Do the Web Write

Dan Furman

Description

The hardest part of having a successful website isn't building or coding it. The hardest part is knowing what to say, where to say it, and how to write it. Written in easy-to-understand language, Do the Web Write will show you how to write persuasively for the web, how to market your website effectively, and ultimately, how to succeed online.
INTRODUCTION xv
Let’s Start at the Beginning xv
What Do I Mean by “Now What?” xvi
Okay, Who Am I, and Why Should You Listen to Me? xvii
What This Book Is xviii
What This Book Isn’t xxi
About the Pictures xxii
A Note to Web Designers xxii
A Few Disclaimers xxiii
Say It Again, Dan … xxiv
1 Understanding Website Conversion and Targeted Traffic 1
Website Conversion Basics 1
Hits versus visits 2
What is an “action”? 2
Establishing your conversion rate 3
So what is an acceptable website conversion rate? 3
How to Use Conversion Rates 4
Let me tell you a quick website conversion story 5
Website Conversion Rates are a True Indicator of Success 6
v
CONTENTS
vi Do the web write
Targeted Traffic 7
What is targeted traffic, and why is it important? 7
How do you get targeted traffic? 7
Wrapping up targeted traffic 12
2 The Fundamentals of a Successful Website Today and Tomorrow 13
The Early Days 14
How the Web is Currently Used 15
Okay Dan, So How Exactly Do You Let Visitors Know They Should Use You? 15
Laying the Foundation of a Successful Website 16
A Successful Website Answers Six Basic Questions 16
Who you are 17
What you do 17
Why someone should do business with you 18
What locations you service 18
How someone goes about using you 18
When? 18
A Successful Website is Simple to Use, and Does Not Frustrate Users 19
A Successful Website is Easy to Read 22
Font size and style 22
Formatting 22
The writing itself 23
The “Furman 21” Website Questionnaire 25
To whom should you give the questionnaire? 25
So what do the answers mean? 26
3 Page Order and Information to Include 31
A Word on Navigation 32
What Type of Website Will You Have? 32
Service websites 33
Product websites 33
“Informational” company websites 34
Information (Pages) Needed for the Three Types of Websites, and the Page Order 34
Contents vii
Page order and page information for a service website 35
Wrapping up the service site 41
Page order and page information for a sales website 43
Wrapping up the sales website 48
Page order and page information for an informational website 48
4 Dan’s 11 Rules of Effective Website Writing 50
Rule 1: Web Copy Must be Scan-able 51
Headlines 52
Subheadings 56
Bullet points 61
Rule 2: Use Short Paragraphs 62
Rule 3: Don’t Dwell (Keep Your Pages Short) 69
Formatting 69
Content style 71
Rule 4: Throw Out the English Rule Book 74
The way we are taught to write is wrong (for business) 75
How many rules does your reader know? 75
Write like you talk 76
Okay, so what rules of English do you need to know? 76
Commonly misspelled words and misused phrases 77
In closing 77
Rule 5: Do Not Preach to the Choir 78
Targeted traffic revisited 79
What’s your problem? 79
What are they expecting from you? 80
Rule 6: Keep Your Audience in Mind, but Don’t Alienate Anyone, Either 81
Write so your audience understands you 81
Don’t alienate anyone 82
Dancing between the two 82
Lose the corporate jargon, again 85
Rule 7: Write with Confidence 85
Confident words and phrases 86
viii Do the web write
Rule 8: Use the Word “You” a Lot 89
How often to use the word “you” 90
One more “you” myth dispelled 91
Rule 9: Bolds, Italics, Underlines, Parentheses, Dashes, and Other Formatting Tricks 91
Bolds and italics 92
Different color fonts 93
Highlighting 93
Underlining 93
ALL CAPS 93
Dashes 94
Ellipses … 95
Overdoing punctuation 95
(Parentheses) 95
Why asides are important 96
In closing 96
Rule 10: Lots of Escape Hatches (Calls to Action) 96
Rule 11: Be an Oreo® 98
What do I mean by “be an Oreo®?” 98
Intermission 101
Short Recap 102
Moving Forward 103
5 Writing for Your Home Page 104
The Three Main Things the Writing on Your Home Page Needs to Address 105
Tips on Layout 105
Keywords and Keyphrases 111
Wrapping Up the Home Page 112
6 Writing for your About Us/Why Use Us Page and your Products/Services Pages 113
Your About Us/Why Use Us Page 113
Straight about us page 114
Using a why page also 115
Products/Services Pages 116
Contents ix
Services page(s) 117
Products pages 119
7 FAQ You 120
Frequently Asked Questions (and Answers) 120
8 SEO and “Traffic”-type Writing (Blogs, Articles, Press Releases, Pay-per-click Ads) 126
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) 126
SEO Explained 126
The keyword myth 126
Beware of SEO companies 127
SEO Writing 129
Press releases 129
Articles 135
Blogs 138
Some final thoughts on SEO 140
Pay-per-click (PPC) Ads 141
A very quick primer 141
Writing PPC ads 141
9 Alternate Landing Pages and Microsites 143
The Concept Behind Alternate Landing Pages and Microsites 143
Alternate Landing Pages 144
Alternate Landing Pages and PPC Ads 145
Microsites 145
Other advantages of using microsites 147
Domain names and hosting for microsites 147
10 Dan’s Bonus Chapter (Even More for Your Money) 150
Why All of This Website Conversion Stuff Matters 150
Do Not Put Up Roadblocks 151
Stop Hiding Your Phone Number 151
Stop Scolding Me About Copyright When I Right Click 151
If You Aren’t in a Band, Don’t Play Music 151
x Do the web write
Keep Dates Updated 151
Answer Your Email / Quote Form 151
Turn Off Your Spamblockers 152
Make Sure I Can Do Business with You From Anywhere 152
Re-Read Chapter 4, Rule 7 152
Join and Participate in Online Forums for Your Industry 152
Write and Post Articles 152
Look At (and Learn From) Your Competition 153
Be an Oreo (Again) 153
Give Something Away 153
Internet Success Comes in Small Increments 153
Keep the Focus on Your Website Visitor 153
Check Under the Hood Often 153
Understand the Changing World 154

Sujets

• Marketing
• General
• General officer

Informations

• Publié par: Self-Counsel Press
• Date de parution: 15 janvier 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 21
• EAN13: 9781770409224
• Langue: English

Extrait

DO THE WEB WRITE
Writing for and Marketing Your Website
Dan Furman
Self-Counsel Press
(a division of)
International Self-Counsel Press Ltd.
USA Canada

Copyright © 2013

International Self-Counsel Press
All rights reserved.


Introduction

Too many websites do the web wrong. I’m here to help you do itright (write)!
Really — there are millions of websites out therethat are just kind of sitting there, not helping their company in any way. Oh, theymay look nice, but they don’t do the one thing that you really need a website to do,which is to make a visitor take an action (buy something, contact you for yourservice, fill out a form, request more information, or similar).
In general terms, a website that doesn’t generateaction is completely useless. And most websites are just that — completely useless.This is because far and away, companies spend their resources (both money and time)on designing the website, and not enough on what information / content actually goesinto it.
This book is here to change that.

A note about “CD Files”
The print version of this book is packaged with a CDcontaining samples and other files I’ve mentioned in the book. It’s tricky topackage a CD with a digital book, so the publisher has added a link at the endof this book where you can download those CD files to your computer.
Remember, when you see “CD” mentioned in this book,those references are to the files you can download.

Let’s Start at the Beginning
Okay, so you have (or want) a website. Now what?
In all honesty, that’s probably the hardestpart of having a website; answering that “now what” question. Making a websiteisn’t all that tough. If you know HTML, you can do the nuts and bolts yourself.And if you don’t know HTML, you can just go online and one of perhaps 4 billionweb designers (most with clever ’80s names like Trevor or Dustin) will be happyto help you.
But they can only make the website — they can’tanswer the “now what?” question.

What Do I Mean by “Now What?”
Before I go any further, perhaps I should explain what Imean by “now what?” “Now what” encompasses three very general questions:

1. What will your website say? (Self explanatory.)
2. Where will your website say it? (What pages, page order, etc.?)
3. How will your website say it? (How will you write it?)
These three questions have nothing to do withthe nuts and bolts of actually making your website, but they meaneverything in regards to its success.
They are also the hardest questions for anybusiness owner to answer. This is because generally, a website developer willseek to get these answers from YOU (and not the other way around, like manypeople hope). In fact, here’s how the conversation usually goes:
Web Developer: “Okay, I canmake you the site … so, what pages do you want, what order do you want them in,and what are you going to say on them?”
Business Owner: “Errrr … ”(Translation: “I have no clue — I thought you were doing this part.”)
What happens then is the web developer (whoalmost always isn’t a web marketing person) will attempt to do this part byasking you a few questions about you, your business, and your life. They’ll findout that you are a family-owned business, that you have a great reputation, thatyour customers love you, and that you have two cute kids, all of which will makeit onto your site. They’ll also attempt to figure out what your business does(having a business name like “Uncle John’s Live Night Crawlers” helps a lot) andmake a page for that too.
The end result will be a nice looking, somewhatboring website that pretty much tells people all about your business. Which isreally, really bad. Know why?
It’s bad because nobody cares aboutyour business.
Really, they don’t. Nobody came to your websiteto marvel at your company history, to read about your reputation, or to find outthe good works your company has done. They don’t even care about the GoldenTurnip award you won last year (I know, I know … it’s a big honor. Listen, if itmeans anything to you, I care, okay?)
This isn’t to say this information doesn’t haveits place. Of course you need to mention things about your company — even theTurnip — on your website. The trick is in how you do it. How (and when) you doit means everything.
This is because your visitor is decidedlyselfish; he or she came to your website with a problem, and your website needsto solve that problem, pronto. In other words, your website needs to engage yourvisitor, address the reason he or she came, and then drive him or her to action(buy, contact you, bookmark you, just get that mouse clicking). Anything less isfailure. Make sense?

Remember this — the goal of almost all businesswebsites is to get visitors to click in some fashion. That’s it — that’s thegoal. Don’t ever forget that.
And that’s the crux of this book — to help youcraft a successful website (whether you are actually making it or you hired awebsite designer). I’m going to help you decide WHAT to say, WHERE to say it,and then I’m going to show you HOW to write it.

Okay, Who Am I, and Why Should You Listen toMe?
As you probably surmised from the cover of this book, myname is Dan Furman. I am a professional business writer, business and marketingconsultant, and business author (my last book is entitled Start & Run aReal Home-Based Business , also published by Self-Counsel Press, and isavailable anywhere you buy books). I generally work out of my home, writingsales and marketing copy for all kinds of companies (“copy” is another word for“writing,” in case you didn’t know). I’m also an expert on the Internet andwebsites, and what makes them work.
I do not make that claim lightly — I am good atthis, and looking back, I have a lot of experience.
To begin, right now, I make my living online. Isell my service (writing) to businesses all over the world. I have clients onseveral continents, and I rely on my website for almost 100% of my business. Andthis isn’t some “systems” business, or affiliate marketing or anything likethat. I simply use my website to tell the world about my writing service. Peoplego to it, read what I have to say, and contact me to write for them — it’sreally that simple (come see me at www.clear-writing.com to see exactly what Ido, although you’ll see plenty of my website in this book). In other words,because I know how to make a website work, a good percentage of the people wholand there are compelled to contact me.
I’ve also been around a long time. I’ve beenonline since the early ’90s, and I had my first website in 1995. In 1997, I hadthe number one tech support humor website on the Internet, getting close to20,000 visits a week. I’ve sold products online, I currently sell my serviceonline, and I help others do the same. I’ve seen the Internet explode into themainstream, and I’ve watched thousands of websites both succeed and fail.
Trust me, I know the Internet well.
And, because of that, the biggest chunk of myrevenue comes from companies of all sizes that need their website copy written,and need their websites tuned up in a marketing sense. My style ofwriting just works very well for the web, and I am extremelyknowledgeable about how to simply make a website work. Essentially, you can saythat I answer the three questions — I help companies figure out what to say,where to say it, and then how to say it.
In my time online (and like I said, I was onthe Internet even before Al Gore claimed he invented it), I’ve studied whatworks, and what doesn’t work in regards to websites. So trust me when I tell youthat what you say to a customer on your site matters, where your information is presented matters, and how you write matters.
The principles I will be discussing in thisbook are rather simple; nothing too complex here. They are also easy to followand implement, but the most important thing is, THEY WORK. For just about anywebsite, too: small, large, or in-between. They work whether you are selling aproduct or a service; and they work whether your goal is to get someone to buysomething, contact you, request more information, or all three. They also workwhether you’re a giant corporation, or a small mom-and-pop organization (or inthe case of the Night Crawlers, probably just Pop).
I’ve spent years writing and consulting forwebsite owners, and all of the websites I am involved with have one thing incommon: they work, and they make money. In other words, I know what I am doing.

What This Book Is
In essence, this book is a culmination of my experienceswith websites. In all the time that I’ve been writing / working with websites,I’ve come to realize a few things about them: what works, what doesn’t, and howto go about making sure your website has the best shot at success.
This book is not scientific or technical — itis the opinions and observations of a real person who has real success on theInternet. In very simple terms, my website makes me money, without amillion-dollar ad budget, without any “techno tricks” that nobody understands,and without any “piggyback sales” type stuff (such as affiliate marketing or thelike). All I do is use my site to tell people about my writing and marketingbusiness, and my phone rings (and my email inbox fills).
This book is for any company with a website, orany company that wants one. It doesn’t matter what size your company is, and itdoesn’t matter how large your website (or planned website) is. The principles Idiscuss here will help almost every website out there become more successful;and it will result in more sales, more customers, more contacts, and more money.
I’m going to help your website in several keyways. I’m going t