Exactly What Is Keyword Density?

By The Davinator

There are usually a lot of questions that arise when people hear about the term "keyword density." Many people are not sure of what the term is pertaining to, or are not sure of acceptable percentages of density. This little explanation of what the term keyword density refers to should clear up some of the confusion that arises.

Keyword density is an indicator of the number of times the selected keyword appears in the web page. But mind you, keywords shouldn't be over used, but should be just sufficient enough to appear at important places. At one time, before the search engine algorithms were set up to detect such spamming, people were tricking the search engines to get a higher placement by performing what was coined "keyword stuffing".

People were completely abusing the search engines, and over time, they smartened up and got wise to it.

If you repeat your keywords with every other word on every line, then your site will probably be rejected as an artificial site or spam site.

Keyword density is always expressed as a percentage of the total word content on a given web page.

Suppose you have 100 words on your web page (not including HMTL code used for writing the web page), and you use a certain keyword for five times in the content. The keyword density on that page is got by simply dividing the total number of keywords, by the total number of words that appear on your web page. So here it is 5 divided by 100 = .05. Because keyword density is a percentage of the total word count on the page, multiply the above by 100, that is 0.05 x 100 = 5%

The accepted standard for a keyword density is between 3% and 5%, to get recognized by the search engines and you should never exceed it.

Remember, that this rule applies to every page on your site. It also applies to not just to one keyword but also a set of keywords that relates to a different product or service. The keyword density should always be between 3% and 5%.

Simple steps to check the density:

- Copy and paste the content from an individual web page into a word-processing software program like Word or Word Perfect.

- Go to the 'Edit' menu and click 'Select All'. Now go to the 'Tools' menu and select 'Word Count'. Write down the total number of words in the page.

- Now select the 'Find' function on the 'Edit' menu. Go to the 'Replace' tab and type in the keyword you want to find. 'Replace' that word with the same word, so you don't change the text.

- When you complete the replace function, the system will provide a count of the words you replaced. That gives the number of times you have used the keyword in that page.

- Using the total word count for the page and the total number of keywords you can now calculate the keyword density.

The above way of checking your keyword density is a bit of an old fashioned way, but it still does work for the purposes of figuring out what you density actually is. These days, there are many different types of softwares on the market which makes this
job a whole lot easier.

About The Author:

Davin Ogden owns and operates several web sites on the internet. He mainly specializes in SEO and viral marketing. For more information on keyword density, SEO, and many other aspects of SEO please visit his site at http://www.davinatorbiz.com

More Tips for Better Writing

By Tim North

Your readers judge you on the way you write.

This applies whether you're writing advertising copy, a college or business report, a web site, or the next great novel; and it is these judgements that will determine the success or failure of your venture.

For example, would you buy a book if you flipped through the pages and saw spelling errors? Probably not. Such errors would detract from the CREDIBILITY of what was written. Similarly, the Internet is full of web sites offering to tell you how to write fantastic advertising copy that will triple your sales. The irony, is that most of these site look like they're written by an illiterate. You know the ones: spelling errors, poor grammar, ridiculous punctuation, and way too many exclamation marks.

Good, solid writing skills are necessary whether you're writing for business, college or fiction. In this article, I'm going to look at a frequently misunderstood area: hyphens.

Yes, it sounds dull; I admit it. Wait, though, before being tempted to put this article to one side, and test yourself with these real-world questions.

Q1. Why do many dictionaries list "infra-red" with a hyphen, but "ultraviolet" without?

Q2. Why does only the first of the following sentences need a hyphen?
We will discuss public-safety issues.
We will discuss issues of public safety.

Q3. Which of these is the preferred spelling:
co-ordinator or coordinator?
mid 1990s or mid-1990s?
selfesteem, self-esteem or self esteem?

Are you certain of all your answers? If not, read on, and we'll cover some simple guidelines for using hyphens. (You'll also find the answers to the questions above.)

SEVEN SIMPLE TIPS FOR USING HYPHENS
-----------------------------------

1. The prefix "self" is nearly always hyphenated; e.g. self-esteem, self-image, self-conscious.

2. When the prefix "ex" is used to mean former, it is always hyphenated; e.g. ex-wife, ex-premier, ex-treasurer.

3. Most of the time, prefixes don't need a hyphen; i.e. most dictionaries list "coexist" not "co-exist."

4. We do sometimes use a hyphen after a prefix, though, if the main word is only one syllable; e.g. infra-red. By comparison, ultraviolet doesn't need a hyphen (according to most dictionaries) because the main word is not one syllable.

5. Use a hyphen after a prefix in order to separate a doubled vowel; e.g. pre-empt, de-emphasise. There are some exceptions, though. Most modern dictionaries spell "cooperate" and "coordinate" without hyphens.

6. We tend to hyphenate compound words only if they come before a noun, not after. For example, we write a "public-safety issue" with a hyphen, but "an issue of public safety" is written without one.

7. Use a hyphen after the prefix if the main word has a hyphen of its own; e.g. non-customer-focussed approach.

Armed with these simple guidelines, you'll soon be using hyphens like an expert. Good luck! :-)

About the Author:

Tim North (info@...) is the author of "Better Writing Skills" -- a 200-page, easy-to-understand, downloadable book that will give you a competitive edge.

You can DOWNLOAD A FREE CHAPTER that's full of practical hints and tips from http://www.betterwritingskills.com

How To Measure The Effectiveness Of Your Article Marketing Campaigns

By Bill Platt

I frequently rant on Internet marketing and some of the gurus who try to bend your ear. Why? Because many of these so-called gurus trash everything that makes sense in this Internet world,
especially when they realize that they cannot make money from the techniques being recommended.

I don't preach marketing concepts solely for the purpose of selling my products and services. (If you happen to buy my products or services, then awesome, but that is not my point when I share information from my SEO and other marketing campaigns.) I preach the concepts that I have used for myself successfully. Either you can trust me and test the things I recommend, or you can listen to the gurus and drown yourself in pity, when you realize you are not finding the success you seek.

I present things in such a way that anyone can actually go out and try my suggestions on their own, with or without my help. I want you to at least try what I suggest. I don't want you to try once, but I want you to commit yourself giving the suggested methods a chance to work for you.

Yes, I preach article marketing in connection with building link popularity value for your website (and I operate an article marketing company). But, I am not the only article marketing company out there. So, it remains possible for you to employ my article marketing techniques, without actually using my services specifically. (If you want to use my services, great, but you don't have to do so.)

Frequently, new customers come along and say, "Bill, I am going to try this once. If it works out for me, I will be back." My response is often, "Dude, you are selling yourself short, when you do something just once!"

As a person who has only written one article, you are just one in thousands of uncommitted, wannabe article writers. Your article may very likely be overlooked, because the publishers do not yet know your name or why they should care that you are writing articles.

When publishers have seen your name, 3, 4 or 10 times, then they are more likely to open your articles to see if they like your writing style and to see why they should pay attention to your message. Once publishers begin to pay attention to what you write, then publishers will open more of your articles, and perhaps publish your articles more frequently.

When you do a one-time out article, you are riding solely on a prayer, for success. (I am not in the prayer business - please see your pastor for that service.) But, if you can commit yourself to ten articles, your chance for article marketing success has been improved tenfold.

The first thing that needs to happen for article marketing to work for the promotion of your website is for you to create great content that other people want to publish. Then you must get noticed by the (ezine and website) publishers that will want to publish your articles. Once you have an audience, don't let them down --- keep giving them more content so that they can turn to you always.

To express this point, let me share a couple names with you. How many of you have heard of Willie Crawford? Willie has written and distributed 123 articles through my program, and he has 140,000 search results for his name in Google (http://www.google.com/search?q=%22willie+crawford%22).

My friend Clinton Douglas IV has written and distributed 36 articles. Google credits him with 17,500 mentions in the Google search results for his name (http://www.google.com/search?q=%22clinton+douglas+iv%22).

Both of these gentlemen suggest that they rely primarily upon articles to build their presence online. Of course, Willie is somewhat of an exception, since he has his fingers in so many pies. But, Willie still attributes much of his success to article marketing.

When it is time to measure your article marketing success, you should never go to Google's public search results and pull a simple search for your name or a link:yourdomainurl.com search. You should not even go to Yahoo's Site Explorer to find the same inforamtion.

Instead of relying on the public records for inbound link counts, you should register your website in Google's Webmaster Tools control panel at: http://www.google.com/webmasters

On the public side of Google, my site shows 33 inbound links (http://www.google.com/search?q=link%3Athephantomwriters.com) and Yahoo Site Explorer credits me with 1,478 inbound links. But, inside of Google's Webmaster Tools, I have +10,000 inbound links according to Google's records. I am not going to divulge exactly how many inbound links I have (according to Google's Webmaster Tools), but even I was surprised by the strength of my link counts.

The fact is that Google will only show you a really small sampling of the inbound links for your website, and while Yahoo is more free with this information, they also fail to show anything more than just a small snippet of the number of links you will actually have for your website.

So, if you are truly interested in learning the value that you created with your article marketing campaign, you absolutely have to login to Google's Webmaster Tools to get to the truth of the matter.

But, building links is just one facet of a successful article marketing campaign. There is also the reputation you build for yourself when you teach your readers something of real value in your articles. There is the consistent traffic you can receive to your website when your article is published on a website that has a regular audience. And there is the surges of traffic you can receive to your website when your article is published in a large newsletter.

I have always tried to play straight with folks, so please take this advice as it is intended. If you are only going to do one article to see where article marketing can take you, spend your money on paid advertising instead. But, if you really believe that those of us who have written hundreds of articles do so, because this marketing method works, then make a serious commitment to seeing an article marketing campaign through to success.

About the Author:

Bill Platt has been providing article marketing to his clients since 2001 at: http://www.thephantomwriters.com/ He offers ghost writing and article distribution services. With lots of experience writing articles that attract publishers, readers, traffic and sales to his website, Bill wrote an ebook to share the secrets of his article writing success that can be found at: http://thephantomwriters.com/ebooks/article-marketing-traffic.html

Or read his blog at: http://article-blog.thephantomwriters.com/

How To Inspire Yourself To Write Articles Others Will Want To Read

By Bill Platt

Anyone engaged in writing articles for offline publications or online business has occasionally struggled with the question of "What to write?"

Methods To Help The Average Person To Start Writing

Maybe I am just an overly optimistic person. I have always believed that anyone committed to writing an article can write an article. The problem is that most individuals simply do not have the belief in their own skills and insight. That is the reason why we ghost writing lot will always have a job. As long as there are people who doubt their own skills or insights, I will always have a job.

One of my good friends, Clinton Douglas IV(http://www.thephantomwriters.com/recent/author/clinton-douglas-
iv.html), learned the lesson of understanding that he had his own abilities and skills that he could utilize to write his own articles. He learned that he could turn his insight into literature worth reading, by simply calling his favorite ghost writer on the phone (me) and sharing his thoughts on a topic. He was always amazed how it seemed like I could read his thoughts and mind and put his thoughts to paper, even the thoughts that he did not mention specifically to me.

Most people simply don't have a favorite ghost writer on the other end of a telephone call. For them, they should sit down to the computer and type and type and type, with little to no regard for proper spelling, grammar, or storytelling. The first draft should always be used to get one's thoughts out of the brain and down on paper. Spelling, grammar and wording can be fixed during the editing process.

My friend Clinton utilizes this technique on occasion too. He wrote an article one time, by just spilling his brain onto the page. He wrote from his heart and got his thoughts all out of his head. When done, he sent me his final draft for editing. Sure, there were many words that were fixed, a lot of bad grammar that was corrected, and wording that was massaged, before we found the final product. Once written by him and edited, we put his
(http://www.thephantomwriters.com/free_content/db/d/3:10-to-yuma- lessons-learned.shtml) "3:10 to Yuma" article out on the World Wide Web. Almost immediately, my friend Clinton started receiving compliments for his story. Many said it was very inspirational.

I believe in your ability to write your own articles, even if you do not.

Even if you can never bring yourself to write your own articles, that is fine, since we professional ghost writers are happy to write for you.

How Professional Writers Find Inspiration

When it is time to sit down to write an article, we professionals sit down and start reading. Inspiration is a thought that comes to our mind while we are reading information on our target topic. Our thought is never to rewrite what other writers are talking about. Instead, our inspired thought is often an extension of the words we read that were penned by our peers.

How many times have you been reading something written by someone else, and you felt that the author should have ventured off on a tangent that he or she left hanging? Inspiration often occurs rght here in this moment, at that very intersection of this thought.

Once you know the question left unanswered by another writer, then you will have found your own direction and inspiration for writing your next article.

Answer The Unanswered Question and More...

When you want to use articles to promote your online business, it is not enough to answer the unanswered question. You actually need to venture a bit further afield and to ask yourself one very important question: Is the person most likely to buy your product or service also interested in having this question answered?

When you write for promotion purposes, you should always try to speak to the hearts and minds of the people most likely to buy what you are selling. If your potential clients are asking the
same questions as you are, then you know what questions you need to answer for your readers. It is in answering questions important to your customers, where you will begin to find real success using promotional articles to promote your business.

Help your customers answer questions they want answered, and they will help you to earn the sales you need to keep your doors open to others.

Final Note About Inspiration and The Writing Process

This article began as a blog post, written in a blog I contribute to weekly:
http://articlecontentprovider.com/article-marketing-blog/2008/06/22/where-does-inspiration-come-from/

I often write a blog post as my first draft of an idea. Then I massage the message to make it worthy as a promotional article, an article to be read by a larger audience.

Sometimes my first draft is an answer to someone who asked me a question about my service. I answer his or her question from the hip, then I copy-and-paste my answer to a word document and massage the copy for a public audience.

Many times, this first-draft, second-draft process has helped me to create some of the very best articles I have written. Due to the fact that my original article draft is put together as an answer to a question that one of my potential clients had, it permits me to write an article that answers a question that many of my other potential customers may also be thinking.

In answering questions for the larger audience, I have found great success for myself in article marketing. Given a little bit of motivation and commitment, you can make my processes work for you too, to build your own success online.

About the Author:

Bill Platt has been providing article marketing to his clients since 2001 at: http://www.thephantomwriters.com/ He offers ghost writing and article distribution services. With lots of experience writing articles that attract publishers, readers, traffic and sales to his website, Bill wrote an ebook to share the secrets of his article writing success that can be found at: http://thephantomwriters.com/ebooks/article-marketing-traffic.html

Online Article Marketing

Article by Niki Camus

Article marketing is a revolutionary way to inform potential customers about your business. By writing an article about your specific expertise and posting it on the internet, you can successfully inform hundreds of thousands of potential customers. Article directories list hundreds or thousands of articles posted by their users. The articles are picked up by search engines and web surfers now become potential customers.

One of the most common questions asked is, "How effective is article marketing?" Well, I can't tell you how many times I have searched the internet and got to someone's website by reading their article. So my answer is, Of course it is effective! Web surfers search for anything on the internet, and the volume of people using the internet is significant. One of the most important aspects of article marketing is that it is purely targeted. This means web surfers will most likely access your information by searching for words that are in your article. This means they already have an interest in your product, which will increase the likelihood of them visiting your website.

Everyone is aware of the advantages of article writing so the internet is flooded with their articles. While this may seem like the best thing, search engines may not think so. Search Engines such as Google strive on making their users receive the best quality results. As a result, they filter duplicate content and will not display results that are exactly alike. If the same
article gets flooded on the internet it may not improve the effectiveness as much. It is important to write unique articles, which will increase your chances a lot more.

Article Marketing when approached appropriately can be very effective. It may not work overnight, but in time the traffic will increase. Submitting to several article directories will surely improve your chances, and the more unique they are, the more it will make a difference. Thirty percent uniqueness or more should be enough to not be filtered by search engines.

It probably sounds harder than it is to actually rewrite different articles but it is really not that difficult. You can keep the ideas the same, but finding different ways to write your sentences can create a big difference. First, replace words as appropriate. Not all word synonyms will actually make sense, so be careful with that. Next, try to rephrase a part of a sentence and then you go from there. Creating unique articles does not necessarily mean, you start completely from scratch, now that will be difficult. Take baby steps and in no time you'll create so many versions of your article, you'd be amazed how simple it is to get it done.

When you have created different versions of your article, the next step is to distribute them. Article directories are usually free and willing to accept your articles. Submit your articles to as many directories as possible, the more the better. Directories usually give you an Author Resource area. This is where you include a biography of yourself, as well as the link to your website. It is also important to not fill your articles with links, especially links that are not related to your article. A simple link, to your website is enough. Remember, it's important to concentrate more on informing your potential customers, rather than flooding them with unnecessary links. If you do, they'll most likely click the back button and go elsewhere on the web.

About The Author:

I am the owner of an article directory and web blog at http://www.123estuff.com. I dedicate my time to learn about and help with online marketing. My article directory exists mainly to assist marketing efforts. Also I provide daily marketing tips and information at http://www.squidoo.com/estuff.

Should You Change Your Copy When Rankings Fall?

Article By Karon Thackston

I've been on a seesaw for the last year. I have a client who, for almost 12 months, has been asking me to rewrite their home-page copy because they dropped from the top 10 to position #11 (the dreaded second page!). My question to her was always, "Is your copy still converting the way you want it to?" She answered yes every time, to which I advised, "Leave the copy alone."

"But what about my rankings?"

"Is business suffering?"

"No, we're swamped."

"Leave the copy alone."

"But it's over a year old. Don't you think it needs to be refreshed?"

"Is your copy still converting the way you want it to?"

"Yes."

"Leave the copy alone."

We'd have this same discussion every 3 or 4 months. Some people just get hung up on being in the top 10, and their tunnel vision can cause them to make decisions they otherwise would not make. Others think that, because they are tired of seeing their website copy, others are too. This is usually not true.

My suggestion was to enhance her linking campaign with some quality articles through an article distribution campaign, but to leave the copy alone since it was still doing its job. Search engine positioning isn't the whole ball of wax. Getting top 10 rankings shouldn't be your primary goal. Attracting and keeping more business is what it's all about. If that means using search engine optimization as one tool, so be it. But too many times, website owners bow to the SEO gods and sacrifice conversions and their best business sense all for the sake of saying they are #1. Not advisable, if you ask me.

I am happy to report that, after holding at #11 for many months, this company's site is now back in spot #5. While we can't say with any certainty that it has driven any more business to their site than being at #11, the managers are quite pleased.

Never Change Your Copy?

Is this my advice in every case where rankings drop? No. There are instances where you do need to change your copy if your rankings decrease. Ask yourself (or your client) these questions:

1) Are conversions suffering?

If you're experiencing a decline in conversions, by all means take a look at your copy. It might need some help. But keep in mind that decreasing conversions may also be due to a new and more complicated shopping cart, recent design changes that impaired usability for your visitors or a dozen other reasons.

2) Have products or services changed?

If you have products or services to add or remove, certainly you'll want to change your copy to reflect that.

3) Has business fallen off?

If, due to the decrease in search engine positioning, you've tracked a definite lag in business, then yes, you'll want to make an effort to gain the lost rankings back. But, changing the copy isn't the only way to do this. If you answer no to the other questions, I'd leave the copy as-is and opt for an article distribution campaign first.

4) Other than hoping to appease the SEO gods, is there any other reason that the copy mandates changing?

If the answer is no, don't change the copy.

With all of the above, if the answer to each question is no, leave the copy alone.

There are as many reasons for your positioning to change as there are days in the month. Guessing at and trying to adjust for mysterious shifts usually does little good. Plus, while you're chasing the golden ring, you may be losing sales.

About the Author:

Learn to write emotionally driven SEO copywriting with Karon's Step-by-Step Copywriting Course at http://www.copywritingcourse.com. Read Karon's copywriting blog at http://www.marketingwords.com/blog.

Thirty-Two Tips in Writing Articles for the WWW (Updated)

Article by Craig Lock

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to use the Internet and he won't bother you for months...or perhaps even years! (Sorry men... however, I presume this principle also applies to our women-folk!)."

Articles are an incredible source of traffic and free advertising for your online business, as they create LINKS (which are a vital criteria for the major search engines in their rankings of your web- site). Writing articles can provide you with enormous amount of exposure on the Web (sounds "rude, that). You are branding yourself on a shoestring budget - it hasn't cost you a cent, but a little time and effort.

People want quality content for their ezines and their web sites; however, the competition for content is fierce. Every Web site owner wants content and hundreds of writers want their content visible on the Web. It's FREE promotion through your signature file at the end of your article*.

If you can write an article about your business, you can increase your links in 24 hours! As the internet adress in your resource box at the end of your articles gets picked up by the main search engine spiders, like Google and Yahoo.

Writing a free content article is simple and follows a similar professional approach as an article for a standard, paying market. Here are some pointers in writing articles for the www:

Firstly,

1. Offer Something of Value, a Real Benefit to people. Articles that give good helpful information or explain how to accomplish something are usually best, and will be read most often.

2. Try to get into the publishers mind. See things from their point of view - why should they publish your article? In what way will it benefit their readers?

3. Accept that writing for the web is different to writing for the off-line world. People tend to skim and scan (note alliteration) when reading online. They read quickly scrolling down the page.

4. Identify your target audience.

5. Give your article a catchy title that will grab attention and make people want to read.

6. Keep your title reasonably short. Put some thought and effort into your heading - again to get your reader's immediate attention.

7. Be professional and take your article writing seriously. Write about something you know professionally. Don't be overly casual in your writing (ie. don't write exactly as you speak)

8. Keep your paragraphs short.

9. Be Clear and Concise. Get to the point quickly (enough waffle with maple syrup, Craig!).

10. Target your article to your audience with "focused information".

11. Be brief, if you are a "waffler", like this writer. People want immediate information online and have limited time usually - it's the "instant coffee, sorry generation.

12. Write briefly and concisely (redundant words, meaning the same thing, Craig!) Try to keep your article under 1,500 words. Most paying markets usually only accept between 500 and 2,000 words... and with a bit of luck they may even "pick up" your great article. Try to be concise in your wording. Brevity is the hall-mark of good writing...or so say many of the teachers of writing!

13.. Use the OCCASIONAL exclamation mark (!) to get your readers attention. Forget the ALL CAPITAL LETTERS and exclamation points!!!

14. Be credible (big word, eh?) at all times.I try to write my articles in a "conversational style with dashes of my funny humour".

15.. Use HUMOUR. People like to have a bit of fun with the occasional laugh, whilst being informed on a serious subject. At least I believe so!

16. Write from "your heart", so that you come across as a REAL person. Just write what comes naturally with INTEGRITY...and BE YOURSELF.

17. Be totally honest in your writing and don't "borrow" too much from others content. It's so easy to "steal" on the www - so do your own work and if you "borrow ideas or material, ACKNOWLEDGE. "Incidentally, I have borrowed some ideas in this article from some good writers and well-known internet marketers - thanks a lot, David, Michael, John, Meredith, Joe, Edward, Ken and Mark).

18. Be humble.and don't talk down to your readers.

19. Use bullets (not live, please, oops er sorry, bad taste) in your articles - it makes the points easy to follow.

20.. Don't forget your byline ...or your "business card". Make sure that you resource box at the end of the article provides enough information to identify yourself and provide contact information. It's FREE advertising.

21. Offer a free report with your article - this is an easy way to collect a list of adresses for marketing your product(s). An instant target market.

22. Check all the links in your article before submitting it.

23. Offer your articles by autoresponder

24. Conclude with a strong message. Your final point (and paragraph) should be a message that summarises your article or gets your reader to take further action, like "GET STARTED" (as I've done in this article).

25. Pay attention to feedback you get for your articles. Getting constructive feedback about your articles can help you to write better through encouragement. A very powerful motivator to write more articles..

26. Finally, make sure your layout is good (not one of my strong points!), as this greatly enhances your prospects of getting published Use plenty of white spaces, as this makes your piece more easily read.

27. Proof-read. Double check your articles for errors: spelling, grammar and punctuation. Use a spell-check. Go over your article carefully and be an editor yourself.

28. Make sure your article flows properly.

29. Re-read and re-read, until you get it "just right."

30. Keep a file of articles you've written or ones that lie unfinished. You may have many new ideas since then. Set aside time to work on them. You may even put them in the form of an ebook, as my "techno-friend", Stefan has done.

and finally...and most importantly

31. Remember the "kiss" principle: Write simply and keep your meaning (message) clear (As Ernest Hemingway advised). Never use a big word, when a dimunitive will do (get it)!

Self discipline is the key to writing success. "Aim for perfection, but settle for excellence" in your article writing... then just "give it a full go with all you've got".

and finally (and most importantly)

32. Don't treat writing articles for the www. as a loborious and necessary chore of internet marketing, but some FUN in your writing (as I have done in this article)

SUMMARY:

The internet is such an amazing medium for communication and SHARING information. I've just submitted this article and it's been published almost instaneously (big word!) in a few places. So YOU TOO can write articles on your chosen subject in your internet marketing efforts, as the more articles you write and submit, the more you will find web sites LINKING to yours (as many of the major search engines use the number of links as a factor in placing your web site in their rankings).

It's a "numbers game": MORE TRAFFIC = INCREASED SALES ("the more you tell, the more you sell")

Share YOUR unique knowledge and skills to help others "out there in cyberspace."

Writers and internet marketers - Grab this moment in history well. "Carpe diem" (seize the moment!).

Why not start writing articles for the www in your unique area of interest, knowledge and or expertise?

YOU CAN DO IT by writing articles for the www ... and so and "by giving, you receive" (far more).

"Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it." - Johan Wolfgang Von Goethe (German philosopher)

Happy writing

Craig Lock (Eagle Productions Books)

P.S: We hope that these tips help in your article writing. In my opinion it's the best internet marketing strategy. To your internet marketing dreams in 2008...and beyond.

As the ancient Chinese philosopher said so well, "A journey of a thousand miles starts with a ... broken fan belt and a flat tyre"... er sorry... a single step.

About the author:

Craig is a writer, who believes in sharing information with a 'dash' of humour, as well as encouraging people to believe in themselves and helping others to find their talents and gifts, to strive for and accomplish their goals and dreams in life - whatever they may be.
http://www.selfgrowth.com/experts/craig_lock.html
http://www.myspace.com/writercraig+ http://www.craiglockbooks.com

"Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it." - Johan Wolfgang Von Goethe (German philosopher).

Write For Robots Write For People

Article by Andy Crestodina

Without good web copy, the best team of designers andprogrammers in the world can't help you. The goal is good writing and a clear, concise message that speaks to the target audience.

But let's assume that you already have that: Maybe you're re-purposing some amazing copy that you've used for another medium—a print piece, perhaps. How can you adapt it to work well online?

If you want people to find you, you have to speak to search engines. But if you want them to stay, you have to speak to people. Writing for search and writing for visitors are often competing endeavors.

Write for people

Think of how you look at a newspaper: skim headlines, take inthe first few sentences of interesting articles, and if anopening captures you, read on to get to the meat of the piece.

Feature journalists and copywriters often strive to evoke emotion and pique your curiosity early on. Once they've captured your attention, they develop the central themes of the story.

Web writers, on the other hand, structure content in a sort of inverted triangle: meat first, details later. Why the stark contrast?

Well, think of how you look at web sites: Click, glance, click, scan, read a little, click, next page, click, click. Your eyes quickly gather an idea of what the page is about, your brain decides if you're interested, and then you read a bit or move on. The entire process takes only a few seconds.

To support this quick-to-click behavior, web copy should be easy to scan and understand at a glance. It should include plenty of:

* Bulleted lists (like this one)
* Captions
* Headings and sub-headings
* Bolding
* Short paragraphs
* Links

Write for robots

If you're concerned with your rank in search engines, this next part's for you. Targeted web content is one of the keys to successful search-engine optimization (SEO) . There are 3 basic steps for creating web copy that will boost your search position:

1. Research the optimal phrases for your business
2. Select your keywords through careful analysis
3. Show your relevance with optimized copy

Let's look at an example: Say you're creating a site for your Chicago-based knitting store. To show search engines that you're relevant, you'll have to boost your keyword frequency — which means that you might have to bend the rules of writing for people.

Ideally, your key phrase will appear 5 – 7 times in the body text of the page (links and headers don't count here—although your keyword should definitely appear there as well). So you start with this:

"Learning to knit is easy. Just sign up for our convenient classes."

But, since "knitting classes" is the target phrase, you change it to this:

"Knitting is easy to learn when you sign up for our convenient knitting classes."

In the first case, "knitting classes" never appeared as acomplete phrase. In fact, the word "knitting" didn't show up at all. As a bonus, "knitting" appears twice in the revised sentence.

True, the first example sounds better. But if you're competing for search-engine ranking, you're better off with the second version.

Ready for a real challenge? Work the word "Chicago" into the page 5 – 7 times—and keep it next to "knitting classes" if you can. This is where it gets tricky. After all, you might lose visitors if your copy is too clunky and repetitive, like this:

"It's easy to learn knitting in Chicago if you sign up for Chicago knitting classes."

Or even worse: "A new class of Chicago knitting classes is now available in Chicago for those interested in a knitting class."

This is called keyword stuffing, and I don't recommend it. It goes too far. Instead, spread out your phrases so the text makes sense for humans. This is easier to achieve if you have a few hundred words on the page. (After all, search engines love text-heavy sites.)

It's all about striking a balance. Don't sacrifice your message for your rank. Instead, focus on getting people to your page and keeping them there with targeted, concise content.


About The Author:

As a principal and strategic director at Orbit Media Studios, Andy draws on his knowledge of marketing, usability, and interactive design to lead strategic planning for the firm and its clients. Orbit specializes in web, print, and video design & development http://www.orbitmedia.com .

The Surprising Maxim that Maximises Your Copywriting Results

By Kris Mills

Who was it that said, "Modesty is a virtue"? Whoever it was, I'm sure they weren't referring to the field of sales and marketing, where self-promotion is the name of the game ... or were they?

Take a good look at anyone who is a roaring success in sales, in copywriting or in marketing and you'll see that one of the secrets of their success is in being able to really connect with people one-on-one, on their level. Sure, that means developing a great rapport with them, being a great listener and being a great communicator and more. But there's one factor that separates these greats from the wannabes.

It's called the "Modesty Maxim". The people who master this element of rapport, achieve mastery.

Here's how it works in copywriting. It can be used in a very similar way in sales too.

When you're writing to (or speaking with) a prospect who has a certain problem that they want to solve, chances are they are feeling a little insecure about a certain aspect of who they are.

With that, it's important that your copy starts by coming down to their level, where they are now at emotionally and then bring them up to the level where they want to be.

Here's a story of Mary Bryant. Mary is a 42 year old mother of four from Atlanta, Georgia. She was 25kgs overweight and had been that way since her youngest child was born about 10 years ago.

Mary looked in the mirror everyday and hated the image that stared back at her. She felt ugly. She hated those extra rolls of fat around her waist. She hated her double chin. She hated the saddle bags under her arms.

She desperately wanted to lose weight. She wanted to be able to look in the mirror and like what she saw.

One day Mary decided to visit a weight loss centre. The weight loss consultant was friendly and asked her questions about herself, but as she did that, Mary felt about an inch tall.

Mary was embarrassed by her weight. What made it worse was the weight loss consultant was reed-thin and looked like she had never had an inch of fat on her bones in her entire life.

'She thinks she's better than me,' Mary muttered to herself. 'She is probably thinking to herself, "That fat slob. How could she let herself go like that?''

On and on went Mary's mind chatter then after about 15 minutes, Mary was fed up with the "high and mighty attitude" of the weight loss consultant, so she left.

Because Mary was so entrenched in her own problem, she was in a very emotional and not very rational state. In fact, her emotions were clouding her judgment.

After Mary left she recognized just how irrational she was being, so she decided to visit another weight loss clinic and try again.

Again, she was greeted by a 'reed-thin' weight loss consultant with a smile. Again, she was asked about her goals and her personal situation.

But what happened this time was that this weight loss consultant told Mary her own story of how she was a mother of five and just 18 months ago she was more than 30 kilograms overweight ... and how she had tried diet after diet and nothing was working ... how she hated looking in the mirror everyday ... how she just didn't want to get out of bed at all.

Mary's eyes lit up. Mary looked at this blonde, waifish woman and finally realized that just maybe she really could be like that too - that maybe if that weight loss consultant could lose 30 kilograms, maybe she could lose 20 kilograms.

See the difference?

The weight loss consultant in the second example shared her story with her and doing that achieved two things:

First - Mary no longer felt inferior to the weight loss consultant because the weight loss consultant had once been in the same situation that she is in now.

Second - Mary felt that getting results was now achievable because she was talking with someone who had been in her situation and won.

Here are some other situations where the Modesty Maxim applies:

1. Wealth Creation

If you're a multi-millionaire who wants to teach the "Average Joe" how to get rich, it's important to show how rich you are now, but it's also vital that you tell them how you were like them once. For instance:

--- "How a lazy high-school dropout went from dead broke to $10 million in assets in 7 years" ---

Some Classic Headlines that Employ the Modesty Maxim

--- The Man with the Grasshopper Mind ---

Anyone who has loads of mind-chatter can instantly relate to this headline and subsequently the man mentioned in the ad. They want to know ...

How much is his situation like theirs?

What did this man do to fix the problem?

What is his life like now?

--- How a new discovery made a plain girl beautiful ---

Again, a great example of "before and after".

Most women want to look more beautiful but many feel that it's something you need to be born with. This headline promises that beauty is available to even "plain girls".

--- "They laughed when I sat down at the ---
--- piano but when I started to play" ---

Many people who want to play the piano don't learn for fear of looking ridiculous. This headline resonates with those people.

See how these examples connect with the reader?

What other examples can you think of? How can you apply the Modesty Maxim in your marketing efforts.

About the Author:

This article is written by Kris Mills and is part of the Freelance Copywriting Success Home Study Course developed by Words that Sell and the College of Copywriting and Marketing. Kris is an internationally recognized direct response copywriter and author who has produced record-breaking results for clients in dozens of industries. For dozens more interesting articles, more information about the course or about Kris' copywriting services visit http://www.collegeofcopywriting.com/ or
http://www.wordsthatsell.com.au/

Someone Stole My Site: How To Defend Yourself When Someone Plagiarizes Your Text

By Karyn Greenstreet.

I knew one day it would happen. Someone stole the text from my website and used it on their own website. Dirty rotten scoundrels!

According to the US Copyright Office website (http://www.copyright.gov):

"Copyright protection subsists from the time the work is created in fixed form. The copyright in the work of authorship immediately becomes the property of the author who created the work."

What Do You Do?

Here are some ways to discover which sites have stolen your text:

1. Find some text on your website that is so "you" that it's unlikely that anyone else would write a phrase or sentence that way. Go to http://www.google.com, and put that phrase or sentence into their search, within quotation marks. For example, one phrase that of my own that I searched on looked like this: "you'll end up struggling to make your business a success, and all your passion and enthusiasm will drain away." (Go ahead, type it into Google and see who's got my text on their site.) You have to put the phrase within quotation marks so that Google knows to search for the whole phrase with all the words right next to each other.

2. Make note of the sites that have the same text as yours. While it is completely possible in millions and millions of websites that someone might have written the exact same phrase, it's worth investigating every site that comes up.

3. Another great place to search for plagiarized sites is http://www.copyscape.com

Here are some steps to getting a site to take down plagiarized text:

1. Gather as much information about the offending site as you can.

2. Print out all pages from their site where the plagiarized text resides.

3. Try to find a contact name, phone number and email address from the site.

4. Go to http://www.internic.net/whois.html and get all their registration information. If they are not in the USA, go to Google and type in "whois" plus the name of their country. You should be able to find a whois site that can get their DNS record for you.

5. Go to http://www.alexa.com and find whatever information you can there.

6. Finally, write to the offending site owner and tell them that you found plagiarized text on their site. List the URLs of the offending pages along with the copyrighted URLs of your own pages. Give them two or three days to either delete the pages, or re-write them so that they no longer include your text.

This is not the time to play nice guy! Tell the offending site owner that you are copying their hosting company and domain registrar on the letter or email, and do so.

Make sure when you write this email or letter, you don't use any passive language, and do not say "please". Demand your rights. It is illegal and unethical for them to do what they did and they need to stop doing it immediately.

Another great resource is http://www.waybackmachine.org.

This allows you to check what their websites looked like throughout the years. You may be able to pinpoint the date when those people served themselves with a hefty spoon of your web content.

Someone pointed out to me that sometimes the offender is the website designer, not the owner of the site. If you are an owner of a site, and you did not write your own text, ask your designer where he or she got the text. Make it clear to them that you will not tolerate any plagiarized text and that you will hold them legally responsible in any charge or lawsuit that comes up over the copy on your website.

Some final notes:

Always put a copyright statement on your site. If it took you a long time to write your text, you should be the only one benefiting from it, not some unethical person who is looking for a shortcut.

If the site doesn't comply with your request, you might have to get your attorney involved. Only you can decide if the expense of an attorney is worth it for you.

I have written to the six sites that stole my text. Two have complied and taken down the offending pages within three days of my request. If the others don't comply, I will be posting their websites in my blog. I'm not afraid of a little publicity, but I bet they are.

About the Author:

Karyn Greenstreet is a Self Employment expert and small business coach. She shares techniques, skills and strategies with self-employed people to boost motivation, create clear goals and cohesive plans, and increase profits. Visit her website at http://www.PassionForBusiness.com

Write A Winning Business Plan-The Neatest Trick In The Book

By MaryAnn Shank

"Writing a business plan" sounds really tough, and it can be. But there are a number of things the smart entrepreneur can do to make it easier.

For instance, justwhatkindofstuffyouthinkgetsreadlikethis? Imagine pages full of that, with virtually no margins, no paragraph breaks, no breathing room. Lenders, investors and angel investors are confronted with piles of business plans like that every day.

Take a breath. Then lure your reader into the plan with snappy headlines and easy to read formatting.

Do you know why the Wall Street Journal and USA Today use headlines? Because it's the only way anyone will read a story. More to the point, it's the only way anyone will buy their paper. (Mmmm, sounds like you may have something in common with newspapers.)

Take a look at your favorite newspaper. Those headlines tell a story. Sometimes they ooze with conspiracy, and once in a while they stand majestic. Note:

Martha Jailed
The War is Over
The Watergate Starts to Smell

Your business plan needs to do no less. The headlines and section heads need to draw the reader in, not with an announcement, but with an invitation. Compare these:

The Executive Team
The Audio Industry
The Advisory Board

with these:

Strong Executive Team is Led by Industry Insider
Audio - the Industry that Reinvents Itself
7 Top Scientists Lead the Advisory Board

So which set are you going to read?

Lenders of all ilk get far too many business plans - certainly more than they can possibly fund. Simply getting your business plan read is a big step in the right direction.

Try this trick. Imagine that you are indeed writing a newspaper, one that competes with another strong paper in your town. What headline would you put on that paper to encourage readers to buy yours, and not the other?

Honesty, of course, is essential. But within that honesty there are a thousand ways to make the same statement. How many ways are there to say that it is spring time?

· It is spring
· It is April 22
· Lilacs are in bloom
· Snow is melting in the mountains
· Baseball camps are in full force

And how many ways are there to say that your business idea is a good one?

· This is a good idea
· An innovative approach
· A sure-fire winner
· A strong contender for funding
· A strong team in an equally strong market
· Lots of community support
· This fills a need in the marketplace
· The company draws on the experience of each of its members
· Two years of strong growth
· Impressive projections

Now jot down some headlines for your company. You may or may not be able to use them. Try first just to jot down every idea, a brain storming session.

Now use the best of those headlines to help structure your business plan. If "Nobel Prize Winner Heads Advisory Board" is your strongest headline, then lead with that story. If "A Prime Location in a Prime Shopping Center" is your strongest headline, then that is your lead.

Let the strength of the headlines pull your business plan up a notch or two. The power of your business may surprise even you!

Before you actually begin writing, take the time to really look at a good publication, something like the Wall Street Journal. Look at the styling and the use of headlines and sub-heads. Note how the ideas keep a steady flow, with an invitation to read.

Your business plan likely won't look like the venerable WSJ, or any other major publication, but odds are that it will look a whole lot better than most, and it will therefore be read much more readily. And that, after all, is what you are after.

About The Author:

MaryAnn Shank is an innovative pro in the world of business plans. The best of traditional and cutting edge techniques are at her website http://www.businessplanmaster.com .

Building Relationships Through Your Sales Copy

Building Relationships Through Your Sales Copy

By Cathy Qazalbash

Whenever you try to sell anything you need to build a relationship with your reader. Few people will buy without this vital connection between you and those reading your sales copy. It doesn't matter what sort of sales copy you are using. It can be a small classified ad or a full-blown Sales page. Unless you can build up this vital relationship with your reader you will make little or no sales.

How do you define a relationship built on merely reading your sales copy? It is the feeling a reader will have about you when reading your ad or sales letter. Your aim with any of your sales copy is to build a good rapport with your reader.

What sort of feelings do you want to create in your reader?

1. Empathy
2. Your product/service can help them resolve their problem
3. Trust
4. Need to buy

A feeling of empathy: Your reader wants to feel that you understand their needs and wants. When you sympathize with your readers' needs they will be able to form a bond, they will be able to say, "yes this person understands what I want and understands the problems I am facing."

Creating a feeling that you can and will help them resolve their problem. Do not just reel off facts and figures. Show your reader positive and strong reasons why your product will help them. In
this way they will feel that you are genuinely interested in solving their problems and really have a product /service that will do this.

Trust is the main ingredient in building a relationship with your potential customer. Sales can be made or lost on this all-important feeling. When people build trust in you and your product/service they will buy.

How do you achieve this?

1. Personalize
2. Empathize
3. Persuade
4. Prove your trustworthiness

Create the need to buy your product

1. State the problem your reader has and emphasize their need to resolve it. Declare your USPS (unique selling position) State what your product/service can do and how it will greatly help your reader solve a problem or satisfy a desire.

More techniques that will help you build a relationship.

1. Use of "trigger words"
2. Presenting your sales copy (this reflects on you as a professional)

"Trigger words" are words that touch your reader's emotions. They make them feel good and be more inclined to buy. for example: Do not just "build your business" "skyrocket your business." You can see one trigger word can make your reader feel elated and optimistic that this can happen. With this feeling in mind a sale is very much more likely, and you have achieved this with one word. When you use these trigger words you will build a good rapport with your prospective buyer, and increase your chances of a sale.

Presentation is critical to the overall impression your visitor will get about you. When your ads and sales pages look good your reader will be impressed and perceive you as a true professional.
First impressions are indeed lasting and if your visitor sees you as a professional they will build a good relationship with you as they read your copy.

So next time you send out an ad however small remember that everything your reader sees in your copy will build a relationship and can make or break your sale. Strive to impress your reader, build a relationship and then close the sale with your stunning ad copy.

About the Author.

Cathy Qazalbash is an experienced freelance writer/copywriter
and publisher of the A-Y-B free marketing newsletter
http://advertise-your-business.com
http://copywriting-for-websites.com
http://a1-newsletters.com

Top 10 Copywriting Tips

By Denisse Michaels

1. Be Emotionally Compelling
Your words must have power so people take action and buy. Don't be dry, stuffy or boring. Rock their world. What you think is a little "over the top" is probably just right. Show them empathy, caring and concern that makes them feel connected and helps them quickly suspend their rational disbelief.

2. Learn to Write Great Headlines
This valuable skill is not to be taken lightly. You need to use numerous headlines in a sales letter. They need to grab your customer's attention. Look at advertising headline in major magazines. Experts say a good headline can result in 8-10 times more sales than a so-so headline.

3. Use Magic Words not Tragic Words
Use words like "amazing, discover, breakthrough, free, happy, money, you, yes, incredible and others. Magic words positively pre-dispose people to your message. Don't overuse but don't underestimate how far a little hype can go. Also, use vocabulary at an eighth grade level or less.

4. Ask Questions
Questions draw readers in and make them get involved. The smart money is on asking only questions you know will get a "yes" answer. Get potential customers in the habit of saying "yes" so when you ask them to buy they are positively prone to say "yes" again.

5. Write to One Individual Reader
Address your copy to one person. "You" not "the public" or the mythical "they." You'll create a more personal relationship. People buy more from people they feel they have a relationship with.

6. Brevity the Soul of Wit?
Your copy must take reader through the natural buying steps of attention, interest, desire and action. So brief may not be best. Answer every question in your marketing message so they can naturally take action

7. Share Your Triumph over Tragedy Story
People are drawn in by stories of others who have triumphed over adversity. We tend to root for the underdog. Most entrepreneurs have a story of how their product or service helped them. Don't hide that story from view. Take it out, dust it off and watch the magic that happens.
8. Build Urgency and Scarcity
We're bombarded with thousands of marketing messages daily. Build a marketing message that includes a sense of urgency and scarcity so people have a reason to say "yes" now. Say "limited quantities" and offer an early bird special for early sign up. Give customers a reason to say "yes" now.

9. Use Strong Testimonials
You can say great things about you, but a satisfied customer can really brag. To get testimonials just ask. Testimonial should be 4-6 sentences in length and tell a quick story. Each testimonial should answer a different objection.

10. Offer a Powerful Guarantee that Reverses Risk
Many new entrepreneurs worry if they offer a guarantee people will rip them off. In fact you'll gain far more business with a strong guarantee than you'll lose from returns. Make your guarantee simple. Amazingly, the longer the guarantee time, the less likely a person will ask for money back.

About The Author:

Denise Michaels is a successful marketer, speaker, trainer and marketing mentor. Her amazingly helpful, step-by-step ebook, "Secrets of Money Making Sales Letters" at
http://www.SalesLetterEbook.com can transform your business and cash flow. Discover Denise at http://www.MentoringwithDenise.com

Five Fantastic Ways To Automate Content Update

By N. Robbins

We all know that content is king on the internet. The maxim has been cited so many times that it has already become a cliché. Well, it has become a cliché because it's true. The internet IS the information superhighway. The processes in the World Wide Web are fueled by information. Users search for it. Web publishers provide it. And when you could give the information that people want, then you're in business. Whether your online endeavor is based on Pay Per Click (PPC) programs or the sale of digital products, quality content will drive people to your pages.

Indeed, content is your best investment for your online enterprise. But preparing unique, premium content is often not enough. You must strive to regularly update your content so that the search engine spiders would constantly crawl through your pages and fetch them for every relevant query. This is the key to good search engine placement. It is very effective, but it is also very demanding.

Writing good content is taxing enough. Having to write the same on a regular basis could be difficult. Having to write the same on a regular basis for several websites could be hellish. Surely, there must be an alternative or two which could spare you from having to write your own content to update your website and win the favor of the search engine spiders, right?

Well, here are five fantastic alternatives that not a lot of people are employing. Knowing them alone could give you the edge over your competitors in the race for good search engine positioning.

1. Try RSS. RSS, which stands for Real Simple Syndication, is a technology that was first used by news wire services online. RSS allows users to display specific files every time they are uploaded on a source website. If website A, for example, generates RSS feeds to announce new articles uploaded to its server, and websites B, C, D and E are subscribed to website A's RSS feeds, they could display the said feeds on their desktop via an RSS aggregator. For online marketing purposes, these RSS feeds can also be displayed on your web pages. All you need is to download some programs that would enable you to do this. Make sure that you get an RSS-to-HTML reader, so that the RSS feeds you will display on your pages can be readable for the search engine spiders. Afterwards, all you have to do is to subscribe to an appropriate RSS feed, and every time the source website would post new content, you'll be able to display the same on your own website.
2. Create your own forum. Online users normally gravitate towards forums that are dedicated to their own passions. If your website has an attached forum, you'd be able to invite your visitors to sign up with the same. They'll be left to their own devices. They'll create threads about matters they are interested with. They will pots messages to their hearts' liking. And you will have a virtual well of constantly updating content, without having to type a single word!
3. Integrate a feedback manager. If you're posting articles as content, then you might want to include a feedback system for the same. This would enable your readers to leave their comments below the said article. Basically, your article would serve as the catalyst for content that will continuously be added by interested readers who want to share their piece of mind on what you have posted.
4. Run a contest. Offering a prize for the visitor who submits the most engaging article relevant to the subject of your website, for example, would encourage a lot of people to submit entries that you could use as your own content. Just remember that your contest rules should include a term which states that submitted entries can be published on your website as a condition to their inclusion in the contest proper.
5. Run a mini-article directory. Try to visit http://www.ezinearticles.com or http://www.goarticles.com . See how these websites ensure for themselves an abundant supply of great content? Simply follow their model, and implement the same on your website, even if it would be on a downgraded level. You'd be able to guarantee for yourself a good flow of new content!

NOTE: You have full permission to reprint this article within your website or newsletter as long as you leave the article fully intact and include the "About The Author" resource box. Thanks! :-

About The Author:

Nial Robbins owns the work at home directory website located at: http://www.NDR-HomeBiz.com Come by and visit us today! Also, be sure to check out our "top pick" work at home opportunity at: http://www.NDR-HomeBiz.com/pips.html

Write Great Copy For Success

By Joe Kennedy

Hate Writing Articles? Too Bad! Read on.

Well Get over it! Your online or off line business will be DEAD in just months with out solid articles.

There are far more failures out there, than successes.

Writing articles will give your business the blood flow of success. Isn't that what you are in it for?

This is the wild west and you have to stake out your claim. Do you want your business to flourish?

Do you want to shape this business the way you want? Or leave it to chance?

Well get over the notion that you hate to write articles! Start short and sweet. Let your potential customer know why they should go to your site and do business with you. Or just tell them to go to your competition!

So what are your options? How can you make this work without the stress?

When I first started in business, there was a lot I did not know and did not want to do. Let me tell you, what a big mistake that was. It cost me money, it cost me time and a couple of times it cost me my business!

Don't let this happen to you! Stop right now and stake your claim for your future. Your business will only succeed when you take control of it!

There are a couple of solutions to this problem. If you have a lot of money go hire the best copy writer you can find. Or take a course given by one of the experts.

Writing becomes easier and easier every time that you do it. Become that winning copy writer. It is your business, so what was it that made you want to start it? Was it your passion? Well get out there and tell the world!

"The pen is mightier than the sword." Shakespeare Passion is what wields that sword, so write with your passion. Learn how and the world will beat a path to your website.

Help is out there, if you really want to give your business a chance. Get a good coach to guide you along the way. If you are like me you will see the value of good coaching.

Success of your business hangs on the ability to write good copy. Don't let your business die like so many others.

Take control, turn your hate for writing into your strength.

You're about to learn the real secrets to success online. Taking this next step is like getting a breath of fresh air to a drowning man!

Don't be a statistic, another business failure.

"Success is the pursuit of a worthy goal!" Earl Nightingale

You're About To Learn 'Secrets To Success' That Most People Will Never Know About How To Really Create Wealth...

About The Author:

Joe Kennedy is a successful online marketer and pro skier. Certified coach. Founder Positive Impact International and a Success coach at http://tinyurl.com/zmr9h Joe can be reached at http://www.nowyoubeyou.com

The Key To Creating Headlines That Sell

By Robert Greenshields

E. Haldeman-Julius never wrote a book, but he knew how to sell them. He sold literally millions of books in the 1920s. If a title didn't sell over 10,000 copies a year, it went to a place in his office called "The Hospital," where Haldeman-Julius gave it a new title. It the book didn't break through with the new title, it went to "The Morgue."

One of his books was first called Art of Controversy. It sold less than the 10,000-copy minimum with that title. Haldeman-Julius resurrected the book as How to Argue Logically, and sold over 30,000 copies. The contents of the book did not change. All that changed was the title - and its sales figures!

Another successful patient in his "hospital" was a book that sold only 3,000 copies when released as Patent Medicine. Haldeman-Julius simply added one magic phrase, and he found that The Truth About Patent Medicine sold a perfectly respectable 10,000 copies.

In fact, the phrases, "How to." or "The Truth About." have proven to be consistent bestsellers for marketers. Other winning phrases are, "The Facts About.," "The Key to.," "The Story of.," and the all-important question, "Do You.?"

No matter what you're selling, the most important part of your copy is its title or headline. Another legend of marketing, John Caples, wrote, "On average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. Therefore, unless your headlines sell your product, you've wasted 90% of your money." He went on to say that your ad should offer a clear benefit to the reader, right in the headline, such as a "whiter wash" or "more miles to the gallon." The content of your copy may be stellar, but if your prospect never reads it, where does it get you?

Today, some copywriters consider it hip to use clever headlines that make the reader guess at their meaning. If that's your purpose, then so be it. But if the purpose of your marketing is to sell your product or service, forgo the trendy and tell your reader why they should continue to read and buy from you.

The magic phrases first discovered by Haldeman-Julius worked well, because they told readers exactly what benefits they'd receive from his books. They would learn to argue well, possess the truth about medicine, or get the facts they wanted.

Although short and simple is best in advertising, a long headline that really says something is much better than a short one that says nothing. One of the most famous headlines of all time was written by John Caples for the U.S. School of Music: "They Laughed When I Sat Down at the Piano - but When I Started to Play." You can adapt this ad to your own uses. It's still being used effectively today.

Or follow the example of master copywriter David Ogilvy, who wrote out his headlines and practiced them on friends and family. He's famous for this still-famous headline, "At 60 miles an hour, the loudest noise in the new Rolls Royce comes from the electric clock." It was hugely successful and more than rewarded Ogilvy for the 104 other headlines his loved ones auditioned, before he came up with the winner.

You can use the wisdom of these marketing greats in your business today, no matter what your field. Try out your headlines on those around you. Remember to make the benefit clear to your readers. Play with Haldeman-Julius' magic phrases in the title of your articles, reports or ad copy. With practice, you'll come up with your own magic phrases that sell.

About The Author:

Robert Greenshields is a marketing success coach who helps business owners and independent professionals who are frustrated that they're working too many hours for too little reward. Sign up for his free tips on earning more and working less at http://www.MindPowerMarketing.com

Self-Promotion Writing Tips for Companies

By Tammy M. Ratcliff

One of the best ways for companies to "get their name out there" is through self-promotion. This is a little different than straight up advertising and usually more effective. Self-promotion involves providing information to potential clients by way of a written article instead of the standard sales pitch. Any company can proclaim their greatness on a banner or a billboard; however, when a company offers free advice concerning their area of expertise, it makes a much stronger statement to the potential clients. Here a few things to keep in mind when writing articles for self-promotion.

Catchy Titles

An article's title is one of the most important devices used in getting a reader's attention. The title can literally make or break an entire article since it will most likely determine whether or not a reader keeps reading. If the reader doesn't finish the article, he will not see the link at the bottom that leads to your company's website. So, while creativity is always appreciated, accuracy is much more important.

In other words, the title really needs to say exactly what the article is about. If George Clooney's name is in the title, the article better be about him. People do not like to be tricked
into reading something that has nothing to do with the subject they are looking for. The goal with self-promotion articles is to provide useful information to people who might use your services. George Clooney may be the hottest man in show business, but if he doesn't use or endorse your product or service, it is best to keep his name out of it.

Beginning Paragraphs

An article's first paragraph is just as important as its title. This is, hopefully, the attention getter! The first paragraph should feed off of the title and set up the rest of the article. It should do so in an informative, interesting way that encourages the reader to keep reading. This is also a good place to set up a general scenario that most readers will be able to relate to. If the first paragraph is successful in grabbing a reader's attention, the likelihood greatly increases that the reader will finish the article, thus discovering the company responsible for its content. Mission accomplished!

Length and Language

Time is so important to people today. Therefore, when writing self-promotional articles, keep them relatively short (around 700 to 1000 words). Make sure they are written so they are easy to understand. When a person is seeking information today, they want to be able to find it fast and read/learn it even faster. Big words and long articles are just not compatible with this
mindset.

The Professional Edge

You may know everything there is to know about cars, but if you can't put your thoughts to paper in a clear, concise manner, consider hiring a professional writer. Self-promotion through writing Internet articles can only be successful if the final product provides a positive representation of your company. Therefore, if your article is filled with misspelled words and dangling modifiers, the only thing it will succeed in doing is making you look incompetent. People who run their own companies often do not have time to spend looking up the rules of punctuation and parallelism. However, writers do! If need be, take advantage of someone else's writing expertise to help promote your business in the most professional way.

Editing

Editing is another area where outside help could be needed. Even the most careful writers make mistakes. Unfortunately, once an error is printed, it is too late to correct, and even the tiniest typo can mar the judgment of a potential client. Because of this, hiring an editor may be a worthy investment. An experienced editor will go beyond checking for misspelled or misused words and look for shifts in voice or tense, as well as subject-verb agreement. Using an editor doesn't guarantee an error free article, but it increases the likelihood a great deal.

Conclusion

Self-promotion using Internet articles can be a great way to increase your business. This type of instructional marketing emphasizes knowledge instead of gimmicks. Taking the time to create a well-written article may seem counterproductive to your actual business, but the results will speak for themselves.

About the Author:

Tammy M. Ratcliff is a staff writer and editor for the Phantom Writers(http://thePhantomWriters.com) and Links And Traffic (http://www.LinksAndTraffic.com).
The Phantom Writers specializes in ghost writing articles and distributing them as free-content on the World Wide Web. If you would like to promote your business using self-promotion articles, the Phantom Writers will be able to help you. If you would like to talk to a person about our services, call Bill Platt at (405) 780-7745, 9am-6pm CST, Mon thru Fri.

How To Write Headlines That Electrify And Tantalize Customers

Peter Geisheker

Did you notice the title for this article? Of course you did and that is why you clicked to read this article. As legendary advertising guru David Ogilvy said in his book, Confessions of an Advertising Man, "The wickedest of all sins is to run an advertisement without a headline."

Yes, it is true that the most important tool in print advertising is the headline, be it for a space advertisement, a website, a sales letter, a billboard, or a press release. Headlines are the difference between success and failure in advertising.

In print advertising, the headline is so important that it is considered to be 80% of the power of an ad. The reason for this is that five times as many people read a headline as read the body copy of an ad. Consider how you read a newspaper or a magazine. If you are like most people, you scan headlines and you only read the news stories and advertisements that have a headline that catches your attention and interest. That is why writing an attention grabbing headline is so vitally important in advertising.

So, how do you write a good headline? Actually, it is not as hard as you think. In fact, decades of research has been done on advertisements to see which headlines generate the most leads and sales and here is a summary of what works.

1. Your headline should flag down readers who have a specific problem. For example, if you are selling cosmetics that help middle age women look younger, your headline should state that benefit. For example, "How women over 40 can look 10 years younger in 10 minutes with XYZ Cosmetics."

2. There are two words that work like magic in headlines - "How to." People are drawn to headlines that say "How To" like bees to honey. Why? People are curious and want to learn "how to" solve a problem. Therefore, always try to start your headline with the words "How to".

3. If possible, use the words "FREE" and/or "New" in your headline. Both words are magnets that draw in readers to read your advertisement.

4. Make your headline sound like news. A great way to learn how to do this is to buy a newspaper and read the headlines, particularly the headlines on the cover page. People want news, so make your headline sounds like a news headline from a newspaper and people will want to read your ad. Words that suggest news are "New", "Announcing", and "A Major Breakthrough".

5. Longer headlines sell more merchandise than short headlines. Try to make your headlines 6 12 words in length.

In summary, the headline is the most powerful tool in advertising. If you want to create successful advertising, become a master at writing attention grabbing headlines.

About The Author:

Peter Geisheker is the CEO of The Geisheker Group Marketing Firm. Peter develops and implements strategic marketing programs for small businesses. For more information please visit http://www.geisheker.com.

Think Global Act Global: Writing for Your Online Market

By Kalena Jordan

When you write web site content and design your pages, do you truly act with your target audience in mind? Or do you think global and act local?

I am amazed at the number of web sites I see that claim to target a global market, yet design and write their content for a regionally-specific audience. Not sure what I mean? Take the site I saw yesterday, for example. I won't embarrass the site owners by pointing to the specific domain, but let's just say the site is based in the U.S. and sells high quality gold chains throughout North America, Europe and Australia.

Now the owner of this site was complaining loudly in a webmaster forum that his pay-per-click campaign was having no luck converting sales from overseas visitors, particularly in the UK and Australia. He had spent a long time developing and tweaking a landing page for the campaign and he couldn't work out why hardly anyone outside the U.S. was buying. I took a look at his landing page and could see the problems straight away:

1) He used the American English spelling "jewelry" throughout the page without considering that persons who use British English spell it "jewellery".

2) He provided a toll-free phone number for persons in the U.S. to call, but did not provide any contact phone number for persons located outside the U.S.

3) He used the word "national" throughout the page, immediately isolating anyone outside the U.S.

4) He promoted "free shipping throughout the U.S." but did not specify shipping costs for persons outside the U.S.


The owner of this site had not even considered that persons outside the U.S. might search for keywords in anything other than American English. It didn't even occur to him that there may be an alternative spelling of his main keyword and he didn't think about the logistics for purchasers outside his country. No wonder the page wasn't converting outside the U.S.! He had made the classic mistake of isolating a large chunk of his audience by sending everyone to a one-size-fits-some page.

What he should have done was to create a separate landing page using British English spelling and shipping/contact information applicable to persons overseas. He could then have set up a unique PPC campaign targeting only UK/Australian searchers with regional keywords and ads leading to the British English landing page.

I see similar problems occur quite often in the online travel industry where you not only have to deal with regional spelling options, but also regional jargon. Think about the word "accommodation". Apart from the fact the word is commonly misspelled, it is used most often in the UK, Australia and New Zealand to describe places to stay while traveling. In the U.S., the words "accommodations" and "lodging" are more commonly used. Same goes for "holiday" and "vacation", with the latter being more common in the U.S. The word "traveling" itself is spelled "travelling" in British English! So you can imagine the minefield of problems webmasters must face promoting their travel sites online to a worldwide audience.

I don't mean to single out a particular country, but Americans seem to find it especially difficult to step outside their regional mindset. I am always receiving emails from the U.S. with helpful suggestions for fixing my "spelling mistakes".

The funniest email exchange I ever had in relation to this was from an American web designer. She had seen our Australian-based web site (with a .com.au domain) and emailed me to tell me it was "full of errors" and that if I wanted to present a professional business to site visitors, I should correct them. So condescending! I asked her to elaborate and she pointed me to these words she felt were spelled incorrectly:

optimisation
counselling
organised
enrolment
colour
catalogue
favourite
centre

Resisting the urge to use a few offensive words I'm sure she would recognize, I tactfully explained that our site was only targeting the Australian market and that we use British English spelling in Australia. Her response? Perhaps if we wanted to be taken seriously by an international audience, we should consider using the "more proper" American English. Flabbergasted, I pointed out the fact that American English was a derivative of British English and was not widely used outside her own country. Wikipedia has more about the differences between the two here. And let’s not forget that although it is the most common language used on the web, English is used by less than 30 percent of the world’s total Internet users.

The point of this story is that you absolutely have to think outside your market if you are going to advertise on the web. As ignorant as she was, my email friend did make me realize that many of her compatriots might also think our site was full of errors. American English is more common on the web and I've since learned to cater to that trend. I try to remember that in all writing I do for the web now, whether it's in my daily blog, the syndicated articles I write regularly or web page content.

Whenever you design or write for a web site that has an international audience, make sure you address each market. It pays to undertake detailed keyword research into your markets you are targeting so you can capture the correct regional jargon and spelling that people are searching for. Remember it's not enough to think global, you've got to act global too.

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About the Author:

Article by Kalena Jordan, one of the first search engine optimization experts in Australia, who is well known and respected in the industry, particularly in the U.S. As well as running a daily Search Engine Advice Column, Kalena manages Search Engine College - an online training institution offering instructor-led short courses and downloadable self-study courses in Search Engine Optimization and other Search Engine Marketing subjects.

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How to Create Search Engine Friendly Web Site Copy

By Kalena Jordan

Search engines read text and not much else. Because they can’t generally index graphics, search engines rely on the text in web sites to provide information about the site content, which they can compare with search queries.

Webmasters therefore need to use body text on any pages on the site that they want indexed by the search engines and ranked highly for matching search queries. Not graphical text that was created in design software, but actual, visible body text. Not sure if your site uses graphical or body text? A good rule of thumb that I learnt from search engine guru Danny Sullivan is to try and highlight the text with your mouse. If you can drag your mouse over individual words in the text when viewing it in a browser, chances are this is body text and the search engines can read it.

Figure 1



Figure 2

The most important page on which to use body text is the home page. Above is an example of a home page that uses graphical text instead of body text. Figure 1 shows what content the site visitors see, while Figure 2 shows the content a search engine sees and indexes.

How much information about a site’s content does a page like the one above provide a search engine? That’s right, very little. With next to no text to be found, the search engine would have to rely on the page’s Title and META Tags to tell it what the page is about. With such little information to go on, it is unlikely that a search engine would consider this page a relevant match for search queries relating to its content. To remedy this, it is widely recommended that each web page you want listed in search engines should contain at least 250 words of visible body text.


Keyword-Rich Text

While it’s a good idea to use plenty of body text on web pages, if that text doesn’t contain relevant keywords and phrases that people type in to the search engines, there’s not much point, because a site isn’t going to be found for logical search queries anyway. Many web sites make the mistake of including text on their site that is either unrelated to their products and services, or full of marketing-speak like “Internet solutions” or “superior services”. The Internet is plagued with web sites selling particular items without once making reference to those items in their site text. Weird huh?

For a search engine to find a site relevant for a particular search query, it MUST find that search query somewhere in that site. The easiest way to ensure this is to include logical keywords and phrases within the visible text on web pages, as well as in the Title and META tags. The best way for webmasters to find keywords that searchers are actually using is by conducting keyword research of their target market on a site such as Keyword Discovery or WordTracker.

Once it is determined what search terms perspective visitors are commonly typing in to search engines, they can then be compared to the goods and services offered on the site and the body text can be adjusted accordingly. Sites lacking any keyword research tend to use very generic, unfocused body copy, or sales-oriented “hype”. Neither style contributes to high search engine rankings.

Target keywords and search phrases placed strategically throughout your body copy give your pages a much higher ranking potential on search engines for related searches. But it’s not as easy as throwing the keywords into your site text willy-nilly. You must ensure that the keywords are integrated seamlessly so their repetition is unobvious and so that the text flows smoothly for the reader.

Don't compromise the readability of your copy to achieve this - hire an expert copywriter to strike the right balance if need be.


SEO Copywriting

Before writing your web site copy, you should research potential keywords and phrases that your target audience may use in search engines and then narrow the list down to your priority terms for each page, sorted in order of importance. You should then use those target search terms as a basis for the creation of optimized Title and META tags for each page on your site. Once you’ve done that, it’s time to integrate those same target search terms into your visible web page copy. We call this SEO copywriting. But exactly how do we do it?


Speak to Your Audience

Don’t lose site of the reader when writing your body copy. Integrating your keywords is important, but not if you are sacrificing the readability of your site and losing the attention of your audience. Put yourself in their shoes like you did when researching your keywords. What are they looking for? What do they need? How will your product/service help them? Does it represent value for money?

Be emotive when describing your products and services. Describe how your product/service will make them feel or look, how it will improve their lives, give them more time etc. Use trigger words that people respond to such as “free”, “success”, “you”, “cash” etc. Not sure what these are? Check out Words That Sell reports. These reports are perfect if you are targeting a specific industry or profession because they define what keywords people in over 38 industries respond to and what they expect when making a buying decision.

Not sure who your audience is or what they’re looking for? Why not ask them? Use a free survey service such as Survey Monkey to learn more about them so you can write “to” them and not “at” them. You could even draft various styles of body copy and obtain feedback from your site visitors to determine what copywriting style works better for them.


Use Easy to Understand Language

The Internet is no place for verbosity. People are in a hurry - they want to find what they seek quickly and easily with the least hassle possible. You can help them in this quest by ensuring your site pages use simple language and easy to grasp concepts throughout. For example instead of "brand-building web information architects", use "website designers specializing in brand promotion". Keep the large chunks of text on each page to a minimum, using bullet points, white space, graphics, lists and sub-headings to break it up and make it easier to read. This rule of thumb is especially important when creating landing pages for pay per click and other advertising campaigns.

Use examples to get your main points across or to demonstrate your product benefits. Use the old WIIFM (What's In It For Me?) adage when composing your body copy to keep the user's interests at top of mind. Remember your international visitors by incorporating regional word usage (such as organize versus organize or jewelry versus jewellery) and avoid technical jargon that could alienate. Want your visitor to take a particular action? Spell it out for them in plain English, for example Click here to Buy Now, Subscribe to our free newsletter, Bookmark this page now etc. These references are called “Calls to Action”.


Build Your Copy Around Your Keywords

You should always build your page copy around your keywords and not the other way around. If your existing page copy doesn’t contain any of your target search keywords, you’re going to have to rewrite it! Start from scratch if you have to. The secret is to focus. Search engines aren’t going to rank your web site about socks highly if your body copy talks about foot sizes. You need to get specific. It sounds really obvious, but if you sell socks, make sure your site copy has plenty of references to the word socks! If you sell green wool socks, target the phrase "green wool socks" and not "foot apparel in lovely shades of emerald"! Who's going to search for socks using that phrase?

At the risk of sounding like Dr Seuss, if you want to be found for, big socks, small socks, cotton socks and wool socks, then mention them all. Better still, sort your copy into categories based on your various products and services. If you sell wool socks AND cotton socks, then have a page dedicated to each kind. This allows you to target niche keywords within your copy and meet the search engine's relevancy guidelines for related search queries.


Keyword Integration

So imagine you've added plenty of text to your pages and the copy flows well for the reader. You've researched your keywords and phrases and now you're faced with the dilemma of integrating the keywords into your copy. So how do you satisfy the search engine's craving for keywords without interrupting the copy flow for the reader? The answer is: very carefully.

Let's take a look at a practical example. We have a client that specializes in luxury adventure travel. Before I optimized their site, part of the home page copy read like this:

"We specialize in providing vacations for people who want a personal service. We bring to our efforts a fanatical obsession with quality and exclusivity. We also bring a freshness, an outward-going passion for discovery which justifies our growing reputation as one of the world's top travel providers. We can put together packages that include all adventure activities, accommodation, transport and food".

Extensive Keyword Discovery keyword research for the client had determined that the site should target the following key phrases:

• adventure travel
• best adventure vacations
• tailored travel
• overseas adventure travel
• luxury travel packages

So taking our original home page text, the challenge was to integrate these keywords carefully and naturally so as not to disturb the logical flow of the copy and lose the interest of the visitor. Here's how I did it:

"We specialize in providing the best adventure vacations for people who want a personal and tailored travel service. We bring to our efforts a fanatical obsession with quality and exclusivity. We also bring a freshness, an outward-going passion for discovery which justifies our growing reputation as one of the world's top overseas adventure travel providers. We can put together luxury travel packages that include all adventure activities, accommodation, transport and food".

Note that the key phrase "overseas adventure travel" accommodates the phrase "adventure travel" too. Voila! The search engines are happy because the site contains text content relevant to related search queries, the client is happy because we were able to integrate the keywords without distracting the visitor and I'm happy because I know the site is going to rank highly for the client's target search terms.

Now it’s your turn – go tackle your web site copy!

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About the Author:

Article by Kalena Jordan, one of the first search engine optimization experts in Australia, who is well known and respected in the industry, particularly in the U.S. As well as running a daily Search Engine Advice Column, Kalena manages Search Engine College - an online training institution offering instructor-led short courses and downloadable self-study courses in Search Engine Optimization and other Search Engine Marketing subjects.

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Theme Marketing: Copywriting Technique #127

By Marcia Yudkin

One of the best-designed sales pieces I've received in years was a come-on for an MIT conference. Every panel implemented the metaphor of a deck of cards in both design and text. Bullets in the form of hearts, spades, diamonds and clubs and subheads like "This session provides you with all the aces you need" carried through the unified theme. After spending so much time exploring this piece, I figured the conference sessions would have something to teach me too, and I signed up.

Another marketing piece, from CM Communications, Inc. of Boston, landed in my files because of its clever use of a tailoring theme. Headed "Getting the Right Fit," the three-panel brochure used a tape measure to illustrate subheads like "Don't Hem Yourself In," "Look for a Versatile Outfit," "Button Down Costs" and "S, M or L?"

Well-executed themes get results in marketing because they reach beyond features and benefits to engage emotions as well as the intellect. In addition, they provide unity between words and graphics and thus become more memorable. Sometimes they involve a creative format too.

Cindy Marshall, of Jefferson, South Dakota, used the theme of a police suspect file in a promo piece for Media Concepts, in nearby Sioux City, Iowa. The manila file, complete with a real-looking coffee stain, opens to fingerprints, Polaroid crime-scene items and a profile including "caught guiding unsuspecting clients in specifying advertising goals" and "known to be armed with state-of-the- art equipment."

To select an effective theme, stay away from any you've already seen implemented in your industry. Play an old parlor game to spur your imagination: If your product, service or business were a fruit, which one would it be? If it were a song, which one would it be? If it were a communication medium, which one would it be? How about a feature of the landscape, a type of weather, a dessert, a bank transaction?

Or, think about some general categories of phenomena that provide rich sources for themes: Nature; Technology; Hobbies; Relationships; Mythology; Popular Culture; Occupations; Common Problems. Sometimes a pun, such as in "A Hire Authority" for an employment firm, supplies an interesting metaphor you can build upon. Once you choose a tentative concept, brainstorm related ideas, such as for "shoot-out": holster; OK Corral; bad guys; sheriff; Wild West; trigger-happy.

For maximum effect, a theme should be unexpected, such as "Setting Sail for Internet Profits" and yet sufficiently familiar so that visual elements like anchors and rudders and textual references to "catching the wind" and "calm seas" make instant sense. The theme should always be more concrete, picturable and commonplace than what you're selling. Otherwise you will have created an unnecessary mystery instead of a compelling sales piece.

As with any marketing idea, test it out with people similar to your prospects to make sure it provokes a laugh or a nod instead of a "Huh?"

About The Author:

Marcia Yudkin is the author of 6 Steps to Free Publicity, Persuading on Paper and Web Site Marketing Makeover, and a seven-time Webby Awards judge. She teaches a 6-week course on no-hype copywriting for business owners and marketers; complete details: http://www.yudkin.com/copycourse.htm

The Dirty Trick In Internet Marketing That Increases Online Sales Fast

By Jo Han Mok

This has to be one of the "best" ways to generate sales. Controversy creates two types of interest. Negative and positive. And both forms of interest work together to make you profits. How exactly?

Well, let's do a quick example. Person N and Person P. Person P loves what you have written and can directly relate to what you have said. Person N on the other hand thinks you're an obnoxious creep full of insane beliefs. Both Person P and Person N comment on your writing. They read each others comments and they are inflamed by those comments. So, they begin a back and forth battle of words based entirely on what you had to say! Now comes Person S, Person V, and Person C. They add their two cents and take sides of who's right and who's wrong. Then come more comments. And more, and more.

And if you're selling something that expands on your initial post, you'll get both those that hate what you had to say, and love it, buying your product. The negative folks will want further proof that you're a total moron while the positive folks will want to learn more about what you are teaching, or saying.

Every single day, millions of folks hop onto the internet and have something to say. Most likely they'll do this through writing. Whether it's through an article, an email, or a blog. The "trick" is to make what you discuss controversial through your writings.

Don't be "Boring". That won't do a thing for you. The essence of creating controversy is by using passion. If you've had a bad experience with another person, tell people about it. If you really love a particular product, or person, tell people about it. But be sure that your writings can convey the passion that you feel whether it's negative or positive.

If you are effectively creating controversy through your writings, most people that read it will either love what you have to say or hate it. Either way, they'll "Talk About It". And if you give them a chance to communicate how they feel about it, this will lead to more profits in your pockets!

But, in order to use controversy you have to be willing to take a stand on a certain topic. No "wishy-washy" comments will do. If you make people angry, "Good"! But don't back down on your opinions though. That defeats the purpose of using this tactic completely. If some people don't like what you're saying, who cares?? At least you had the guts to stand up for what you believe and say it. And that's the point that will come across to those that love your writings.

I "Know For A Fact" this works. Jason Cain is a living example of this dirty trick. He uses controversy in his writings and makes immense profits from the dust he stirs up. Some folks hate him. Some folks love him. The love-hate factor doesn't really matter though. What DOES matter is that people are reading what he has to say. And they are 'Listening'. And, they are BUYING.

Another terrific example is a fellow by the name of Stuart Halpryn. He creates controversy through the amount of money he charges for products he sells. He lets his readers know that he is directly responsible for pissing other marketers off by charging extremely low prices for their products to his customers. And it works! He's earning good money from using controversy

The whole idea of this tactic is to speak your mind, send off a spark, and watch it build into a roaring flame

About the Author:

Jo Han Mok is a #1 bestselling author and frequent featured speaker at Internet Marketing bootcamps and conferences. Visit his website for a simple step-by-step plan to profit online in 21 days or less! http://www.SuperFastProfit.com

3 Loud-Mouthed Secrets To Massively Increase Online Sales

By Jo Han Mok

Today we're going to be going over 3 over-the-top tactics that help convert more visitors into paying customers than almost any other tactic around.

1. An Offer You CAN'T Refuse

Yeah, this is an old "gangster" style trick. Although you might not think so once I reveal the one word that describes it. What's the word? Guarantee. But, why did I say it was an old "gangster" style trick? Firstly, did you even bother reading the title? ;-) Second, let's look at it logically here.

I'd wager you've seen at least ONE gangster type movie(I'm a movie fanatic, so just stick with me here, it will make perfect sense once I'm finished explaining.) once in your life. These tough guys are running things for a reason. They don't take NO for an answer. It's their way or you're "swimmin' with the fishes" my friend.

Now, obviously offering a guarantee isn't the same as whacking someone, but it will most definitely make your offer much harder to refuse. Your customer will feel more secure in the fact that you are shouldering most, if not all, of the risk by letting them get their money back if they are unsatisfied with your product.

This little dirty trick not only helps you convert more sales, but it also builds credibility in the eyes of your potential customers because you believe in what you are trying to sell them by taking a loss if they don't.

I also highly recommend this dirty little trick to anyone and everyone who is selling anything online.

2. Getting All "Hyped" Up

This is a super dirty trick. And admitted "hypers" or not, I can almost guarantee you'll find this type of language slipped in to most sales pages. Now, some Internet Marketers may try and mask this trick by putting a different name on it, but it's the same thing.

Now, some marketers will simply say that they have unbreakable confidence in their products, and there's no "hype" in that. Really? I beg to differ. Not that there's anything at all wrong with having that type of confidence in your product, but let's call a duck a duck and not a chicken, shall we?

Some more common "hyper" words you may have seen, or be using yourself are:

Incredible
Amazing
Unbeatable
Unbelievable
Controversial
Secret
Hidden
Easy
Fast

And there are plenty of others lying in wait to pounce on you. But these are more of the commonly used hype words. So, why do this dirty trick work so well?

Because these words spark emotion within your potential customers. And dragging out that emotional connection to your product can more often than not close the sale.

A word of caution here though. Don't try and over-hype your product. That could end in you boiling in a pot of hot water in the form of a law suit. And I'm sure you don't want to get scarred up with burns now do you?

Use this dirty trick wisely and cautiously. Don't over do it and try your best to stay true to the reality of what your product can, and can't do when describing it with "hyped" up words.

3. "Trash" Talking

Have you ever watched a television talk show or professional wrestling? Then you have seen this dirty trick already!

But, here's how to apply it to your product or business to gain more "buzz". Find a product that is similar to yours and do some comparison on theirs to yours. Find out what makes yours the better decision for your visitors and exploit the hell out of it!

Another boss way to use this dirty little stinker is to raise your own stink about an experience in where one of your competitors has burned you with one of their products that you personally bought. Work in the angle that this painful event is the reason that made you decide to create your own version of this specific product, but you made it better than this other author's version.

Don't be afraid to talk some trash about a person or product to highlight the benefits of your own to get the sale. Do be careful of "slander" issues though. You can hide the details of the specific author or product by calling them Mr. X, or Product Z. You don't necessarily have to bash your competition to smithereens to get your point across.

Even though sometimes that is fun! Oh, are my devil horns showing? ;-)

This dirty trick should also be used sparingly and in context to show your potential customers the benefits of purchasing your product over that of your competitors.

About the Author:

Jo Han Mok is a #1 bestselling author and frequent featured speaker at Internet Marketing bootcamps and conferences. Visit his website for a simple step-by-step plan to profit online in 21 days or less! http://www.SuperFastProfit.com

The 3 Things You Must Remember When Writing Your Sales Letter

By Jo Han Mok

Writing sales copy is a learnable skill. You aren't writing the next great novel but a short novella that persuades your reader to your desired action. Sales letters are really salesmanship in print. Have you listened to a good salesman before? Not the typical used car type but the smooth salesman who has a quality conversation with you. You have walked out of the store with a new widget and you are convinced it is the smartest purchase you've made all year.

This type of salesmanship is learnable and easier since it's in print. In print you have the opportunity to change your mistakes before publication. However, you don't have the chance to modify your information based on the reader's objections.

The first step is to outline and plan your information so that the points flow seamlessly through the letter. In order to do that you have to know where you are going. In a statement, define the objective of your letter, beyond 'get the customer to buy.' You want the statement to outline what your want your readers to think, feel and eventually do. Use that statement to guide your reader from the beginning to the final sentence where he will take a specific action.

The second point is to make your copy more conversational and engaging. Most people write copy in a straightforward factual manner producing dull and boring reading. Conversions revolve around emotions and feelings, which is beneficial to the sales page since people buy on emotion and justify by logic or features. People purchase benefits, not features. Features are facts and objects you can touch. Benefits are emotions you can feel and experience.

If your copy is conversational and engaging you're probably touching the reader emotionally and have a greater chance of conversion. Is it difficult for you to write with passion and animation? You aren't alone. Most people are much more compelling and passionate when they speak than when they write.

There is a shortcut to use to get the copy started. Remember, copy is nothing more than spoken language in written form. Use a tape recorder and sit down with a friend or business partner. Explain your product; tell them what you want them to know so they'll purchase your item. Now go back to the computer and transcribe your speech. This transcription can be the basis for your first draft. It will be compelling, passionate, animated and exciting. Try not to tone it down too much!

An important criteria to conversion is how well the letter flows. If your reader gets stuck in the middle of the sale because your points don't flow and the copy is choppy you'll find the reader leaves quickly. This is where the objective definition also is essential. Within the objective statement should be 3-5 points, or benefits, you want to discuss.

When you come to the end of one benefit ask a question and leave a "cliffhanger" to encourage the reader to move further into the sales letter. You can use subheads between the points to place emphasis on parts of the benefits. However, you should never give a complete answer
in the headline or the majority of the subheads. Although a reader should be able to read all subheads and get the general gist of what your topic is covering you shouldn't give all the answers in the subheadings.

There is a line between giving too little and too much. Too little information in the subheads and copy and your reader is left feeling motivated without direction. Too much information and the reader wonders how much more could be in the information product? Is there really anymore or was it all left on the table? Give your reader enough information to understand that you are an expert in your field but not enough that the reader now knows just as much as you do.

Write your sales letter with intention and direction. Persuade your reader to take a specific action that you desire. You writing skills will improve and your sales conversions will increase.

About the Author:

Jo Han Mok is a #1 bestselling author and frequent featured speaker at Internet Marketing bootcamps and conferences. Visit his website for a simple step-by-step plan to profit online in 21 days or less! http://www.SuperFastProfit.com

Copywriting Makeover: Distinction and Benefits

By Karon Thackston

In part 1 of this series (seen here:
http://www.marketingwords.com/articles/articles_subtlechanges.html), we were introduced to kneelsit.com, an Australian manufacturer of ergonomic computer chairs who was in search of a high conversion rate. After spotting several trouble areas within Kneelsit's original copy (viewable here:
http://www.copywritingcourse.com/kneelsit-home-original.html), I set out to rewrite the home page with specific goals in mind.

The Rewrite

I really felt for the users of these chairs. They had back problems and medical issues, trying desperately to find relief. I can only imagine how it must feel to sit in pain all day, every day. And, after seeing so many false claims for other chairs, I could understand how they might be skeptical. So, after reading the new home page copy, I wanted the site visitors to have confidence, to see the difference in the Kneelsit chair and to understand the benefits this chair would offer.

Of course, those in chronic pain were not the only visitors to the Kneelsit site. While they were the primary segment, the audience also consisted of those with mild back pain, those with inconsistent problems or simple fatigue, and those who simply wanted a comfortable chair that wouldn't contribute to any future back problems. The copy also needed to meet their needs and provide the information they were seeking.

You can see the revised copy here:
http://www.copywritingcourse.com/kneelsit-home-new.pdf.

The Headline

The original headline did, in fact, list benefits. It stated:

Superb Comfort, Perfect Posture, Gentle Movement, Natural Balance

However, only one of those benefits spoke to audience members. Superb Comfort. While posture may have been a secondary thought, gentle movement and natural balance didn't strike a chord simply because of a lack of knowledge. As it happens, these two benefits are important, but the general population doesn't understand what they mean. It would require educating the site visitors about these two before they would grasp their full meaning. That education couldn't take place within the headline (not enough room!), so those two benefits needed to be removed.

The headline needed to evoke feelings of trust for the skeptical and a sense of stability for the hesitant. It also needed to provide an obvious benefit - one that would catch the reader's attention.

Also, because it made sense to do so, I included one keyphrase in the headline. The new headline read:

Ergonomic Chair Design Based On Years Of Research Lets You Sit For Hours With No Back Pain

The Opening Paragraph

The original copy started out just fine by naming some important benefits, but it didn't back them up. After pointing out the relief of stress and pain, it went directly into an explanation about the chair's patent.

The new copy took a cleaner path. It started by pointing out that others (users and professionals) liked the chair, and then it proceeded (in the next section) to explain why.

The original copy tried to educate readers about the importance of continuous movement and natural balance. There is nothing wrong with educating your customers; however, you need to give ample space to do that. Because the visitors had limited information about these two benefits on the home page, they may have been confused or - at the least - unpersuaded.

The new copy held firm on one feature: the swivel axel mechanism. It explained how this helped with customization of settings to fit every body type and more. With minimal education needed, the customer was able to understand that this one, patented feature offered multiple benefits.

Rather than simply listing shipping details for the close of the copy, the new version of the home page pointed out some additional benefits pertaining to quality and stylishness.

As I wrote, I looked for places to use the keyphrases chosen for this page. This was absolutely not a numbers game. My goal was not to use the keyphrases as often as I possibly could. That approach is not SEO copywriting, in my book.

Basing your copywriting strategy simply on the sheer volume of times you can include keyphrases makes the copy sound forced and ridiculous. In fact, on this home page, the keyphrases were only used a total of four or five times. Yet, to the amazement of some, the home page ranks in the top 10 (and often top five) for its chosen key terms.

The Results

Did it work? Did the changes bring out the results we wanted? They sure did! When asked about improved conversions, the owner of Kneelsit.com had this to say, "Our conversion rate has definitely improved since the rewrite. probably by around 35-40%!"

Sometimes, even though you may have included important information in your copy, it just doesn't do what you hoped it would. Take the time to explore, experiment and test. Replace a headline. Rephrase a paragraph. Subtle changes can often make noticeable improvements in conversions and other areas of business.

Copy not getting results? Learn to write SEO copy that impresses the engines and your visitors at
http://www.copywritingcourse.com. Be sure to also check out Karon's latest e-report "How To Increase Keyword Saturation (Without Destroying the Flow of Your Copy)" at
http://www.copywritingcourse.com/keyword.

Copywriting Makeover: Subtle Changes Make A Noticeable Difference

By Karon Thackston

Changing a few words in your copy can lead to double-digit increases in conversions. If that sounds like a bunch of hype from an online infomercial, stick around and I'll show you how it's done.

That's really all that happened with Kneelsit.com, an Australian ergonomic computer chair manufacturer. They had what would be considered a successful site with a continual stream of orders. All the basic information was already included on the home page, but the owner felt as though something was not quite "there" yet. He wanted a fresh approach to the site's copy, so that's what he received. And the results were simply amazing.

The Problems

While Kneelsit had great rankings for their key terms (normally #1 to #4 in popular search engines) keeping those rankings high required some attention to the SEO piece of the puzzle. Conversions, however, were not at their maximum. The business was not suffering, but it did have room for improvement. So, after receiving a sample chair to use during the process, I set(or should I say "sat") out to work.

Once I assembled the chair and rolled it up to my desk, I kept a notepad nearby so I could jot down benefits as I noticed them. In just a few days' time, I had a long list of features and benefits to refer to.

As I read over the original home page copy (which can be seen here:
http://www.copywritingcourse.com/kneelsit-home-original.html), I noticed something else. Many of the benefits I had on my paper were referenced (at least briefly) in the original copy. Some were phrased differently than I would later phrase them, but most were there.

However, in this highly competitive industry, I wanted to be sure to keep the uniqueness of the chair on the forefront. Visitors needed to quickly see that the Kneelsit was superior to other computer chairs available. The changing of some verbiage and providing more details in some areas would help keep visitors reading and help them easily distinguish this chair from others on their comparison list.

Once my list of benefits was completed, I began relating these options to other kneeling chairs and to users of ergonomic computer chairs. I wanted to see which benefits on my list were unique in the marketplace. I also wanted to know about the users of these chairs. After all, the buyer is the center of the process and should also be the focus of the copy.

My research revealed some of the reasons users would need an ergonomic chair and also the biggest complaints about some of the current ergonomic designs. In addition, I discovered which benefits were common to other ergonomic chairs and which were distinctive.

The Solutions

Armed with the research results, I started crafting the copy to speak to that one person who was forced to sit at a computer all day, in pain, and who desperately needed help. This person had tried several other computer chairs before with little to no results and was getting skeptical about finding a solution.

I looked back over my list of benefits in search of the ones that would not be found in the competition's copy. I focused on one exclusive, patented feature (the axle design) and the fact that the chair was customizable for every body type.

I laid out a plan for the new copy including keyword selection, keyword placement, benefits and key points to be mentioned.

Similar in many ways to the original copy, the new version had some subtle, but powerful, changes. The goal of the new copy was to show the true distinction of these chairs by highlighting the most impressive benefits.

I would also focus on incorporating keyphrases in headlines and sub-heads (where it made sense to do so) and throughout the copy. I had to pay careful attention to making the copy sound natural, as I never want the SEO factors to overshadow the message of the page.

In Part 2 of this series (seen here:
http://www.marketingwords.com/articles/articles_subtlechanges2.html), we'll take a look at what went into the rewrite as well as what type of results were achieved with the new copy.

Copy not getting results? Learn to write SEO copy that impresses the engines and your visitors at
http://www.copywritingcourse.com. Be sure to also check out Karon's latest e-report "How To Increase Keyword Saturation (Without Destroying the Flow of Your Copy)" at
http://www.copywritingcourse.com/keyword.

Seven Webcopy Essentials To Boost Sales In 2007

By Rick Sloboda

Relevant webcopy is the key to engaging your website's visitors and converting more sales in 2007.

Forrester Research forecasts that US consumers alone will spend upwards of $228 billion (U.S.) online in 2007. Meanwhile, Internet World Stats reports almost 70 per cent of US and Canadian consumers are using the Internet.

So what's the quickest and most effective way to connect with your audience and convert them into full-fledged customers? Address their real needs, and make it easy for them to find what
they want.

Be sure to employ the following webcopy tactics to establish trust and credibility with your visitors:

1. Promote benefits - Focus on your customers and emphasize benefits rather than features. Tell visitors how your product or service is going save them time or money, keep them safer, make them happier, healthier, more attractive and so on.

2. Be objective - Don't make subjective claims without evidence. Vague marketing hype like "We're the best in the business!!!" will only kill your credibility. When you make a point, back it
up with facts and figures.

3. Strong introduction - Take a page from journalists; make your introductory sentences strong and meaningful. Don't bury important information in the middle or at the end of your pages.

4. Scan-friendly - Studies indicate Internet users generally scan webcopy, so keep it lean and clean. Use relevant headlines, subheads, bullet points and short, one-topic paragraphs. As a
general rule, webcopy should be less than half the length of copy you would use in traditional print media, such as brochures.

5. Organized structure - Ensure information is intuitively accessible. And remember that your visitors may arrive on pages other than the homepage, so every page must be written with an
introduction and links to the rest of the site.

6. Keep it fresh - Frequently updated webcopy will score points with returning visitors. Give them a reason to keep coming back.

7. Use 'calls to action' - Requests such as 'call us today' and 'e-mail us now' should be strategically placed throughout your webcopy. Sales experts suggest you need to include several calls to action within your webcopy to trigger a sale. There should be at least one call to action on every page.

Whatever marketing trends and technologies emerge, relevant and informative webcopy will remain a key ingredient to convincing your online visitors to purchase your product or service.

About the Author:

Rick Sloboda is a Senior Web Copywriter at
http://www.webcopyplus.com Test your webcopy
with a free keyword density tool http://www.webcopyplus.com/tools
Get more webcopy tips http://www.webcopyplus.com/faqs

SEO - Tips For Making SEO Copy More Personal

Chris Angus

The problem with SEO copy (search engine optimized) is that
often reads very robotic, repetitive and cold. However so many
marketing experts say that you need to make an emotional
connection with your reader in order to make sales. This means
that you need to find the fine balance between making your copy
sound personal and pleasing the search engine spiders and
robots.

First of all never pose yourself an expert or a guru if you are
not one. People can usually tell that you aren't within the
first paragraph or so of an article, especially if it is
peppered with keywords and not much quality content. This type
of content is easily identifiable as it is based on
old-fashioned direct sales marketing techniques. Once people
see those long sales letters on sites, they know it's snake oil
salesman time. It is better to connect with them on a one to one
basis rather than in an imitation of some hotshot copywriter
from the 1970s.

Never use the royal "we". Stay away from phrases like "We here
at Search Engine City promises to deliver you the best copy"
instead make it more personal by using the "you or your" form
as in: "You are certain to find a keyword analyzer that is
perfect for that special someone at here at Search Engine
City."

Another tip is to try and identify with your audience in some
way. For instance if your audience is a bunch of affiliate
marketers, refer to the practice of creating blogs with
affiliate links as bum marketing which is the nickname for it.
Try to write in the niche language that they are used to. Of
course if you truly are an expert in your niche then writing
this type of SEO enriched, yet user-friendly copy will not be
difficult for you at all!

About The Author:

Chris Angus is a SEO and website promoter, he
can be contacted at sales(at)brilliantseo.com
http://www.illustratemyname.com,
http://www.mobility-direct.co.uk and
http://www.everest-oxfordshire.co.uk

Do You Make These Mistakes In Your Headlines?

Do You Make These Mistakes In Your Headlines?

Jo Han Mok

You have three seconds to capture the attention of your
reader. Three seconds. That's it.

The Internet is a fluid medium that moves quickly. There
is so much information that people don't need to stay on
your page. They can probably get their answer on another
page. You must have a compelling reason for them to stay.
And you must give that reason in the headline.

Most people write bad headlines. It's not that they don't
understand grammar or the product but that they don't speak
to people "where they live." You must create interest,
desire and receptivity to taking action.

Look at the end result of what your reader wants. If you
are selling a drill bit the customer isn't buying the bit
but the hole the bit makes. You are selling the benefits
of the products and services not the features. To keep the
concepts of features and benefits separate remember that
features can be touched while benefits touch feelings and
emotions.

Your headline should tap into a fear, anxiety or desire of
your customer. People read and act for several very
selfish reasons and the top three are fear, desire and
pain. If you can stop the pain, alleviate the fear or give
them their hearts desire you have them hooked.

The headline must pass the So what? Who cares test. If you
can ask "So what?" and not answer with feelings and
benefits then your reader won't get past your headline. Be
sure your headline isn't cute or obscure either. People
who are interested in cute are not interested in buying.
You have just pre-qualified a non-buying customer!

The headline should mean everything to the customer and
nothing to the business, not the reverse. Headlines that
speak to the number of years in service or the company's
skill at negotiation have nothing to do with the customer.
Click. He's gone.

There are some basic techniques that you can use to keep
your customer at your page and reading. You must first
address the customer where he is. Your customer is not as
knowledgeable about your product or service as you are.
Don't pretend that he is.

Spell out that you are selling a solution to a problem and
how it will fulfill his desire. A golf pro may be teaching
concentration, follow-through, better swing and posture
while the golfer may be concerned about too many swings to
reach the next hole. Your headline should address the
golfer and not the golf pro.

Using specific words in the headline will also grab the
attention of your reader. The word "secret" is an attention
getter. If you can create mystery and intrigue without
giving away any answers, the customer will read further to
get the answer.

Numbering items in your headline is also an attention
grabber. Research has shown that odd numbers are more
noticeable than even numbers.

Another technique is to state "How To"... in your headline.
Or using a versus headline such as: "Red Vs. Blue" Which
Works Better In A Headline?

Your goal is to get your reader to stay past 3 seconds; to
read past the headline to the first line of your sales
copy.

Read other sales copy. Watch what successful marketers in
your niche are doing to grab the attention of their
readers. Learn the lingo and incorporate that into good
headline writing techniques. You'll be ahead of your
competition in no time!

About the Author:

Jo Han Mok is a #1 bestselling author and frequent featured
speaker at Internet Marketing bootcamps and conferences.
Visit his website for a simple step-by-step plan to profit
online in 21 days or less!
http://www.SuperFastProfit.com

Website Copywriter: How to Be Successful

Steven Gerber

There are a lot of people today who wants to be a copywriter.
Besides, this profession is very rewarding and can definitely let
you earn a lot of money. This profession is also a great way to
help you make extra cash if you already have a regular job.

However, it is also a fact that there are also a lot of people
who failed or who aren't really growing in this kind of
profession. This is because they tend to forget some of the
necessary things in website copywriting. These necessary things
are so minute yet so important in the website copywriting world
that many copywriters tend to forget to include these things in
their profession.

The very first thing that you have to have in the website
copywriting world is a website. Your copywriting website will act
as your home base. This will be your office and this is where
your clients will hire your services as a copywriter.

Most copywriters do this mistake because they think that being a
freelance copywriter doesn't need a website for them to post
their services. They usually think that posting in freelance
bulletin websites is enough. However, with a website, you will
look more professional and more dedicated in your work. If you
don't have a website, you will look like a rag-tag freelance
copywriter. So, if you don't have a website, you better consider
building one or hire someone to build it for you.

Now that you have your website up and running with sample
articles and all the links and buttons are fully operational, the
next thing you need to do as a freelance website copywriter is to
let people in the internet know about it. You have to let people
know that your website exists and they should try and visit it.

Since there are a lot of websites like yours in the internet, you
have to effectively market your website. So, how will you be able
to do this? The best way to do this is through article marketing.
Through article marketing, you will increase your market exposure
and tell the world about your copywriting skills and at the same
time, advertise your services.

All you need to do is write a sample article about a particular
subject you are interested in. Don't forget to include a short
bio about yourself, and never forget to include a link or URL of
your website. This is where people will visit your website.

Post your articles in famous article posting websites. It's free
and a lot of people search these websites for practically any
subject they want to know about. People search these websites for
tips and also for additional knowledge about anything they are
interested in. This is why it is important that your article
should be keyword rich in order for people to find your articles
fast.

As you can see, the two things that you need to do as a website
copywriter is very simple and very essential in your career as a
copywriter. This is why it is important that you should never
forget these two simple yet effective things when you are
considering being a website copywriter.

Building your own website and advertising it through article
marketing are the two things that you can do to pave your road to
success.

About the Author:

Steven Gerber is a professional copywriter and
marketing consultant with more than 8 years of
expertise. He is a protégé student of Dan Lok -
The World's #1 Website Conversion Expert, and
in Steven's totally biased opinion simply THE
BEST. You'll find the latest internet marketing
techniques and tricks at:
http://www.websiteconversionexpert.com

Good Website Copy writing is the key to your online success

Good Website Copy writing is the key to your online success

Steven Gerber

If you want to have promotions and good standing in search
engines then you should know that the written content of your
website is one of the very important factors to meet that ends
and the quality of the content of your website can make that
happen. It is absolutely the one factor that could possibly meet
the success goals of your site. Remember that if the site
contains only images it can do nothing to make the sales higher
and for the visitors to stay and return.

Your site is valuable to every customer; there should be articles
in your website to help convince people to visit your site over
and over again. Let the people be encouraged in visiting your
website through the content of your copywriting. And besides, the
content of your site will depend upon the image of your company
that will make the positive outlook and will convey thoroughness,
awareness and pique the interest of the visitors to your site.

There is so much that needs to be considered and applied when
writing for a website. The quality of thoughts is very much
important when it comes to the content in terms of relating it to
the structures of the site that you are writing for. It needs to
catch the attention of the visitors of your site and needs to
reveal the accurate search terms to make a reasonably high
ranking with the content driven search engines.

The importance of the copy on your site has to work together with
a specific direction so that the readers can be attracted with
what they read and to make them always keep in touch with your
site and for them to be familiarized with all the products that
you are selling. All the details in your site project the image
of the company, and it should capture the interests of the
readers or the visitors of your site. One very important factor
is that the content should make logical sense to the readers.

The more the readers or visitors value your site, the more you
will have higher rankings. Definitely your company will remain
competitive and will remain on top.

Copywriting is writing words that sell. It should consist of
words that are precise and clear for the effectiveness of all the
content of your site because it will definitely give your
visitors the confidence and trust to your products or services.
Copywriting should catch the attention of the customers since it
is the lifeblood of every online services and businesses.

Your site will be successful if you always bring the quality
information to potential customers and will generate more
potential sales. Words that you will use in an online business
will draw the customer to purchase a product and the words you
used on that certain page will be the basis of the customer in
making decision whether to stay or get out of your site.

In web copywriting, it determines the best and appropriate way of
getting the sales increase. It means that promoting a certain
product or service will depend upon the words you convey in your
online access. Every word that you are going to use will change
the way you sell forever.

Web site copy writing will soon be the huge demand for the
successful online business because using selling and persuasive
words can be powerful in terms of selling your products or
services. You have just to put to your online business with the
words of wisdom and ultimately you will meet the increase to your
online sales and get the possible highest search engine ranking.

About the Author:

Steven Gerber is a professional copywriter and
marketing consultant with more than 8 years of
expertise. He is a protégé student of Dan Lok -
The World's #1 Website Conversion Expert, and
in Steven's totally biased opinion simply THE
BEST. You'll find the latest internet marketing
techniques and tricks at:
http://www.websiteconversionexpert.com

Online Copywriting Makes Content as the King

Steven Gerber

The fundamentals of copywriting include the basic knowledge of
journalists "" the inverted pyramid.

The inverted pyramid is basically the placing of 4 W"(tm)s in the
primary sentences of the articles, supported by the other W and H
on the following discussions. Four W"(tm)s consist of what, when,
where, and who. The other W which stands for why on the other
hand, follows on the succeeding paragraphs, including the
elaboration for the H which also stands for how, if necessary.

For the "Who," emphasize who are the benefactor of those
products that you are promoting. Sight in your article that
it"(tm)s the readers themselves, through this you are also
meeting with your target market.

For "What," discuss the benefits of the products. What are the
good changes that it can cause into their lives? Emphasize what
is in the product.

For "When," tell the reader until when the offer is available.
If it is a special offer, mention when it will end. When they
will get the service? Will it be through time or is it just
instantaneous?

For "Where," where can they contact to avail the offer? Where
will it apply?

For "Why", discuss why readers need to avail the service or
product? Why will they be benefited? Why do they need to order in
a certain time? Why is the supply limited?

For "How," discuss how they can sign-up or order? How does the
product work? How much is the cost? How much profit will they get
for investing on it?

The benefit of following this form is that it facilitates easy
reading for the online visitors"(tm), especially for readers who
are busy people. The readers will be able to digest the important
facts of the articles even they weren"(tm)t able to finish
reading the entire article.

The process of writing is just an easy task; just observe a
careful application of answering those questions that needs to
appear in your article.

The technique for this is simply place yourself in your
readers"(tm) shoes. If you are the reader what are the answers
you want for your probable questions? What answer are you
expecting from your queries regarding the products and services?

Simply answer those questions that are running in your mind and
your copywriting is complete.

These instructions will not solely apply to online copywriting.
It will also be applicable to direct market copywriting, and
offline copywriting.

The preceding paragraphs are further techniques regarding online
copywriting:

First, make it simple. Be straightforward if you can. Remember,
no one wants to read a very lengthy and confusing discussion.

Second, write facts, do not write anything that is not supported
by facts. Establish a good reputation and do not attempt to break
your credibility to your readers.

Third, do not just convey the information to your reader. To make
online copywriting effective, it is advisable that you establish
your personality beyond the screen. This process is likewise an
effective scheme to let your readers stay longer, and they will
respond more eagerly. To do this you can add tone and voices to
present a constant style, this will help the target reader to
relate and remember.

Lastly, keep your content logical and interesting. If it is
supplemented by adequate answers regarding the product or offer,
you are allowed a lengthy article as long as you don"(tm)t lose
the substance.

About the Author:

Steven Gerber is a professional copywriter and
marketing consultant with more than 8 years of
expertise. He is a prot�g� student of Dan Lok �
The World's #1 Website Conversion Expert, and
in Steven�s totally biased opinion simply THE
BEST. You�ll find the latest internet marketing
techniques and tricks at:
http://www.websiteconversionexpert.com

Opening Sentences That Close the Sale

Article by: Karon Thackston

Opening Sentences That Close the Sale

http://www.copywritingcourse.com

It's one of the best pieces of copywriting advice I've ever been
given. "As often as possible, start your paragraphs with
sentences that hook readers and drive them deeper into the
copy." Why? Because - after the headline - the first sentence
in any paragraph is what gets read most often. After that
point, customers usually skip to the next section unless they
feel compelled to keep reading. That means your job, as the
copywriter, is to entice them into each segment, so they will
consume as much of your copy as possible.

Take your cue from Reader's Digest. They crank out - issue
after issue - exceptional opening lines for their articles that
engage then hook readers. What happens next? The reader is
pulled into the story full force. Here are some examples.

It was a horrific display of irreverence.

By the way she dressed, you would have never guessed she was
only 14.

As he reached into the box, something inside it moved.

See? Those sentences boost your curiosity. They make you
wonder what happens next. They cause you to visualize a scene
that might be taking place. You can do the same thing from a
marketing perspective when you write your copy.

For instance, rather than starting the copy for an email to
Australian hotels like this:

You may be aware of www._______.com - we are an
Australian-owned and managed online hotel booking service.

Really capture their attention with an opening sentence that is
specific to them like this:

Now you have the opportunity to affordably position your hotel
in front of approximately 6,000 travellers every day that are
looking for accommodations exclusively in Australia.

For an Australian hotel that depends on the Internet to generate
reservations, that sentence gives them many reasons to keep
reading.

Here are some other before-and-after examples of opening
sentences.

==============

BEFORE: Hello and welcome to our website. If you are looking
for [enter product name here], you are at the right site. (In
this case, the example is from a wedding photographer's site.)

AFTER: We don't take pictures. We capture precious memories
that you can enjoy for a lifetime.

==============

BEFORE: Our site has been online since 2000, and this marks our
6th year online providing designer-inspired sunglasses.

AFTER: How do you get the latest designer-inspired looks
without paying outrageous prices?

==============

BEFORE: Our cruise website offers unbeatable rates and a
diverse array of travel services guaranteed to satisfy even the
most discriminating vacationer.

AFTER: Just imagine yourself on the white sand beaches of
Honolulu, hiking through the balmy rainforests of Belize or
whisking down a powdery, snow-covered mountain in Aspen. all at
up to 50% off!

==============

BEFORE: Thank you for shopping for your corporate gifts at
_________.com. We hope your shopping experience is delightful.

AFTER: When you truly impress your clients with distinctive
corporate gifts, they remember you longer, feel a closer
relationship and are more likely to reward you with increased
sales.

==============

See the difference? The "before" sentences are dull, average
and unflattering. The "after" sentences are intriguing,
imaginative and enticing.

Don't stop after you create inviting headlines. Keep the
momentum going by writing intriguing opening sentences, too.
When you do, you'll help convert more site visitors into paying
customers.

About the Author: Copy not getting results? Learn to write SEO and online
copywriting that impresses the engines and your visitors at http://www.copywritingcourse.com. Be sure to also check out Karon's report "How To Increase Keyword Saturation (Without Destroying the Flow of Your Copy)" at http://www.copywritingcourse.com/keyword.

Will Longer Keyphrases Hinder the Effectiveness of Your Copy?

Article by: Karon Thackston

The length of search phrases continues to grow. Back when the

Internet was just an upstart, single keywords were the only
thing you needed. But in recent years we've seen the number of
words used in search phrases triple and quadruple. Rather than
a single keyword, searchers who live in countries where English
is the primary language are now using three- and four-word
phrases as a standard, according to Web analytics company,
OneStat.com.

While the worldwide average is two words per search phrase, the
USA, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia all show that
searchers prefer the use of three- or four-word terms. What does
this mean from a copywriting standpoint? Writing with a single
keyword in mind is relatively easy. Using two-word terms is a
bit more of a challenge. But when you get to three- and
four-word phrases, your risk of sounding stiff and awkward
increases substantially.

Why Longer Phrases?

Longer search phrases are the natural progression of the
Internet population boom. As more and more information is
placed online, it becomes increasingly difficult to find exactly
what you're looking for. When there were only a few thousand
sites, entering the word "marketing" into a search engine would
bring up a handful of sites for you to choose from.

Now, however, you find hundreds of thousands of sites dealing
with everything from marketing plans to marketing jobs to
university curriculums for marketing degrees. The natural action
for copywriters is to follow the search trend of the target
audience and use the keyphrases that they use.

That leads us back to our original question. how?

Tips for Writing With Keyphrases

The biggest mistake I find search engine optimization (SEO)
copywriters making is attempting to substitute a generic term
for a specific keyphrase. For example:

At our Mexico cruise vacation site we offer the best rates on
Mexico cruise vacation packages to the most exciting Mexico
cruise vacation destinations. Visit our Mexico cruise vacation
specials page for deep discounts today!

Or

Welcome to our Chicago web design firm site. If you're looking
for innovative and creative Chicago web design firm, you've come
to the right place. No other Chicago web design firm has the
talent or technological skills to develop the type of high-end
sites we do. When you're ready for a truly professional Chicago
web design firm, contact us today.

Oh please! My 10-year-old nephew could write better copy than
that. When you substitute generic terms (in this case: site,
packages, vacation destinations, vacation specials, etc.) with
the specific search phrase, you get a bunch of repetitive,
awkward babble. The longer the keyphrases are, the more clunky
the copy will sound.

The best advice I can give is to break up some of the mentions
of longer keyphrases. Yes, you do need to keep the words of the
phrase in the same order most of the time. However by using
punctuation and other elements you can still make the phrase
appear less obtrusive.

For example, let's look at our Mexico cruise vacation site
again. Rather than using that bunch of fluff written above, try
this instead:

Long stretches of sunny beaches, delightful fiestas filled with
lively bands and some of the most delicious fresh seafood you've
ever tasted. Where can you find it? In Mexico! Cruise vacation
destinations from Cancun to Cozumel offer some of the most
exciting adventures and beautiful scenery found in Mexico.
Cruise vacation specials make these remarkable getaways even
more affordable than you might think - etc., etc.

Do you see what was done? Using punctuation, the phrase "Mexico
cruise vacation" was broken up between sentences. Because the
search engines all but ignore punctuation, they see the phrase
as one term. However, the site visitor doesn't. They don't
notice that the phrase is being repeated because it spans two
sentences.

If the trend continues as it has in the past, search phrases
will get even longer in the not-so-distant future. However,
when you get creative with keyphrase use in your copy, you'll
find longer search terms are not a problem to work with.

About the author: Be sure to also check out
Karon's report "How To Increase Keyword Saturation (Without
Destroying the Flow of Your Copy)" at
http://www.copywritingcourse.com/keyword.

Site Development: Extreme Online Marketing

Article by: Scott Lindsay

The key component to the web's best sites is 'content'. These
netrepreneurs understand the need to provide a professional
site that is well developed, informational and error-free. For
top websites quality content is essential.

If you have a pit in your stomach as you try to come to terms
with how you might develop content for your site there may be a
solution.

In the world of online marketing you have to consider the end
goal. Once the goal is established, you can either learn the
skills to help you reach the goal or bring others alongside to
assist you in reaching the goal.

There are certainly plenty of webmasters that can assist in
building your website to provide proper function and design.
These professionals can provide instruction on how to integrate
software applications that may be useful in attaining your goal.

A secondary area of consideration is the development of
content. This is increasingly outsourced to the freelance
writing community.

What a freelance writer can do for you . . .

1) Listen to you to help gain a clear understanding of what you
want your website to achieve.
2) Provide ideas that may help you reach those goals.
3) Integrate content to compliment the overall site.
4) Provide informational articles that are optimized for search
engines while still allowing the articles to connect with your
visitors.
5) Work with you to develop meaningful product descriptions for
your site.
6) Work to provide a comprehensive site tutorial for clients if
needed.
7) Work to develop an e-course or e-book that helps inspire a
level of trust and interest in your products or services.
8) Develop a series of articles for an ezine or autoresponder.
9) Can provide press releases for developing additional
interest in your site.
10) Can provide visitors with the vision for your website
through either a 'history' section or an 'about us' section.

A website is a terrible thing to waste. The time and attention
you might expend on a business plan is no more important than
the execution of your online business.

If you are in need of content for your site and you lack the
budget for original material, the use of a free-to-use article
service is another means of gaining quality content from
experts in your field of interest. There are stipulations for
use and more than one person can use the article, but this can
be an additional means of providing relevant information to
your visitors on a subject of mutual interest.

About The Author: Scott Lindsay is a web developer and
entrepreneur. He is the founder of HighPowerSites and many
other web projects. HighPowerSites is the easiest
do-it-yourself website builder on the web. Get your own website
online in just 5 minutes with http://HighPowerSites.com at:
http://www.highpowersites.com

Copywriting With Google's Dynamic Keyword Insertion Tool

By: Karon Thackston

Automation is an odd creature. It usually seems, at first glance, that automating a process can make things easier, simpler and faster. But oftentimes, once an automated process is in place, trouble spots pop up. This is sometimes the case when looking at the copywriting aspect of Google's dynamic keyword insertion tool.

In case you're unfamiliar with dynamic keyword insertion (DKI), it's a feature of Google's AdWords program. It is often used for large campaigns in order to automatically insert the keyword into the headline of an ad. Truly, it's a lifesaver for many pay-per-click (PPC) ad managers who have to stay on top of thousands of ads every day. It's all done with a simple syntax command: {keyword:_______}.

From a timesaving standpoint, this is a wonder tool that has rescued PPC managers from the mind-numbing chore of typing the same keywords over and over. From an economic point-of view, DKI *can* (not always) perform well enough to make it a viable option for larger campaigns. But what happens with regard to copywriting and eye tracking?

See It and Click It

The human eye is normally drawn to things that are unusual. Things that look out of place or different get noticed far more than things that blend in. For instance, on a page full of black text and black & white photographs, a small red square in the bottom corner will get focused on almost immediately. Why? Because it is completely different than everything else around it.

This same principle applies when considering your copywriting strategy for AdWords. When using DKI, you'll want to keep your eye on the results pages. Why? We've all heard that using the keyphrase in the headline pulls better. It does. most of the time. There is an exception, however. This exception is what you'll be watching.

In fact, a study done last year by Enquiro, Did-It and Eyetools tracked users' interactions with the Google search results page. It found that surfers normally reviewed the page in an F formation. They would scan vertically down the left side of the page and then over to the right(where paid ads are) *IF* something caught their attention. That's the point we'll explore in this article.

In order to get clicks, you first have to get seen. If your ad looks and reads like all the rest, you've completely lost your originality advantage.

See For Yourself

Copywriting using DKI is a balancing act. You have to consider several factors, including the character count of your longest keyphrase, your ability to add text to the keyword-rich headline and how the ad looks on the page. Take a look at some examples below. Remember that AdWords results show differently at various points throughout the day (and in relation to individual account parameters), so you may not see exactly what I saw when doing this research. I'm sure it will be close enough for you to get the idea.

Go to Google and type in the phrase "cruise vacation center" (without using the quote marks). See how all the ads look different? They don't all have the same words bolded. They don't all use the same copy. The bold words stand out because they are different. In this case, your eye will usually go first to the ads with bolded words in the headline.

You see ads offering a 6-night cruise for $xx.xx and other ads promoting X% off on a cruise vacation, etc. There is diversity and that's a good thing.

Now, what if you type in "home improvement"? (Again, without the quotes.) If your results page looks like mine, practically every ad has the exact same headline: home improvement. Not only do most of the ads look the same, the headlines read the same. Your eye doesn't know where to go because everything seems identical. But wait! About four or five ads down, something catches your eye. It's an ad that has no bold in the headline. That stands out because it's different! As you scroll further down the page, more ads with no bold in the headlines pop out at you. In this case, because everyone else has opted for the DKI feature, their headlines are all very similar, making them less noticeable. But the ones who wrote custom headlines won out, thanks to diversity.

Tips for Writing With DKI

If you want or need to write using the DKI option, consider these tips:

1. Use a descriptive word along with your keyphrase. Instead of just inserting the phrase "airline tickets," place the word "discount" or "cheap" before your keyphrase to help it stand out.

2. For keyphrases that will take the entire 25-character limit, consider using one word of the keyphrase in the headline, instead of the entire phrase. Rather than "home improvement," try inserting just "home" or "improvement" along with other text you write yourself.

3. Keep it applicable. Your headline still has to convey a strong message about what the customer can expect at your site.

4. Test & Track! Everything in advertising is subject to change. Smart marketers always test and track to get the best results.

With a little forethought, you can develop a combination of DKI and custom-written AdWords ads that drive qualified visitors to your site.

About the Author:

Copy not getting results? Learn to write SEO and online copywriting that impresses the engines and your visitors at http://www.copywritingcourse.com. Be sure to also check out
Karon's report "How To Increase Keyword Saturation (Without Destroying the Flow of Your Copy)" at http://www.copywritingcourse.com/keyword.

Get It In On Time - Proposal Production

By James England

Writing a proposal involves a lot more than just simply putting the words together.you have to make sure that your proposal document looks professional and that it gets to the client on time. You could have the best proposal in the world, but if it's submitted after the deadline it is extremely likely that it won't even be considered - especially in public sector procurement.

So what's involved in producing a proposal? It's just a question of printing it out and sending it off isn't it? Sometimes yes - but there may be other things to consider. Here's a quick list of all the things that you have to consider:

The Proposal - the finished document is obviously the first thing you need in place. Make sure that this is the finished document - any red team review should have already been completed on draft versions.

Proof Reading - neglecting proof-reading is one of the biggest mistakes you can make. It takes very little time to do properly, though is often the first thing to go when time is running short. Yet if it isn't done correctly, one simple mistake in the wrong place can destroy all possibility of actual being awarded a contract.

Printing - Printing can often take longer than you expect. Always make sure that you have plenty of toner or printer ink. Allow extra time if you are printing in colour and check beforehand to see how many copies you need - and allow extra time. It's also a good idea to have a backup in case things go wrong - find a local print shop where you can get documents printed. In fact, if they can produce higher quality documents on their equipment, think about outsourcing your document production to them.

Binding - make sure you have the equipment and consumables in stock. Don't always use the cheapest binding option. A great looking document sends an immediate message to the buyer about your quality and values.

Packaging - Make sure you have big enough envelopes. Did the client provide and envelope or label that you must include on the tender. Always check the tender documentation to verify the address where the document should be sent - it may be different than the address that you usually use for this client

Getting It There - Always allow time for delivery and get proof of postage. If the proposal is completed a day early, send it a day early. Don't leave it until the last minute. If using a courier service then make sure that they are reputable.

Think about how long these are going to take in your organisation and plan for them. Ensure that your deadline for completing the proposal takes into consideration the time that these activities will take. Always allow time for contingencies
- something will go wrong!!

Plan your document production as part of your bid management process. Use the Bid Development Plan in the Learn to Write Proposals (www.learntowriteproposals.co.uk) Bid Management Toolkit. This will help you plan the entire document creation and production process and avoid the last minute rush.


About The Author:

James England is a proposal specialist with years of experience in the creation of proposals, proposal strategy as well as bid management and production tools and software. Find out more at his site.

Attract Buyers with Power Words

By Leva Duell

Power words elicit emotions and create visual pictures in
your readers' mind. Here are twenty of the most important
words that have proven to attract attention, motivate
prospects to buy, and increase sales. Use them in your
headlines and copy of your sales materials and web site.

FREE
Free trial offer.
How to generate free online traffic.

YOU
Do you want to get out of the rat race?
Do you want to make serious money?

NEW
New material never before shared in public.

DISCOVER
In this article, you'll discover resources that will help
you generate more profits.

AMAZING
Find out how you can start in this amazing home business
today!

BREAKTHROUGH
Listen to what customers say about these breakthrough
techniques.
Find out the hottest new Internet marketing breakthroughs.

LATEST
Get the latest techniques to developing your web site.

PROVEN
Three proven ways to get people to open your emails.
A proven technique that will generate sales and profits for
your web site automatically.

GUARANTEE
Guarantee yourself a top ranking on Google.
Marketing expert reveals powerful marketing strategies
guaranteed to increase your profits.
Our system is backed by a 100 percent zero risk guarantee.

MONEY
Seven distinct ways to make money online.
Four key ways to make money with an ezine.

TOP
Top 10 ways to develop a successful web site.
10 top ways to make your web site more effective
immediately.

SECRET
Secrets of keyword placement that only the pro marketers
know.
10 inside secrets of profitable home businesses.

ACT NOW
If you want to get in on this rare home business
opportunity, you need to act now!

CALL NOW / CALL TODAY
Pick up your phone and call now! Go on... do it right now!

SAVE
22 ways to save time promoting your web site.
The techniques you'll discover in this report can save you a
small fortune.

HOW TO
How to write compelling copy to attract more people to your
web site.
How to attract buyers' attention with compelling headlines.
How to use e-mail marketing to increase your web profits.

EASY
4 easy ways to order.
You get an easy-to-follow marketing guide.
7 easy ways to increase sales -- fast.

REVEAL
Free report reveals how to boost traffic and increase your
sales on the Internet.
Master marketer reveals seven top ways to make money with
your web site.

INSIDER
An insider's guide to top search engine ranking.
Insider secrets to your own million dollar Internet
business.

SUCCESS
10 marketing tips for online success.
A blueprint for your online success.
Secrets on how to design a web site for success!

Use these power words when writing headlines and content for
your sales materials and web site. They will attract
attention and convert more prospects into buyers.

About the Author:

Looking for typing work at home? Start a secretarial
business. The Secretarial-Business-in-a-Box provides instant
tools you need to start and run a successful secretarial
service. Free articles and business start-up newsletter at
http://www.startasecretarialbusiness.com.

How to Write News Releases that Get Noticed

By Claire Cunningham

What do you do with junk mail? Are you like me? I toss this stuff without opening it - unless I see some benefit. Publication editors do the same. They toss news releases that don't demonstrate a benefit to their audience.

What's the difference between a release that gets used and one that hits the editor's circular file? Here are seven easy tips for writing releases that get picked up rather than thrown out.

1. Make sure it's newsworthy. What's newsworthy, you ask. To be newsworthy your topic needs to be timely, of interest to the publication's audience, benefit-oriented, and substantive (that is, not self-serving, hype or fluff.)

2. Write a powerful headline. The headline is what will pull in the editor or leave her/him cold. Keep it short and descriptive, but make it interesting.

3. Use journalist style. Editors are looking for the facts, not fluff. Be sure to include the essentials: Who, What, When, Where, Why and How.

4. Keep it brief. Editors are pressed for time and inundated with releases. Keep yours to one page, 300-800 words. The headline and first two paragraphs are the most important parts of your release.

5. Avoid jargon. Even if you're sending a release on a technical topic to a technical journal, resist the temptation to use acronyms. Spell it out! Use common language. It will make your releases more readable and accessible.

6. Proof it. The accuracy of your release - including spelling and grammar - reflects on your company. If you aren't good at proofreading your own stuff, enlist someone else to do it.

7. Include a photo. Okay. This isn't a writing tip, but it's good advice anyway. Publications are looking for good quality visuals, so including a photo, illustration, chart or graph (with a caption, please) increases your chance of getting picked up.

Follow these tips to improve your news release writing. But remember that the keys to a successful news release program are a good list of publications and a regular mailing schedule of newsworthy items. Persistence WILL pay off.

©Copyright 2005 Clairvoyant Communications, Inc.

About the author

Claire Cunningham, president of Clairvoyant Communications, Inc., has 25 years' experience developing and implementing successful marketing and communications programs. Sign up for Claire's monthly e-newsletter, Communiqué, at http://www.clairvoyantcommunications.com.

How to Write a Sizzling Sales Letter

By Jennifer McCay

When you sit down to write a sales letter to your prospects, it can be difficult to know just where to start. Regardless of the purpose of your letter, it has to accomplish several things:

-- capture the attention of the reader
-- speak to the reader's individual needs
-- give good reasons why your prospect can trust you
-- communicate your offer succinctly and clearly
-- encourage your prospect to act now

And furthermore, it has to have sizzle. In other words, it needs to grab your prospect's attention and appeal to them emotionally so that they want to respond.

Here is my step-by-step guide to writing a winning sales letter:

1. Establish your letter's main purpose.

First of all, what do you want to achieve by sending out a sales letter? Be specific.

Do you want to generate leads? Sell your services or products outright? Use your letter as a "get to know you" device for prospects who have been referred to you by trusted colleagues?

Second, what is your offer? Any time you contact prospective clients, you need to have something to offer them. It's a busy world, and your prospects are barraged with too much information as it is. So simplify their lives by narrowing down what you are marketing to them in a way that is easy to follow.

If you're a life coach, perhaps you would be giving away a half-hour coaching session as an introductory offer.

Do you want your prospect to contact you regarding her upcoming consulting needs? Your offer might be a special report on how to get the best results from your consultant. Giving away information is an excellent way to show your expertise without having to sell your services outright.

If the latest version of your software is about to launch, you might send current-version owners a letter offering an inexpensive upgrade if they act quickly.

The important thing here is to figure out 1 main offer for your letter. Just 1. Keeping it simple will make it easier for you to write the letter to begin with; plus, your readers will easily grasp what you're asking them to do as well.

What is most successful for your prospects will depend on how well you ...

2. Give the people what they want.

Who will be receiving the letter? Outline the types of prospects you'll be contacting.

Then list their individual needs based on what you're selling. This will help you determine not only how to appeal to your readers' emotions, but also lets you figure out how many different messages you have to have to reach your targets.

For example, if you're a real estate agent wanting to market to prospective buyers in a ritzy neighborhood, as well as to less financially able individuals who are looking for homes in a more
upscale neighborhood than their own, you're going to be writing 2 different letters, or at least 2 different permutations of the same letter.

Why? Because the wealthy prospects already have established themselves and are looking for downright luxury in their new homes, whereas the latter group wants to find a home in a more comfortable neighborhood where their kids can play outside safely and go to good schools. (The
well-off prospects pretty much take these aspects of home-buying for granted, though they are still important benefits.)

Ask yourself:

-- What do my prospects need that I offer?
-- What do they want?
-- What do they desire deep down inside?
-- What do your prospects fear will go wrong if they buy?
-- How can you put their fears to rest?
-- Why should they choose you (from their perspective)?
-- What would make them absolutely thrilled with what I am selling?

In other words ...

"What's in it for me?"

Your prospects are concerned about their own needs and no one else's and they're not out to do you any favors, so your job is to show them what only you can can give them.

If you keep in mind both the rational and emotional needs and wants of your prospects, you're already a step ahead.

3. Structure your letter properly.

Although the structure of your letter is important, steps 1 and 2 lay the foundation for everything else to do with your letter. So make sure to work through the above-mentioned steps prior to getting started writing.

What's the right structure for a sales letter? The good news is that every good sales letter has several elements in common:

-- a headline, or Johnson box
-- a salutation
-- a powerful opener
-- an easy-to-follow internal structure that guides your reader from one point to the next
-- a solid offer
-- a P.S.
-- credibility boosters

In part 2 of this article, I will go through all the particulars of each element to ensure that your next sales letter is perfectly persuasive. See http://AvenueEast.com/free-sales-letter-template.htm for part 2.

About the Author

Would you like help generating enough business for your coaching, consulting or other small business? Jennifer McCay's "Avenues to Marketing Success Newsletter" delivers small business marketing tips to help you find more clients more easily, without feeling like you're selling your soul. Sign up today at http://AvenueEast.com

SEO Web Content: Good Writing, Good Business

By Joel Walsh

There's a deadly myth about search engine optimization and writing for the web: that good SEO and good writing don't go together.

As a website copywriter, I hear this myth repeated back to me all the time by new clients and prospects. "Don't bother search-engine-optimizing the content," they say. "Just make sure it is well written and the keywords will flow naturally into the content." Or, they repeat the words of so many self-styled gurus: "don't write for the search engines, write for the people who will be reading what you write."

If you're one of the people who believe there's a conflict of interest between search engines and humans, you're operating under two misconceptions:

* Misconception 1: you know more about what people want to read on the web than the search engines do.

* Misconception 2: you or your writer will just naturally write the content that people or search engines want, without consciously trying to meet their demands.

Why Search Engines Know More about Your Website Visitors than You

"I want a well-written web page, not a list of keywords." It frightens me a bit when I hear this, since it demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of what search engines do.

A search engine is not simply a massive find function, like the one in the "Edit" menu of Microsoft applications. It does not just pull up any page that has the keyword in it X number of times. If it did, all pages that show up on search engine results would simply contain a list of the keywords.

Ultimately, writing for the search engines means writing for web surfers. Think about it: services like Google thrive on giving people the pages they want to read. If they consistently failed to give people what they wanted, people would stop using them.

What Your Website's Visitors Want to Read

Most of the time, people don't want to read on the web. Reading on a screen hurts the eyes. It doesn't help that a lot of web pages make it harder with text that's too small, backgrounds that are colored rather than white, and lots of extraneous graphics.

Besides, when it comes to reading matter, there is an overabundance of choice on the web, more than any library on earth. Of that, an unfortunate amount isn't worth reading. Time must be rationed.

In fact, people treat a web page much as a search engine does: they scan it. In particular, they scan it for the keywords they entered into the search engine. If they arrived via a link from another website, they are still looking for words and phrases related to their interest--which are generally the same as the keywords people enter into search engines.

In short, Nobel-prize-winning literature makes bad web content. You have to write specifically for the web. That's why the web hasn't fueled much of a resurgence in the short story or other literary writing, dashing many hopes. Ebook versions of paper books have also disappointed expectations.

Newspapers are the only paper publications that have made a smooth online transition, precisely because they are written in short, to-the-point paragraphs that are easy to scan.

Still Think Good SEO Web Content Makes for Bad Reading?

You've just read almost to the end of a piece of search-engine-optimized web content. This article was optimized for the keywords, "SEO," "search engine," "search engines," "keyword," "keywords," "search engine optimization," and "writing."

The keywords were present in headings and throughout the content. The content itself is easy to scan: paragraphs of one-three sentences, broken up by sub-headings every four paragraphs or so.

Naturally, those keywords are too broad for this page to have a chance of ranking high in search engines for them. But this page will get some of the atypical search keywords that account for as many as half of all searches. So, if someone types in a phrase like, "keyword writing search engine optimized content," this page would have a pretty good chance of showing up.

To be sure, this article is on the long side for a web page. Most people won't even scan more than 600 words of text; 250-500 is ideal.

But this article is destined primarily to be shown in an email newsletter, where attention spans are longer since people are more confident the source of the content can be trusted to repay their investment of time. Besides, as a well-structured page, it can be split into two or three pages according to the subheadings.

In short, there's much more to writing well for the web than just writing well. If you've had enough sense to have your web content written professionally, have enough sense to take the advice of most website copywriters: search-engine-optimization for keywords and good web writing are the same thing.

About The Author:

Joel Walsh is a professional content writer and founder of UpMarket Content, whose site offers information on getting great website content.

Hook Your Sales Letter Readers With Good Transition Sentences

By Alan Sharpe

Anglers in Maine catch trout using dry flies with barbless hooks. Unless they keep tension on the line all the way to the net, they lose the trout. Your sales letters must do the same. But how?

One secret to keeping busy business readers hooked is to use irresistible transition sentences. Transition sentences come at the end of one paragraph and the beginning of the next. Good transition sentences leave your readers hanging in a number of ways.

One of them is to tell your reader that a number of things are coming up, forcing your reader to transition to the next paragraph to learn what some of those things are. If you've ever listened to a person with a pronounced stutter, you know how hard it is to wait while that person completes a thought. Your prospects are the same. If you almost complete a thought at the end of one paragraph, they will begin reading the paragraph that follows to complete your thought. But that's not all.

Another way to keep your reader hooked throughout your copy is to end one paragraph with "that's not all" or a similar phrase. Or to start your next paragraph with the word "another." Each device shows the prospect that you have not finished, that the prospect has more to learn. And so the prospect keeps reading. And yes, there are some other hooks you might want to try.

You can start a paragraph with the word "you," the one word that prospects and customers never tire of seeing in print. Or you could try another proven tactic.

And that is starting a paragraph with the word "and." Read the Gospel of Mark in the Bible sometime. It's one of my favorite books. You'll find the narrative almost impossible to stop reading, it's so exciting. That's because the writer begins so many of his sentences with "and" that you are compelled to continue reading to discover what comes next. (I won't give away how the book ends. Read it and find out.) But there's another device that's just as powerful as the word "and." Do you know what it is?

It's the question mark. Put one at the end of one paragraph, with the answer at the beginning of the next paragraph, and you'll keep your readers headed towards your net.

So here's the one thing you need to remember. You've figured out by now that the secret to effective transition sentences is to keep your prospective buyer in a state of suspended satisfaction, one where they must keep reading your letter to the end before they feel gratified. And there's only one sure way of doing that.

About the author:

Alan Sharpe is a business-to-business direct mail copywriter who helps businesses attract new clients using direct mail marketing. Sign up for free weekly tips like this at
http://www.sharpecopy.com/newsletter

How Many Keywords Are Too Many?

By Matthew Rotterman

Let us suppose that you have a new website that you want to launch and you have a little knowledge of how Internet search engines work. You know that these keyword rich articles dramatically help to boost your search engine rankings. Search engine algorythms love keyword dense articles and this has been a proven strategy for some time now. Experienced website masters have been using these keyword rich articles for a long time.

You decide to find the keywords that are most searched for, related to the topic of your website. You can easily find these lists on the search engine websites telling you what people have been searching for recently in a given area of interest. People have told you that article lengths can vary but to generally keep them under 1,200 words so that the readers do not get bored and feel like they are reading a book. So, now you have your list of the top 100 keywords that people are searching for in your topic area and you have decided how long you want the articles to be.

Now you contact a writer to write these keyword rich articles for you. The writer will likely ask you what density you want to use on these articles. This is where it gets tricky!

The truth is that people are usually guessing as to what the best density is to use when writing keyword rich articles. However, most have agreed that keeping the densities in the neighborhood of 3-7% is about right. One thing that I have seen people try to do though is that since they came up with a list of 100 keywords they only want to pay to have 25 of them written. So they decide to cram keyword phrases into each article. An extreme case would
be using 4 keyword phrases in a single article. If the article is 1,000 words long and each phrase is 2 words long we are looking at a total of 8 words. Now lets suppose that the density is 5%
for each phrase. This means that each word of the phrases will be used 50 times each. 50 times 4 are 200 of the total words in a 1,000-word article. This is 20% of the article dedicated to
keywords and only keywords. This may not sound like a lot, but when you see it in print you will realize that it is a very large amount of keywords. This put you from a 5% density to a 20%
density by cramming extra keyword phrases into the article.

The end result is that you may get the keyword density you are looking for but at what price? The readability of such an article will be poor to say the least. Even the most experienced and well qualified writer will have difficulty getting that many keyword phrases into one article. A writer will be forced to put at least one keyword phrase in almost every sentence of the article in order to meet the density requirement.

The idea behind the keyword rich articles is to improve search engine rankings and to get people to go to your website and purchase your product or services. If the reader comes there and sees a poorly written article that is chock full of keywords and little information, the reader is likely to look elsewhere for the information that he or she was seeking. Just because you CAN
put a bunch of keywords in an article does not mean that you SHOULD.

When I do searches on the Internet I steer away from obviously keyword heavy articles and towards articles that actually provide relevant information. There is a needed balance between the density of the keywords and the readability of the articles that you are having written for your website. If you are ranked #1 in the search engine rankings but no one visits your site because there is not valuable content on your website, then being ranked #1 is rather pointless.

Try not to get caught up in the formulas that people suggest for keyword densities and always keep in mind that these articles will ultimately be read by a human being who is searching for
information. If you are able to provide that quality information, then the reader is more apt to purchase your product or services.

Search engine rankings are very important, but they are not the cure all.

About the Author:

Matthew Rotterman is a writer and editor at: KeywordText.com.
"Keyword Text" managed to bring together several writers and
editors to provide a few low-cost writing services for those who
are working hard to become more profitable. They offer Content
Creation Services which include: Exclusive WebPage Content,
Reprint Articles, and Newsletter Creation and Development
services. Volume Discounts. Compare us to our competition, you
will be surprised. http://keywordtext.com/dir.pl/ktc/index.html

The What, How, And Why Of Keyword Densities

By Matthew Rotterman

Keyword density is an important concept for website owners to understand. Keyword density, in today's Internet, is what will ultimately improve your search engine optimization (SEO)ranking. The importance of having a high SEO rating is absolutely critical if you wish to have high volumes of traffic to your website.

Let's talk first about SEO and what it does. If you type a search into google, yahoo, MSN, or any other major search engine there are likely to be thousands to hundreds of thousands of results come up on the search engine. So let us imagine that you sell ceramic dolls on your website. Now someone types "ceramic dolls" into a search engine, where in those thousands of website results does your website fall? Does your website rank on the first page? If you are like most websites, your ranking is probably somewhere in the depths of the results ranking well over number 1,000. Imagine a customer seeking what you sell, but not being able to find your business. Do you really think that someone is going to sift through the first 1,000 results to find yours?

Search engine optimization (SEO) simply means that you are going to employ methods that will move your website up in the search engines results for "ceramic dolls" or your own personal keywords. Research and common sense tells us that if a potential website visitor/customer does not find your website within the first 20 results, he or she will move on and try a new search or simply use one of the first 20 websites that he or she has found. This is where keyword density comes into play.

In years past I can remember finding web pages that had hundreds of words listed at the bottom of the page, this was a common practice. The reason for this was so that the search engines would place this website on the results page if a web surfer typed in any of those hundreds of words. Times have changed and so have search engines. Today the search engines are much more sophisticated in how they locate websites to list in their results.

Keyword articles (adhering to certain keyword densities) dramatically improve a websites SEO ranking. Going back to our ceramic dolls example, this site would want a keyword article
written with the keywords "ceramic dolls" inside the article. This way when a web surfer types in "ceramic dolls," the site will come up much higher in the Search Engine Result Pages (SERP's).

The search engines use certain algorithms that "read" these keywords for the surfer. If you go and type in any phrase into a search engine you will notice that the results show those keywords highlighted in bold. They show you how the keywords are listed in those web pages. Placing articles on your website that contain the keywords your customers are looking for will help your search engine ranking for these specific keywords.

Now, you cannot simply type the "ceramic dolls" over and over again on the same web page. With the sophistication of today's search engines, doing that would actually harm your search engine ranking. You need to provide articles that not only contain the keywords, but articles that also contain some relevant information as well.

There is great debate over what density to use in a keyword article. Suppose you want a 500-word article written on ceramic dolls. What percentage of the time (density) should the phrase "ceramic dolls" be used? Should it be in there 4% (20 times) of the time, 7%, or 12%? You must be careful because using the keywords too often hurts your rankings, while using too little doesn't improve your ranking enough. So what is the answer? The answer is that only those that develop the algorithms for the search engine companies actually know.........and they aren't talking. Most people use anywhere from 3%- 15% keyword densities.

Some people believe that having the keyword phrase in the title and as the first word of every paragraph helps. Some believe that using "dolls that are ceramic" 18 times and "ceramic dolls" 2 times in a 500-word article with 4% density will work.

Here is what everyone does know, if you are not utilizing keyword rich articles on your website (regardless of the density you choose) you will not be very highly ranked in any of the search engines. Keyword rich articles are one of the best ways to advertise your site. If you want more visitors to your website, who translate into more customers, you must utilize keyword articles to improve your search engine rankings so that people can find your website.

About the Author:

Matthew Rotterman is a writer and editor at: KeywordText.com. "Keyword Text" managed to bring together several writers and editors to provide a few low-cost writing services for those who are working hard to become more profitable. They offer Content Creation Services which include: Exclusive WebPage Content, Reprint Articles, and Newsletter Creation and Development services. Volume Discounts. Compare us to our competition, you will be surprised. http://keywordtext.com/dir.pl/ktc/index.html

Write Benefits in Your Headlines to Deliver the Dream!

By George Dodge

When you create headlines, do you put benefits into your headlines to deliver the dream? Do you create headlines that draw your reader deeper into the rest of copy?

Let me ask you a simple question. "Why do people read any printed material beyond the headline?"

The answer, because there was something in the headline that attracted their attention, raised their interest and curiosity, or contained a perceived benefit for the reader. At that moment in time, the headline was an irresistible headline to your reader.

How to Write a Headline to be an Irresistible Headline.

If you are writing material to sell a product, what is it that your target audience is seeking? Of course, it's the benefits that your product offers them (your product does have benefits for your target audience, doesn't it?).

They are looking for a beneficial means of solving their problems. They want to know "what's in it for them." They seek solutions to problems and new options that save time, money, and effort. If your product can do all three, you'll have a winner if you can convincingly convey those benefits to your reader.

But, no matter how good the product is and how well it matches their wants and desires, if you don't create headlines that present the benefits to your readers, then you certainly will not have a headline that makes you rich.

The purpose of this headline writing technique is to present your solution as the solution to your target market's most base wants and desires.

However, in order to render the ideal solution when you create your headline, you must understand what your target market wants... their likes and dislikes... their disappointments and frustrations with other competing alternatives. What is it that bothers your target market most concerning your niche?

Once you understand the wants, desires, or dreams of your target market, you can "enter into the conversation inside your customer's mind" as the famous copywriter Robert Collier once taught. Copywriter Maria Veloso refers to this as Frame-of-Mind marketing.

Supplied with this important knowledge, it's not too difficult to determine what it would take to create a more beneficial solution. But, you don't want to be content with being a little better than the other options available. If possible, you want to be the ultimate alternative to your target market's problem. What would your target population really desire to have, to be, or to achieve, that their current alternatives fail to provide? What is the right alternative--the best answer to the problem?

So, now it's time to become the master copywriter. Put on your thinking cap. Think of how to write a headline that conveys the benefits of your product or service as the solution to the wants and desires of your target market. When creating your headline, try to put yourself in the shoes of your target audience mentally and think of how to give your audience the "perfect alternative"--the biggest benefit they genuinely desire.

Create the Irresistible Headline.

When writing your headline, your mission is to span the gap between where your target market is and where they want to be. Try to imagine what would be the perfect end state. Then, using picture words, create a mental vision that meets the fundamental dreams and desires that members of your target market harbor inside their own minds. Finally, portray your message as the perfect solution--the dream option.

Create an irresistible headline.

I'm sure that you have heard the old saying that in order to get rich, you need to find a need and fill it. But that is really not the answer. Many sales people will tell you that that course of action is a sure way to the poor house. People don't buy what the need, they buy what they want. If you need transportation, a Yugo will do, but many people want and buy Mercedes, BMWs, and other expensive cars because they want or desire them, not because they need them.

Creating headlines that target needs will result in weak headlines with little results. Create headlines that make you rich by targeting your reader's wants, dreams, and desires. Purchases are made on emotion and then afterwards justified with logic. Sell the dream, not the need.

So, find out what your target audience wants, desires, or dreams about and fulfill that want or desire with your miracle product. Then put the strongest benefit(s) in your headline.

What might a headline look like that puts a strong benefit right in the headline? How about this example from Jimmy D. Brown: "How to Sell 300% More of Your Product in 72 Hours Than You Did All Month." If you sell products, would you like to do that? Could you resist reading at least a little further on to find out how that might be done? For a product seller, that headline is most likely an irresistible headline.

Or how about some of these famous headlines:

Headline #1:
"How A New Discovery Made A Plain Girl Beautiful" (If you thought you were a plain girl, would this headline interest you? Would you continue to read on past the headline?)

Headline: #2
"Hands That Look Lovelier In 24 Hours - Or Your Money Back" (If you were a woman that thought your dishpan hands were ugly, might you be interested in reading past this headline?)

Headline #3:
"Free Book - Tells You 12 Secrets Of Better Lawn Care" (If you wanted a better lawn to win the garden club's yard of the month award, would you order this Free book?)

Want your sales to skyrocket? Create headlines that deliver the dream!

About the Author:

George Dodge is owner of the http://www.Headline-Creator-Pro.com website where you can download software that saves you time and effort by allowing you to quickly and easily create headlines with push button ease. While there be sure to subscribe to his Weekly
Headline Tips - you'll be glad you did.

Business Web Site Content Strategy

By Joel Walsh

Your web site content helps you get in search engines, speak to visitors, and ultimately get visitors to buy, contact you, or follow a link. Meanwhile, your content has to be updated at least once a month if you want to get return visitors and search engine traffic. To be successful, you need to have a web content strategy.

Web Content Strategy: Sources of Content

There are four basic ways you can get content for your site:

1. Licensed content that you can publish on your site for a one-time or recurring subscription fee, or in exchange for putting a link to the author's site under the article. The main benefit of this kind of content is that you can build up your site quickly. The drawback is that hundreds if not thousands of other sites will be publishing the same content, which means you will get little search engine traffic from it. Also, within a few years, the subscription fees or the value of visitors who leave via the required link to the author's site will amount to more than you would have paid to have original content professionally written.



2. Original content contributed freely by your visitors, such as message boards and guestbook style comments. The main advantage of this content is that it costs nothing and gives you insight into your visitors. The disadvantages are (usually) low quality and the constant vigilance needed to police it for misbehavior.



3. Original written content that you allow other sites to republish in exchange for a link to your site. This content is usually informational articles, whitepapers, and sometimes, press releases. Distributing content is an essential component of getting links to your site.



4. Original, well-written content that's exclusive to your site. You should have some content that you hold back from republication, to avoid giving visitors or search engines the idea all your content can be had somewhere else. This can include FAQs, "about us" pages, case studies, testimonials, and other content that other sites would not want to reprint anyway.

What Kind of Content to Use

So, which of the four kinds of content should you use on your site? Ideally, all four. That way you'll maximize the amount of quality content your site can have.

But, the precise ratio of the four kinds of content you end up using will depend on the goals of your site. Some examples:

• Licensed content: If you have a content-based website that draws revenue from advertising, a large amount of licensed content can be useful. However, if your site's primary goal is to collect leads, too much licensed content might risk distracting visitors from contacting you, without the benefit of bringing in significant search engine traffic.



• User-contributed content: A website that handles support issues may have a lot of use for a user forum. A professional services firm would probably be better off without a forum, with all the user-contributed content in the form of testimonials.



• Original written content, exclusive and for distribution: Any website can benefit from original content since it draws search engine traffic and puts your best foot forward with visitors. The broader your potential audience and the greater the competition from other sites, the more content you need.

Scheduling Content Updates

Search engines, especially Google, seem to give pride of place to sites that regularly update their content. Regular content updates also give visitors a reason to return.

In short, if you have thirty web pages worth of content this month, it's better to post one page each day rather than put them up all at once. To make sure you do this, schedule an hour each day for updating your site's content.

One way to get regular content updates for your site is to start a blog, a "web log" in which you write your thoughts and post news. The one disadvantage is that many web users are getting tired of blogs, which are often not well written and contain more opinion than information. Search engines, too, seem to be featuring blogs in their results less often.

Identifying a Content Provider

Ever wonder how Bill Gates keeps the MSN and Microsoft sites so content-rich? Doesn't he get RSI from writing a thousand or more pages a day?

You guessed it: Bill Gates does not write the content for any of the Microsoft websites. Nor should you write all your own content. All successful website owners have someone else write a large part of their content. This person or company is often called a "web content provider" or "website copywriter."

You need to select a web content provider with proven experience writing content for the web, rather than just writing for print. Ask to see writing samples. You might even ask if you can commission just a single page to start with, for evaluation purposes. Also make sure that you are buying all rights to the content.

After all, the most important part of your website content strategy should be quality.

About The Author:

Joel Walsh, a professional content writer and founder of UpMarket Content, recommends you check out their site to learn more about what you can get from a web site content provider.

Google's SEO Advice For Your Website: Content

By Joel Walsh

The web pages actually at the top of Google have only one thing clearly in common: good writing. Don't get so caught up in the usual SEO sacred cows and bugbears, such as PageRank, frames, and JavaScript, that you forget your site's content.

I was recently struck by the fact that the top-ranking web pages on Google are consistently much better written than the vast majority of what one reads on the web.

Of course, that shouldn't be a surprise, considering how often officials at Google proclaim the importance of good content. Yet traditional SEO wisdom has little to say about good writing.

Does Google, the world's wealthiest media company, really ignore traditional standards of quality in the publishing world? Does Google, like so many website owners, really get so caught up in the process of the algorithm that it misses the whole point?

Apparently not.

Most Common On-the-Page Website Content Success Features

Whatever the technical mechanism, Google is doing a pretty good job of identifying websites with good content and rewarding them with high rankings.

I looked at Google's top five pages for the five most searched-on keywords, as identified by WordTracker on June 27, 2005. Typically, the top five pages receive an overwhelming majority of the traffic delivered by Google.

The web pages that contained written content (a small but significant portion were image galleries) all shared the following features:

* Updating: frequent updating of content, at least once every few weeks, and more often, once a week or more.

* Spelling and grammar: few or no errors. No page had more than three misspelled words or four grammatical errors. Note: spelling and grammar errors were identified by using Microsoft Word's check feature, and then ruling out words marked as misspellings that are either proper names or new words that are simply not in the dictionary. Does Google use SpellCheck? I can
already hear the scoffing on the other side of this computer screen. Before you dismiss the idea completely, keep in mind that no one really does know what the 100 factors in Google's algorithm are. But whether the mechanism is SpellCheck or a better shot at link popularity thanks to great credibility, or something else entirely, the results remain the same.

* Paragraphs: primarily brief (1-4 sentences). Few or no long blocks of text.

* Lists: both bulleted and numbered, form a large part of the text.

* Sentence length: mostly brief (10 words or fewer). Medium-length and long sentences are sprinkled throughout the text rather than clumped together.

* Contextual relevance: text contains numerous terms related to the keyword, as well as stem variations of the keyword.

SEO Bugbears and Sacred Cows

A hard look at the results shows that, practically speaking, a number of SEO bugbears and sacred cows may matter less to ranking than good content.

* PageRank. The median PageRank was 4. One page had a PageRank of 0. Of course, this might simply be yet another demonstration that the little PageRank number you get in your browser window is not what Google's algo is using. But if you're one of those people who attaches an overriding value to that little number, this is food for thought.

* Frames. The top two web pages listed for the most searched-on keyword employ frames. Frames may still be a bad web design idea from a usability standpoint, and they may ruin your search engine rankings if your site's linking system depends on them. But there are worse ways you could shoot yourself in the foot.

* JavaScript-formatted internal links. Most of the websites use JavaScript for their internal page links. Again, that's not the best web design practice, but there are worse things you could do.

* Links: Most of the web pages contained ten or more links; many contain over 30, in defiance of the SEO bugbears about "link popularity bleeding." Moreover, nearly all the pages contained a significant number of non-relevant links. On many pages, non-relevant links outnumbered relevant ones. Of course, it's not clear what benefit the website owners hope to get from placing irrelevant links on pages. It has been a proven way of lowering conversion rates and losing visitors. But Google doesn't seem to care if your website makes money.

* Originality: a significant number of pages contained content copied from other websites. In all cases, the content was professionally written content apparently distributed on a free-reprint basis. Note: the reprint content did not consist of content feeds. However, no website consisted solely of free-reprint content. There was always at least a significant portion of original content, usually the majority of the page.

Recommendations

* Make sure a professional writer, or at least someone who can tell good writing from bad, is creating your site's content, particularly in the case of a search-engine optimization campaign. If you are an SEO, make sure you get a pro to do the content. A shocking number of SEOs write incredibly badly. I've even had clients whose websites got fewer conversions or page views after their SEOs got through with them, even when they got a sharp uptick in unique visitors. Most visitors simply hit the "back" button when confronted with the unpalatable text, so the increased traffic is just wasted bandwidth.

* If you write your own content, make sure that it passes through the hands of a skilled copyeditor or writer before going online.

* Update your content often. It's important both to add new pages and update existing pages. If you can't afford original content, use free-reprint content.

* Distribute your content to other websites on a free-reprint basis. This will help your website get links in exchange for the right to publish the content. It will also help spread your message and enhance your visibility. Fears of a "duplicate content penalty" for free-reprint content (as opposed to duplication of content within a single website) are unjustified.

In short, if you have a mature website that is already indexed and getting traffic, you should consider making sure the bulk of your investment in your website is devoted to its content, rather than graphic design, old-school search-engine optimization, or linking campaigns.

About The Author:

Joel Walsh's archive of web business articles is at the website of his business, UpMarket Content, a website content provider.

SEO Web Content: Good Writing, Good Business

By Joel Walsh

There's a deadly myth about search engine optimization and writing for the web: that good SEO and good writing don't go together.

As a website copywriter, I hear this myth repeated back to me all the time by new clients and prospects. "Don't bother search-engine-optimizing the content," they say. "Just make sure it is well written and the keywords will flow naturally into the content." Or, they repeat the words of so many self-styled gurus: "don't write for the search engines, write for the people who will be reading what you write."

If you're one of the people who believe there's a conflict of interest between search engines and humans, you're operating under two misconceptions:

* Misconception 1: you know more about what people want to read on the web than the search engines do.

* Misconception 2: you or your writer will just naturally write the content that people or search engines want, without consciously trying to meet their demands.

Why Search Engines Know More About Your Website Visitors than You

"I want a well-written web page, not a list of keywords." It frightens me a bit when I hear this, since it demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of what search engines do.

A search engine is not simply a massive find function, like the one in the "Edit" menu of Microsoft applications. It does not just pull up any page that has the keyword in it X number of times. If it did, all pages that show up on search engine results would simply contain a list of the keywords.

Ultimately, writing for the search engines means writing for web surfers. Think about it: services like Google thrive on giving people the pages they want to read. If they consistently failed to give people what they wanted, people would stop using them.

What Your Website's Visitors Want to Read

Most of the time, people don't want to read on the web. Reading on a screen hurts the eyes. It doesn't help that a lot of web pages make it harder with text that's too small, backgrounds that are colored rather than white, and lots of extraneous graphics.

Besides, when it comes to reading matter, there is an overabundance of choice on the web, more than any library on earth. Of that, an unfortunate amount isn't worth reading. Time must be rationed.

In fact, people treat a web page much as a search engine does: they scan it. In particular, they scan it for the keywords they entered into the search engine. If they arrived via a link from another website, they are still looking for words and phrases related to their interest--which are generally the same as the keywords people enter into search engines.

In short, Nobel-prize-winning literature makes bad web content. You have to write specifically for the web. That's why the web hasn't fueled much of a resurgence in the short story or other literary writing, dashing many hopes. Ebook versions of paper books have also disappointed expectations.

Newspapers are the only paper publications that have made a smooth online transition, precisely because they are written in short, to-the-point paragraphs that are easy to scan.

Still Think Good SEO Web Content Makes for Bad Reading?

You've just read almost to the end of a piece of search-engine-optimized web content. This article was optimized for the keywords, "SEO," "search engine," "search engines," "keyword," "keywords," "search engine optimization," and "writing."

The keywords were present in headings and throughout the content. The content itself is easy to scan: paragraphs of one-three sentences, broken up by sub-headings every four paragraphs or so.

Naturally, those keywords are too broad for this page to have a chance of ranking high in search engines for them. But this page will get some of the atypical search keywords that account for as many as half of all searches. So, if someone types in a phrase like, "keyword writing search engine optimized content," this page would have a pretty good chance of showing up.

To be sure, this article is on the long side for a web page. Most people won't even scan more than 600 words of text; 250-500 is ideal.

But this article is destined primarily to be shown in an email newsletter, where attention spans are longer since people are more confident the source of the content can be trusted to repay their investment of time. Besides, as a well-structured page, it can be split into two or three pages according to the subheadings.

In short, there's much more to writing well for the web than just writing well. If you've had enough sense to have your web content written professionally, have enough sense to take the advice of most website copywriters: search-engine-optimization for keywords and good web writing are the same thing.

About The Author:

Joel Walsh is a professional content writer and founder of UpMarket Content, whose site offers information on getting great website content.

6 Ways To Get More Sales From Your Advertisement

By Paul Curran

To bring great sales success, a great advertising technique is not the only parameter. You must know what it is that your customers are actually buying. They are not buying your product or service, they are buying what it will do for them. Use the answers to this to set up your advertising masterpiece.

1. Offer an impressive benefit for the client

It must not be related to the product or service on offer. This is the most important of the 6 ways. It must be a primary customer benefit...for the person. For example a free garage inspection; emphasise the safety benefits for the family etc. If you're selling books on 'Computer Accounting Systems' focus on the reduced accounting time the purchaser will achieve and not the features of the product.

Frame the major benefit in a storyline with the customer involved. Make it really clear what is involved, i.e what's in it for them. Be specific, spell it out. It should be immediately understood. Include the product.

Attract good customers through high level benefits for them. Your main message must make the customer say. 'This is important to me, I must found out more'.


2. Make The Customer Believe Your Claims

What you state could be true, but a lot of potential customers don't tend to believe advertisers. Over bragging can kill the ad. Keep the claims honest and reasonable. It will pay off in the long run.


3. Make The Layout & Design Reader Friendly

Layout:
* Don't wrap around a photo, i.e. put blocks of text around it.
* Emphasise specific phrases by putting more white space around them.
* Base your layout on the fact that most people look at the 2nd quarter of the page from the top, first.
* Use your single most important benefit as your headline.
* Put a benfit laden caption under the photo as 80% of readers will read that first or instead of the copy.
* Don't use more than four secondary benefit messages.

Typography:
* Use Serif typeface (e.g. Garamond) for copy, stylish headings and sub-headings.
* Sans Serif (e.g. Helvetica) can be used for headlines, sub-headings, captions and labels.
* Consider larger font size if your target audience is older people.
* Print out alternatives and have them test read by others.


4. Stress What Is Unique

Re-emphasise services that are unique or may have been hidden from or taken for granted or assumed by the reader. Define your Unique Selling Point. What makes you stand out from the crowd? What makes you better than your competitors.


5. Attract Attention With Something New

Be inventive here. Is there something new that will be of interest to your customer's needs? Fresh benefits, new services or product features. E.g. 'You now have access to our outlets all over the country'. 'You can now obtain your account details online without visiting our offices'.


6. Keep The Reader Involved

Put the reader in your advertisement and get personal. Use the present tense for the customer experiencing their benefits. Don't put them in the future and use the future word 'will'. Get them feeling like they are part of your advertisment story.




About the Author:

(c) Paul Curran, CEO of Cuzcom Internet Publishing Group and webmaster at http://www.wealth-building-secrets.com/, brings you sales & marketing strategies, promotional marketing products and advice for personal and business success.