Top Misc Content on Internet |
| How Different Is Writing For The Web? Posted: 06 Apr 2009 12:58 PM PDT For years, my approach to writing for the Web was a lot like other writers who grew up in print advertising. Mostly, it consisted of placing brochure ware on a site. I was happy. Clients were happy. And life went on. But while I wasn't looking, the Web changed the way we communicate, the way we connect and the way we formulate opinions. How Different Is Reading for The Web? In Some Ways, The Web's Not So Different. The difference to me is, with ad copy, I feel as though I'm beguiling the reader. With the Web, the reader has opted in. It's my job not to lose him or her. What Isn't Changing. It's tough to read about marketing or even our culture at large without reading how the digital world is changing everything. Obviously, our behavior is changing. But what isn't changing? Our human nature. Our deepest primal desires, the things that have driven our decision-making for thousands of years, continue to drive us today. Bill Bernbach was quoted as saying "It is fashionable to talk about changing man. A communicator must be concerned with unchanging man." Far more recently, in a Wired article entitled, "Is Advertising Dead?" Michael Schrage writes, "time and geography—more than human nature—separates the captive crowds at the Roman Colosseum from user lists on the Internet." What this tells me is that we're not evolving into emotion-less drones seeking only information, facts, twits and the opinions of our peers online. We can be entertained. We can be engaged. We can even be persuaded. Online, Are Creativity and Effectiveness Mutually Exclusive? Of course not. I'm beginning to see more and more Web 2.0 sites that are adept at telling a good story and keeping content fresh and dynamic. But there are still plenty of proponents of We 2.0 who are convinced otherwise. This should go without saying but it always seems to get lost in the discussion of Web content: Make the copy interesting (See my last blog). Certainly there are guidelines you should follow when you're developing content for the Web. But at the end of the day, good writing is good writing. |
| Residential Elevators - A Practical Addition in Multi Level Homes Posted: 02 Apr 2009 10:00 PM PDT Residential elevators are a practical addition in multi-level homes as they help disabled to move from floor to floor. |
| Affordable Answering Service for Small Business Posted: 02 Apr 2009 10:00 PM PDT With affordable answering service, small business firms can enjoy cost savings and productivity benefits. |
| Advantages of Phone Answering Service Posted: 02 Apr 2009 10:00 PM PDT Advantages of phone answering service include powerful phone features, scalability, and flexibility. |
| How to Earn Extra Cash with Online Surveys Posted: 02 Apr 2009 10:00 PM PDT This article explained the in and out of making money online with Online Surveys. It will give you the insight of how it really works and the best way you can benefit from it. |
| Legitimate Work From Home Jobs - Is it Money You Want. Here it Is. Take It. Posted: 02 Apr 2009 10:00 PM PDT Am sure by now you already know or have heard about online jobs for stay at home moms and how they have managed to transform the lives of everyday women just like you. It's only with online jobs for stay at home that you will be able to earn an income. |
| Realise the Importance of Travel Insurance Posted: 02 Apr 2009 10:00 PM PDT Learn about how important it is to make users that you have appropriate travel insurance. |
| Get Car Insurance that is Affordable Posted: 02 Apr 2009 10:00 PM PDT An articles that provides information in relation to lowering the cost of car insurance. |
| Why Debt Settlement Companies Can Get You Hospital Bill Help Posted: 02 Apr 2009 10:00 PM PDT Many people think that if a debt settlement company can work out a deal with a hospital or collector, that they should be able to do the same thing. Unfortunately, this isn't always the case, and many people don't get the help that they need. |
| Get Out of Debt by Getting Help with Medical Bills Posted: 02 Apr 2009 10:00 PM PDT Whether you've got medical debt because you can't afford health insurance, or because you or a family member has an illness that requires a lot of medical care beyond insurance standards, you don't have to accept it and live with the debt. |
| Posted: 02 Apr 2009 10:00 PM PDT Car accidents have become more common nowadays and car accidents lawyers have increased in number. How to find a good car accident lawyer? Is the question that comes to mind when you are involved in an accident. A good car accident lawyer can be identified by the work they have done. You have to check with the previous cases that the lawyers have handled and find whether they are successful or not. Also check with the clients. |
| Wrongful Death Lawsuits and Lawsuit Settlement Loans Posted: 02 Apr 2009 10:00 PM PDT Learn how plaintiffs in the middle of a wrongful death lawsuit can get financial support with a lawsuit settlement loan. |
| 5 Tips on How to Find Your Dream Job Posted: 02 Apr 2009 10:00 PM PDT We're all feeling the pressure of the economy and some of us are considering changing careers. But how do you find your dream job? Here are some tips to help you along the way. |
| Valuable Points about VAT Return Posted: 02 Apr 2009 10:00 PM PDT Filing a VAT return is a complicated task especially if you are unaware of the procedures. To do so efficiently it is a must to keep record of book services and maintain accounts properly so that one can do the audit smoothly. In such situation it is often wise to take help of an expert in this field. |
| Points to be Noted for Payroll Services Posted: 02 Apr 2009 10:00 PM PDT Selecting a payroll service is often a crucial task as it involves assessment of ones resources. The usual trend is to use payroll software that allows you to generate checks and check filing of tax return. However it is essential to install and manage this software in a professional fashion and for that you must take help of experts in this domain. |
| Why You Need a Security Sales Elevator Pitch Posted: 02 Apr 2009 10:00 PM PDT When someone asks What do you do? how do you answer? If you say, I sell security systems, you need to be ready with a killer elevator pitch. Here's how to create one to boost your security sales opportunities. |
| First 2 Words: A Signal for the Scanning Eye (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox) Posted: 06 Apr 2009 01:56 PM PDT איך 11 האותיות הראשונות בשמו של הלינק קובעות האם אנשים יבינו מה יש שם וגם ירצו להגיע לשם. לפי הנתונים, אנשים קוראים רק 11 אותיות ראשונות כדי לקבוע דיעה. |
| First 2 Words: A Signal for the Scanning Eye (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox) Posted: 06 Apr 2009 01:53 PM PDT |
| First 2 Words: A Signal for the Scanning Eye (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox) Posted: 06 Apr 2009 01:37 PM PDT |
| First 2 Words: A Signal for the Scanning Eye (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox) Posted: 06 Apr 2009 01:09 PM PDT Testing how well people understand a link's first 11 characters shows whether sites write for users, who typically scan rather than read lists of items. |
| First 2 Words: A Signal for the Scanning Eye (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox) Posted: 06 Apr 2009 12:59 PM PDT |
| First 2 Words: A Signal for the Scanning Eye (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox) Posted: 06 Apr 2009 11:08 AM PDT Our newest usability study — in preparation for the new Writing for the Web 2 course — tests how well users understand the first 11 characters of a website's links and headlines. For example, we'd represent this article by the "First 2 Wor" string. (Note how the guideline to show numbers as numerals lets me squeeze more meaning into this tiny stump of text.) On Web and intranet pages, lists occur in many places, including: * Search engine results pages (SERP) * Lists of current or archived articles, headlines, press releases, and other news items * Product listings on category pages * Table of contents (ToC) listings * Question lists that serve as ToCs at the top of FAQ (frequently asked questions) pages * Bulleted or numbered lists, checklists, task steps on a help page or job aid, etc. |
| First 2 Words: A Signal for the Scanning Eye (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox) Posted: 06 Apr 2009 10:48 AM PDT |
| A List Apart: Articles: In Defense of Readers Posted: 06 Apr 2009 10:41 AM PDT Layout and design can help your audience focus on and actually read your content. |
| First 2 Words: A Signal for the Scanning Eye (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox) Posted: 06 Apr 2009 10:32 AM PDT |
| First 2 Words: A Signal for the Scanning Eye (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox) Posted: 06 Apr 2009 10:32 AM PDT |
| First 2 Words: A Signal for the Scanning Eye (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox) Posted: 06 Apr 2009 10:15 AM PDT |
| First 2 Words: A Signal for the Scanning Eye (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox) Posted: 06 Apr 2009 09:48 AM PDT |
| First 2 Words: A Signal for the Scanning Eye (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox) Posted: 06 Apr 2009 09:45 AM PDT |
| First 2 Words: A Signal for the Scanning Eye (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox) Posted: 06 Apr 2009 09:41 AM PDT |
| First 2 Words: A Signal for the Scanning Eye (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox) Posted: 06 Apr 2009 09:27 AM PDT |
| Posted: 06 Apr 2009 08:13 AM PDT
It can’t be bargained with. It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever. ~ Kyle Reese, The Terminator Remember the first time you saw it? The yellow highlighter? The centered red headlines? The fake handwriting and the blinking arrows? You thought the same thing everyone thinks. "Who in their right mind would give this person a credit card number?" You didn't realize what a ruthless, efficient machine you were looking at. In case you don't know the genre, what many people call those awful sales pages are the internet version of an old copywriting tradition known as long-form copy. Long copy isn't new to the web. Decades ago, successful direct mail copywriters like Gary Bencivenga and Gene Schwartz noticed that "the more you told, the more you sold." In other words, the more relevant, compelling information they could cram into a piece of physical mail, the more likely it was that the customer would buy. Bencivenga in particular liked to push things to almost absurd extremes with direct mail pieces called "magalogs," which were sometimes nearly as long as the books they were designed to sell. But if direct mail was the birthplace of long copy, the Internet was responsible for bringing the form to tens of millions of new readers. The ugliest web pages in historyAbout 20 minutes after the development of HTML, some clever copywriter worked out a formula to use long copy to sell stuff on the Internet. The layout was hideous, but since everything on the web was hideous back then, it wasn't a major impediment. Subheads were marked up in bold red type to make the copy easy to skim. Key selling points were highlighted with a yellow background or other eye-catching formats. The format spread because it worked startlingly well. It let the reader skim quickly to figure out if the page would solve his problem, then go back through and read the points that would answer his questions and address his objections. If he wanted to solve his problem badly enough, and if the copy addressed his concerns, he bought. No one wanted to change the format because, against all common sense and design decency, it works. At least sometimes. If you're selling to cold prospects with a specific problem to solve (the kind of customers you'll find with a pay-per-click campaign, for example), a nice long-copy sales page is a great tool. It gives prospects a way to navigate a large amount of information and figure out if this product is something that will help them, and doesn't provide any distractions that would lead them away from the sale. But pay-per-click is getting expensive. The prevalence of viruses and malware have raised users' defenses about what they find on the net, especially if they don't know you. And high-pressure squeeze techniques turn off an unacceptable number of potential customers. The Terminator has been thrown off a 47-story building, flattened by a steamroller, and liquidated in a vat of molten metal. So it's dead, right? What do you think? It livesTake a look at the best persuasive content you've been seeing lately. You'll find lots of video. White papers and special reports. Tips, tricks and an ever expanding "free line" of material that's actually useful. Product Launch Formula founder Jeff Walker came up with an interesting way of describing the new approach. His friendly, conversational email sequences became a "sideways sales letter." Walker is a great example of a sharp marketer who knows he has a better shot at his prospects if he gently ropes them in with a net of high-quality, relationship-building content, rather than trying to harpoon the sale in a single shot. The copy is just as long (or longer) than the lengthy pages created by more traditional copywriters. It does all the same work—answering the most frequently-raised objections, building rapport, presenting benefits, building urgency. But it's delivered over time, and in a friendly, relaxed tone of voice. It doesn't seem desperate. And it doesn't burn out the prospect. Even if the prospect doesn't buy this time, he's in a great mood to buy something else down the line.
The next time you say that you "hate cheesy long sales pages," start paying attention to the sales copy that does persuade you. See if you can spot the classic persuasion techniques when they're presented in a new wrapper. The Terminator will never give up, but it does change form every once in awhile. This particular incarnation is a lot more attractive (and, in my opinion, more fun) than the old version. About the Author: Sonia Simone is Senior Editor of Copyblogger and the founder of Remarkable Communication.  |
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