Writing For The Internet
Are you good at writing, many newbies give up because they don't think they can write. Writing for the internet is easier than you think. Customers will overlook writing errors as long as they receive valuable information. Don't let writing stop you, besides it gets easier after getting your feet wet. Sometimes you just have to jump in and get started, make a few mistakes, learn and improve.
If you wait for everything to be perfect, you probably are wasting your time. Do your best and things seem to just work out, your not writing for your old English teacher, be yourself. Try telling a story theymake it easier to keep the reader interested. Some ask a question and the only way to get the answer is to buy the product. Find your style and just be yourself if your enthused it will come through.
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Keep Your Content Focused.
Don't try to cover to many subjects on one web site. It distracts from your main purpose, and may impact search engine optimization. Keep things simple, don't confuse your readers. Provide readers with good and valuable content. Your subscribers will expect new and valuable data on a regular basis.
Remember, this is being read off a monitor. Use lots of white space, don't make paragraphs to long. The beginning paragraph of this page is about as long as I make mine. Always think of your reader. What makes you read articles?
This is very important, you must have an attention grabbing headline. You must get the attention of your reader, you have 10 seconds to get them involved. Otherwise, they will click away and be gone.
They tend to draw the readers eyes on to the sub-headline. You must have good sub-headlines to keep them reading. They should blend form one point to the next, if possible. I read an article the other day, that suggested using dropcaps for paragraphs as another way to draw your customer in. I have seen it used in a few cases, but haven't done any testing to determine results.
There are many ways to format your webpage. The most simple is to use a white background and black font. Font should be large enough to be read comfortably. Tests have been done that indicate this is the best way to keep readers focused. Don't make your readers scroll.
Have you ever been to a webpage where you had to keep scrolling to get to the end of a line? Did you remember what you read? I get aggravated when I have to scroll. To eliminate this, try to keep your line length to between 60 and 65 characters. It may be necessary to put in a hard carriage return. Believe me, you will get more readers.
This kind of depends on what you are trying to accomplish. Many of the better known sales copy writers try to keep everything pretty simple. They don't use scrolling or flashing items on their pages. Unless, it is a specially designed bullet or something similar to draw attention to their main points.
They, do use a few bold font colors, and highlites. They are good with words, and don't want you to be distracted from them. Today, I am seeing more sound recordings on sites. I don't have any conclusive evidence whether they are good or bad. I'm pretty sure they can be both. Anything you use should make your page get more hits, otherwise it is a distraction.
Some words, and designs have a much larger impact than others. If you are trying to make money, and plan an advertising campaign testing is of utmost importance. Don't write something and then spend your entire advertising budget on it without testing. It is a good idea to run a few tests and check the results, if the numbers will reach your goals, establish a benchmark, and go for it.This is a subject of its own, so I won't go any further on the subject of testing here.
