Web Content

When you write a web page, give it the “help a friend test”.

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help a friend web copyThe help a friend test is a simple analogy. I have used it before, and so have others.

But this has been the foundation on which I have built every line of copy and content I have written over the past 30 years. It worked when I started out, and it still works now.

Here is the basic approach

Before you write any content or copy for a web page (or for any other medium), imagine the person who will be reading the page is actually sitting in front of you.

Let’s say it’s a friend of yours, and you’re having coffee together.

Your friend has a problem and wants to raise the topic with you because he or she knows you are something of an expert in that area.

So your friend asks you a question. For example, it might be, “Jack, I want to pay more into my retirement fund, but I still have some credit card debt to pay off. Which is more important…adding to my retirement fund or paying off the cards?”

Yes, your friend has a problem and is actively seeking advice and help.

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In the world of social media you can’t automate engagement.

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social engagement conversationIf you want to understand how social media works, have a look at how you use it in your personal life.

You use it to keep in touch, let people know what’s happening in your life, and keep up with what’s happening in their lives.

It’s like an always-on, totally connected, interactive, multimedia round-robin letter. Best of all, the totality of content created by individuals on social media is comprised not of the original updates, tweets and posts created, but of the feedback and interaction that follows. Write 5 lines of family news and within a few hours you’ll have 20 lines of comments and feedback.

Now look at how companies and organizations use it.

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The geeks have done their part for social media. Now it’s time for the writers.

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social media writing toolboxWhat do I mean by this?

Let me explain with a story from 1998.That was the year I began to work full-time as an online writer and copywriter.

By that time hundreds of thousands of companies had already launched websites. Generally, they looked reasonably good and worked reasonably well. But the writing was not so good. What many of them did was simply cut and paste text from their old print materials.

They didn’t understand that writing for the web was different. And that was the message I shared with my audience and my clients.

The developers and designers had done their part. But to make websites achieve their potential, these companies needed good writers who understood the medium.

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To write a great homepage, try the “no-body-copy” test.

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write homepage

First things first. This test and approach applies to static home pages for sites that sell stuff — products, services and subscriptions etc. It does not apply to publishers, blogs or websites which have a blog on the home page.

With that out of the way, let’s begin.

When working with clients on their home pages I will often suggest the following:

“Let’s take a screenshot of the first screen of your homepage, erase all the body text, and then see how much of your core message survives.”

To put it another way, I want to see how much of the site’s message survives if people read only the headlines, subheads and text links.

What’s the point?

Because that’s how first-time visitors actually behave when they arrive on your homepage for the first time.

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4 Bad habits to avoid when writing web content.

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web content bad habitsSince the arrival of Google’s Panda update in February of last year content writers have been working hard to do the right thing, and either avoid being mauled by the Panda, or the mend the damage already done.

However, to be sure you doing things right, you not only have to follow best content practices, but also need to avoid some of the bad habits it’s so easy to slip into.

Here are four of those habits.

Bad Habit #1: Making it just good enough

As web content writers we are often under pressure to get more work done, faster. This means we often end up writing just enough text for a page, with a quality that is just good enough.

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14 Ways to Make Money as an Online Writer or Copywriter [SLIDESHOW]

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online copywriting opportunitiesThe great thing about writing for the web is the incredible variety it offers.

Back when I was writing direct mail, that’s all I did all day, every day, for about 15 years. And the other copywriters I knew did the same. We were one-trick ponies. Very good at what we did, but more than a little limited in our scope.

That’s probably why I finally burned out and jumped over to writing for the web full time in 1998.

Here I am, 14 years later, and a million miles away for any sense of burnout.

Why did I burn out after 15 years writing direct mail, but not after 14 years writing for the web? Because of the incredible variety.

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