Writing Tips Guides

Are you selling a product online and never seem to make enough sales? Are you trying to raise your search engine placement but gain any ground? Your product descriptions may be to blame. In order to become successful in internet product sales, you must have a good product description that grabs the attention of your customer and the search engine spiders.
In order to rank high in the search engines and sell a lot of products you must stop using generic product descriptions and you must spend some time improving your current sales copy. Writing good product descriptions can be time consuming but the time will be well spent. A good product description includes not only the details about the product but explains the benefits. Spend time using the products you sell and really learn what the benefits are then incorporate your experiences into the product description. You also want to make sure that each product description you create ends with a call to action that has your potential customer taking the next step to purchase your products.

A good product description is only the first step in keeping ahead of your competition and gaining good search engine results. You must avoid duplicate content between you and other vendors who are selling the same product. Search engines hate duplicate content and if your page has the same information found on other websites, you take the change that you will be considered supplemental information and dropped from the main rankings. You should never use the manufacturers pre-written product descriptions and pre-designed web sites. You will not be the only person using this information which means you will end up with duplicate content. If you are working with a company that requires you to use their materials, you may want to consider changing your business plan or suppliers.

You need to stand out in the minds of your customers and to the search engines. If your just getting started and want to build your website quickly, use the information the manufacture provides as the first step in your product description process. You can create a starter product description that the search engine will consider unique content by changing the order of the sentences and replacing several of the keywords with synonyms. Rewrite the information provided until you end up with content that is in your own words and using your own writing style.

You also want to monitor your content to make sure no one else is using your copy. If you write good product descriptions someone will try to copy your work. If your copy is stolen you may find that the search engines consider your website to be supplemental information again. There are several websites that offer free duplicate content checker. Check your content monthly to determine if anyone else is using your copy and take the appropriate actions when necessary.

It is not just content that is important to your website and your search engine results, you need unique content that keeps your customers coming back for more. You need to create product descriptions that are long enough to get noticed by the search engines but not too long to bore your actual readers. Always remember to write content for your actual customer and not just for search engines. There is nothing more irritating to a potential customer than poorly written web content.

Brian Stocker is a writer, editor and online marketer. Visit his website for more information about Writing Product Descriptions, articles and using content to promote your website.

As every website content writer who works for a living writing will be able to tell you, there are certain prerequisites that determine how much impact the final product will have. One of the most important of these is the fact that clear thinking is the predecessor to clear writing. However, it’s often the case that when your thoughts are muddled when you first start writing, they become more concise as you work them out.

The definition of clear writing is simple as well. Writing is considered clear when any reader can identify the point quickly and follow all of the supporting arguments. All content writers and SEO consultants know that any manner of ambiguity is considered bad writing and will not be effective for either drawing prospects into a site or actually selling the product.

All writers that work on or near the Internet know that it’s impossible to be effective if you’ve left the reader out in the dark as to what the most important words mean. Remember that it’s very important to revise unclear references when it comes to pronouns and who they refer to. The website content writer can enter some particularly dangerous territory when they fall into the ambiguity trap when they’re writing blogs. These are one of the areas where space limitation means that every word needs to count and be specific.

It’s necessary for both the novice and the professional website content writer to be aware of sentence structure so that they avoid making illogical comparisons in their text. For example, ‘Company X’s vacation policy is more liberal than the federal government’ makes little sense when compared to a well thought out sentence like ‘ Company X’s vacation policy is more liberal that the federal government’s.’ It’s often the case that correcting the situation is a matter of just inserting the right word.

One of the last things that content writers and SEO consultants need to keep foremost in their minds is that they need to be specific in all areas. Remember that vague words can be misunderstood. A general statement that product y saves you money does not have the same impact as a sentence that gives a specific number about the amount of money that will be saved.

Finally, it’s a good idea to use transitional words. For example, ‘however’ tells the reader that you’re moving off in a different direction and ‘therefore’ generally tells them that you’ve come to a conclusion. The best website content writers are also aware that they need to be as economical as possible with the words that they use and to that end they should be trying their best to eliminate all the negatives in their sentences where ever possible. So whenever you see a phrase like ‘not unaware’, the good writer is immediately replacing it with a single word like ‘aware.’

Writing is a craft and as such it demands that the serious person be constantly upgrading their skill set and looking for the new innovative and economical ways to say things

Robert Starr is a professional writer/editor with several published books and a degree in journalism. He’s brought 20 years of experience in the craft to his own on line writing/editing service. You can reach him at
robstarr

The headline is the most important part of your sales letter because it must capture attention instantly and also fuel interest. Headlines should concisely communicate the essence of your message and wet visitors’ reading appetite. Without a strong compelling reason to read on, the visitor will leave your web page.

There are so many ways to create attention-grabbing headlines. For example, you could:

1 - Start with a question
“Is Google AdSense Driving Potential Customers Away from Your Site?”
“Hate exercise? Me too.”

2 - Address your target market
“Attention Small Business Owners!”
“If You Are A Webmaster And Looking For Free Tools…”

3 - State a fact
“Your Competitor Could Be Your Best Friend.”
“Marriage is the Biggest Investment In Your Life.”

4 - Use a quotation
“I Lost 20 Kilos In 60 Days.”
“I Made $8,397 Last Month With My Affiliate Program!”

5 - Arouse curiosity
“Did You Know That…”
“What Your Boss Doesn’t Want You to Know…”

6 - Connect emotionally
“Do You Feel Tired When You Wake Up in the Morning?”
“Are You Frustrated Because Visitors Leave Your Site Without Buying?”

7 - Present your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
“Get your University Degree In 12 Months Even If You Have Not Completed High School”
“Combine AdWords and ClickBank for Huge Online Profits and Make $1000 Per Month Without Having A Website Or A Product To Sell.”

8 - Create dreams
“What Will You Do With That Extra $1,000 A Week?”
“If You Could Convert 80% Of Your Website Visitors To Customers, How Much Money Would You Be Making?”

9 - Provide newsworthy information
“New Study Founds That 8 Out of 10 Websites Could Be Damaging Business’ Credibility.”
“Drink Two Glasses Of Red Wine Every Day And You Will Live Longer, Reveals…(name of Study)”

10- Explain ‘How To’
“How to Promote Your Ebook And Become a Celebrity.”
“How to Choose Your Wedding Diamond Ring.”

11- Give reasons
“12 Good Reasons For Drinking Red Wine.”
“24 Reasons To Form Strategic Alliances.”

12- Start by ‘why’
“Why You Should Not Use ‘Click Here.’”
“Why Potential Customers Are Abandoning Their Shopping Carts.”

13- Guide Step-by-Step
“Five Easy Steps To Win Customers.”
“Three Critical Steps To Gain Customer Loyalty”

14- Instil fear
“Did You Realise That You Could Be Sued If…”
“What Will You Do If Your Computer Crashes?”

15- Command
“Lose Weight While Sitting At Your Computer”
“Create Ads That Will Boost Your Sales.”

16- Use Comparisons
“Organic Search Engine Marketing Versus Pay-Per-Click.”
“Should You Give Away Or Sell Your Ebook?”

17- Add Secrecy
“Insiders’ Secrets For Instant Online Profits”
“Psst! For Your Eyes Only…Expert (name of Expert) Shares How He Earns $25,000 Per Month With EBay.”

18- Educate
“Learn To Promote Your Website On A Shoestring Budget.”
“What’s Blogging? Is It For You?”

19- Provoke
“Women Over 35 Are Better Lovers.”
“Buying Shares Is A Waste Of Money.”
Provocative and controversial statements can attract attention but they can also infuriated your readers. Use with caution.

20- Start with negatives
“Don’t Make Your Sales Page Look Like An Advert.”
“12 Reasons Not To Buy A Web Cam.”

21- Offer expert advice
“All You Should Know About…”
“Doctor (name of Doctor) Recommends…”

22- Give a new perspective
“The Art (or Science) of Writing Headlines.”
“The Language of Success.”

23- Exaggerate (if you can justify it)
“The Revolutionary Formula Of…”
“The Best Recipe to Cure Hangovers.”

24- Give away incentives
“Free pedometer.”
“Win A Holiday In Paris.”

Now that you know how to make headlines, let your own creativity take the lead.

Henriette Martel is a website strategist, author of 200 Marketing Ideas for Your Website and director of the Australian Training Guide, Australia’s A to Z Training Database and Resources for Speakers, Trainers & Coaches.

Copywriting presents special challenges when your website visitors arrive with a mindset of, “I can’t afford this service.” To convert these prospects to clients, you copywriting needs to reframe your prices and fees.

Recently someone sent me an email, saying, “My target market is people who are very smart but who chose fields where they don’t make a lot of money. How do I motivate them to buy?”

(1) Emphasize value.

Frugal clients have learned how to spend money wisely. For example, clothes can be compared on “cost per wearing.” Demonstrate that your product or service can

–help buyers earn far more than they invest
–help buyers save far more than they invest
–help buyers save time so they can earn (or save) more than they’re spending

(2) Show buyers they’re getting much more than they realize. Often they’re buying one service but gaining additional, unexpected benefits that have real value.

“You’re not just getting business information,” one coach says. “You are also getting accountability and a sounding board. So you won’t just get ideas: you implement them and you gain energy.”

“When I walk your dog,” says a pet sitter, “you get a whole evening of peace and quiet. Fido is too tired to chew your socks or chase the cat.”

(3) Recognize that some website visitors will not be ready to become clients. Help them screen themselves.

I get concerned when someone tells me, “I went thousands of dollars into debt to buy John’s program and I haven’t been able to work with it.” Usually clients least able to afford your services will also have greatest difficulty identifying their own needs.

If John charges the level of dollars that can plunge a client into debt, his process could include

–a self-assessent “is this program right for you;”
–an application or interview where he asks tough questions;
–a detailed description of what’s involved in the program; or suggested income and earnings guidelines

(4) Give detailed descriptions of clients who successfully used your service. For example, your success stories might come from

–clients with 5 or more years of business experience; –clients with specific types of experience (such as teaching, managing or coaching); and/or
–clients with a huge network of family and friends

You’ll be more likely to attract clients who will benefit from your service. These clients are the ones who write testimonials and refer others.

(5) Break down your service into small daily amounts.

Why do some people spend as much as $200 a month at Starbucks? Because each day they spend two, three or four dollars. Each purchase seems small.

Often your service will seem insignificant when you break down the amounts into weeks or even days.

(6) Introduce the Cappuccino effect.

“Tom” struggles to pay his bills, but I see him carrying a tall cup of cappuccino…mocha, pumpkin or frosted, depending on the season. “Jane” had to borrow last month’s rent from a friend, but she just got her nails done.

When presenting your service, copywriters encourage comparisons of “apples to oranges.” Today’s copywriters tend to compare service to cappuccinos (or some other luxury product).

“About as much as you spend on your cable bill each month…”

“Probably less than you spend each week on lattes…”

Or my own personal favorite: “Less than the cost of a power lunch.”

Sometimes I even say, “If you took me out to lunch to pick my brain, you’d pay more than you might pay for this ebook.” It’s true. And I’m not available for lunch, most days.

(7) Recognize that people make decisions based on attitude, not bank account.

“Michael” once told me, seriously, “I’m earning X dollars a year. Your fees sound high.” Michael was actually earning more than most of my clients who comfortably paid for my services.

We all know people who claim to be struggling financially, yet we see them ordering double mocha cappuccinos, eating out, buying expense workout clothes and/or driving cars when they have access to an excellent bus system.

These decisions may be rational. A manicure may give Jane the confidence to head off on a job hunt. Tom’s coffee shop visits may have high social and even networking value.

But your goal is to identify clients who can comfortably afford your service and gain real value from working with you. Use creative copywriting and strategic conversion strategies to beat price resistance.

To learn more about getting greater results from your website marketing, download The 7 Best-Kept Secrets of Websites That Really Attract Clients. From Cathy Goodwin, Ph.D. Copywriting and Website Marketing Success Strategies

Within this article on copywriting demand, we will look at how much work there is out there for someone who wants to do freelance copywriting as well as the demand for copywriters as a profession.

Copywriting demand will always be strong. Demand will always be strong whether the economy is strong or weak. In past decades, it was easy to get away with a strong product and some marketing. With the emergence of globalization, there is a greater deal of competition in all markets and the way to stand apart is through marketing. For many consumers, the only way to be able to discern the differences between competing products is through the marketing. This ensures that copywriters are needed.

Any good company which wants to send a consistent message to a target audience will always be employing copywriters. Some companies not looking ahead to the future may cut their advertising budget when they hit weak sales but that is not a smart move. If a recession comes along, demand may go down by a small margin for copywriters but it would pick right back up when the economy turned around.

There is always need for copywriters so no matter what happens within the country, companies will want to make sure that they have copywriters to work for them. There is a growing demand for copywriters in one particular forum and that would be on the Internet. With the Web up past four billion web pages, the demand for search engine copywriting has continued to increase. It is harder to get your web site indexed and search engine copywriting give you a better chance of being indexed. To do this, the search engine copywriters must write well to ensure that two audiences, the people searching and the search bots, are appeased so this provides more opportunities.

If you are looking into copywriting, there are a great many opportunities within this field. You can work for an advertising agency or you can decide to work for yourself. Many jobs are available all over the country for copywriters and you will find that this copywriting demand will stay at about the same pace and continue to grow with the pace of the economy. If you go out to the website, monster, you will find that there are currently more than 500 jobs are available for copywriters. This is just a small piece of the job market. There are many other ways that you can find copywriting jobs currently at this time. This should give you an idea of how there is demand for copywriters.

Hopefully this article on copywriting demand will help you out. If you are a copywriter, you should find that no matter the condition of the economy, you will always find work. Even when the economy is in a recession, some companies’ sales are increasing and they may have a need for more copywriting work. With the demand of the whole market, you should always find yourself needed by someone. Good luck in finding a copywriting job but you will find that this is something that will often not be needed because of copywriting demand.

Uchenna Ani-Okoye is an internet marketing advisor and co founder of Free Affiliate Programs

For more information and resource links on copywriting visit: Copywriting Tips

Within this article today we will look at what copywriting as a job has to offer. There is a great deal of benefits if you have copywriting as a job. The salary for a copy writer is much higher than the average wage in the United States. According to the magazine Advertising Age, the average salary for a copywriter in the United States is right around $60,000 when you include bonuses and that was for the year 2005.

You can imagine that the income will be higher now, given that there has been inflation in the last two years. The Bureau of Labour Statistics comes up with a similar but slightly lower number, right around $57,000 for a copywriter.

Copywriting does have a great deal more flexibility than many jobs. You do not need to worry about keeping set hours usually because the focus is upon you writing good copy. This could allow you to live a full life in some ways because you can plan some events around the fact that you can make up more time in hours on certain days if something comes up. This is something that many jobs such as banks or restaurants are not able to do.

Copywriting as a job also offers a great workplace environment. Many copywriters work within an advertising agency, which can be a great place to work. You often have many other creative people and there you can bounce ideas off of one another and these people often have high energy which you can feed off of. This can be a great group of people to work with because you will often find that you are challenged due to the intelligence and creativity of this group of people.

There are many different sizes of advertising agencies see you could decide to work for a smaller advertising agency if you like a close-knit group of people or you could work for a larger advertising agency if you want more competition. This could be structured according to how your mindset and makeup are. There is a great deal of flexibility within your workplace environment as demonstrated here.

Writing good copy can be very challenging so you will find that this job will never grow boring. If you work at an advertising agency, you often will have many different types of clients so the work that you do every day can change. This is good because you’ll get a great variety of different things they would never get bored.

Copywriting as a job offers great benefits to you no matter how you look at it. You are able to make very good money, considering that the average wage is right around $60,000. If you are able to establish yourself as a master copywriter, you can obviously earn a great deal more money than the average salary. The workplace environment often will be crackling with creative energy and the flexibility that you will have from the job is more than most other jobs can offer.

Uchenna Ani-Okoye is an internet marketing advisor and co founder of Free Affiliate Programs

For more information and resource links on copywriting visit: Copywriting Tips