One Stop Web Support Newsletter #69
August 17, 2008
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One Stop Web Support Newsletter #69
Jeff Baas - One Stop Web Support
http://www.OneStopWebSupport.com/
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Five Simple Ways to Get Visitors to Stay on Your Site and Increase Your Sales
Compelling copy is essential to persuading your site visitors not only to stay, but to buy. Graphics may attract the eye, but without words to make the sale, all you have is a pretty page. How you format your copy, though, is just as essential for retaining and persuading your visitors as the copy itself.
Repeated studies have shown that people read website content in a fundamentally different way than they read printed content. Solid blocks of text on a website drive people directly to their Back buttons.
In the rush-rush world of web browsing, people want their information neatly packaged for quick skimming, so they can immediately assess whether your page is worth exploring in more depth. That means you need to format your copy to be quickly and easily skimmable and scannable.
The five best ways to do this are:
- Subheadlines
- Bullets
- Bolding
- Hyperlinks
- White space
Subheadlines
Subheadlines display a general outline of your copy for your visitors.
Break your content into logical chunks of two or three paragraphs. Give each chunk a descriptive subheadline. Then go back over your page and skim down it, looking only at the subheadlines.
Do you get the general idea of the page just from the subheadlines? Would someone who comes to your page looking for a solution to whatever problem you provide feel reassured from the subheadlines that they'll find what they need there?
You want to give visitors a good feel for your page, one that reassures then that they are in the right place.
Furthermore, you want your subheadlines to intrigue them. You want to interest them enough with your subheadlines that they'll naturally find themselves sliding right into reading the details in your copy.
Good subheadlines give readers multiple entry points into your content. As they skim your page, they are able to jump into it at any point that particularly connects with their needs.
Bullets
Bullets are another way to give your visitors a quick way to absorb where you're going with your copy.
Whenever possible, use bullets to display any kind of list rather than listing them in a single sentence, separated by commas.
Bullets make each item stand out. This is especially important when it comes to highlighting key concepts or benefits.
Again, this helps you arrest your visitors' attention with the precise points that they're looking for.
Bolding
Bolding a word or phrase draws readers' eyes to a key point you want them to catch in the middle of a paragraph.
Use bolding sparingly, though. Use it only for the most critical points you want them to catch. If you bold multiple items in each paragraph, your bolded items no longer stand out.
Instead, they register as nothing more than regular text.
Hyperlinks
Hyperlinks, by their nature of being noticeably different from your standard text, have much the same effect as bolding.
In fact, they often capture attention even more effectively, because they promise to lead readers to more information about specific needs or concerns. You can use hyperlinks to take them to additional pages that provide further details about the precise things they have the greatest concerns about.
Make sure, though, that you use the precise words and phrases that will catch their attention. Hyperlinking just the words "Click here" and leaving a description of what that link will answer in plain text will not be as effective as targeting the words or phrases tumbling around their brains.
White space
Ultimately, you want to create plenty of white space on your page.
Subheadlines and bullets pull key terms out of the details you provide and set them apart, creating white space. Don't leave it at just that, though.
Chunk your content into short, inviting paragraphs.
I rarely include more than two sentences in paragraphs when I write online. And ignore a lifetime of English teachers telling you never to let a single sentence stand alone in a paragraph.
Writing for online readers is different than the writing they taught you in school.
Keep your paragraphs short. Keep them feeling like they will be quick and easy to read.
You want your online copy read, not graded. Anything you can do to pull out key points and to make your copy look less dense is fair game.
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Q and A with Jeff
In this section, Jeff answers your questions about starting a business online. Here's this week's question.
I have a great idea for a business. Where do I go from here?
First, it's essential that you understand what running a business entails.
Contrary to the get-rich-quick hype that floats around the Internet, starting a business online has a lot in common with starting a business offline. You don't just slap up a website and expect the Internet to make you successful.
It doesn't work that way.
You need to figure out what precise problem people have that you can solve. You have to figure out who those people are and how to reach them. (And, no, saying that everyone on the Internet will want what you have is not figuring out who will want your product or service. It's a daydream.)
You need to do market research. Find out:
- How many people are searching for what you have
- How much competition you have for them
- What precise words and phrases they're using to search for what they want
An inexpensive source for research
One great -- and inexpensive -- way to do this is with NicheBOT, perhaps the best keyword research tool on the market.
Click on the NicheBOT link and you'll go to a page that gives you a rather lengthy description of how to use it to get tons of info about your potential customers.
Make sure, though, that you sign up for their $1, 14-day trial. Believe me, you can get a LOT of inside knowledge of your potential customers in 14 days!
A comprehensive, free tutorial on researching your business idea
Another option if you just want to see how to go about doing research is with the SiteBuildIt! Video Action Guide. Click the link and look in the upper left corner of the page.
You'll find links to an eleven-part Video Action Guide there. The guide walks you every step in deciding on a niche and researching your ideas to find whether it will be profitable for you.
It walks you through using some research tools specific to SiteBuildIt! along the way, but the tutorial is free and open to non-SiteBuildIt! owners. And many of the tools it describes are free, too.
Overall, it gives an excellent, step-by-step look at how to build a profitable business online.
The key to starting a business
The key to all of this, though, is that when you start a business online, you can't expect the simple fact that you've started a business to ensure your success.
You need to treat it like a business. That means planning and research and ongoing attention to finding and serving your customers. Make sure you run your business as a business and there's no reason to believe you can't succeed.
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HOTTEST OFFERS
Each issue, I feature what I consider the best offers available each week on worthwhile business-building tools. Check here to see what's hot this week.
http://www.OneStopWebSupport.com/hot-offers.htm
Or check to see my growing selection of ebooks and training tools that you can use for free to build your Internet business.
Free Ebooks:
http://www.OneStopWebSupport.com/dir-ebooks.htm
Free Training tools:
http://www.OneStopWebSupport.com/ongoing-bargains.htm
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Success quote
'Life is not about finding yourself, it's about creating yourself.'
Unknown
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This newsletter is published by One Stop Web Support, where our business is helping your business succeed.
http://www.OneStopWebSupport.com/
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