Hiring A Web Writer: 10 Tips

Your website is often your first (and only) introduction to a potential new buyer. That’s why it’s critical that everything on the site look and sound professional. Good product pictures, easy-to-navigate tool bar, a simple few-step checkout and, yes, good copy.
You might not think professional copywriting is important. You could do it. Or maybe your [...]

User-Generated Content: Supplement Your Own Writing

 
 
Wow, things have really changed in a few short years. The first incarnation of the web was fun for a while but those static images and lack of interactivity was way too passive to keep the attention of surfers who can assess the “funness” of a site by its type face.
The second incarnation of the [...]

The 10 Best Things About the Web

 
 
 

The 10 Best Uses of Web Technology: So Far
Of course everybody is going to have a different opinion on what constitutes “good” use of the web.
“Good” is such a subjective word. So to clarify: by good I mean useful, important and even earth shaking. (Man, that gives me a lot of range.) So, in descending [...]

Use Consumer Tesitmonials to Sell the Goods

“Best toothpaste I ever used.” Vera A, New Haven, CT
“This computer is FAST.” Walter Mason, Iowa City
As a web writer, part of your job is to move the goods and services tomake money for your clients. That’s what you’re being paid to do. But that doesn’t mean you have to do all of the selling. [...]

Engaging Your New Client: The Discovery Phase

 
Congratulations! You landed a web writing gig and you’re about to discuss the project with your new client. Usually these chats take place by phone since your client could well be a few time zones away.
 
Now, during this initial conversation – sometimes called discovery – your objective is to ask the right questions and take [...]

Writing Sales Copy That Sells

Don’t Push The Sale!

We’ve all seen the long-form sales letter, usually touting a course, webinar or ebook download that’s going to turn around your life. These endless piles of steaming hype are everywhere on the W3, all reminiscent of Dr. Whizbang’s Medicine Show.
The problems with these long-form sales letters are many. Let’s look at a [...]

Become An Authority: Build Your Web Writing Creds

 
You may have a sleek-looking site design for your writing, SEO or other service buisiness and wonder why you don’t see better conversion ratios – even if you are the best  service provider looking for some business via the world wide web.
 
The issue may not be your site, its design, navigation accessibility or content. The [...]

Land the Assignment With Good Words and Good Advice

 
A good web writer – one who drives traffic and gets repeat gigs – understands that s/he brings more than writing skills to the web-based assignment. You have to know everything from SEO and SEM to how to convert a visitor to a buyer.
 
It’s a different world in here, and as a successful web writer, [...]

Why Aren’t They Buying? Your Clients Want Answers!

 
Many of your clients own commercial sites that aren’t performing to expectations.Now some of it may have to do with the stilted language or the 28 typos in the first paragraph.
A web writer has to know much more about writing than subject verb agreement. What you write, where you place it, the site’s topicality – [...]

Web Writers: Add Links to Your Clients’ Site Text

Web writers: On site links guide humans and search engine bots. Use links to keep both on site longer. Here’s how.
The deep site page, perfectly optimized for bots, won’t be attractive to humans (necessarily) with keyword dense text, no graphics (bots don’t read graphics files) and with a perfect title tag. This is a high [...]