Breathe New Life Into Your Half-Dead Website By Using Words That Sell

By David Peterson
Posted Thursday, July 22, 2004

This article may come as a surprise to you.

Especially since it is written by a web designer. Let me explain......

Rescue Your Web Site from Boring Words and Poor Design.

The difference between a successful website design and a site that brings in zero or very little business is not how nice the graphics are, not the colors you choose. It's not the flashy animation, and it's not your precious company logo.

I'm not saying to remove these elements. Some of them are important. But they're mostly ego-driven. They are "me" messages, and have absolutely nothing to do with what you want your visitor to do.

And what is that you ask? The answer is of course. You want your visitors to buy something.

People who are considering doing business with you are only interested in one thing; "What's In It For Me?"

One of the first steps toward a successful website is writing copy that tells the reader what's in it for him, in a style that is easy to read.

Make More Cash

Study any website that makes money and I promise you'll see the following copy elements in place:

In the main body copy, the text color is always black with a white background, making it easy to read. This should be obvious, but it's amazing how many websites out there do not follow this very basic guideline.

Testimonials, and other secondary elements commonly use a contrasting font such as courier, courier new. The background in light blue, beige, or yellow shade to make it stand apart from the white background of the main body copy.

Verdana is the most widely used font for your body copy. This font was actually developed for use in the web. Times New Roman, Arial, and Georgiana are also popular. Never use more than two different font faces in your sales copy.

The use of yellow highlights, italics and bold font-style for emphasis.

Headlines and Subheads are usually a contrasting color from the black body text. A shade of red, dark green and dark blue are good colors. However, do not use more than three or four different colors.

Sentence and paragraph font size is commonly between 8pt. and 12pt. Never smaller than that, and never bigger.

Headlines and sub headlines usually between 14pt. and 18pt.

Paragraphs never justified. Most common is left-margin with no indent.

How To Write Successful Headlines

In your sales copy you need an attention-grabbing headline and a compelling sales message full of benefits, clearly describing what your product or service is all about.

Legendary copywriter Ted Nicholas author of 14 best-selling books including "Magic Words That Bring You Riches" has these excellent tips on writing headlines

"Start with a well thought out headline."

"Five times as many people read the headline as the body copy. It makes sense, therefore, to spend the major portion of your effort on headlines."

"A good headline motivates action by stirring an emotion"

"Write as many as 250 headlines before settling on one"

13 Proven Headline Words

Announcing...

Secrets of...

New...

Now...

Amazing...

Facts you...

Breakthrough...

At Last...

Advice to...

The truth of...

Free...

How would...

How to...

How To Write Attention-Grabbing First Sentences

Joe Sugarman (of blu-blocker sunglass fame) and author of best-selling book "Advertising Secrets of the Written Word" has these tips on writing first sentences;

"Keep it short, sweet and almost incomplete."

For example:

It's easy.

It had to happen.

It's time.

It's crazy.

The sole purpose of the first sentence is to get you to read the second sentence.

How To Write Attention-Grabbing Ending Sentences

"You must plant seeds of curiosity for the reader." "At the end of a paragraph offer a reason to read the next paragraph."

Using sentences such as.....

But there's more.

So read on.

But I didn't stop there.

Let me explain.

Now here comes the good part.

These tips represent just the tip of the iceberg on breathing new life into your half-dead web site.

We'll cover all of the other necessary elements in future articles. Stay tuned.

I hope that you have found this information to be helpful in your pursuit of excellence. Thank you for reading.

Regards,

Dave Peterson

About The Author
Dave is not only a Professional Website Designer. He also incorporates exciting state-of-the-art marketing strategies and expertise that help clients put more cash in there pockets. Providing great value to his clients.