Before You Hire a Website Copywriter…
December 22, 2008 by Melissa Donovan · 2 Comments
You Say You Want Web Content Writing
When you’re doing business online, it’s essential that your written content is fresh, compelling, and written specifically for your target audience. Good website copywriting can make or break a website. It can turn a casual visitor into a loyal customer or convince a shopper to buy.
Hiring a professional to do your website copywriting is a pretty good idea but what if copywriting is not the service you really need?
Tell Me What You Really Want
I get requests from clients all the time for website copywriting projects that aren’t copywriting projects at all. Here are a few examples:
- How much will it cost for you to rewrite my home page? I need to get more traffic to my site.
- I’d like to get a press release published on several major media sites. How much will that cost?
- People who visit my site aren’t buying my product. Can you review my site and give me a quote to rewrite all of it?
Before you hire a website copywriter, you need to do one simple thing: identify your primary objective.
Now, Let’s Figure Out What You Need
In the examples above, written content was not necessarily part of the business owners’ true goal. Let’s take a closer look at each request.
How much will it cost for you to rewrite my home page? I need to get more traffic to my site.
You don’t want a new home page; you want more traffic. A freshly written home page might help you get more traffic, but this request has more to do with online marketing and search engine optimization than it does with website copywriting.
To draw traffic, you usually need to do one of three things. First you can pay for advertising or use search engine marketing (SEM). Second, you can find ways to get links to your site from other sites. Finally, you can optimize your site so it draws people who are looking for your product or service using search engines. This is called search engine optimization (SEO).
Note that search engine marketing (SEM) and search engine optimization (SEO) are two different things.
SEO in particular is closely linked to website copywriting because the copywriter must use keywords in the composition of the text. However, SEO is its own field of study, and I’ll talk more about what SEO is and how it can help you get more traffic in an upcoming post.
I’d like to get a press release published on several major media sites. How much will that cost?
Every time I get this request, my first question is always, “What’s the news?” And the answer is almost always “We want to tell people about our site.”
A press release is a news item and is usually a time-sensitive announcement. If your website sells eyewear, then a press release probably isn’t right for you unless your sunglasses allow people to travel through time or your spectacles give a wearer the ability to fly. That’s news!
You can create news, of course, and then a press release will be entirely appropriate. Running a major promotion or special could be newsworthy. A new product or website launch may also be newsworthy.
Interestingly, this request isn’t really for a press release. Like the first request, what this client actually wants is more traffic. There are a lots of ways to get traffic and a press release is only one of them.
People who visit my site aren’t buying my product. Can you review my site and give me a quote to rewrite all of it?
The real question being asked is this: why aren’t people buying my product?
It may have nothing to do with the written content and everything to do with the type of traffic the site is attracting. Or, maybe it’s not so much that people aren’t buying – they just haven’t found the site at all.
What you want to know is:
- How many visitors are coming to the site?
- Who is visiting the site? Where are they coming from?
- Why aren’t they responding to the call to action?
When people aren’t buying your product or hiring you, the first thing you ned to do is check your traffic statistics to see how many people have stopped by. Your stats should tell you how long they stay on your site and which pages they read during their stay.
Next, you want to know the source of the visitors. Are they coming in through links? Social media? Search engines? Maybe the traffic you’re getting isn’t your target customer base.
For example, let’s say you’re a florist named Kate Tomlin and you grow your own lilies, so that’s the flower you feature most on your site. Due to the combination of the words “lily” and “Tomlin,” you often get search traffic for “Lily Tomlin.” In fact, you get a lot of it.
Rewriting your home page is not going to make these visitors buy your lilies because they’re not looking for flowers, they’re looking for the actress Lily Tomlin.
When Website Copywriting is Appropriate
A really good website copywriter should be able to tell you if you’re ready for copywriting services and many web content writers provide SEO copywriting and a host of services that are designed to help you get more traffic or increase sales.
At least, that’s what I do.
The Purpose of Online Marketing Strategies
December 14, 2008 by Melissa Donovan · 3 Comments
What’s the difference between traditional and online marketing strategies?
Simple. Online marketing strategies are executed entirely on the web.
Of course, that’s assuming it’s happening at all. Plenty of business owners and website managers are wandering around and handing out blank business cards. They are failing miserably at marketing their products and services online, even if they’ve established some kind of online presence.
The goal of having an online presence is to get people to visit your website, to drive traffic to the site and then convert those visitors into paying customers. That’s what online marketing strategies are all about. They have the same set of objectives as any other type of marketing strategy:
- Establish and build brand recognition
- Determine pricing and make offers
- Run advertising campaigns, promotions, discounts, and specials
In order to do all that, you need a strategy, even though…
Sometimes it Just Happens By Itself
Today I was visiting a relatively new blog, which has quickly become one of my favorites, and I noticed that the comments have just about tripled in the last couple of weeks. The blogger isn’t doing a whole lot of marketing or promotion, but people are starting to whisper and nudge each other and say, “Hey, have you been to that guy’s blog? It’s pretty cool.”
That’s what can happen when you’ve got stellar content. A buzz ensues and next thing you know, you’ve got word-of-mouth marketing working for you, and it didn’t cost you a dime.
But there are three things to keep in mind when it comes to word-of-mouth advertising: 1) The blogger wasn’t actively trying to gain a larger audience, 2) It’s completely organic, and 3) It rarely happens.
Sometimes it Never Happens
Ironically, I was visiting another favorite blog today and noticed the exact opposite thing was happening. Even though the content is strong, there has been little to no growth since I first started reading it on a regular basis about a year ago. How do I know? The blog has its subscriber count displayed and it shows less than 100 subscribers.
Most blogs will see more growth than that without carrying out any online marketing strategies. So, I poked around and realized that this blogger was doing absolutely nothing to promote the content on her blog. There wasn’t even a distinguishable brand. The site’s title was sort of sitting there doing nothing and although the content was stellar, the way it was organized, presented, and packaged had no appeal whatsoever.
Even a minuscule online marketing strategy could help this blogger. She could probably double her subscribers in a month by investing nothing more than a little time: leaving comments on other blogs, submitting a few guest posts, setting up a social media profiles with links to her blog. She could also throw a few dollars at the problem and get a decent logo and tagline, and then follow up by buying ad space on relevant sites.
Most of the Time You Make it Happen
In order to get people to your site, you need online marketing strategies that are going to work. In traditional marketing, you can do something as simple as stand on the corner of a busy intersection holding up a sign that has your business name written on it. On the web, you can invest in ads, set up social media profiles, harness the power of search engine optimization, and practice smart networking.
You can spend your time or you can spend your money. Either way, every business should invest in online marketing strategies that will drive traffic, convert visitors, and make sales.
The first step is to ask yourself how do I get people to my site? Once you pose this question, you can start looking for answers, and that is when you’ll start to uncover a whole world of online marketing strategies. One of them is sure to be the perfect fit for your products and services, your website, and you.
Need smart copy for your online marketing strategies? Check out Scribizzy’s marketing copywriting services.
Russell Simmons Recommends: Personal Success Books
December 14, 2008 by Melissa Donovan · 7 Comments
“Whatever we put our attention on grows stronger in our life; whatever we take our attention away from withers and disappears.”
-Deepak Chopra, The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success
Every entrepreneur could use a little one-on-one time with someone who started with nothing but managed to build an empire. But how do you get up close and personal with a successful mogul? How can you access the knowledge and wisdom that made him a smashing success?
A few years ago, I became disenfranchised as a typical office worker who kept postponing her dreams of one day becoming a professional writer. Around that time, I found myself paying closer attention to respected leaders in the business world, many of whom were in the public eye, and who had built their own success from the ground up.
One of those people was Russell Simmons.
Who is Russell Simmons and Why Should I Listen to Him?
Lots of small business owners and entrepreneurs have never heard of Russell Simmons but you can bet that everyone in the hip-hop community knows exactly who he is, an ordinary guy from Queens, NY, who has built one of the most successful enterprises in the world.
In 2007, USA Today named Russell Simmons one of the “Top 25 Most Influential People of the Past 20 Years.” Here are just a few of his achievements:
- Produced and managed early hip-hop artists like Run-DMC (Russell is Run’s brother) and the Beastie Boys. In 1984 he co-founded Def Jam Recordings, the first hip-hop label, which sparked an enormous cultural phenomenon.
- Established clothing lines (Phat Farm, Argyle Culture, Atman) and founded HBO’s Def Comedy Jam and Def Poetry Jam.
- As a committed philanthropist, Russell runs Rush Philanthropic, which helps disadvantaged young people experience the arts. He’s also Chairmain of the Foundation of Ethnic Understanding, an organization that works to bring unity to people of different religions and ethnicities.
Russell is also the author of the the 2008 New York Times bestseller Do You!: 12 Laws to Access the Power in You to Achieve Happiness and Success
To put it mildly, Russell Simmons is an enormous success, and what’s great about this man is that he understands success as something more than the number of dollars in your bank account, or the worth of the property you own. He knows that true success is woven through every aspect of our lives, but realizes at the same time that business success is essential to personal fulfillment.
If Russell Simmons recommends personal success books
Listening to Leaders
Lots of people want to be leaders. They claim to be authorities and maybe they have mountains of success to offer as proof of their accomplishments. But a true leader usually has a humble quality and does not keep the focus on his accomplishments; a true leader is focused on the accomplishments of those around him.
Russell Simmons shows that kind of leadership, especially in the philanthropic work he does, which is central to his life today.
One day, I was channel surfing and stumbled across a show in which Russell Simmons was mentoring his young nephew, who was just entering the business world. The first thing Russell did was hand his nephew a few books. It was his first day on the job and his very first assignment was to read The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success: A Pocketbook Guide to Fulfilling Your Dreams (One Hour of Wisdom)
That’s a long title for such a little book. I thought to myself, if this is the book Russell Simmons asks his nephew read as he ushers him into to the business world, then surely it must be worthwhile.
I ordered a copy.
Personal Success
Books about how to succeed and make tons of money are everywhere. I’ve peeked at a few of them and most of the time they’re full of common sense tips for life dressed up in business attire. Most principles in these books are easily applied to other areas of life. Conversely, the best personal success books are holistic – they explain how to achieve success in all areas of your life, business included.
I ordered this book some time ago, but didn’t sit down to read it until I was looking for something to write about for this review. I cracked it open at the end of a hectic, stressful day. I was tired, frustrated, and edgy, exhausted from a string of 14-hour workdays and obsessively thinking about all the work still ahead of me in the days to come.
Suffice to say, I wasn’t in the greatest mood.
In fact, I was feeling pretty lowdown and negative. But by the time I finished the first chapter, I felt as if a weight had been lifted. No, all my stress didn’t evaporate, but I felt calmer and more equipped to deal with the challenges ahead.
Achieve Personal Success
The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success
The book covers seven laws or guiding principles and includes insights on how to effectively harness the powers that lie within yourself and in the energies around you so that you can achieve personal success, something I usually refer to as simply, happiness.
Although the book touches on a few spiritual themes, it’s not a religious text and is in no way associated with any religion. Whether you’re devoutly religious, somewhat spiritual, or agnostic, the ideas in this book won’t conflict or interfere with your beliefs.
The author, Deepak Chopra, is an Indian medical doctor and writer. He has written extensively on spirituality and diverse topics in mind-body medicine.
Here are a few of my favorite tips and quotes from the book:
“There is nothing you lack, because your essential nature is one of pure potentiality and infinite possibilities.”
- “…success in life depends on knowing who we really are.”
- “Witness the choices you make in every moment.”
- “Attention to the whims of the ego consumes the greatest amount of energy.”
Now it’s Your Turn
What books about business or personal success do you recommend? Let’s pull together a list of good personal success books and resources to help all of us do better in business and life, online and off.
Before the Design: Claim Your Domain
December 13, 2008 by Melissa Donovan · 6 Comments
Before you think about your website design, you’ll have to find a good domain name and host so your site will have a place to live.
But what is a domain name? What’s a host? How do you get these things and do you really need them?
In today’s market, the Internet is a force to be reckoned with. That’s why every business needs a website. It’s also why every business owner needs to understand what a website is, what it needs to succeed, and how ownership works. A domain name has everything to do with ownership.
What is a domain name?
A domain name is the address of a web site: www.yourdomain.com. When you own your domain, you can add subdomains and web pages to it.
A subdomain looks like this: www.subdomain.yourdomain.com
A page on your site might look like this: www.yourdomain.com/pages/information.html
Each of these is an address. The general address of a site is usually its domain. Another term often used for a web address is URL (Uniform Resource Locator).
Why does this matter?
Owning a domain is like owning a piece of real estate. It’s digital real estate, but it’s real estate, and it has a value, especially if you’re going to use it as your online business headquarters.
The reason this is important is that some web developers and website designers will offer to set up your domain for you. This is a reasonable service for them to provide, but you need to make sure that the ownership of your domain is in your name.
If the person you hire to manage or create your site owns the domain, they have complete control over it. Should your business relationship go sour or if anything happens to that person or the company they represent, they can take your site down with them (or just run off with it).
What about all those free sites?
Free sites are great for kids, amateurs, and folks who are testing the waters of the web. Having your own domain tells people that you take what you’re doing seriously.
You can register a domain for under $10 and get a pretty decent hosting package for under $120 a year. If you’re not willing to invest that much in your business and online presence, then people will take that as a sign that you’re not serious about what you’re doing – or they might assume you don’t know what you’re doing.
What’s a hosting service?
A website is basically a bunch of electronic files that are stored on a special computer called a server. The server is configured so that the files are accessible to people with internet access. A hosting service owns the servers where your website files sit and makes those files available to web users.
You own the files, you own the domain, the host owns the computers the files are stored on and all the technology that makes your site accessible to the web-viewing public.
So, how do I buy a domain and pick a hosting service?
One popular place to buy domains on the cheap is godaddy.com but I’ve never used them personally and can’t make an official recommendation. If you choose your hosting service first, you can purchase your domains through them. It’s a standard service that every hosting provider offers.
Also, some hosting companies have pretty good technical support – people you can call or email who will help walk you through the process. They may even have designers on their staff who can help you build your site. Another option would be to hire a professional designer to create your site and whoever you hire will be able take care of the technical details for you. As previously mentioned, just make sure you own the domain.
If you decide to seek out a host, take some time and do a little research first. There are plenty of reviews online but read them with caution and discretion because you never know – the hosting company themselves may have written the review or paid someone to write it for them. As with most products and services, nothing beats a good recommendation, so start asking around.
How to Choose a Domain Name
Unfortunately, there’s a good chance that your number one choice for a domain name won’t be available. Here are some things you can do if that’s the case:
- Check the site and see if it’s active and relevant. If it’s not, you may be able to contact the owner and make an offer to buy it.
- Consider using dashes (your-domain.com).
- Add another word to the title (professionalyourdomain.com or yourdomaininc.com).
- Use one of the alternate extensions such as .org or.net.
- Pick a different title and domain name.
- Make up a name or word (like I did).
- Purchase a domain name close to the title of your site or name of your business. For example if your site will be called “Your Site” but yoursite.com is taken, you might be able to purchase “yoursite360.com” and just call it “Your Site” anyway. The title of your site doesn’t have to be the same as the domain name. But you’ll still need to use the accurate URL or domain for links, business cards, etc.
Got Questions?
Learning how all this stuff works is confusing at first – especially for people who are new to doing business online. If you still have any questions after reading this, feel free to post them in the comments.
And good luck with your domain!
Are You Cut Out for Freelance Writing?
December 6, 2008 by Melissa Donovan · 1 Comment
This post was originally published on Writing Forward (May 5, 2008). It has been slightly updated for republication here.
Freelance writers live in their own special universe. It’s a universe full of words, clients, and bottom lines. Many people dive into this universe headfirst and find out fast that it’s sink or swim. Doesn’t it sound tempting? Setting your own hours, having control over your income, making business decisions, trying to find clients, and establishing yourself as a worthwhile contender in the galactic enterprise that is your one-person business.
Make no mistake, freelancing is a business. Visions of lounging on the sands of your own private island quickly evaporate into late nights spent staring groggy-eyed into a computer screen that has become the center of your world. But there’s a light at the end of the tunnel and the light is success. Before you reach the light, before you even step into the tunnel, you have to ask yourself, are you cut out for freelance writing?
Skill
Some people will argue and claim that skill is not really a requirement for freelancers. Have a look around the web. Spelling, grammar, and punctuation are fairly optional here. Proofreading is unheard of, and most web writers seem to have never discovered the editing process. That’s fine. They can peddle $1 articles at the bidding boards. If you have serious writing skills, you can actually earn a livable wage as a freelance writer.
Drive
You’ll need someone who can pilot your space shuttle into the freelance universe and guess what? If you’re freelancing, it’s going to have to be you. This is a business, not a hobby, and it requires a considerable amount of ambition. You’ve got to want it. Bad. You won’t have a boss or any coworkers asking how that project’s coming along but you will have endless distractions and temptations vying for your attention. If you can’t commit your energies, then your ship’s going to crash.
Sacrifice
I bet some people slip into freelancing and never notice a change in their work hours. Don’t ask me where these people are. I’ve never met them. You can call yourself a freelancer until the sun spins out of its orbit, but what you really are is an entrepreneur and you know what entrepreneurs do? They work hard, long hours. They give up social activities and hobbies so they can throw their energies into the business and make it succeed. Is the sacrifice forever? I don’t think so, but expect to have very little free time during your first year or two.
Educability
Perfect! I thought I was making up the word “educability” but it turns out that it already exists. And that’s my point. You have to be willing to learn. You have to be willing to grow. I’m now in my second year of freelancing. I love it and one of the things I love most is that every single day I learn new things. I learn new stuff about writing, about people, about business, and about the universe. I learn what works, what earns money, and what kind of limits or goals I need to get myself to the next level. Much of freelancing is trial and error, especially in the beginning. Learn and live. Live and learn.
Flexibility
Some freelancers still probably operate in the real world but most of us are living and working on the Internet. The Internet changes at a rapid pace and if you’re a web-based freelancer, you have to be able to keep up. Sometimes this means adjusting your rates. Other times it means offering new services. Usually, it means updating your website so it doesn’t look like an antique UFO from the 1990s. If you like a fast pace and think you can keep up, then freelancing online might be right for you.
Acumen
Not just any acumen, you’re going to need business acumen. Can you balance a checkbook, manage a spreadsheet, keep track of your income and expenses? Do you know what marketing is? Can you negotiate? Pitch yourself? Convince a client they need your services? Do you know the difference between being in the red and being in the black? Can you always have a backup plan? Sure, you can start freelancing and learn the business stuff as you go, but it’s good to have an advance grasp on the basics.
Spine
People will try to take advantage of you, so you’re going to need a spine and some thick skin. Aliens will ask for special discounts. People who make five times as much money as you will ask for special discounts. Space invaders will steal hours and hours of your time going back and forth ironing out project details and then they’ll never sign the quote because they found someone else who offered a better discount. Negotiating a little is fine but if you agree to give everyone from ET to R2-D2 a discount you’ll find yourself working for pennies and then you’ll scratch your head wondering why you don’t have enough money to pay rent even though you had plenty of work all month. Can you say no?
Love
Okay, so some freelance writers probably don’t love freelancing. Or writing. But I do. People ask me how my business is going and I tell them I’m exhausted and overwhelmed. I’m working longer hours than ever before and until recently I was making much less money than ever before. But I absolutely love it. This is a big, wide open universe and it suits me perfectly. If you don’t love business, or writing, or working on a computer all day, then you probably won’t be happy doing this. And that is really the goal, right? To find happiness.
What are some other qualities that a successful freelancer needs? Have you thought about quitting your job and taking the plunge? What’s holding you back?
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