The Perfect Home Page

The home page is the front door of a web site. It’s the first page most visitors see. So, it better be compelling to keep visitors on site long enough to perform the most desired action (MDA).

Home page text focuses on the needs and drives of site visitors who landed on the site for a reason. They need or want something. Prices, product descriptions, free consultation, information – they need or want something.

Home page text meets the needs of site visitors. Here are the elements of a well-designed home page in sequence, from top to bottom.

The Headline

The headline is half the job. The headline focuses on the needs of site visitors. Describe “the problem” in the headline.

NEED TO LOSE WEIGHT – AGAIN?

DEBT IS A BUMMER.

DON’T BE A LOSER: THIS YEAR’S STOCK MARKET WINNERS.

Headlines.

The Problem

Expand on the problem in a short paragraph, citing examples visitors recognize. Describe the impact the problem has on the site visitor’s health, family, finances, business – whatever – in 300-500 words. Use negative space to simplify scanning.

The Solution

How does the client company fix the problem? Keep it general. Keep it simple. Keep them reading.

In some cases, the solution can be described in bullet-point format to facilitate a quick scan of the home page. 

Benefits

What are the benefits of engaging the company behind the website? Benefits sell. Hype doesn’t.

A money-back guarantee, 30-year warranty, free shipping, 20% off, state-of-the-art design, an expansive service area – all potential benefits to site visitors.

Use a bullet list to describe each benefit.

Incentives

Coupons, a free ebook, a free consultation, a free website audit, discounts – all of these enticements encourage the performance of the MDA, whether it’s to call the company or place an order.

The Call To Action

Close out home page text with a strong call to action that, not only encourages the performance of the MDA, but also tells site visitors HOW TO PERFORM THE MDA.

ORDER NOW SIMPLY BY CLICKING ON THE LINK BELOW

AND START ENJOYING BETTER HEALTH FOR THE ENTIRE FAMILY

A strong call to action that urges the reader to order, tells the reader HOW to order, and provides a reason to place an order – family health.

Create home page text using these elements, in this sequence, to create home pages that improve conversion rates and make clients happy.

Need help with your home page. Visit www.webwordslinger.com for all contact info.

Later,

Webwordslinger

Five Ways to Make Money Online: It's NOT Just About Adverbs

5 Ways to Make Money Online:

It’s Not Just About Adverbs

Yep, this is a freelance web writer blog, but all of us are in the business of business – earning money to pay the bills, or at least trying to.

So, because we’re freelance web writers, we focus on selling words. Sometimes a few words. Sometimes a 250-page ebook on the dry cleaning industry. Writing is writing. Work is work.

However, there’s more ways to earn a few bucks than just selling words. These work for me.

Sign up for Adsense. Google places its little blue cube adverts on your blog or website page, and every time a visitor clicks on a Google ad, you get a few pennies.

You won’t get rich, but you don’t have to do anything except sign up.

Why add Adsense?

• ads provided by Google; you control add placement on site

• customized ads

• ads in text and/or motion formats

• ads are contextual based on the keywords entered by the search engine user

• you control which ads appear on your site or blog, i.e., no competing sites or sites with questionable subject matter

• you get paid each time click-throughs reach $100

• it’s FREE

Take on a couple of affiliates. Affiliate marketing is a money maker. You display ads for affiliates on your website or blog, and collect some cash each time a visitor clicks on the INTEL ad shining in the right column.

Affiliate agreements are different for each company so read the fine print. Choose affiliates related to the services you offer. For example, your web writer website will see more click-throughs for ads on web hosting, electronics, software and other products related to creating a website.

Sell proprietary products. Stuff you write once and sell over and over again.

Some of our members sell lists and reviews of bid-fer sites. Good idea. At least one member sells mentoring services to noob freelances. Write it once, then sell it as a download, a course, a webinar, or rent space at the local hotel and hold a seminar on building a successful website.

You bet they’ll show up.

If you write it, you own it, and if it generates revenues for years to come – BINGO! – you’re earning money for something you wrote 10 years ago.

Provide consultation. Most new website owners don’t know a landing page from a landing strip, but you can teach new site owners all kinds of useful information – and you don’t have to charge a bundle because it’s usually a few phone calls.

Do remember that you’re paid, in this case, for what you know. It has value. Write up a short doc on website design and ecommerce as an “ethical bribe” for signing up for a consultation.

Create a referral system. You’re a writer, or maybe a coder who writes or a writer who codes. In any case, chances are you don’t do it “all.”

Create a contacts file of companies and individuals who can deliver the services you don’t, won’t or can’t. Your Rolodex should be chock full of numbers for everyone from voice-over talent to HTML coders who have the patience to hand-code a website.

Many clients need additional services. Refer them to one of the professionals in your contacts file and get a little “finder’s fee” when your associate lands the job.

Only refer clients to people and companies you’ve worked with, or know personally. Don’t charge the client a fee. It comes from the provider who designs a brochure for your client, using the content you wrote. Win-win-win.

Hey, drop me a line to learn more about ecommerce, web design and how to market products or services online. It ain't rocket science.

Webwordslinger

editor@webwordslinger.com

5 Easy Tips to Keep Them On-Site Longer

It takes a lot of time, energy and, sometimes, cash to lure visitors to a client’s site, so once you get them there you want to keep them there as long as possible.

Why? Well, the longer visitors stay on site the more likely they are to perform the most desired action – from subscribing to a newsletter to calling your client on the phone.

Second, time on site is something search engines value. More time on site per visitor is better.

1. Use teasers. Visitors are often looking for information. Use short paragraphs that ask questions visitors want answered. Follow this text with a CLICK HERE link.

This pulls visitors deeper into the site. And, if you provide good information, and answer visitors’ questions, they just might explore the site. More time on site. More page views. Search engines like page views, too.

2. Create a compelling headline. The headline is half the job. It’s the first thing visitors see, it’s the first thing they read, and you use it to capture their attention. “7 Tips to Improve Your Family Finances” is the kind of headline that’ll keep readers reading.

3. Use embedded text links. These links appear within a specific context of the site content. So, if the text reads, “Every family should have life insurance coverage” and “life insurance” appears in the traditional blue font, visitors looking for information (or prices) for term life insurance are likely to click on that link, pulling them deeper in to the site.

4. Keep navigation clear, simple and consistent. If visitors have trouble navigating a client’s website, they’ll go to another website that’s easier to navigate.

5. Use incentives. Create links on the home page, and all landing pages, offering a 20% discount, free in-home service, free shipping, a free consultation – something that delivers immediate benefit to visitors.

These links pull visitors deeper into the site, pique interest and increase conversion ratios because everybody likes FREE.

Good, useful content keeps visitors on site longer. Stop selling. Start helping, and watch your client site rank higher thanks to you.

Webwordslinger 

www.webwordslinger.com

How to Write The Perfect Home Page

Give Site Visitors a Reason to Buy

The home page is the front door of a web site. It’s the first page most visitors see. So, it better be compelling to keep visitors on site long enough to perform the most desired action (MDA).

Home page text focuses on the needs and drives of site visitors who landed on the site for a reason. They need or want something. Prices, product descriptions, free consultation, information – they need or want something.

Home page text meets the needs of site visitors. Here are the elements of a well-designed home page in sequence, from top to bottom.

The Headline

The headline is half the job. The headline focuses on the needs of site visitors. Describe “the problem” in the headline.

NEED TO LOSE WEIGHT – AGAIN?

DEBT IS A BUMMER.

DON’T BE A LOSER: THIS YEAR’S STOCK MARKET WINNERS.

Headlines.

The Problem

Expand on the problem in a short paragraph, citing examples visitors recognize. Describe the impact the problem has on the site visitor’s health, family, finances, business – whatever – in 300-500 words. Use negative space to simplify scanning.

The Solution

How does the client company fix the problem? Keep it general. Keep it simple. Keep them reading.

In some cases, the solution can be described in bullet-point format to facilitate a quick scan of the home page.

Benefits

What are the benefits of engaging the company behind the website? Benefits sell. Hype doesn’t.

A money-back guarantee, 30-year warranty, free shipping, 20% off, state-of-the-art design, an expansive service area – all potential benefits to site visitors.

Use a bullet list to describe each benefit.

Incentives

Coupons, a free ebook, a free consultation, a free website audit, discounts – all of these enticements encourage the performance of the MDA, whether it’s to call the company or place an order.

The Call To Action

Close out home page text with a strong call to action that, not only encourages the performance of the MDA, but also tells site visitors HOW TO PERFORM THE MDA.

ORDER NOW SIMPLY BY CLICKING ON THE LINK BELOW

AND START ENJOYING BETTER HEALTH FOR THE ENTIRE FAMILY

A strong call to action that urges the reader to order, tells the reader HOW to order, and provides a reason to place an order – family health.

Create home page text using these elements, in this sequence, to create home pages that improve conversion rates and make clients happy.

Later,

Webwordslinger

editor@webwordslinger.com

www.webwordslinger.com

  

Website Jargon: From Site Launch to Landing Page

Language evolves, and one of the driving forces of linguistic evolution is jargon.

Jargon has a bad reputation. Sure, it’s exclusionary – keeping the outsiders out, but it’s also a convenient shorthand that efficiently conveys definition to insiders. Ask your spouse about conversion optimization and, chances are, you’ll get a blank stare, but experienced web writers know the term and the principles that underlie the term.

As web writers, we’ve developed a matrix of insider jargon, and we use it to exchange information quickly with each other. That’s a good thing. It boosts our productivity as a profession.

Minimalist Jargon:
The Symbol for an Open Node

If we had to define SEO every time we discussed it we’d still be talking about a better term for the activity. So, we talk about SEO from a variety of perspectives, but we all know the term “search engine optimization,” and most of us have a catalog of tactics to optimize client sites. So, I can post this piece without explaining SEO from the beginning.

Web writers love jargon. CPC, bounce rate, CTR, HTML – we’ve created an impenetrable wall of words to keep clients calling for help with their CRM. Heck, we even make up stuff. (See the buzz words thread on the discussion board for examples.)

Certain jargon enters mainstream speak. It wasn’t that long ago that “blog” was a curiosity, even among web workers. We didn’t have a blog, and we didn’t know that blog was short for web log. The 2004 US presidential conventions spent time introducing all of us to the new phenomenon of blogging.

Today, blog is mainstream speak. So is blogging. It’s a noun and a verb and, chances are, you have a blog, and you know a lot of other freelancers who maintain blogs. From “What’s a blog?” to “Read my blog” in 10 years. Today, my Aunt Tillie has a blog.

Can jargon be overused? Considering the downstream consequences of a business model and CTR, the application of jargon can impact everything from drill downs to placement of the email mod. Yeah, of course jargon can be overused, and it is. There are even websites that “unsuck” corporatese to make it understandable. Jargon, for the sake of jargon, is just paddling the corporate model up integrated revenue streams.

When used judiciously, and with purpose, jargon is a great tool. Hey, we all had to learn the language so, even some of the exclusionary aspects of jargon are positive. Keeps out wannabes, but rewards those dedicated to learning how it all works.

When used for its own sake, jargon is a stumbling block. Word glitz. It sounds good but clear communication isn’t always the purpose of stuffing a piece with jargon.

I love jargon. I study it, steal it, re-work it, apply it to other aspects of search engine marketing (SEM), I collect it and try to work it in to as many pieces as I can until is goes mainstream. Then, it’s not jargon any more.

Any way, drop me a line if you want to see Tillie’s blog. I’ll send you the link. 

www.webwordslinger.com 

SEO Client Retention:

The Key to Long-Term SEO/M Business Success

Building a successful SEO/M consultancy is hard. There’s a lot of competition and a lot of snake oil, SEO voodoo floating around the web, so building a solid reputation – one that leads to referrals and repeat business is essential to long-term business growth.

Keep 'em coming back

Once you have a client, you have to keep that client coming back because of the quality services and opinions you offer. You have to build a client base of happy clients. They come back for more. They’re also your best salespeople.

Here are some suggestions for keeping the customer satisfied.

1. Go through an extensive discovery phase. Determine such things as the target demographic, market competition, unique selling position, client objectives, challenges – a top-down analysis of what needs doing. A few hours more at this stage will save days of re-dos in the weeks ahead.

2. Prepare a written SOW. A statement of work describes the work to be undertaken (usually in chronological order), approval milestones, payment schedule, who’s going to do what. The more complete the SOW the more accurate the client’s expectations. Clients hate surprises so get on the same page early.

3. Give a stake to the client. No client is going to quibble with a strategy or design that s/he proposed. Instead of presenting finished pages and data analysis, engage the client and incorporate his or her suggestions into the final product. As best you can, let the client “own” the project.

4. Go proactive. In everything. Offer suggestions and counsel beyond the expectations of the client. If you discover an error you’ve made, call the client to let her know you’re on top of it.

5. Communicate. A lot. Not just approvals, though they’re essential to increased productivity, but also discuss implementation strategies, guerilla marketing tactics and opportunities for future growth of the client’s business.

6. Fix it. If the client ain’t happy, fix it. Period. A happy client will talk you up through his network. An unhappy client will bad mouth you to anyone who will listen. Rely on your SOW only as a last resort. Keep the client happy – even if it’s a loss leader for you.

Growing a stable of regular clients takes time and trust building. It’s an on-going process. But once your regulars are making up 75% of your work time, you don’t have to constantly worry about where the next job is coming from.

editor@webwordslinger.com
webwordslinger.com

Just What IS Good Copy Writing? Savvy Clients Want To Know

                            TREAT READERS RIGHT

Writing good site text is a complex mixture of defining benefits and keeping visitors interested, i.e. enhancing the on-site experience with good information that’s short on sales hype, long on useful tips and suggestions.

Here are some tactics that have worked for my clients:

1. There are three topics about which most readers are interested: health (nutrition, fitness, diseases, etc.), family (how-to’s, relations, child-rearing) and finances (aka money. How to make, save, spend or stretch it.) Choose a topic in one of these areas. Combine two interests, as in “10 Ways to Improve Family Nutrition.”

2. Engage the reader. Befriend the reader. Encourage the reader with good, useful information. Don’t make the reader angry.

3. Write like you talk. Don’t write words to be read, write words that are heard in the reader’s brain. You don’t say, “I am going to the kitchen.” You say, “I’m going to the kitchen.” Pretend there’s someone sitting next to you. Talk to that figment and type what you say. Then, clean it up for grammar, spelling and punctuation.

4. Readers don’t want to learn, they want to discover. Learning connotes homework. Discovery connotes excitement. Don’t teach, create a map with words that leads to a helpful, interesting or funny discovery.

5. Use short blocks of text, like this post. Layout is important to eye scan and web readers rarely read, they scan and small blocks of text are more easily scanned. That’s why it’s a good idea to use titles, headers and sub-heads to raise the curiosity of the reader. To intrigue. It’s a pleasant discovery. (See point 4.)

6. Practice writing in a number of voices so you can take on any writing job. A corporate white paper uses different wording than a quick how-to written for parents. A business plan has a different tone than a piece on oddities in Nebraska. The more voices you develop, the more readable and engaging your writing.

7. Respect the reader. S/he takes the time to read what you write so keep it interesting, on point and short. No extra words.

8. Eliminate qualifiers. Not: We strive to achieve client satisfaction. Strive and you might fail. Eliminate the qualifier: We achieve client satisfaction. Not “Our widget CAN increase production by 300%.” Eliminate all qualifiers: “Our widget increases production by 300%” This gives writing authority and confidence.

There’s more, but that’s a start. The one thing you don’t want to do is anger readers. Or annoy them. Or push their buttons. Be straight with them and they’ll read what you write. 

Paul Lalley
editor.webwordslinger.com