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How to Write a Press Release for Optimal Web Marketing

By Amit Kothiyal in Featured

What is a Press Release? Press releases are among the most effective ways - if not the most effective way - to get one-way links from high traffic news sites, but you must follow a certain set of guidelines or it will be nothing more than wasted time and your press release will never be published. A press release is a statement of announcement used for publishing and distributing company information or business news throughout the Internet via web media distribution channels. General news releases, event announcements, business news, new product release announcements, and social media news all qualify as valid content for a press release.

How Press Releases can help your SEO and Web Marketing Press releases play a very important role in SEO and web site marketing. Currently, one-way links are more valuable to your search e rankings than ever before. This is due to the fact that two-way links - most often referred to as “reciprocal links” - have decreased in value with regard to Google’s “Page rank” system, with most others soon to follow if they have not already. With that in mind, playing an active role in generating news for PR web can serve as your best resource for getting one-way links and generating new traffic to your site without paying a dime. Be aware however, that credible PR web sites have strict criteria for the content that they publish. For example, it absolutely must be newsworthy, grammatically correct, without spelling errors, it must sound professional, and it must give the impression that a decent amount of time was put into it.

The benefit to you is that you may publish your company details including the services you offer, your web address and contact details along with your press release. Be careful not to make your press release sound like an advertisement though, or it will not be considered for publishing. The key here is to go into it with the objective of creating something valuable and informative for the reader. There are a lot of news websites available that provide free services for publishing your news releases. The real advantage though, is that these websites provide services for distributing that news to subscribers of their news feeds. What this means, is that while you may publish your release to five PR web sites, it will likely end up on twenty or thirty different sites if it follows the criteria stated above. The important thing to remember is that the more valuable and informative that you make your content, the more it will be picked up by additional web sites. Here are some tips to keep in mind when writing your press release:

Tips for writing an effective press release:

• The press release headline should be short, clear and to the point. Treat press release headlines and sub-heads as the ultra-compact version of your entire press release content.
• Your press release summary should be informative. Try to avoid the use long sentences and lengthy paragraphs.
• Start your press release with the “5 Ws” - who, what, when, where, why, and sometimes how. This will make your press release more enlightening and attractive to the editors of the sites you are publishing to.
• Don’t forget to include your company information below the press release content. Prepare a brief summary of your company services with the contact details, your website name, and email id for communicating. Most PR sites offer a “company bio” section, which appears under the published release.

Author:  Vision Media Corporation is a Phoenix & Las Vegas based website design and Search Engine Optimization, software, and ecommerce development firm specializing in new approaches to information technology and its relationship to mark

Web Designers Guide to facing writer’s Block

By Semul Johnson in Featured

Much like those who are in the field of creative arts, web designers can also experience writer’s block. No matter how long you have been in this business or the years that you have rendered service to your web design company, there are times when you simply get stuck with no novel ideas to keep you going in your web design/copy write project. However, there are a few ways by which you can deal with these blocks. Here are six tips that I have found to be useful in generating new ideas and be of productive service to your web design company once again:

1. Be ready for procrastination to come and block you. Do you notice that when you are assigned with a new web design project and find have to start working on ideas for it, you find yourself thinking about other ideas totally unrelated? You might start to think about how much it will cost to repaint your house, or when you would like to play golf, or what car you would suggest your friend should buy. These are just some of the ways that procrastination disguises itself. However, you should also recognize that these are the things that you actually want to do. So, you can write down the other things you would like to do and schedule them or have a web design to do list. I realized that once I write down this web design to do list, I do not tend to think about them as often time and again as compared to when I simply ignore them.

2. Start somewhere in the middle. If you ask other designers in your web design company, they will surely agree with you that it feels rather intense to have to start from the top of a page and design downwards. Of course, you will still have to do it that way when it comes to HTML or CSS coding, but when dealing with web design, you might find it easier to focus on the most important part first - the one that catches the attention of an online user. I would usually think of what it should look like in the middle before I move on to navigation, advertising and branding which are found at the top, sides or bottom of the web design page.

3. Make a draft of your web design on paper first. In your web design company, do you frequently see people writing rough drafts on paper? Although this is rather uncommon nowadays, I still find it more helpful to “web design” on paper first. It can be very easy to get all hung up on the technicalities in HTML or JavaScript if you try to do your initial web design on a computer. Web designing on paper is sometimes easier to do. Also, when you “Web design” on paper, it is does not take much effort to erase them or scratch them out when you need to make changes. If you hate the idea you came up with, you do not have to feel bad about throwing the paper right into your trash bin.

4. Take time to plan your web design. Planning is very important when starting a web design project. Unfortunately, it is the one that is taken for granted the most. Most web designers proceed immediately to developing pages or generating web designs without giving the project ample though. When you do this, you run the risk of over-budgeting, you might run out of time, or end up not meeting the client requirements - all of which your web design company will mostly likely not welcome. Take all the time you need for planning the web design project (as long as it is reasonable, of course). Taking the time to plan will not hurt your web design, but lack of adequate planning will.

5. Do not hesitate to ask other web designers for help. Never be afraid to ask for someone else’s help when the need arises. Surely, someone in your web design company will be ever willing to lend you a hand or provide you suggestions and constructive criticism. However, be careful about whom you ask the help of. Be wary of those who do not find good in what you are doing, as they will not provide you the help that you need. 6. If you are really stuck, try to do something else for a while. If there is no other way to go about your writer’s block, try to get your mind off to think about something else. Take some time to stop thinking about the web design and the current problem and allow your subconscious to rest for a while. I’m sure other people in your web design company have experienced waking up in the morning with a great solution completely formed to solve the problem.

Author:  Semul Johnson is a Marketing expert with a leading SEO services company specializing in SEO web design.

The Key Formula To Network Marketing Success: Write A Million-Dollar Newsletter!

By David Hurley in Featured

When it comes to building a million dollar network marketing organization secret is superior newsletter design! Make sure your newsletter is well written, well designed, and impossibly interesting and you’ll have the key to building a network marketing empire.

Write your newsletter as if you were chatting to a friend over a cup of coffee. To achieve that effect, your newsletter should kick off with a friendly greeting to emphase the relationship that exists between the recipient and the sender. At the same time it personalizes your business by presenting you as a real live, warm, and caring human being. Too often, articles about building a million dollar network marketing business emphasize down line, up line, sales figures and product presentation but far too rarely emphasize the human side of the business. The people who read your newsletter do not want to feel as if they have just been marketed to but instead they want to have the impression that their interests and welfare were being considered when you sat down and wrote to them.

You should always design your newsletter as a plain text document rather than relying on html. Avoid graphics and other items that will make downloading it slow. Structure the body of the newsletter in such a way that it looks well ordered and not cluttered. It should consist of distinct sections, some of which may appertain to the company you are representing while others will deal with general articles and content. Free tips that may benefit the readers or save them money will always be appreciated. Make sure you are offering your readers value beyond the actual business offer behind the newsletter.

It is often suggested that your company material should make up the upper half of the newsletter’s body while general content ought to be placed on the bottom half. However, such advice is flawed because it will cause those who are simply subscribing for the content but not for the business to glance over the message you are trying to get out and scroll straight down to the bottom half of the letter – if they read it at all.

A far better method is to intersperse content and promotional material. Perhaps the first article may be about a new product you are marketing while the second may be a recipe, cooking tip, wellness advice, or so forth; the third article can once again discuss an aspect of your business, such as explaining the growth you have recently experienced, while the fourth section may be a give away, puzzle, joke, useful fact, and so on. This makes the entire body of the newsletter readable and useful and makes it more likely that your promotional information will also be read.

Your newsletter should end with a friendly closing that in some way recalls the original greeting. Once you start building a million dollar network marketing organization using the newsletter as your secret weapon, you’ll need to squeeze every bit of value you can get from it. A personal signature, your title and contact information, an invitation to email you with questions or content suggestions are all good things to incorporate while a call to action, such as buying the product or taking the free marketing course are good closes for the newsletter. You may even want to add a teaser for the next newsletter, which will ensure that you will not receive too many unsubscribe requests. Another way to maintain customer interest is to focus on the customer by including questions as part of your text and inviting feedback.

Invest your newsletter with your own personal and original style, give it some zest and zip, keep the reader involved and you will be on your way to building a loyal readership who learn to trust you and therefore will be more inclined to do business with you.

Author:  David Hurley writes articles on a variety of subjects. For more information about Internet success strategies, sign up to his free Internet marketing tips newsletter at: Grasp-The-Nettle.com.

Seven Useful Tips To Ghostwrite Books For Clients As A Freelance Writer

By Brian Scott in Featured

Serious freelance writers know their income may come from other sources, not just writing articles for magazines or clients. Ultimately, their freelance writing leads to writing books or e-books for themselves or as ghostwrites. If you decide to ghostwrite e-books and trade paperbacks for clients, consider the following:

If a client hires you as a “work-for-hire” ghostwriter, then the client pays you for your work, and he owns all rights. Make sure: 1) You receive a 50% retainer before you begin the work; and 2) You receive the balance at or right before delivery. That’s it. If the book turns out to be a great success, great! That’s wonderful! You should be extremely proud — but from a distance! To be a successful ghostwriter, you must enjoy your glory as a ghostwriter in the shadows. Many ghostwriters prefer it that way.

I know a great speaker in the industry who commands $10,000 or more per speaking engagement. He is phenomenal to listen to and even more dynamite to read. However, he doesn’t write his books alone. He contributes to them but he never writes any of them himself. His ghostwriter, Shelly, is known only to a few writers in a close-knit writer’s group. Why does Shelly let this speaker take all the glory for her work? She is painfully shy and exceedingly talented as a writer. She once said, “I am where I need to be and he is where he should be.” If you are going to ghostwrite, stay where you belong (invisible) and accept payment for the job as payment enough.

TIP #1: As a ghostwriter, you should always try to meet the needs of the true “author” of the work. Cover the content they want and do your best to make the client happy.

TIP #2: As with writing any book, ghostwriting involves lot of revisions and changes as far out as two months, especially if the book needs to go through an editor or publisher. You should make changes as needed. However, don’t wait on final payment if your client hasn’t received final approval from his publisher.

TIP #3: Always write your ghostwrites as if they are your own. Write with quality and professionalism in mind.

TIP #4: Never sign a non-compete contract on the subject of the book. It is crazy for the client to ask but crazier for you to do it. If a client asks for one, walk away. You have your own work to protect as well as the client’s work. Remember the saying, “to thine own self be true”? Well, in writing, there’s no truer statement.

TIP #5: You owe the client exceptional work and the client you work for owes you money for a job well done.

TIP #6: If your client is dissatisfied with the end result, even after he’s paid you, make it right for the client. Satisfied clients usually become repeat clients; they will bring you steady work and referrals.

TIP #7: Consider using a pen name as a ghostwriter. Jeanine Anne, a freelance writer and ghostwriter, said she uses a pen name when she ghostwrites. She said, “I’ve written most of my ghostwrites and presented them to my clients under my pen name, Jeanine Anne. First, if someone decides to spam me, there’s no harm done to the name for which I write my own work under. Secondly, when I write for a client, I have no idea what the client will do to the work, after all it is his work once it leaves my hands. The client may add content which I may not like or he may write something that is not my style of writing.” This is something to remember if you write for clients as ghostwrites. The client hires you to do a job and the client owns the work after it leaves your hands.

You can find many ghostwriting gigs on www.FreelanceWriting.com, Elance.com, Guru.com, GetAFreelancer.com, Indeed.com, www.WritingCareer.com, and CraigsList.com. The other way is to create your own ghostwriting gigs by networking and marketing.

Author:  Learn how to become a published book author! Download Brian’s free e-book, Book Writing for Fun and Profit, at www.BookCatcher.com. Visit Brian’s blog, Book Publishing News.

Web Content Theft - How To Find Out If You’re A Victim

By Matt Garrett in Featured

If you are someone who has spent much time as an online publisher you may have had the experience of seeing your content show up on another website without your permission, and without any links to send its readers your way so that you might at least have a shot at getting their business. If so, you are most definitely not alone.

There are hundreds of thousands of prolific web content creators who are more than happy to share their product with others as long as their links go along, but all too often see their efforts simply hijacked, copyright laws notwithstanding. You may, in fact, have two or three favorite Internet authors without realizing that some of what they present may not be their work at all.

While the problem of web content theft may not have been going on too long at this point, there is a strong chance that it could grow to epidemic proportions as more and more advertising dollars in search of successful websites pour into the Internet.

It’s far cheaper for a website owner to simply search for well written copy to place on his or her site or blog, than to try actually pay for a ghost writer. If you’re a web content author, wouldn’t you like a foolproof way to keep track of where your content is being used, so that you can keep it out of the hands of those who want to present it as their own?

If you gave an emphatic Yes! in answer to that question, then you will definitely want to pay attention to a few tips on how to turn Google into your very own Sherlock Holmes and go on the offensive against content thieves.

* It’s an unfortunate truth that it takes a thief to catch a thief, so if you want to know where you copy has gone without your permission, you’ll have to learn to think like a plagiarist. When you enlist Google’s help, take it for granted that anyone who has borrowed your content without a library card will be smart enough to make a few changes in it to fool Google, and they will begin by giving it a new name.

* What you need to do is recall one of those splendid turns of phrase which brought a big smile to your face, or tear to your eye, when you first entered it on your keyboard. Hopefully it will be distinctive enough that your plagiarists will not have wanted to change it, and if they didn’t, Google will lead you straight to the den of thieves.

* One thing that may work in your favor is that if you have recently begun to publish on the web, Google will probably not have found you yet, so your early content will be safe from getting hijacked. But if you write as well as you think you do, you will eventually be discovered by an audience, and Google will notice your traffic.

* When that happens, anyone who happens to search on the topic of your writing might very well get directed to your work, and before you know it, your content will be showing up in the most unlikely places. If Google happens to return you search results with a message saying that it decided to omit those pages with similar entries, you have almost certainly stumbled into some of those places.

Hit the Google like to get to the unlikely places, and see if the writing on their walls isn’t very like the writing on your home website. Your home away from home, so to speak, except the owners would really prefer that you hadn’t dropped in!

* There are, however, limits to what Google will look for, and one thing it won’t look for is message board posts. Their content is simply too voluminous and changes too rapidly. If someone steals your incisive message board posts, you may simply have to let them go. So why not save your best work for your blog or website, where you’ll have a better chance of keeping tabs on what happens to it?

The web content theft issue, while it may not have been going on too long, and may not mean as much in dollar value just yet, is very similar to of the early days of Napster and MP3 music file sharing, when record companies and recording artists were being deprived of millions of dollars in royalties which were rightfully theirs.

If you’re writing web content, you deserve to get the sole credit for it, and if you’re paying to have web content written, you deserve to reap the full profits from it. So learn how to get Google on your side in the battle against web content theft, and when you catch a thief, don’t be afraid to take the next steps in protecting your rights!

Author:  Matt Garrett © 2007 www.CopyDefender.com | Protect Your Web Content Free automated website copy protection system! Web Content Protection

Ezine Article Writing - Structure and Stretch

By Elaine Currie in Featured

If you are a webmaster you will know that writing articles for publication in ezines is an excellent way to get free publicity for your website. One thing that holds many would be writers back is that they don’t think they will be able to find enough to write even on a subject they know well. Webmasters who have never written an article before tend to feel their minds go blank at the suggestion of writing for publication. One of the most common reasons for not writing articles is that people do not think they will be able to write enough about a topic. This worry is usually overcome during the writing process but, even if you run out of words too soon, there are a few useful tricks you can use to increase your word count.

Most article directories will not accept an article consisting of fewer than 500 words; the most suitable length for an article is between 500 and 700 words. Let’s go for 500 words for our first attempt. That might sound a lot but, if you look at the structure of most articles you will see that they are broken down into three sections: introductory paragraph, main content and closing paragraph. In turn, the main content will be broken down into 3-5 paragraphs.

If you plan your article to have three paragraphs of main content, you only need to find 100 words to write in each paragraph and that is a far easier goal to think about than finding 500 words. When you write the article, you obviously won’t have exactly 100 words in each paragraph but this rule of thumb gives you something to aim for. Decide in advance on the sub-topic of each of the main content paragraphs, you can give them subheadings if appropriate, otherwise just use the sub-topics to plan your structure.

To get a feel for structure, let’s look at an idea for an article. Our subject can be planting spring bulbs and our plan will look something like this:

Introduction - general information eg about types of bulbs available for spring flowering, type, varieties available, colors available, best time to plant, benefits of using bulbs in preference to other forms of planting.

1. Paragraph 1 - choosing the right bulbs for particular situations eg shaded ground, containers, mixed planting, indoor displays etc.
2. Paragraph 2 - planting techniques e.g. choosing growing medium for containers, choosing containers, depth to plant different species, color schemes
3. Paragraph 3 - general care e.g. watering, when to cut down, propagation, naturalizing

Closing - brief summary of topics covered or something along the lines of “if you follow this care guidance, your bulbs will provide a colorful display year after year”.

In this plan our closing paragraph is very brief but there should be no problem in writing well over 100 words for the first paragraph. In fact, if you are a bulb expert, you could write several articles based on each of the sub-topics.

If you feel you need to write an article on a particular subject but really run out of things to say, there are a couple of simple ways to bring your word count up to the level required by the article directories. Make it a rule, however, that you never use artificial padding to inflate your word count. The trick is to add words that enhance the value of your article, not just puff it up. These are legitimate ways of boosting your word count:

1. Add a sub-title to the article and use sub headings (if appropriate) for each paragraph.
2. If you use acronyms or initials, place the full term in brackets after the abbreviation. eg if you are talking about PPC, add “(this stands for Pay Per Click advertising)” after the abbreviation to add seven extra words.
3. Use quotations or statistics. Some articles can be uplifted by the use of a famous quotation. Inserting the quotation and author name adds several words but you can expand this by adding a brief biographical note about the author eg “the famous Russian metaphysical poet”. If the article is not suited to the insertion of quotations, you might be able to add an interesting statistic. The information together with details of its source will add more words.

If you follow the steps set out above, you should find it comparatively easy to write an article of sufficient length for Ezine publication.

Author:  Elaine Currie is the owner of the Free Work At Home Directory containing ideas for the best ways to make money online and author of Ezine Article Writing - 10 Steps To Success.

How to Hire Ghost Writers and Succeed in Keyword Ranking

By Darren Dunner in Featured

Recently there has been a major change taking place not only in Google but in all the search engines. The search engines have 2 goals for their users. To filter out junk web sites from natural search results, and to make money on paid advertisements which are also know as sponsored links. This competition gives the search engines the power to choose how they accept sites and which they want to exclude. Though this process is not bullet proof, you will see more sites disappearing from the top 10 of the major search engines and more relevant sites appear relating to your keyword search.

Is your site appearing in these results naturally? Are you finding that no matter what you do, there is no progress for your site, though you spend hours daily trying to make this happen?

Many websites could easily climb the keyword ranks if they just apply some standard content to their site. After much effort and time, many site owners realize they need help in this area. These site owners have hired Ghost Writers to accomplish these tasks with some to no real success.

The frustration levels now are growing all around as people realize their need for help and yet still can’t find Ghost Writers who know any better then they do. The problem is too many people are not understanding of what the real needs are, and are hiring people without this knowledge and are once again wasting time.

Service companies offering Ghost Writers know your desires to move up in keyword ranks, but this doesn’t mean they are experts in SEO. The real needs here are some simple guidelines to follow when hiring a Ghost Writers.

Know Your Site Needs More Then Ghost Writers

The most important thing you need to understand is what your site needs more then any Ghost Writer can. If you direct these writers with a well thought out plan you will see more success with your keyword ranking.

Know Your Word Count
Your first plan is to know how many words each page of your site needs. To get the Search Engines Attention you want to have at least 300 words and not more then 500 words per page. The only time you really can use more then 500 words on a single web page is if you are offering news or press.

Make Your Point Stand Out
Each page of content by the Ghost Writers should have specific points readers can focus on. There are a few ways to do this:

1. Use a numbered point system. Have a section of your content break down 3 or 5 important things in the format of Numeric points
2. Bullet point your 3 or 5 things that make that page of content clear for your readers
3. Use Sub Headings to break down your thoughts as this helps people get to the most important parts to them.

Which ever way you choose, you are structuring your content in such a way that readers can skim through your information and find what they need.

Proper Keyword or Key Phrase Placement
You do not want your pages filled with keyword or phrases randomly just to get them in your site. This only delays your keyword rankings. Instruct the Ghost Writers to dedicate each page to a specific keyword.

Now, to make this point clear not confusing, what I am saying here is you will have your basic pages of content like your home page, contact page, about us page, service page, etc. Those pages you can put in different keyword phrases in the content itself and in the meta tag areas like Meta descriptions, keywords & title of page, but only put these in if they make sense to the reader as these pages are meant to drive sales and call people to action!

Create a section on your website either via an FAQ, Information page, Blog, News or something that will allow you to have titles and descriptions that link to their own independent pages where now you can have clear content focusing on 1 keyword or phrase that make sense to the readers and tells the search engines what keyword to place you for in their rankings.

Make sure that you link the keyword at least 1 time back to your main home page, as this really helps push the search results to get people to the starting page of your site.

Only focus on 10 keywords for natural results when you first start this process. If you try for too many keywords then again you will slow down this process.

A Bit More Details on Meta Data
Make sure that your Ghost Writer includes:

1. Meta Title: This should be the primary keyword for that page along with 1 more keyword and then the name of your company. For example this article title tag could be “Ghost Writers, Keyword Ranking: The Content Writers”.
2. Meta Description: Your description should be compelling and to the point about what the particular page is about. A good description for this article could be “Ghost Writers, everything you need to know before you hire one. Read our step by step guide and watch your keyword rankings improve in no time at all”
3. Meta Keywords: Research your primary and secondary keywords first so that when you hand over the details to your Ghost Writer they will know already which ones you want. Though you already know yourself you want this included on the page of content written for easy copying and pasting. The keywords for this article could be “ghost writers, ghost writer, keyword ranking”

Final Preparation and Research To Find The Best Ghost Writers
Now that you have an idea on what you should plan for in advance this will make your Ghost Writers very happy as you are providing them with great details on what you want for main site content and for keyword site content. They know now what you are expecting in return and should speed up the process to return to you the content needed.

I want to note here that you are not presenting these writers with content for your site, only a specific outline of page names, keywords and expectation. You only need now to do a bit of research to find the best writer for your business.

When searching for a Ghost Writer you are now simplifying your search for someone who can follow your instructions rather then hope they know what they are doing for improving your keyword rankings. Here is a guide to help you find the best provider for you:

1. You want to find writers who are easily accessible via Phone or Email
2. Hire only a company that gives you a clear pricing plan so you know what to expect when all the content is complete. Typically you can have them break down a per word cost to make things really simple.
3. Have them write up 1 or 2 pages before you give the complete set of pages. This way you can see how quickly they return the content, if they followed your instructions and how well written the content is.
4. Leave a little room for content that is almost what you needed but not exactly on target. Remember, you are more of an expert then they are in your industry. This is very important because many times it is just a minor change in wording or adding a simple sentence to complete your page that you requested. If this is the case then make the fix and pay them for their work.
5. For terms of payment I suggest you work this out with them in advance but never pay 100% up front. A rule of thumb in business is let them collect 25% to 50% up front. This of course depends on your experience with them in regards to time and quality. If you see they are pretty close but need to send requests back to have fixes then try for the 25%, if they are pretty much right on target then pay the higher amount up front, and then pay them the full amount once the content is complete.

For your sites success and the success of the Ghost Writers you hire, I truly hope this information serves you well.

Author:  Darren Dunner is editor for SiteProNews, a site to help web site owners understand what is happening in the online world of Business and SEO. Darren also provides a Ghost Writers service and has been in business for over 9 years.

5 Powerful Copywriting Tips & Why You Should Use Them

By Dan Lok in Featured

One great thing about copywriting is it’s a never-ending discovery. There’s literally no end to your copywriting education. That sentiment has been echoed by all the great copywriters through the years. And quite often an experienced writer will re-discover things learned before.

Exposure, practicing, writing and learning are the only ways you’ll make the science of copywriting second nature.

And when that happens…it becomes distilled within your personality and writing style to be expressed as copywriting art. For copywriting truly is a science and an art form.

Today you’re getting 5 must-do tips that’ll help transform your copy into power copy. Absorb them and use them. They work!

If you do your own web copy, then go back and check it against what you’re about to learn. If you’ve been writing for a while, a refresher never hurt anyone. And maybe you’ll think of something new about your self and your writing.

Power Tip #1: There are a number of valuable tests to do on your own copy during the review and edit process. Here’s just one…as you read your copy ask your self, “So what?”

Have you ever read a sales letter, email, or any written advertising and thought those two words about what you read? I’m betting you have.

Well, guess what, so does everyone else. That’s why it’s so important to do this. If you cannot give a compelling and great answer to that question about your copy, then you know what to do. Edit it, revise it, or get rid of it.

Doing that one exercise for your entire piece will only make it stronger, more compelling, and more persuasive.

Power Tip #2: Maybe you don’t know that all buying decisions are based on one or more emotions at the “root” level. It’s true. Everyone ultimately buys for emotional reasons and then makes every attempt to justify it with logic. It’s simple…

Everyone wants to be right. No one likes being wrong, or being perceived as being wrong.

If you want to accomplish this feat you must appeal to emotions. Fear, greed, anger, flattery, exclusiveness, salvation, lust, desire for love. Skillfully touching one or more of those emotions will make your copy compelling and persuasive.

But how do you know which one is best to use? The answer lies in your product and market. We’ll get to how and why your market is so critical in a few minutes.

Power Tip #3: I’ve seen some disagreement with this next point. But I’ll tell you why I feel leading with your strongest point is the way to go.

The most immediate obstacle to getting your copy read is to seize and capture the reader’s attention. And then keep it. Leading with your strongest point gives you a better chance of grabbing your reader and holding on.

You hit ‘em over the proverbial head. Make them sit-up and take notice. Then you use your copywriting skill to build on that. Establish momentum and keep it going. Then…?

Move into your second strongest point. Make it compelling and gently pull your reader along. Don’t try to force it because force builds resistance. That’s not what you want.

Power Tip #4: Knowing your audience…your target market…means understanding as much about them as humanly possible. You need to know them because you need to know what motivates them to “want” to buy. If you don’t know what motivates them, how can you effectively talk to them? More importantly…

How can you get inside their head and ‘carry the conversation’?

Because the most powerful copy effortlessly makes the reader feel the words being read are “their own.” And when you do this in combination with Tip 2, then your copy takes on a life of its own.

Power Tip #5: How do you talk everyday? How do most people talk everyday? That’s exactly how you want to write your copy…in normal, conversational, every day words. Of course there are exceptions and that boils down to your product and target market. Some markets are a bit more sophisticated and you need to adjust your copy. But for the most part…just talk regular.

This goes hand-in-hand with knowing your target market and carrying the conversation in your reader’s head. This is so vitally important but I still see countless websites that violate this very basic copy rule. But now you know.

Author:  A former college dropout, Dan “The Man” Lok transformed himself from a grocery bagger in a local supermarket to an internet multi-millionaire. Discover how you can maximize your website profits in minimum time. For a limited time, you can test-drive Dan’s Insiders Club for 30-days Risk-Free and get $1,165 dollars worth of bonus gifts. Rush cover to: http://www.websiteconversionexpert.com/testdrive.html

Who Else Wants to Know How-To Write an Effective Advertisement?

By Bill Platt in Featured

Webmasters struggle everyday with the question of how they should advertise their website. There are so many advertising venues; it is hard to know which is the right venue or the right combination of advertising venues.

The answer to this question is actually simple. The right venues are the ones that allow you to earn enough sales from the placement of your advertisement to make a profit. Your advertisement should earn more money for you than it cost for you to buy the advertisement.

Choose Your Words Carefully

“If it takes a lot of words to say what you have in mind – give it more thought.” — Dennis Roth

With advertising of any type, you must learn to choose your words carefully.

Most online advertising is in the form of a classified ad. With a newspaper, you can choose any size of advertisement to communicate your message to readers. The newspaper charges you based on the number of words in your classified ad.

Online, you don’t get the option of buying additional words. Instead, you buy an ad, and the publisher tells you how many words or characters you are allowed to use in your advertisement.

Here is how the different search advertising options break down:

ExactSeek.com through the ISEDN.org network:
Headline Length: 30 characters
Description: 100 characters

Google Adwords through Google.com:
Headline Length: 25 characters
Description first line: 35 characters
Description second line: 35 characters

Overture.com through the Yahoo network:
Headline Length: 40 characters
Description: 190 characters

As you can see from these numbers, you generally do not have that much space to tell your story so you need to select words that best tell your story, using as few words as possible.

Most products or services cannot be sold in just a few words so your goal should be to get people to your website and let your website do the selling.

On your website, you can tell your story in the way it needs to be told. Your website can also answer all of the questions that the reader might have about your products or services.

Choosing The Right Formula For Your Advertising

In your own mind, you might think that people need to know all of your credentials. But, advertising should not be viewed as a “brag fest”. People do not care what you have done; they only care about what you can do for them.

So tell them how you can help them and give them a reason to visit your website for more information.

If you understand why your customers buy your products and services, then you can answer their questions and help them solve any problem they might have.

If you can solve their problems, they will buy what you are selling.

Pre-Qualify Your Visitors

If you are engaged in PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertising, you definitely need to pre-qualify your visitors in your advertising. Why pay for people to visit your website if they are not likely to buy what you are selling?

If you are engaged in selling wholesale products to retailers, why would you want to pay for visitors people whose sole intention is to buy one of what you are selling at retail prices? You wouldn’t, would you?

Provide enough detail in your advertisement to help people make an informed judgment as to whether you can actually help them accomplish what they want to accomplish.

Give your prospect enough information to skip your advertisement, if he or she will not benefit from your offer.

Even if you are using other types of advertising like pay-for- inclusion, you will still want to pre-qualify your visitors, because if you don’t, it will skew your website conversion numbers. Too many unqualified visitors to your website might give you the erroneous idea that your sales copy is not performing as well as it should.

Use Power Words In Your Advertising

“Let thy speech be short, comprehending much in a few words.” —
Aprocrypha

Copywriters are always talking about “power words” or “power phrases”. These are word combinations that influence the reader to take an action.

One example of using power words in your copy is to substitute the word “children” for the word “kids”. Parents are more influenced by the reference to children than they are by the reference to kids.

“Guaranteed” is another power word. It gives your reader an added incentive to buy what you are selling. Prospects take comfort in the idea that if they discover later that they have made a bad decision, they can always get their money back.

“Proven” is another power word. It tells your reader that you can back up what you are saying with “proof”. Your prospect can see “scientific” or empirical “evidence” that you are telling the “truth”. These are more power words for the person who is paying attention.

Power words attract attention, spur reader curiosity and compel readers to take the action that you want them to take.

Pay More Attention To Your Headline

The 25 to 40 characters that are available to you for your headline are the most important part of your advertisement, hands down.

On most websites, the headline is in bold print. The truth is your prospect will not see your description at all, if their attention is not captured first by your headline.

“Speak properly, and in as few words as you can, but always plainly; for the end of speech is not ostentation, but to be understood.” — William Penn

Test and Track Your Results

If you do not take the time or effort to track your advertising, you will never know what is, or is not, working for you.

Set up different landing pages for your ads to determine which ads are producing results and which ads are failing to deliver on their promise.

This one step will save you more money than you can imagine. It will allow you to dump the dogs and build upon your successes.

Shades Of Gray

Ad tracking will enable you to pinpoint the effect of the slightest changes in wording and presentation.

Changing one word in your headline or description could make the difference between selling one unit and selling 500 units, but without a tracking system that might never be apparent.

Let’s compare two headlines:

* Read Our Wealth Tips,

* Read Our Wealth Secrets.

Which of these two headlines is more compelling to you?

Do you see how much of a difference one word can make in your copy?

Play around with your copy to find text that is more likely to compel your reader to visit your website.

The words you use in your copy can make all of the difference in the world.

Stand Above Your Competition

The PPC advertising companies are going to hate me for telling you this, but you don’t need top placement in their search advertising results, if your ad is written better than the ads of your competitors.

The company with the most compelling headline is going to draw the attention of the reader. It’s not uncommon for the advertisement in position five or six to get the click because of a compelling headline and an attention grabbing description.

Fortunately for you, most of your competitors probably do not understand how to write an effective advertisement. This will allow you to quickly jump to the head of the class without spending more money for those higher spots in the PPC bidding process.

Start Small and Take Care With Your Advertising Budget

When you are testing new advertising copy, you should start small. You don’t want to spend $1 a click in a pay-per-click advertising venue, using an advertisement that hasn’t been tested or proven successful. To do otherwise is a waste of valuable resources.

Google Adwords ( http://adwords.google.com ) and Yahoo’s Overture( http://www.overture.com ) systems both require you to start your bidding at five cents a click.

At http://www.7search.com , you can buy advertising for as little as one cent per click.

At http://www.ExactSeek.com, the founding member of the ISEDN
(http://www.ISEDN.org), you can build an ad around a specific keyword phrase for as little as $12 per quarter or $36 per year. Your ad is then displayed through more than 200 ISEDN member websites.

After You Have Mastered The Art Of Advertising

After you have mastered the art and science of advertising, you will learn the most important lesson of all.

All venues can produce exceptional results, if you have written a compelling and effective advertisement.

When you write effective advertising copy, you will be able to convert anyone’s traffic into sales.

Author:  Bill Platt is the owner of http://thePhantomWriters.com He has been ghost writing articles for clients since 1999. And he has been providing his article distribution service since 2001. Bill can be reached by phone from 9:30am to 6pm CST, Monday through Friday at: (405) 780-7327. If you would like to learn more using article marketing to promote your online business, Bill’s website is a treasure trove of information. You may now register at his site to receive daily, weekly or monthly summaries of the articles he distributes for his clients.

Copywriting Makeover: It’s What You Say AND How You Say It

By Karon Thackston in Featured

The old cliché is wrong. All our lives we’ve heard, “It’s not what you say, but how you say it.” That may occasionally be true, but for the most part it’s what you say AND how you say it. Case in point: Announce It!, a custom candy-bar-wrapper manufacturer, had copy on their home page that was acceptable. It mentioned pretty much all the important things a site visitor would need to know about ordering candy wrappers. Yet the copy wasn’t pulling as well as it should have been.

The Problems

The target audience consists mostly of women. In addition, these women order favors for special occasions. That means (stereotypically speaking) you have people who ask a lot of questions and are especially cautious of buying something they can’t touch, feel or see (in person) for use at a major life event. Communication (what the copy says as well as how it says it) is vital.

The text had to convince women that they could trust “Announce It!” to produce something they would show off in front of all their family and friends for important occasions such as birthdays, graduations, anniversaries, weddings, showers and more. That meant answering the questions these women have as well as instilling confidence that their party favors would be the hit of the event.

Technically, the copy was OK. But it lacked excitement. No, not hype… excitement. It needed to reach out to women and make them feel welcome while also reinforcing that “Announce It!” was the perfect solution for them. You can see the original text here:.

As I’ve always said, you never want to “we” all over your copy. The content needed to speak to the site visitor, not talk about the company. The old text was full of “we” and “our” and hardly even acknowledged the site visitor.

From a search engine standpoint, the site was bouncing around a good bit. According to the site owner, “For a long time, I held the #1 position for many of my keywords. As search engines evolved, my site started bouncing. It was time to hire a professional.”

The Solution

The plan was to make the text more inviting and supportive while providing information that was easy to immediately identify. I wanted to help “Announce It!” differentiate itself from other candy-bar wrapper and favor sites. That meant making important benefits clearly visible. In addition, a glimmer of excitement would be added to the copy to get the women in the mood to buy.

A complete change of focus for the copy would also happen. Rather than “we” and “us” the copy would be directed toward the visitor while still communicating important benefits about buying from the company.

Lastly, correcting an elementary mistake would help the copy read better and assist with SEO. The hope with SEO was to give “Announce It!” some stability, as it had a history of bouncing back and forth between the first and second pages in the SERPs.

The overall goal was to increase conversions for this site. As the site owner herself said, “Without conversion, your rankings don’t mean as much. You really have to convert the visitors once they get to your page.” Oh so true!

First I introduced you to Announce It!, an online candy-bar-wrapper manufacturer that was seeking professional help with their search engine copywriting. Facing an audience that consisted primarily of women who were purchasing favors for special occasions, “Announce It!” copy had to be spot-on with its communication. The primary problems were that the copy did not convey a sense of excitement or answer all the questions customers might have. It also focused too heavily on the company rather than communicating with the site visitor.

Let’s see how the changes were worked into the copy and what the results were.

The Rewrite

You can see the original copy at http://www.copywritingcourse.com/customcandybarwrapper-original.pdf and the revised copy at http://www.copywritingcourse.com/customcandybarwrapper-new.pdf.

Headlines are one of the most important elements of advertising copy and of search engine optimization. The original web page didn’t have any type of headline — a fundamental mistake that needed to be corrected. The introduction of the text now begins with using a key phrase and stating a benefit. The headline reads:

Creative, Custom Candy-bar Wrappers Designed To Make Your Event a Hit!

Since “Announce It! key phrases all deal with candy-bar wrappers, it’s obvious that visitors who find this site are already familiar with the general product. (At least to the point of knowing what a custom candy-bar wrapper is.) The question they still have is, “Why should I buy from “Announce It!” instead of all the other candy-bar-wrapper sites?”

As the visitors read on through the copy, they find reassurance that their idea of using custom-designed candy-bar wrappers is a good one. Visitors are also provided with several benefits available from Announce It! that other companies don’t offer. For the sake of scan-ability, bullet points are used to further highlight differentiating factors about Announce It!. (Low minimum orders, free color proofs, free photo inclusion, etc.) This all helps to clearly explain why this site is the better choice over others the visitor may have gone to previously.)

Because the product itself is graphic, it was important to retain the product images used on the original home page. Certainly, customers would expect to see samples of the wrappers. However, to create a greater impact, each image was captioned with a short bit of occasion-specific, persuasive, keyword-rich copy. For instance:

“Custom candy wrappers are a truly creative way to send your retiree off in style.”

The finished product now speaks directly to the site visitor, sounds more professional, outlines important benefits and uses key phrases in an appropriate way so as not to hinder the natural flow of the copy.

The Results

The results showed improvements in both conversions and rankings. According to “Announce It!” their conversion rate quadrupled! They also report, “[The copy] has really made a difference in the way the site is perceived and how the customer reacts. I have gone from a one-person operation to a full-fledged business with five employees. The traffic and orders continue to increase every year!”

You couldn’t ask for much better than that!

Author:  Copy not getting results?  Learn to write SEO and online copywriting that impresses the engines and your visitors at http://www.copywritingcourse.com. Already know how to write, but need help using keywords?  Get Karon’s report “How To Increase Keyword Saturation (Without Destroying the Flow of Your Copy)” at http://www.copywritingcourse.com/keyword.