

How to Get Attention

Copy writing is the essence of getting more profit from your site or from eBay auctions. Studies have shown that Internet users spend around 10 seconds on a web page before deciding to explore more or to hit the "BACK" button. All you get is 10 seconds to catch attention and entice readers to explore the rest of your site or product pages.

Eye tracking studies performed by Jakob Neilsen showed that people pay attention to the left hand-top side of the web page first, and then read the headline, subheading and finally scan the text.This means that the most important part of your web page is your headline and content directly under your headline. This is where you must make your most crucial points.

Make sure to put product benefits right under the headline, because readers are most likely to see it there. If the benefits are good enough, visitors will be enticed to keep on reading, eventually getting more interested in the product.

The point of the headline is to stop people dead in their tracks. The paragraph right under the headline should trigger the thought: "This is it, that's the stuff."

Another eye opener to the world of web marketing is the fact that people do not read websites. People SCAN WEBSITES.

Here is a great example by David Young of American Small Business:

Here's what it means: People who think that the Internet is just print in a different medium are wrong. (Is your brain rejecting that statement?) Here's my little 'a-ha' demonstration

You are reading a book: read - read - read - backup to re-read a difficult passage - read - read - lick thumb to turn page - read - read - read - and so on.

You are reading a newspaper: scan - scan - read - read - scan - read - turn to page 8 - read - back to page 1 - scan - read - turn page - scan - continue.

I am reading a newspaper: find the comics - scan - skip - read (just the funny ones - why do they call the boring ones 'comics'?)

You are reading engaging a web site designed by someone who believes that web sites are just like print: scan - scan - read - look for navigation link - look some more - click - scan - wrong page click back button -find another navigation link - click - scan - read - click - back to search engine.

You are engaging a web site designed by someone who believes the web is different: scan - read - click - scan - click - scan - read - read - click - scan - click - type - click - type - click - wait for UPS truck to deliver merchandise.

This means that your website and product copy must appeal to the eyes that rush through the page looking for something to focus on. Use of the following techniques will accomplish this.:

Bullets

• Put your most important benefits and features in bullet format.

• Bullets are easy to scan

• Bullets stop the eyes.

Use 3 - 5 sentences per paragraph. Long paragraphs breathe of "work" and the tedious task of finding something valuable in the long and unformatted block of text. Short paragraphs allow users to quickly jump from one block of text to the next, assisting their eyes in the exploration of something interesting.

Take this post and example. It's written in web format. Once you break your copy into paragraphs, emphasize the most important points. Use bold, italics, bold-italics and various colors to make important points stand out. Once again, this technique stops the eyes that scan down your web page.

Use plenty of headlines. Your headlines within the text can serve as separator that stops the eyes and helps readers preview sections they are about to read.

Next: Entice Your Visitors to Stay and Read the Copy >>
 

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