After you have done your research, you may or may not be ready to begin building or modifying your site. If you are ready to begin writing, getting and reading the Content Guide below is your next step.

Web Pages That Suck

Before you begin writing your website, check out Web Pages That Suck. This is a great site that gives you the do's and don'ts of creating a website - and it is a lot of fun, too.

The Content Guide – Beginning Your Writing

Here in the Content Guide, you will find writing helps for your first draft: The Writing Points, The Writing Process, and Persuasive Writing. You will also find Writing for the Search Engines. This is just a general setup for the search engines. We will go into much more detail later when we get into the search engine lesson.

Writing Points to Consider

Before writing, go through the writing points below. Jot down your ideas about the visitor/buyer and anything else that occurs to you as you read the helps and prepare to write.

1. Consider Your Audience.

To whom are you writing? Could you sit down and write out a description of the people you are writing to, giving their age, occupation, interests, family size, etc.?

2. Keep in Mind the “Tone” or your “Voice” as you write. Be confident, positive, and helpful without becoming brassy or overly enthusiastic. Communicate to them as if face to face.

3. Keep Clear on Your Purpose and Aim.

Define the problems and describe the methods of solving or resolving those problems by providing clear step by step methods and instructions. It is best not to assume too much with your audience, particularly in technical matters.

4. Know Your Content well.

Help your user to learn it, too. They, obviously, do not need to become the expert you are, simply expert enough to get the job done for themselves. A true expert does not only know the ins and outs of his/her profession, he/she can also put it in language that the nonprofessional can understand and use.

5. Check Your Grammar and Punctuation.

Always have someone else check your spelling, your grammar and punctuation. When writing, it is often easy to look at the same mistakes over and over, and not have it register in your mind that it is a mistake. Having someone else check it for you will help avoid that problem.

After you have written your piece, put it some where (in a file, or a drawer, for example) and let it cool off for two or three days.

6. Most of All, Have Fun with What You are Doing!

If you allow yourself to enjoy what you are creating, that will show in your finished product, which will make it that much more enjoyable for your user.

Main Points About the Process of Writing

We cannot encourage you enough to use and follow this process. It is great, particularly for those of you who have a hard time writing, get into writer's block and tend to think you cannot write.

Every time you sit down to write, go through the steps below one at a time. Do not just read the steps, do them, step by step. Do the first step, complete it, and then go on to the second step and so forth.

If you will do it just as it is given here, you will be amazed at how much writing you get done and how easy it goes.

1. Quickly write down your main points with a word or very short phrase.

2. Organize your points listing them by what you will write first, second, third, etc.

3. Begin writing your content, point by point. DO NOT ALLOW YOURSELF TO EDIT AT THIS TIME. Remember, you are to be your best friend while writing, not your worst critique.

4. Let your writing cool off for a few days.

5. Review your work, make quick corrections on punctuation, grammar and rewording. Keep yourself from making this a difficult and time consuming chore. Move through it quickly, keeping it light.

6. Move to the next section and repeat steps 1-5.

7. Have fun. Creation should be an expression of self with joy.

Special Note

To help your copywriting, I suggest you get the book, “Words That Sell” by Richard Bayan.

The instructions below will be helpful as you use his book.

Writing Your Website Pages

1. Home Page

(Head Line) Write a Grabber Head line or Slogan, Salutation or Invitation. Open with a question, open with a statement, open with a Challenge or a snappy transition.

Think of it sort of like a newspaper headline. If the headline does not grab a readers attention, they will not read the article. The same thing applies with a Web site. If your Web site headline does not grab the attention of your visitor, who knows if they will read the rest of your site or not.

Starting Your First Paragraph

Open with your company name telling what you have to offer. Let people know what your product or service is right away, followed by relating the main benefit(s) of your product(s) and or service(s).

Describe the benefits of coming and visiting your site in emotional and persuasive words. Make these benefits clear and specific. For example: save money, save time, improved health, superior quality, greater return on money, outstanding customer support, etc.

Direct the visitor to what you want them to do, i.e., read more information pages, about us page, view products and services, how to contact us. This does not have to be long or involved. It is giving some basic, helpful direction to the visitor as to how best to use your site. After all, you are the creator, you should know the best way to use your site. Simple instructions and explanations will suffice. Ultimately, remember the KISS principle. Keep It Short and Simple.

2. Contact Us

This page should invite the visitor to contact you if they have any questions or comments they wish to make. Make the invitation open and let them know you are accessible and want to hear from them on whatever interests or concerns they may have about your Web site, product or services.

Make contacting you a simple procedure. Most of the time your e-mail address will be sufficient. However, you may want to include a phone number. A 1-800 phone number is not necessary, but is often seen as particularly customer sensitive and professional.

3. Who We Are (About Us Page)

A "Who We Are Page" or "About Us" page is just that; you giving information about you and your company. For example: A Mission Statement - A statement of what the purpose of your company is, what it does, and what it stands for. Write the statement in terms of benefits to your clients first, and second to the business (benefits to the business are optional).

You may also want to list your core values as a company, such as integrity, quality products and service, great customer support, etc. Background on the Owner(s) and primary employees - Usually this is business background. Be careful on giving personal background information, because this can become unprofessional and campy. Ultimately here, you want to try to develop a relationship of trust with your potential clients, so indicate things about your company and or your self that will help them feel they can trust doing business with you. Sometimes having a photo of your self and or your business partner or employees if you have any, can help to engender a sense of trust. A picture can indeed be worth a thousand words.

What you write here does not have to be formal, but being informative is important. The purpose is to help build trust in who you are, your expertise and your ability to help the visitor get their needs and wants met by doing business with you. Sometimes just having a strong commitment to serve your clients can be persuasive enough.

A Vision Statement - (Optional)

A brief statement as to where you see your company going and growing. This does not have to be a long explanation, simply a statement about the direction of your company, and the confidence you have to achieve that end.

4. How to Use This Site or a Site Map (Optional)

This is an optional page you might want to create if you have more than 20+ pages to your site. Also, you may want to include it in your "About Us" Page (above). This is a simple explanation of the different hyperlinks you have created within your web site, how they are meant to help the visitor and a suggestion as to how to use the hyperlinks and in a suggested order.

Make it a suggestion only, because while many visitors will go about looking at your site the way they choose, some others will appreciate your direction.

5. Testimonials (Optional)

If you have a product where testimonials of previous and present clients are important, then you will probably want to create this page. You may want to start this page by giving a brief explanation and endorsement of the products/services as well as clients. This helps to create a positive and affirming attitude as the visitor reads this page. It helps the potential client see that others like them have successfully done business with you, and will help them feel a little more confident about doing the same.

Do not get overly gushy or sentimental about this. That will work against you. Write the introduction to your testimonials in a straight forward, appreciative, positive, and to the point manner.

This seems silly to have to say, however, make sure the testimonials are real and accurate and not made up. Made up testimonials, no matter how well done, usually have a false ring to them. It is not necessary to give the individuals full name and address. Usually the initials, town, and state are enough.

6. More Information Page

This page may be seen by many visitors as additional help. Remember, people get on the Internet looking for information to help them meet the needs and wants they have. If you are seen as helpful in providing that information, and the information is seen as valuable and worthwhile to them, then this page will be an asset to your business.

This is a page you may want to consider updating regularly as a way to keep your site fresh. Here you can provide new information about your products and services, news releases, or new company (vendor) releases.

Also, as your product or service is developed, you may want to write about new or further uses that can be met by your product or service. This page can also service as announcing new products or services you have just brought on board or are planning to bring on to your site in the near future.

Make sure the products or services you are announcing are actually coming on. Announcing vaporware, something that never makes it to the market, is not good for credibility. So be mindful of what you pre-announce.

Writing for Search Engines

As you begin writing for your Web site, remember you are writing to two audiences. The first audience is the visitor coming to your site, who is asking the question, “What’s in it for me?” And the second audience is the search engines. The search engines are sending their spiders and bots through your site to analyze and index it.

To set things up for the search engines to go through your site, begin here. (These are general parameters, which we will refine later.)

1. Make a list of the words and phrases you believe someone would use to find your site.

2. From that list, select your best phrase (two or more words). This phrase will be committed to your Index (home). Put this phrase as the first words in your headline. Add a few more words to your headline keeping it around five to seven words total.

3. Next, in the headline field, add a head command so the search engines will recognize it as a headline. The headline will now look something like this:

4. In the first 60 words of your Index page, repeat your selected keyword phrase three to four times.

5. In the next 120-150 words, repeat your keyword phrase another three to four times.

6. Repeat this process for other main pages on your site selecting a different keyword phrase for each page. Pages to consider for this search engine setup could be the following: Who We Are, View Products, Extra Pages 1, 2, and 3.

More Writing Help

If you are looking for additional help on the basics of writing, check out Write 101.

Be prepared to discuss what you have discovered and written, even in the roughest draft form, your coach will assist you in improving what you have created so far.

Part II - Refining Your Writing

This module is about refining the copy you began after in Part I. The areas to consider as you sharpen your writing are listed below.

Writing in Chunks

Writing in chunks of information is a great and even expected strategy used on the Internet. Read through Writing in Chunks as a fundamental way to create your online site.

Writing in Chunks for the Internet

As we like to joke about the Internet, you can take perfectly normal people, put them on the Internet and the majority of them will all suddenly acquire ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder).

Basically, what we are talking about is what is known as an Internet Mentality. It is where your average Internet user wants to get in to a Web site, find the information they desire and get out as fast as possible. The more time they have to spend looking for what it is they want, the more likely they are to click out of your Web site before going through it completely.

So, to accommodate that mode of thinking, write your site in small chunks of information. Keep your paragraphs, overall, two or three lines in length. That will keep the appearance of your site user-friendly and easier to read through quickly. Use several of those paragraphs to create a specific strategy for the visitor to follow.

For instance, you give your visitor a chunk of information, two or three paragraphs, and then a link to click on to move to the next chunk of information (a link to products). After that link, you might have another chunk of information followed by another link (this time to testimonials, perhaps). Your third chunk could go to your Contact Page or About Us Page. This can all be done on the same page or on different pages. The main thing is, you must keep your visitor informed, motivated and navigating to your MWR (Most Wanted Response).

By employing this strategy, you can make your site’s sales letter continue as long as needed, providing your visitor with motivation to move to the next page or chunk of info, when he or she has enough information to move. Moving your visitor through your site this way will keep them motivated and focused on what you have to offer him or her.

So, chunk by chunk, click by click, you keep moving your visitor through your site to your MWR!

Defining Your Business and Your Client

Any kind of writing begins with knowing your audience. Writing for the Internet means knowing your client. Your clients are not everyone, though some of you may think that. You will never be able to please everyone. There are too many likes, dislikes, preferences, etc. So, how do you figure out who your target client should be?

By "Defining" Your Business and Your Client

First, you want to define the features and benefits of your product or service. To do so, answer the following questions as detailed as you can:

1. What are the problems my business addresses? What are the solutions I come up with? What are the benefits my clients will enjoy?

2. From defining your problems, solutions, and benefits you can define your business, i.e., what does your business do? For additional assistance, use the model in Getting Business to Come to You, pages 32-33.

From that definition then, you will define your client, creating your ideal client profile.

Benefits and Features

Remember, remember, remember... people buy benefits, not features. Benefits are the emotional stuff that motivates a Web site visitor to buy. Features help the visitor justify what they are buying. Benefits and Features are the subject or topic that makes up your written copy on your Web site.

Features and Benefits

1. For each area of service that you are providing, get out a sheet of paper. Label each paper with one of the areas of service you will deliver.

2. For example, if you are marketing Web sites, take a sheet for Internet, the Web site, and for yourself.

3. If you are marketing a product or service, then make up a sheet for each product and one on yourself.

4. Down the middle of each sheet draw a line, creating two columns.

5. Now, you have created two columns, one on the left, one on the right. At the top, label the left column "Features" and the right column label "Benefits."

Begin by listing the features for this particular sheet in the left column.

Next, list the benefits related to that feature in the right column.

Motivating by Gains and Pains

When writing your copy, you must motivate your visitor to buy from you. How do you do that? You show them how your product/service will help them with their Gains and Pains.

Benefits = Pains and Gains

Benefits – Two Types

Benefits come in two "flavors," ie: gains and pains. The benefits we offer our clients are either saving our clients from unwanted pain or helping them achieve desired gains.

Understand that people are motivated by one of two ways. One, we are motivated by fear and avoidance. These are associated with pain – the fear of pain and the avoidance of pain. Or two, we are motivated by desire and faith. These are associated with achieving desired gains. It becomes really powerful when you can approach from BOTH perspectives.

To help you better understand how to use this understanding in your copy writing do the following exercise.

Avoiding Pains and Achieving Gains Exercise

You have already done the Features and Benefits exercise. Now, you take the benefits of your products/services and categorize them according to "gains" and "pains." To do this, select one of your products/services. Label a piece of paper with the name of that product/service.

Draw a line down the middle of the paper, creating two columns, one on the left, the other on the right. The column on the left label "Avoiding Pains" and the column on the right label "Achieving Gains."

Ranking Your Benefits

Taking the benefits of this product/service organize them according to "Avoiding Pains" or "Achieving Gains." After doing so, weigh each benefit on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the strongest motivating benefits, 1 being the least.

After weighing your benefits, organize those benefits into a list on another piece of paper from the strongest (10) to the least (1). (You may have some benefits that you have weighed equally. In those cases you will have to determine which is the stronger benefit. For instance, you may have two benefits that both score 8. After reviewing them, you might score one 8.5 and the other 8.) This list is your inverted pyramid.

With your inverted pyramid done, now write your copy for your index page (or any other page, including your product pages), starting with your number 10 benefit for that product/service. Continuing writing your copy for your benefits from strongest to least strong.

Three Parts to a Sale

This is a bit of an unusual approach to thinking about sales for some people, but read it over. It is a sales presentation based upon meeting needs and solving problems.

Three Parts to a Sale – Part One

There are three basic parts to a sale, no matter what kind of sale it is, whether it is face to face, over the phone, or over the Internet. These are:

• The problem, the situation, and the need.

• The information to create change and the implementation of that information.

• The benefits enjoyed as the result of the implementing the information for change.

The Problem, Situation, Need

This is where all change (and therefore all sales) start. Something must exist of a dissatisfying nature in the mind of the prospect, for a change (a sale) to take place. There must be a problem, a need or a situation that is unsatisfying or that could be improved to start the sales process.

Examples:

• You don’t like the color of your home.

• Your car has too many miles on it.

• Your air conditioner is broken.

Information and Implementing that Information

In order for change to take place, there must be new information and the implementation of that information. This requires the salesperson, or the written copy, to show the prospect what it is going to take to make changes, and how to proceed to complete those changes.

• What kind of paint is the best for your kind of home?

• What is it going to take to trade in your old car and get a new one?

• Can my air conditioner be fixed cost effectively, or do I need to buy a new one?

Benefits – Enjoying the Change

Once the change has taken effect, now the client (before this was the prospect) enjoys the results of the changes made. Without these changes having been made, the client would not get this enjoyment.

• The pride of a newly painted home.

• The joy of owning a new car with all the bells and whistles.

• Feeling that cool air blow over him/her as the new air conditioner cools each room.

Three Parts to a Sale – Part Two

It is as Easy as 1, 3, 2, 3

Notice the order is 1…3…2…3?

This order helps to establish a relationship in the sales. Let’s see what I mean.

Let Them Know You Understand Their Need

You show you understand your prospects needs right off by the headline you write or the question you ask. Those first words are crucial to keeping this visitor on your site, particularly if the visitor is looking for what you have.

Your visitor has a problem, need, want, or problem he/she is looking to solve. Let them know you understand. Examples:

• Maybe you have noticed, your hair is not as thick as it used to be?

• Looking for quality electronics at the best prices on the net?

• If you feel you deserve a vacation, we can help.

Show Them You Can Get Them What They Want

Always keep in mind people buy benefits; what you or your product/service is going to get them. So, is it just the hair, you ask? Mmmh, probably not! Examples:

• Maybe you have noticed, your hair is not as thick as it used to be? With Hair-Here you will look like you just lost 20 years. You’ll feel new confidence at work and in your social life. And no one will know but you.

• Looking for quality electronics at the best prices on the net? You’ve found them! We can ship you top name manufactures’ products within 24 hours at 50% or more savings!

• If you feel you deserve a vacation, we can help. We take the stress and hassle out of traveling, getting you wherever you want to go, whether it is to an exotic beach, a crystaline skiing paradise, the Romantic cities of Europe, or the Mystical far-east. It will be the vacation you have always dreamed of.

As you paint a picture of the benefits you offer, show them actual visual pictures, too. Let them see, on your site, what they are longing for in real life. All this communicates you understand what your client wants and that you can get it for him/her.

Now, Get the Sale - Let Them Keep the Benefits

Once you have shown them you have what they want, show them how to get it. That is where your site strategy will come into play. Move them to your order form and get them to order now. That’s the win-win situation we all want!

© COPYRIGHT 2004-2008 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED COACHKAT.COM