Help Stefan CampaignCeltnet WebInfo eZine
Tuesday, June 6, 2006
In This Issue
- Window on the Web
- Featured Article:
5 Tips to Hook Your Readers with Long Copy (and keep em reading all the way to the end) - Classified Ad Board
- Comment
- Business Tip
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Window on the Web
Over the past couple of weeks I've been going through the various affiliate programs that I have a partnership with, trying to work out which ones I can leverage more sales and income from. Especially if they have localized or internationalized versions of their adverts available (more on this in the comments section). I've made several interesting discoveries from this and even ended-up dropping a few campaigns because they did not fit in with what they wanted. Some were also dropped because of the short-sightedness of the advertisers.
Internet marketing is truly international and there are ways to internationalize your web pages even further so that you can serve appropriate advertising content to your website's visitors. The comment section today gives you information on how to do this.
Dyfed
Editor/Publisher
Email me @ editor@celtnet.org.uk
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Feature Article
5 Tips to Hook Your Readers with Long Copy (and keep em reading all the way to the end)
by Cathy Goodwin
Like most solo professionals, you can't afford to sell yourself with hype. You want to create a friendly conversation with website visitors so you'll attract clients.
But a website that doesn't attract and hold attention tends to grow cobwebs. It looks sleepy!
And research shows, over and over, that long copy sells better than short copy.
So how you do create long messages that don't set your visitors to snoozing... or worse, clicking off to a more wide-awake website?
1. Write conversationally.
Lets face it: web surfers get bored like everybody else. Theyre sitting all alone with their computers and they want to feel somebody cares enough to talk to them. Reading pages and pages of copy should feel like getting a letter from a good friend.
Short copy (and short-short ezines) comes across more like a message left on an answering machine not a meaningful connection.
Ever had a phone conversation with a friend or even a business relationship when you just enjoyed talking?
You were in no hurry to hang up. You were entertained. You felt affirmed. When readers feel this way, theyll stay tuned all the way to the bottom of the page.
2. Maintain suspense.
Whether you're writing website copy or murder mysteries (my favorite leisure reading), maintain suspense. Each sentence should motivate the reader to move to the next sentence...and the next paragraph...and the next page, chapter and even book.
Im not sure who first applied the term bucket brigade to copy. But heres the idea.
Before fire departments got organized, volunteers would fight fires by lining up and passing buckets of water from the nearest well to whatever was burning. Another line would pass empty buckets back for refills. Buckets moved from hand to hand fast, no stops.
So think of each idea as a bucket you want to pass along, from one sentence to the next. Motivate the reader: Keep going! Urgent! You need to reach the end before anything else happens!
3. Ask, Whos reading? rather than How long?
Your target market really wants to learn what you have to say. They realize theyll learn from you, even if youre overtly making a sales pitch. So they keep reading....and reading.
Whats your favorite personal interest? Dogs? Cats? Hiking? Basketball? Soccer? Music? Art? Real estate?
When youre passionate, you cant learn enough. You hope the article, book or talk will go on forever. And if youve targeted right, your readers will feel the same way.
4. Encourage your readers to talk back to you.
Marketing researchers know: When we read any message, we tend to talk back! Sometimes we speak aloud (and even throw a magazine across a room doesnt work with a computer).
But most often we engage in what psychologists call counter- arguments. For example, you read, This technique will transform your cat into an obedient pet who comes when called.
You think, No way! or, You must be kidding.
We also affirm what we read.
Thats a great idea! I can save money in the long run!
And (especially if were contemplating a big-ticket item) were seeking more and more reasons to justify our buying decision.
So...youre probably ahead of me: Longer copy means more opportunities to say, Yes its for me!
5. Crawl out on the edge.
What television shows become mega-hits? I should know. Im somewhat anti-television. No cable in my home because, There are better ways to spend my time!
But what do I rent at the video store? You got it: the big HBO and Showtime series that go outside the networking programming box.
Theyre more like indie films than television and they attract audiences of millions. And just try to rent a DVD of past seasons: you get on a waiting list. (Desperate Housewives? A desperate imitation! Feel free to email if you disagree.)
Writing works the same way.
Whenever I take a risk with an edgy ezine article, a few readers unsubscribe and some even send a few grumpy emails. But I always get a few orders and queries about coaching, too.
When I write reviews for amazon.com, I just say whats on my mind. And I get some of my best clients and subscribers.
One reader even said, Do they call you Cantankerous Cathy? You never say anything nice! But she signed up for my ezine and attended three teleclasses. At least half a dozen clients claim they hired me because, they said, You tell it like it is!
Edgy for me means strong opinions and ideas. Some famous copywriters use strong, colorful language. Adapt your edginess to your audience and your own style.
Bottom line: As long as you hook the reader, maintain suspense and tell a good story, your message can be as long as you want it to be.
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About the author:
Cathy Goodwin, Ph.D., is a published author, speaker, copywriter and business consultant. Are you a solo professional who needs to sell yourself but cant afford to sound sales-y? Get my Free Report: 5 best-kept secrets of client-attracting websites when you subscribe free to the Copy Cat Ezine.
Classified Ad Board
Is your ad out yet? Subscriber and co-op ads are listed on the Classified Ad Board. The board is refreshed every issue with a new batch of ads.
Comment
Internationalizing your Pages
Internationalization is one of the buzz-words of the web today; though nobody seems to really know what this term means. Despite this, the internet is a truly international marketplace. You website copy can be read by anyone anywhere and your ads can be targetted to anyone. This is one of the big advantages of Google's Adsense system that serves localized ads based on the surfer's IP address. For most people this is the addres of their ISP or internet service provider. As IP adresses are determined by one of four international organizations it's actually possible to map an IP address to a country. In my IP to country conversion page I tell you precisely how to do this.
Armed with this information you can detect spoof IP adresses very easily as well as converting the IP address to the country of origin. Once you can do this you can begin to deliver ad content based specifically on where a surfer is coming from. In this respect the Symantec affiliate program is excellent (as is the eBay program) in that it provides distinct ads for several different countries.
Now comes the point at which I have a beef with several advertising programmes which serve US-specific content. I've applied to a number of these and have been turned down every time (because my domain is a .uk domain). Obviously the advertisers don't get the whole principle of the internet and certainly aren't aware of what someone with a little nouse and a modicum of programming skill can achieve (I'm assuming that this isn't an issue of nationalism and locality).
Personal gripe over, the truth is that the ability to determine a surfer's country of origin is a very powerful tool in the armoury of any internet marketer. You can deliver advertisements targeted to your visitor specifically and you can even develop applications such as my eBay misspelling search tool that relies on determining a surfer's country of origin to provide the appropriate version of the tool for them.
Business Tip
Diversify, but keep to the point
In previous issues of this eZine I've talked about making your website focussed and using this as the basis for communicating with your target audience. This focus on a specific area or niche should be the main theme of your website, but there is nothing to prevent you from adding as many possible sources of income as you can to your themed pages. For example, if you have a recipe site you can add Adsense advertisements, you can allow your users to perform eBay searches for kitchen tools and you can provide Amazon feeds for cookery books and kitchen utensils or kitchen equipment. This way you're maintaining your overall focus whilst giving yourself alternate sources of revenue.