Rock Solid Writing » website design

Copywriting Tip: Why Bad Writing happens to Good People

David Denis — Mon, 10 May 2010 16:00:08 +0000

It’s called a POINT for a reason — it’s not dull.

Most people, probably you in fact, are scared by hard concrete words. We think that we must use safe language. Language with the teeth and claws pulled out. Language that is soft, squishy and fuzzy. We think sounding obtuse makes us sound smarter.

The urge to de-fang strong direct sentences is a powerful one. The fear of offending someone, or excluding something makes us queasy. We are afraid to write with words that poke at, or strike, or (God Forbid) even explode upon the reader’s consciousness.

Listen to what Dan Heath from Fast Company says about this, as applied to the writing of Mission Statements.

This is not just about your mission statement. It’s about your website. It’s about your brochures, tear sheets, email campaigns and print ads. It’s about any message you put out there to promote your business that sucks because you were too scared to say it outright and let it go at that.

Stop trying to sound like a PhD in Blabology (unless of course you actually are a PhD in Blabology). Start writing and talking like a real flesh and blood human being with a beating heart and a brilliantly electric brain. Your readers will respond with cheers and hoots and hollers and probably more than one standing O. Why? Because they like reading things that don’t sound like they were penned by a moron.

Got it? Good. Now go do it. I dare you.

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To learn more, or request a quote visit http://www.rocksolidwriting.com/freelance-writer-quote/

Copywriting Tip: Exploit the Curiosity Gap

David Denis — Fri, 07 May 2010 15:09:19 +0000

What’s Your Copy Writing Secret Weapon?

The “Curiosity Gap” is the difference between what you know and what you want to know. When used properly, there is no defense. Your readers will be unable to resist the lure and will come to your website over and over again to satisfy the itch of their curiosity.

It’s not just about headlines, as in the example presented here by Dan Heath of Fast Company. It’s about providing value that your clients and prospects really want. If you regularly post information that is useful, helpful or revealing, people will keep coming back just to see what you are going to post next. The Curiosity Gap will draw them in.

It’s not all about keywords and search engines. It’s also about content and visitors.

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David is a freelance writer for hire offering article writing, sales letters, training manuals, speech writing, seo content, sales writing, blog articles, copywriting service, sales scripts and business name ideas.
To learn more, or request a quote visit http://www.rocksolidwriting.com/freelance-writer-quote/

Copywriting Example – Interim Management Solutions

David Denis — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 16:31:17 +0000

Interim Management Solutions provides consulting for businesses in transition. As a business grows, it passes through stages where their old ways of doing things no longer serve them well. IMS can step in with solid advice that comes from years of experience to help guide businesses through the choppy waters of change.

IMS is itself going through some change. They want to upgrade and improve their website so that it does more than passively profile their business. It should give a visitor valuable information, promote IMS as the best solution, and sell their business.

IMS is working with Neil Burtt over at You Promote LLC on their website upgrade. Neil specializes in creating promotional websites for small and medium sized businesses – websites that get results without breaking the bank.

The first step in the transformation of the IMS site is rebuilding the home page, starting with the copy. Neil called me to see if I would work on it.

The original copy was descriptive, but unfocused and a little bogged down with management book jargon. After a half hour interview with Ed Jaferian, one of the owners, I crafted some strong copy that is much more accessible so that the reader will quickly grasp what IMS does. These descriptions will ultimately be linked to other pages where the visitor can get more detail and see and offer for consultation.

As I told Ed, when I write copy for business sites like his, I target three major areas:

Eliminating jargon and using plain English
Using direct, strong, simple language in the active voice.
Writing with short well-structured paragraphs that can be easily scanned and understood.
Promoting and selling your business with benefits and regular calls to action.

Ed was so happy with the result that he wrote me an email, saying, “You have done a great job in capturing the essence of what I have been struggling to say.”

We are exploring improvements to the rest of the website as well, including fresher graphic design, stronger copy for the other pages, and search engine optimization. In particular, we are suggesting an email capture feature, where IMS will offer a useful report or “white paper” in exchange for the email of the visitor. This is the beginning of Relationship Marketing, a model that I think has huge potential for IMS down the road.

Be sure to click on the Link to view the current home page of IMS.

Copywriting for Semiconductorsupport.com Website

David Denis — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:01:36 +0000

As a freelance copy writer I write compelling copy for business websites. Recently I wrote some powerful content for a promotional website for Taylor Tech.

Taylor Tech services machines that process semiconductor chips after they have been imprinted with circuitry. He first attempted to create a website on the cheap using a popular hosting service. After realizing that his website wasn’t doing anything for his business, he decided to get professional help, so he asked Neil Burtt at You Promote to help him create a website that will both improve his brand image and generate warm leads by creating organic search traffic. You Promote specializes in creating low cost websites for small and medium sized businesses; sites that are engineered to effectively and actively promote your business online.

As part of the You Promote freelance contract team, I was privileged to write the copy for the new website. My focus was threefold:

Clearly explain to visitors what Taylor Tech does – make it easy for visitors to grab the main ideas.
Optimize the content for search engines – contribute to high search ranking results.
Sell Taylor Tech — encourage the visitor to contact Taylor Tech to engage their services.

Go to www.semiconductorsupport.com to see how professionally written copy can make your website light up.

If you want powerful professional copy for your website, blog or newsletter, go to the Request a Quote page on this website to request a consultation on your copywriting needs for your web content.

The Copywriter connects SEO elements

David Denis — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 04:11:51 +0000

Ask Kalena – A Search Advice Column is a pretty darn good blog about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM). Kalena offers a course in SEO/SEM that attempts to provide something close to certification in the field — a comprehensive course in best practices and how to.

Back in 2008 Sarah Parker quoted from a presentation conducted by Ciarran Norris about Copy Writing for Search. It outlines the importance of clear and concise headlines, first lines, keyword analysis, link placement, and track backs. It’s all about simple mechanics. Make sure your website uses all the arrows your SEO quiver.

BUT…this works best when the copywriter weaves it into the warp and weft of the text so that it isn’t even noticed. The only people who will really see it are the search engine spiders and the experience SEO engineer. The spiders will respond by giving your site high rankings. The SEO folks will nod appreciatively at a job well and artfully done.

And most important of all, your site visitors will get the information they need, and keep coming back for more because the quality and content were simply that good.

Copywriting stitches it all together.

If you want to know more about how I can stitch together all the best aspects of your websites, go to my contact page and request a quote.

Blog Writing Tip – Writing for “You”

David Denis — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 16:00:53 +0000

The blog over at Harbor Light Strategic Marketing has a good tip on how to write blog posts that will engage your readers.

It reminds me of advice I received from Mark Pfeiffer, a mentor of mine and one of the best salesmen I have ever met. He is a huge advocate of using the word “you” as much as possible. He thought of “you” as the ultimate benefit statement.

Use your blog to promote your benefits

When selling (or promoting, or persuading) you must focus every point you make on the benefit of your point to your customer. In other words, it’s not about the thing, it is about what the thing will do for your prospect. Solving a problem, creating value, improving profit, reducing expenses — those are benefits.

Use “You” and “Yours” as often as you can in your blog articles

Mark believed that when you frame every sentence as a “you statement” everything you say comes out as a benefit. I don’t really think it’s exactly a one-to-one relationship, but the principle is valuable regardless. When you make your blog posts oriented to “you” your clients and prospects will more easily see the value for themselves and their businesses. When people find value in your blog they will come back to your blog over and over again and build a relationship that will make selling to them easier when the time comes.

Keep this in mind when you write your blogs.

Or…if you would like to use blogs to market your business, but you find the idea of all the writing just impractical, contact me. We can discuss how I can help you make it easier to use blogs to attract high quality clients.

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For information on how I can help you write your blog, newsletter, or web content go to my request a quote page.

Article Marketing and the Web Marketing Pie

David Denis — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:00:04 +0000

Nicki Hicks, Search Engine Marketer at Flyte, a Maine Inter net Market ing and web design company, wrote a good article on the different slices of the internet marketing pie. Driving your business growth through internet marketing is never about just one thing. It’s about doing lots of things that, when taken together, will drive prospects to your business and increase your sales. Nicki provides a good explanation of all the options and how they may or may not work for your business.

I will note that she calls article marketing “age old, tried and true, and always something you can count on.” It’s a good alternative (or complement) to a blog and when done properly and consistently will bring organic traffic to your site. If the idea of writing all those articles (or blog posts) just makes you want to roll your eyes back in your head and pass out…call me. That’s where I can help.

SEO Marketing – Recognizing Strong Web Content

David Denis — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:00:07 +0000

It’s never just one thing.

When your website is successfully driving traffic to your business, it’s not because you did just one thing right. It’s because you did many things right. Your website has to be structured properly and optimized behind the scenes for search engines to find you. Your front end — the content that visitors read — must also be done right. The right keywords is a huge part of the mix, but if you want people coming back to your site again and again, you need content that is compelling and fresh on many fronts.

Stoney Degeyter, over at the Search Engine Guide has a great article on the Best Damn Web Marketing Checklist for Website Content. It lists 23 factors that affect the quality of your content. Many of them have nothing to do with keywords, but everything to do with giving visitors a reason to trust and love your website.

Why SEO Content is Key to your Web Success

David Denis — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:05:52 +0000

On the Internet, content is king. SEO Content is Emperor.

If you are using the Internet to sell or market your products or services, then fresh compelling content is just as important as a well designed website. SEO Content is what search engines key on so that your prospects can find you. Valuable SEO Content keeps prospects (and clients) coming back to your website so that you can form a relationship with them.

3 Qualities of Powerful SEO Writing

Your website content must be fresh. People come back to see what’s new. If first time visitors see that you haven’t updated your site in months, your credibility takes a hit.
Your website content must be useful. The facts and ideas have to provide value to your visitors. If they perceive value in your website, they will see value in your services.
Your website content must be Search Engine Optimized (SEO) so that your website actually gets the visitors you want.

But it takes time and effort to produce content. This is where Rock Solid Writing comes in. We provide SEO Content for websites

Top Prospects of SEO Writing Services by Rock Solid Writing

Web Design Firms
Internet Entrepreneurs
Realtors
Insurance Agencies
Retailers
Corporate Blogs
E-Zine Editors and producers
And many other applications

How Can Rock Solid Writing help?

Rock Solid Writing provides professionally written SEO content for your website. We deliver:

High quality writing,
SEO compliant articles
On time

We dedicate ourselves to making appealing useful articles that will drive traffic to your website and keep them coming back for more.

Once people find you, they will love you and do business with you.

But it all starts with content.

To learn more, or to request a quote on SEO Articles for your website, click on Request a Quote on the menu above.