Archive for the ‘Copywriting’ Category
Sunday, December 11th, 2005
It seems like a funny question to me, but it gets asked a lot. “Where should the SEO copy go on my Web page?” That question gets asked so much because there are several pieces of out-of-date information, rumors and myths with regard to text placement, when writing SEO copy.
For instance, many absolutely swear that the copy has to be as high up on the page as possible for the search engines to find it. Not true. The spiders will find the text regardless of where it is on your page. Others say all your text has to be in one block. Also not true. The spiders will find the text regardless of where it is on your page.
Other statements I’ve heard regarding text placement include:
- Your headline must appear at the very top of the page.
- Copy placed inside tables throws the search engines off.
- Copy must be positioned above the fold to be found by thespiders.
None of these are true. The spiders will find the text regardless of where it is on your page. (Or did I already say that? twice?) This is true in 99.9% of the cases, with only some very rare exceptions.
So where is the best place to put SEO copy on your Web page? Wherever it makes sense to the site visitor!
Spiders will find your text regardless of where it falls on the page. Want proof? Here’s a test. Go to Google and type in any working URL. When the result comes up for that site, click on:”Show Google’s Cache of?” In the box that appears at the top of the next page, click on this option: “This cached page may reference images which are no longer available. Click here for the cached text only.” What do you see?
You see exactly what the search engine sees. If the text appears in this text-only cache, that means Google’s spider can read it and index it.
Put Copy Where It Is Most Beneficial to Your Visitors
Since the engines will find your text regardless of where it falls on the page, your focus should be placed on the site visitor. This is where your focus should always be. The people who have the money come first; the search engines come second. 
If it makes sense for your visitors to see your headline as the first thing on the page, then put it first. If a graphic design element makes more sense, then put that first. If you use photos or other images, include captions so your visitors understand what these photos mean and how they relate to the sales message.
If you have an ecommerce site, create pages for each category of products you offer in order to help guide the visitors’ steps. Then add short copy segments that quickly describe what is offered for each specific product. Even though the copy is scattered all about the page, the engines WILL find it.
When it comes to copy placement on your Web pages, don’t agonize over what the engines want you to do. Give 100% of your consideration to what would be most useful for your visitors and place your copy in those areas. The spiders will find it with no trouble at all.
Karon Thackston is author of “The Step by Step Copywriting Course” at http://www.copywritingcourse.com and ?How To Increase Keyword Saturation (Without Destroying the Flow of Your Copy).?Discover the secrets to creating SEO copy with a perfect balance between keywords and natural language.http://www.copywritingcourse.com/keyword
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Wednesday, December 7th, 2005
It is more important to be honest and earnest with your potential customers and clients. They want to know what’s in it for them - not how well you can rhyme words for a clever headline or that you have a witty style of writing. No one cares. They want to know they are doing business with an honest professional who will deliver the product or services he or she sells. That’s it. Period. The end.
But can’t these readers overlook an occasional attempt at a clever headline or witty lead in online copywriting?
Why should they?
Their time is valuable. If they feel like you are wasting their valuable time, they will move on and not ever look back. Remember, your potential online customer is always only one click away from leaving your site, never to return. So, keep your online copywriting focused on the business at hand.
Leaving humor out shows your reader you are willing to give them the respect they deserve as discerning shoppers. It also shows you can be serious about the nature of your product or service. And if you cannot be serious about it, who can be?
Remember that there’s a big difference between humor and catchy, powerful copywriting.
If you insist on using humor in your online copywriting, carefully restrict it. Perhaps you are planning to present subscribers or customers with a monthly newsletter. If your wit is just bursting to get out, reserve yourself a column each week or month just for that purpose. Make sure it’s marked as a column by giving it a header like, “On the Editor’s Mind” or “A Funny Thing Happened on My Way to the Web Site….” Make it light hearted so your readers will know to expect to read article content that is also light hearted. But when you are writing for an area dealing with business, keep the tone very business like. By doing this, you will earn and keep the respect of your clients and customers.
This doesn’t mean that your online copywriting should be in stilted “corporate speak” or in the third person. No, online copywriting should be casual, informal, aimed directly at the reader, but still business like in nature.
Of course, there may be exceptions. If you’re marketing a clown’s costume designer, a clown joke may be in order. But the majority of shoppers are not looking for a joke to use in their next stand-up comedy routine - they’re looking for a quality product. Even clowns are serious when they’re searching for the next great costume.
In some types of management, humor is a tool recommended to help bond teams. However, when dealing with online copywriting for Internet marketing, you really can’t know much about the other participants. What might be funny to one person could well be offensive to a dozen others. It’s just too iffy to pull humor into your online copywriting both safely and effectively.
Thus, with online copywriting, don’t try to be too clever, or you may find that you are too clever for your own good.
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Tuesday, December 6th, 2005
No, they have a swipe file of past successful ideas and sales letters that have pulled in millions of dollars. They simply ’steal’ and recycle successful sales literature and some of them charge a fortune for it!
But they know that they are more likely to create a money creating a sales letter this way rather than wasting precious time and resources on creating a brand new piece that has a higher possibility of failure.
So that means even the best marketers and copywriters create copy that fails. It just proves that failure happens to us all at some time. Thus copywriters are intelligent enough to borrow from past successes to make future successes more likely.
So how would you implement this in your web copy?
I’d better make it clear I’m not telling you to copy other people’s sales literature word-for-word ? thats plagiarism, illegal and we don’t want to go there. ‘Steal’ in this sense means ‘model’. Model your site on past successes.
Okay, so how do you find the top successes in your niche?
Go to your favorite popular search engine like Yahoo.com or Google.com and do a search on the product or service you’re selling.
Example: If you are selling a dog training manual, search through the top ranking sites and look at them. You need to study the layout, format and copy. Then you can rewrite your website copy based on these existing successful websites.
Its best to take a combination of sites and take bits from each of them, rather than just rewriting ideas from just one source.
To ensure that a particular site is successful, pick websites with well known names, as you can safely assume that site has good copy.
Or if you are not sure that a particular sales letter is worth modeling your site on ? read it. If you read the page and it convinces you to buy the product or at least consider it, you can be sure thats its good copy.
This is not only a fast way to create your sales letter but you also have a better chance at success as modeling successful websites means you should have similar levels of prosperity.
Even if you just remodel your headline from a successful site for a product like yours, you could double your sales overnight! This headline would be already tested from the original site so you know in advance that it works.
If a headline doubles your sales, just imagine what a few other changes based on a successful tested website could do. Best of all the changes would only take a few minutes.
This strategy works for the best marketers and copywriters and there is no reason why it shouldn’t work for you. Its easy, its simple and rolls in the profits. Why work too hard and suffer too many trials and errors when this strategy is at your finger tips.
You can use this strategy for writing adverts, articles, emails and practically all you marketing literature. Remember it and use it well.
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Friday, December 2nd, 2005
Want to increase your online sales? Make sure your offer is one they can’t pass up!
Any offer you make through your Internet copywriting needs to be worth the readers’ time. Time is valuable and there is no bigger waste of time - for you as the creator or for your reader - than a worthless offer.
A number of years ago, a newspaper advertising sales rep went to her boss, disgusted that her client would not buy the ad schedule she pitched. It turned out that the last time the client ran an ad - five years before - “I didn’t get a single result from my coupon” that he ran way back then. The coupon was for a free coffee refill… something that was already common practice at the restaurant. Honestly, who would bother?
“Go back and tell that man we’ll run his ad for free if he will live up to the offer we create,” was the ad manager’s response. From there, he proceeded to tell the young sales rep to tell the client that the coupon would read “Bring this in for $1.00 in cash.” So, she did.
The client naturally refused because he knew he would have too many takers. What he finally admitted to himself is that his advertising did not work because his offer was lousy. Keep this business owner’s woes in mind as you plan to create your own irresistible offers with your Internet copywriting.
Make the offer one that is worth the time it takes to respond. A “Free 60 day trial” is a pretty good offer for an online program. What kind of offers can your business make?
The key to getting readers to respond to your offers is to make them irresistible. Can you afford to knock several dollars off the fee for your product or service? Or maybe you can make a strong guarantee, making your product or service almost risk free. Transferring the risk from the customer to you will help remove resistance to your offer.
Whatever it is you decide to offer, honor the offer at all costs. Keep your word and potential customers will quickly fall into place as current customers spread the word.
If you have never done any Internet copywriting before, don’t worry about it. No one knows your product or service as well as you do. Because of your passion for the product or service you are selling, you know it better than even a professional copywriter. Let that passion lead your Internet copywriting as you work to create the perfect offer that your potential customers just cannot refuse!
If you need some help creating an irresistible offer for your Internet copywriting, ask yourself, “What would make me buy?” Think about your answer. Is it do-able? If so, let that be your irresistible offer.
You can always make it available for a limited time (another good way to get people to act quickly) in case you decide the offer is too good to be very profitable.
Add a sense of urgency to your offer to get people to act immediately. If they put it off, they are likely to forget about it and you end up losing the sale. Adding a sense of urgency can be done by limiting the quantity or time of the offer or both. For example, the special offer is good only for the next 100 people who order, or the offer expires in 48 hours. You can even use both to heighten the sense of urgency.
In summary, make your offer irresistible. Make it worth the effort to the customer to place the order. Transfer the risk from the customer to you and add a sense of urgency. Then be sure to live up to what you have written in you copy. If you do these thing, you’ll see your sales skyrocket!
Copyright 2005
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Friday, December 2nd, 2005
Writing articles can be incredibly valuable to your business.
Articles help establish your expertise and give you credibility. A bunch of well edited articles can be compiled into a product for sale. Articles can get your name in front of your target market repeatedly.
In this article, I?ll review what you need to do to get your articles seen by as many people as possible.
1) Length and outline?Ideally, your article should be from 500-1000 words. Article submission services prefer this length, and your reader will as well. Use an outline at first to make it simpler. I discussed some popular outlines in the last issue of Service Business Strategies. An easy, clear outline starts with an introduction, followed by 3-5 key points, and concludes with a recap of your main points.
2) Resource box?This is your chance at promoting your business. A resource box appears at the end of your article, and is about 4-5 lines about what you offer your clients.
Although articles are ideal vehicles for building your list, you might also want to sell a product or have your reader call you for more information. Get clear on what you want this article to do for you before writing your resource box.
3) Where to submit and how?You can distribute your article yourself or through a directory service. In general I recommend using the service, because self-distribution is labor intensive.
However, if you have fewer than 50 people on your list, you can easily distribute it yourself through your current email program.
If you have a much larger list, consider using an email publishing service. These services charge monthly, and range from free to $100 or so, depending on the options.
Great services that I?ve used include ezinedirector.com
(free) and Aweber.com (many more options).
That takes care of mailing to your own list. But you can also mass distribute your information to thousands of people by using an article distribution service. Again, the options are plentiful, but it?s good to be aware of what is available.
Article distribution services send your article to multiple directories, which are distributed to thousands of readers who have indicated an interest in your topic. Because your article has your contact information at the end, you will quickly gain mass exposure.
Submission services can be expensive, depending on the number of directories to which they send your article, and other very mysterious factors. I use and recommend SubmitYourArticle.com, which currently charges $37 monthly to distribute to about 40 or so directories.
CONCLUSION Once you?ve written your article, presumably you?d like it to be read. Your first course is to distribute it to your own ezine list of subscribers. Again, if you have a small list of 50 subscribers or so, you can use your own mail program (Outlook, Eudora) to send it. If your base is larger, I recommend a listserve program like Aweber or Ezinedirector.com, which can send it out nicely formatted in an HTML template. These programs handle new subscribers and unsubscribes automatically. Lastly, when you?re ready to go beyond your own list, you can sign up for an article distribution service, which will send your article to thousands of subscribers for a monthly fee. I use SubmitYourArticle.com. If you want to research other services, do a web search for ?article submission services.
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Friday, December 2nd, 2005
Knowing this pattern makes the job of internet marketers even more difficult. Our ability to cultivate and retain any significant numbers in a downline is directly determined by our ability to maximize these precious few seconds of reading time. Have you got what it takes to write an email and get the replies flying in?
Most of us send out emails almost every day. We do it all too often with out carefully thinking about it. As a result these emails are often written and sent out less than perfect and fail to produce the desired result.
The purpose of sending out mass email is usually intended to attract visitors to view a website rather than make a sale, therefore it is important to take your time and define your aim precisely before writing the email.
Keep it simple and brief; avoid using long or technical words as some people may not understand them. Do not use three words where one will suffice. If the email is long and full of waffle boredom will set in and without a doubt it is likely to be deleted before reaching the end of it.
The opening paragraph is vital. If it does not click with the reader right away you have wasted your time sending it.
It’s true that even the best writers spend time editing and rewriting their articles and emails.
Start with an eye catching headline. It might be a question or statement. You must grab their attention right away.
Make sure to look at it from your readers point of view, is it forceful enough or exciting to make you want to read on and discover the end result?
Headlines hook prospects and lead them to the next line.
There you start to build their interest to ensure they read the next sentence… and each subsequent one. You might even find it is worth offering a free gift or a monthly newsletter that would help their business. There are plenty of free e-books on the web that you can give away.
If the intention of your email is to make a sale then offer a guarantee or a full refund this should dispel any fears they may have.
A cheeky way to test out your email is to send it to a couple of friends who are interested in business, add a message at the end of it and ask them to email you. If you don’t receive a reply, take it as a sign that perhaps your email was discarded before they made it far enough down the message, to get your message. When this happens it is a good idea to edit your email and remove any unneeded text before sending back out to your master list.
The exact techniques and methods you use will vary depending on personal preferences, product differences, market circumstances, etc. However, the basic approach is to make sure you give it some advance preparation and work, before sending them out. You will be pleasantly amazed at the difference it makes.
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Friday, December 2nd, 2005
Your thoughts, emotions or actions can either block or activate these hidden energy centres. In this article, I address ways to activate each of the Chakras to improve your article writing.
1. Base Chakra ? the energy of existence
This energy source is associated with survival, self-preservation and security. The major blockages to activating the Base Chakra are “self-sabotage” or self-talk that is full of self-doubt. The real tragedy is that, unless you can manage these self-doubts, you cut yourself off from the other six sources of energy.
You can activate the Base Chakra by: * Confronting your doubts as self-sabotage and challenging them * Visualising your completed article and the sense of achievement you will experience with publication * Sharing your concerns with others who have been successful in article writing * Listening to your body and learning to release any tensions associated with article writing
2. Naval Chakra ? the energy of activity
This source of energy is experienced as “excitement” and is associated with doing, movement, creativity and achievement. The major blockage to this energy source is inactivity brought on by procrastination and self-doubt.
You can activate the Naval Chakra by: * Checking out online forums and article directories for potential topics of interest to readers * Making notes on an article topic * Aiming for a rough first draft (do not let your perfectionist streak intervene!) * Trying “speed writing” - write what comes to mind without concern for grammar, sentence structure or spelling (helps to thwart
perfectionism) * Taping your ideas - try using an audio tape to get ideas down
3. Solar Plexus Chakra ? the energy of control
This energy is experienced as ?clarity? and is associated with your sense of personal power and self control. The major blockage to this energy source is a lack of order through the absence of planning. You can tap into the energy of control by creating order, structure, form or guidance.
You can activate the Solar Plexus Chakra by: * Capturing potential article topics in a document or Excel file * Matching your task to your energy level ? if you are a ?morning person? do your creative writing in the morning and your related routine tasks at night * Capturing ideas on how to write articles and creating your own set of guidelines * Setting up documents on your computer with article headings and doing occasional ?brain dumps? * Building your own list of preferred article directories for submission of articles (include submission URL and key requirements, eg. word length, format) * Establishing output targets and a routine for article writing
4. The Heart Chakra ? the energy of community
This energy is experienced as ?connection? - brought about by your relationships with others and by engaging them in collaborative activity. The major blockage to this energy source is ?isolation? ? cutting yourself off from supportive relationships.
You can engage the Heart Chakra by: * Participating in discussion forums focused on article writing * Developing a ?learning partnership? with one other person for your mutual benefit * Connecting to other people through workshops and teleconferences * Sharing your article ideas with a ?significant other? ? your life partner, for example
* Taking time out to be with your friends * Joining an action learning group devoted to article writing
5. The Throat Chakra ? the energy of meaning
This energy is experienced as expression and is associated with metaphors, communication and beliefs. The blocks to this form of energy are unclear thinking and a lack of focus.
You can engage your Throat Chakra by: * Journaling to capture your thoughts and reflections * Drawing diagrams and flowcharts to clarify what you are trying to say in your writing * Developing concept maps to clarify the relationships amongst activities, ideas & principles * Using metaphors to create new perspectives and meanings
6. The Third Eye Chakra ? the energy of integration
This energy is experienced as intuition and is associated with left and right brain, integration of male and female, wisdom and holistic approaches. One of the major blocks to this form of energy is ?busyness? ? incessant activity with no time for reflection.
You can engage your Third Eye Chakra by: * Undertaking creative activity ? e.g. painting, drawing or writing poetry * Being still ? getting in touch with nature and your own body * Taking a walk ? physical activity provides a good balance for sitting and writing * Clearing the clutter from your desk and your life ? a cluttered workspace can clutter your mind
7. The Crown Chakra ? the energy of Spirit
This energy is experienced as transcendence and is associated with higher purpose, vision and higher consciousness. The major block to this energy is an obsession with Materialism.
You can embrace the Crown Chakra by: * Meditating ? this helps you get in touch with your higher consciousness * Singing ? helps you to find your deeper self * Revisiting your spiritual origins ? this may be through prayer or participation in religious activities
The Chakras are interconnected and interdependent. They embrace the whole person ? the irrational and rational, the intuitive and emotional, the pragmatic and the aesthetic and the material and spiritual.
You can activate your Chakras to improve your article writing and your daily living.
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Friday, December 2nd, 2005
Your online business will likely require more advertising than
a contemporary business downtown, yet some new to the world of
online business do not spend the time and money to advertise
their business appropriately and are, in turn, losing money.
Your online business is crammed into the world wide web along
with thousands of others selling the same product or service as
yourself. Consider this scenario: In your hometown you want to
open an art supply store. In that same town there are thousands
of art supply stores. In order for your business to be
successful, it will have to stand out in some way from the
others. This is exactly what is happening when a business is
opened online. There is so much competition, that you must take
drastic measures to ensure that you are getting noticed.
Advertising can be done in so many ways online. These are some
of the most successful ways that you can promote your online
business.
Advertising in e-zines is a popular way to promote your online
business. Ezines are the magazines of the internet; they written
on a particular subject and read by those interested in that
subject. Therefore, ezine readers are already potential customers
and advertising your site in ezines that are related to your
business is almost guaranteed to help drive traffic to your site
and increase sales for your product. You should be sure when
advertising in ezines that you are not advertising along side
competitors. Ask the ezine producer if there is a policy
concerning posting competing ads. It is also a good idea to
subscribe to the ezine before making a decision about whether or
not to advertise in it. An ezine that runs fewer ads is a better
choice than one that runs many ads. You can look at the online
Directory of Ezines to find publications that are relevant to
your company.
Pay-per-click programs are an excellent way to advertise your
business without taking a risk that you have advertised in the
wrong place. With pay-per-click, you can advertise you site and
only pay for those who click the link and go to your site.
Another popular pay-per program is the pay-per-lead program that
allows you to only pay for leads. Usually this means that you pay
for only those who download a trail, fill out a form or enter a
sweepstakes; whatever you choose. Lastly you can display pay-per-
click banner ads in which your company would be allowed to place
a banner on their site and you will be charged for every click
that your banner receives.
Opt-In email is a great way to advertise your business, however
it is expensive and it can be misused very easily. Using opt-in
emails, you would submit your sales copy to the company that will
in turn email it to those on their mailing list. You should be
very careful since some of the companies that advertise their
mailing lists as opt-in email service is sometimes really SPAM.
It is essential that you have a perfect and effective sales
letter when using opt-in mailing lists. Without and effective
sales copy your money and time have been wasted.
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Monday, November 28th, 2005
Now, I would understand this a little more if search engine
technology was at a level where I type a phrase in and find
what I am looking for. But people’s minds works differently
and no search engine will ever be able to account for this
factor.
A newbie to a certain technology, doesn’t matter which,
doesn’t use the same terminology as an expert. He will use
terms that relate to his areas of expertise and as he
progresses, this terminology will evolve until it is more
precise. Therefore, there will be many levels of vocabulary
that he will use in this progression. As SEO’s, we recognize
this.
A person may type in “change belt in my car”, not knowing
that there are multiple belts in a vehicle and each vehicle
may have different procedures for changing this belt.
The more “authoritative” website may never use this exact
term. They will use “change a timing belt in a 94 Toyota
Camry” or “changing the drive belt in a 95 Chevrolet
Corsica.” While the SEO, who has researched search terms on
internet users, will know the vague terminology that newbies
may use.
This is the job of an SEO. To bring people the information
they are looking for. Maybe make a sale while they are at
it, but still an SEO knows the pulse of what people are
looking for more accurately than the run-of-the-mill
textbook webmasters.
People looking for something on the web are looking for
something quick. They do not care that the language they may
use is inaccurate. They don’t want to read a manual before
they type words into Google. They just want the info. As
SEO’s we bring it to them and reap our rewards.
To do this, we learn a little about the search engines we
submit to. It’s a necessity. And I think this makes the
internet a better place to find things. To suggest otherwise
would be like saying that people born with bad eyesight
should be forced to live without glasses.
Of course, I am only speaking for those on the white-hat
side of SEO. Presenting a false front to search engines is
not good practice. Just give people what they are looking
for and add value to your site.
Let the blind continue to lynch SEO’s. Let search engine’s
change their ranking algorithms. Let spammer’s continue
their games and get banned. Let the non-SEO webmasters
continue to website equivalent of Siberia. Then sit down,
know your audience, know your competition, know your search
engines, and write.
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Monday, November 21st, 2005
What that means - generally speaking - is you are still writing promotional copy designed to cause a *person* to take a specific action. Your target audience (your site visitors) should come first. The elements designed to help the copy rank well absolutely come last.
What good is all the traffic in the world if your site copy doesn’t convert visitors into buyers? Not much. That’s why - when writing SEO copy - the human visitor comes first.
Unfortunately, SEO copywriting is getting a bad name because so much of what is being cranked out is repetitious babble. Most of these pages would never have made it on to a site, except for the fact that the site owner wanted to rank highly for certain key terms.
So, in the interest of salvaging the good name of search engine copywriting, before it’s too late, let me offer some guidelines.
SEO Copy Is:
· first and foremost - written for the visitor.
· unique and purposeful.
· natural-sounding - it flows.
SEO Copy Is Not:
· written exclusively with the engines in mind.
· mirrored, adjusted or altered to create new pages by simply
changing keyphrases.
· stiff, forced or overly repetitive.
The Dos of SEO Copywriting
When writing SEO copy, you’ll want to:
· understand who you are writing to.
· choose what the focus of the page will be.
· create a plan outlining the message you want to convey.
· decide how best to communicate that message to your particular
target customers.
· choose which keyphrases will be incorporated into the copy.
· make sure those keyphrases work well with the page and the
planned copy.
· incorporate keyphrases as you write (not after you write), so
they flow naturally with the planned message.
The Don’ts of SEO Copywriting
When writing SEO copy, you should never:
· create a plan based solely on how to rank high.
· replace *every* instance of a generic term (car) with a
keyphrase (red, convertible car).
· add pages of copy simply to appease the search engines.
· rely on useless keyword density ratios and formulas.
· shove keyphrases in everywhere possible. (No, it won’t get you
banned, but it will sound completely ridiculous!)
SEO copywriting is not the process of writing exclusively for the search engines. It is the process of writing copy to appeal to your visitors, while including elements to help the search engines and your visitors understand what the page is all about.
If you remember who truly makes or breaks your site’s success (your customers!) and focus on them, you’re sure to create SEO copy that rings true.
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