Archive for Copywriting

Get To the Point, Already!

Unless you want your writing to be discarded, you must lead with the point, rather than build to the point. Your thesis must be stated clearly and early.
You’ve got just seconds to grab readers before you lose them to information overload.
In fact, the chances are extremely high that most readers will only read your opening [...]

Tell Your Story With E-Books

The world of information is drastically changing
We want our information short and sweet
Blogs are on the rise
Twitter only allows us 140 characters to tell our full story
People are in such a hurry nowadays
They don’t want to read books any more
Everyone wants their information concise and to the point
But you still have to tell your story
He [...]

Should Your Writing Be Concise, Clear, or Artful?

Jesse Hines, freelance writer and author of Robust Writing, once wrote a post entitled “The Key to Writing Concisely.” His post consists of two sentences:
“Only write what is absolutely necessary to make your point. Not a word more.”
Jesse has an excellent point. Numerous words can be chopped from most writing while still preserving the point, [...]

A Pleading Letter to You from Your Website

Dear Business Owner,
Please forgive me if I sound ungrateful. I love my new look, I really do. I love to strut in front of your clients, my colors shimmering, my navigation sharp as an army regiment, my product store organized flawlessly. It’s just that…
To be candid, I want to know when I can be a [...]

How to Grip Website Visitors in the Vise of Persuasion

Every time I write a website I use the following checklist to ensure optimal effectiveness.
First, understand the ends of these means: 1) surprise and delight readers; catch them off guard to enhance the experience and insert your business into their memory, 2) vividly illustrate why potential customers should buy from you, and 3) answer their [...]

Improve Your Writing With These Essential Books

This is a follow-up post to my last post.
Want to improve your writing and knock the socks off your readers? Then rush to Amazon as fast as your fingers can carry you and seize these books:

Any one of these will endow you with unprecedented power from the writing gods. And reading all of them will [...]

Never Underestimate the Power of Words

Identify significant shifts in history and you’ll find word-warriors, slicing through status quo debris with sharp words, lighting the souls of men with fiery words, subduing anger with gentle words.
Martin Luther’s 95 Theses incited the Protestant Reformation. Thomas Paine’s Common Sense united angry colonists. Harriet Beecher Stowe pierced through the vile darkness of slavery with [...]

Are You Shouting At Your Audience Unintentionally ?

Is your blog and/or advertising campaign a bullhorn, or a living room?
Publishing platforms, such as blogs, give you a bullhorn. Here’s the problem with that — no one likes to be shouted at.
The police use bullhorns, as do obnoxious activists. People get shouted at by parents, teachers, bosses, and other authority figures. Pushy salespersons use [...]

3 Simple Steps to Dramatically Improved Writing

Amateurs write for the sake of writing. While this may create copious amounts of inconsequential content or provide them personal pleasure, it does nothing to increase business prospects, improve the world, or move their audience to take action.
So what is the goal of great writing, and how can it change your presentations?
Professional writers always have [...]

Images Vs. Plot: Why Copywriting Is More Important Than Web Design

I was recently holding my one year-old, Avery, while my three year-old, Libby, was watching the Disney movie Tarzan. Of course, Avery is never interested in TV and I was thinking about why.
Then it hit me — since she can’t understand the dialogue, plot, and characters, TV is nothing but a series of colorful, flashing [...]