By Pat Quinn

When I joined my first London ad agency 40-something years ago, the copywriting department was presided over by a lapsed genius who beat into me a number of immutable copy principles. These precepts, which are as valid now as they were then and which have helped me shift truckloads of product worldwide, apply to all types of promotional writing. They apply even more so to selling on the Internet, where do-it-yourself copy is the norm rather than the exception. In the old days, very few serious advertisers wrote their own material. Today, they do so as a matter of course simply because the technology allows it.

Anyway, this little article is aimed at those who write their own web pages and also at those who hire a writer and may wish to check that he or she is working on the right lines. Below you’ll find just a few principles of good promotional writing. If the editor wants more, I’ll gladly provide them.

Keep it very simple

All copywriting should speak to its audience in everyday, uncomplicated language. People don’t like to be talked down to. And they grow tired of cliches and buzzwords. Also, keep your sentences short and punchy, with the minimum of clauses. Long and involved sentence structure is death to readership. (The six sentences above are examples of what I’m talking about. They are easy to scan and understand.)

All web pages should carry a headline

But this must be a pertinent headline. A selling headline. This headline will be, or should be, powerful enough or intriguing enough to draw your target into the compass of the body copy. If it can do that, you are on a winner.

It may go without saying that the entire thrust of your webpage should revolve around an offer or a promise. This offer or promise will be unique to you — it’s your unique sales proposition. It’s the one thing that sets you apart from your competitors; and it can be price, performance or service related. Given this, the headline should be a snapshot of the sales message — a precis of your offer or promise. In other words, a headline that says: Buy this product and get this benefit. I’m sure you already know that people don’t buy products, they buy the benefits of owning those products.

And when I say that every page of your site should carry a headline, I mean every page. Experience shows that a person will read a headline before looking at any accompanying pic or body copy. They do so preparatory to scooting off to someone else’s site. But if your on-going headlines tell them things of interest, they will almost certainly hang around to explore the site more fully.

Keep headlines relevant

Around 30% of all headlines on the Net are both useless and irrelevant. The worst of them are so convoluted, so desperate to say everything all at once, that they are unintelligible. The offending lines also employ tired buzzwords. The word “leverage”, for instance, in completely ungrammatical context; and words like “solutions” and “focus” are thrown around like generous confetti. The moral is this. State your sales proposition cleverly, wittily, stridently or emotively, but never, ever employ a cliche device simply because it’s the easy thing to do. If you can’t be original, at least be positive. And if you honestly don’t have very much to say, there are some really clever ways of saying nothing that will endear you to your audience.
Read the rest of this entry »

By Adam McFarland

Have you ever tried to read your local newspaper online? How about the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal? It just isn’t the same. Do you know why? Because articles meant for print don’t translate well to the web, and the rules that apply to writing content for the internet are different than those for print. What constitutes quality content offline does not necessarily constitute quality content online.

How the web is different:
Text is hard to read

Typical computer monitors have a resolution of 96 dpi (dots per inch). Compare that with a printout from a laser printer that has a resolution of 600 dpi, or a magazine page that can be upwards of 2400 dpi, and it’s not hard to figure out why the text on a computer places a strain on the eyes. According to the book Hot Text, Web Writing That Works, by Jonathan and Lisa Price, “because text is more difficult to read on-screen, people often read slower, comprehend less, recall less, and do less in response.”
Read the rest of this entry »

Remember when the web consisted of nothing more than a few static web sites coded exclusively with HTML? Life was simple back then. Back in 1996, a website could be created in a few minutes by inserting the content into a basic HTML template, and adding some graphics for style. Now, the internet is populated with web sites that are more complex. Modern web sites use anywhere from two to sometimes twenty different programming languages, specifications and scripts. Some of the code runs on the front end, some runs on the back end, and some runs somewhere in between.

We have the wireless revolution to thank for making web programming so arduous. Most wireless devices, such as cell phones, palm tops, laptops, and even computer screens in automobiles, now come equipped with access to the internet and email. These gadgets have web browsers and platforms that are very different from what is installed on a traditional desktop PC. Wireless browsers are often not compatible with many elements of the HTML programming language. Web programming had to evolve to suit the needs of those that surf the net on wireless computers.

As a result, a deluge of new languages and systems for designing websites were introduced. These new innovations include XML, XHTML, XSL, CSS, JavaScript, VBScript, DOM, and many others. Of these, XML was probably the most important, because it enabled web designers to define data without forcing web browsers to display it a certain way. XML files were simple text files that could be interpreted by any web browser, unlike HTML. So, you ask, what is AJAX and how is it connected to this discussion?
Read the rest of this entry »

You probably already know the key to making any kind of income from the net is a well designed web site. What most people don’t realize your site doesn’t have to look perfect or be professionally designed to be successful.

Not by a long shot!

In the final analysis, any site that makes you money is a successful site. From a marketing perspective, any site which brings in an income can be considered a well designed site. Many people can’t get their heads around this fact: some of the most basic/ugly sites can be the most profitable. You don’t need a perfect site.

Believe me, I know from first-hand experience.

Your site doesn’t have to be a design knock-out to earn you money. My first site www.bizwaremagic.com which I designed from scratch when I didn’t have a clue what a perfect site should be or look like but my modest little site now brings in over 50,000 visitors a month and Google just upgraded it to a PR6.

All that is not really important, what is important my site brings in money each and every day! It is a profitable site, it’s not pretty but it works. I earn revenue from Google Adsense, I earn revenue from affiliate sales and I have even formed partnerships with other major sites and businesses on the web.
Read the rest of this entry »

By Adriana Iordan (c) 2006

For a successful Search Engine Optimization strategy, take into consideration that search engines look at content and also at the structure of the markup. They emphasize the importance of text content, page titles, keywords rich text, meta descriptions and information architecture. A website where quality of content and code prevails will rank higher in the major search engines.

There are many Search Engine Optimization tactics, but try to find the best combination and don’t sacrifice the usability and performance of your website. Here is some basic information about improving your source code from an SEO perspective:

Avoid Classical 404 Error Pages

The 404 - File Not Found - page is presented to the user by the server as an error page. The user gets this message directly from the server of the website he is trying to visit. This error page is supposed to appear only when the server cannot find the requested location and is unsure of its status.

In the vast majority of cases, the 404 error emerges for pages that were moved or even deleted or the layout of the site or page information changed.

Many hostíng companies offer a 404 redirect page. This means that when a user enters the URL of any page of your domain, and that page does not exist or can no longer be found, you can automatically redirect the user to a specified page - usually your home page or your sitemap.

Read the rest of this entry »