Working Web Copy

I’m not one to get all inspirational on you. Those of you who know me know that I am actually extremely suspicious of any such behaviour, and repeated postings of motivational quotes are usually grounds for me to hit the “unfollow” button on Twitter. In short, I’m about as sunny and happy and shiny as Morticia Adams. So when I say something is motivational, it usually actually is.

I just read somewhere about a writer who purchased a book from an author, read their book, and then attended a lecture that they gave. The final result was that they were inspired to write their own book, which in and of itself is awesome. However:

Time Reading Book: 3-4 hours, assuming the writer is an avid and fast reader.
Lecture Attendance:  2 hours, depending on travel time.
Time purchasing book: 1 hour, depending on travel time.

Total: Minimum 6 hours.

Now we get to the harsh point of this exercise. Six hours to get inspired to write your book? There is thinking about it, and then there is doing it. Some people like to map a journey before leaving, buy food for the trip, and go to the bathroom before starting down the highway, but at some point you just have to get in the driver’s seat and go. That six hours could have been research for the book, or six hours spent writing the first and second chapters. That is a heck of a long time to reach only inspiration at the end.

Are you thinking about it, or are you doing it?

There is no hard and fast answer to that question. It all depends on the type of business or brand that you are trying to promote. Whatever the answer, there is no doubt that a logo and slogan make you look more professional and corporate. The question came up because I am thinking of getting a logo designed, so I thought I would do some research on the subject.

1. Logos and Slogans are Necessary for Branding

Having sold and been responsible for a number of brands and products over my corporate life, I know how important a logo and slogan are to branding. Customers should be able to recognize your products in stores, and a simple sticker on a bag or box doesn’t cut it.

Logos and slogans for bricks and mortar products are a no-brainer. Obviously, you need both. If it is so obvious for a bricks and mortar product, why does it seem less obvious for a web-only product? The answer is the internet itself; many of your competitors in web-only businesses don’t have logos and slogans. They’re all using the sticker on the box method of branding themselves, which is to say that they aren’t doing it at all. All the more reason to get it done as it will put you head and shoulders above the crowd.

2. OK, So I Need a Logo. Do I Need a Slogan?

Let’s look at exactly what slogans do for you. The slogan works with the logo to reinforce your brand. If you have a logo, you should really have a slogan. Where do logos not have slogans? Usually, where the logo is instantly recognizable, as in the case of Target and Nike. Until you are a multi-million dollar company and can achieve recognizability at that level, a slogan is recommended to help drive your point home.

Writing a slogan isn’t easy. You can take your company mission statement and try to come up with something based on that, but it is hard to come up with something snappy and simple. If you want to hire a professional, there are slogan writers out there that specialize in this service, but really any writer will do. The one thing you don’t want to do is have your graphic designer just dash off a logo; unless you are working with an agency that has writers and designers on staff, this probably won’t work well. It is also not advisable to design a logo or slogan by commitee; a point person who is senior management should be elected for the project to avoid the fees that will result in going back and forth with too many inputs.

3. My Name is My Brand. Do I Still Need a Logo?

Yes. Have a look at Seth Godin’s logo for how simple and striking a logo can be for a name. You can view it as a favicon in your address bar if you are using Internet Explorer on all of his pages. Notice also that Seth uses a picture of himself at the top right of his site, where the logo would usually go, rather than a logo. There is a reason for that; if you are building a personal brand, you want people to remember you and not your logo. They should be displayed together or, where there is a choice to be made, your picture should be displayed over your logo.

Based on the research I’ve done, I’m going to get a logo designed. Something, like my web copy, that works. If you make the decision to do it to based on my article, e-mail me with the results and I’ll post them with a link back to your business. If you need someone to help you write slogans, I can do that; it takes about 1-2 hours depending on the company to come up with several slogans to choose from, so rates would depend on how much research I’d need to do. Contact me for a quote if you are interested.

Those of us with blogs are always asking the question:

How do I get more people to comment on my blog?

The answer is easier than you think. As in life, you don’t get if you don’t ask. Some blog owners have a tag line at the bottom of each post asking readers to post their comments. While this method is better than nothing, it is much better to encourage interaction in the body of the post.

In theatre, dropping the illusion that your audience isn’t there and addressing them directly is called “breaking down the fourth wall”. When you or your writers are writing for a blog, there is no fourth wall. Writing your posts from that point of view will get you boatloads of comments every time.

For example:

“It is evident from this linked study that most consumers now prefer to have the option to buy something online.”

*Yawn*.

Better:

“This linked study shows that consumers like to purchase online. How do you feel about it? When’s the last time you bought something online? Were you happy with the process?”

This should be used sparingly in order to work. Asking questions of the reader throughout your entire post will confuse them. Stay on message and ask your reader only the questions that you want answered, don’t engage them for the sake of engagement itself. You should also save it for the bottom half of your post, as your readers will probably have already forgotten the question by the time you wrap it up.

So, when I wrote this in the “About Us” section:

“Angela’s firm grounding in web design and SEO give her a special perspective that not many other writers have.  She is a firm believer in the importance of social media and a relationship with her ensures that you will be educated in how you should be using this new marketing tool in your arsenal.”

I thought, for a moment, that it sounded a little internet marketing-y and odd. I decided to leave it because that is exactly how I work. In the past two days, I’ve recommended WordPress plugins to clients, suggested updates to articles that I didn’t have to, and generally helped out my past clients because I really thought I had something that could help them, for no charge either for my advice or the recommended service. That’s just how I roll. We’re not talking about a silly little e-newsletter or anything, but rather targeted advice for their particular businesses and sites.

It’s not like I’m not busy either. I have about five projects on the go right now and don’t really need to be doing anything else, not that I don’t want your business down the road if you want to contact me. No matter how busy I am, my current and past clients are always front of mind. Drop me a line if you want to join my list of people I send advice to on a regular basis.

If you are in Canada, you’ve heard the term “net neutrality” being bandied about for the past couple of years. What does it mean? Net neutrality is the term used to describe freedom of the internet from throttling, packet sniffing, and other practices that violate privacy and limit the experience of the internet.

As businesses, we should care about net neutrality because regulation of access to the internet can lead to new fees, slower productivity of some workers due to slower access, and a general loss of privacy. New fees could come in the form of bandwidth fees, some of which we are already seeing. If you are a media company such as CanWest Global, or have anything to do with media, you may be faced with paying increased usage fees if companies like Bell or Rogers have their way. The same companies also currently throttle internet traffic and are seeking wider powers to throttle even more. It also isn’t too far out of the reach of reality to project that all internet fees will increase if Bell, Rogers and related companies get their way, affecting usage fees for all businesses.

What can you do about net neutrality? Hearings are taking place this week at the CRTC on the very issue. Follow the conversation on Twitter at #CRTC by searching for #CRTC on the Twitter search engine located at search.twitter.com. You can also follow the expert in the field, Michael Geist, by reading his blog at http://www.michaelgeist.ca/. Write your MP if you don’t like the outcome. The more aware you can make yourself on this issue, the more you can help keep the costs of internet access down for your business.

I have read a couple of blog postings over the past couple of weeks that seemed to have been purpose-written to create controversy. While stirring the pot a bit is a great way to get a healthy debate going in your comments, there is stirring the pot and then just upending it all over your child’s head. There’s a difference.

When the blogging pundits say to create controversy in your blogs, they don’t mean that you should be upsetting your core audience. One of the blogs in particular that I read was insulting to the core audience and spoke in terms of absolutes that couldn’t have possibly existed. Without naming the blog directly, I’ll try to reproduce the gist of it – a posting on how all construction workers are stupid for a blog that centres on the construction industry. This sort of lowbrow attention-getter not only sails far clear of the entire point of creating a little controversy on your blog, but it probably succeeded in the author losing a percentage of their following.

So how do you do this without insulting your core audience? Simple. Ask yourself if it will piss them off or just get them thinking. You are going for the thinking bit, of course. You may also have a blog with a very sensitive community, in which case you’ll want to use this tactic with extreme caution.

If you are a company trying to build a brand with a blog, you don’t necessarily want to shy away from this tactic. Again, ask yourself if your position will piss off your customers or make them think. It is also a good tactic to openly announce that you will debate one side in a post and invite your commenters to make an argument for the other side in the comments, thus encouraging comments and participation.

Whatever you do, don’t piss off your audience. This isn’t good marketing, it is just plain stupid, no matter what the pundits tell you.

There are a million reasons I don’t want your job. They include not wanting to commute for hours every day and the fact that I enjoy working on multiple projects for multiple companies. It isn’t because your job is awful – you probably really, really enjoy your job.

I know from my own corporate experience that bosses frequently consider creative work such as writing and web design extraneous, so they give you other tasks to do. Problem being that the writing still needs to get done and blogs still need to get updated, on top of all of this other stuff you’ve been given to do.

That’s why I’m here. To help you with your job. Not to take it away full-time because I get it, you love this part of your job the most and don’t want to lose it. What’s more, I’ll work with you as a writing and online marketing evangelist to convince your boss, through solid reports and actions, exactly why this part of your job is more important than all that other stuff they are getting you to do. By the time I’m done, you may find yourself with less annoying tasks and doing more of that in-house writing that you so love doing.

Let me know if you need help. If there are any tasks I can pick up, or parts of a project I can help you complete, contact me and we’ll work out a price quote that you can take to your boss. Then, when the project is done, I’ll vanish and leave my contact information if you need anything else. I may check up on you to make sure everything is going well with what I helped you to produce, but other than that, I’ll leave you alone unless you need me again.

There are two classes of people who get their information online. There are the casual researchers, who just surf when they are actually looking for something, and there are the in-depth readers, who go through every element of a website when they are researching a product or service. While the former group is definitely larger than the latter, you have to keep both in mind when designing and writing for a website. I like to call them “skimmers” and “diggers”, and we’ll come back to them.

While many writers and marketers are advocates of techniques like sales letters and landing pages, I like to put myself in the shoes of someone who is coming to the website and looking for information.  I think this is a much harder way to write and much more effective. Sales letters and landing pages are templates that writers can just “knock off” without much thought, which is why I believe they are pushed more than properly written site copy.

Also, unlike the popular media depiction of people who are online, I believe that everyone who goes online to research and read is an intelligent, well-informed person who knows enough to research a product before purchasing it. They don’t like to be marketed to or have sales language used on them. They are there to gather information, and if they can get it quickly and without too much trouble, they will purchase your product over anyone else’s.

If a skimmer, by far the largest group, arrives at a website that is written with extensive sales language, they will recognize certain “cues” and leave quickly, unless they have already made up their mind to purchase that product. These signs are extensive use of exclamation marks, action phrases like “BUY NOW”, and of course anything in all caps. Action phrases have their place, but online they need to be more subtle and less screamy than those written for a brochure or other offline collateral materials. Some of the skimmers will be willing to stay through such language if your product either stands on its own merits, or they are presented with another incentive to buy, like a sale. Skimmers are fickle and sometimes these methods can work, leading most internet marketers to say they work all the time, because they are easy and not hard to do. Anyone who has a Twitter account will know already how much most internet marketers are fans of the “easy” method. You’ve also become a fan of the “unfollow” button, no doubt.

My belief is that if you write for the diggers, your skimmers will automatically stay with you, as your site will look credible and factual. This is harder. It costs more. It can’t be dashed off by a monkey with a typewriter and requires someone with actual research skills and writing ability. When it is done though, you will immediately notice an increase in traffic and your “site stickiness”, or the amount of time that visitors spend on your site. Site stickiness almost always translates into higher overall conversions and sales, so the return on investment is equally obvious.

Think about your own path when you go to a website. Do you click on things that tell you to “DO IT NOW”? Do you believe a website has credibility when it has more exclamation marks than a thirteen-year-old’s text messages? How often do you find yourself purchasing online on a whim, or because a landing page is telling you to? Exactly.

I take a lot of pride in what I do and am not satisfied with it until my clients, and more importantly the customers of my clients, are happy. I’m not a “pump and dump” person that runs from project to project without consideration for my past clients. I’ll stay in touch with you, make sure everything is going well, even edit a couple of important letters from time to time if you need it. I don’t believe that people are cattle to be marketed to, I believe that they are real people trying to solve real problems. If you disagree, then I am not the writer for you. If you agree, then I am the writer you have been waiting for most of your business life.

The last paragraph is a perfect example of “no-marketing” marketing – I described my philosphy, what I do, and who my work is for. If you can do the same thing with your product, in clear and simple language, go for it. If not you know who to hire.

I look on Craigslist and other sites to find freelance writing gigs.  One thing I’ve noticed a fair amount of on the Craigslist site is a few people who keep posting that rates offered are too low, writers should respect themselves by making sure that they are getting paid enough, et cetera.

While in principle I agree with this poster, the rates that the poster linked to (from PWAC) seem high to me.  If I quoted any of my clients these rates they would probably drop me very quickly.  There is no question that I bring added value to my clients – one of them just told me yesterday that his page views were up to 1000 a day!  However, most business owners are savvy enough to realize that they can post their job on a freelancing site like GetaFreelancer.com and get someone to do the job for a fraction of PWAC rates.

I like to fall somewhere in the middle on this issue.  I believe that I offer a better quality product than most businesses would get if they outsourced a writing project to an overseas company.

I also can’t understand why a writer would rant about this on Craigslist, and call anyone who is offering anything less than “market rate” a cheat.  I don’t consider myself a sellout at my rates, and I am constantly working, which is more than I could say for myself if I charged exorbitant rates.  Perhaps the anonymity of Craigslist brings out the ranter in people.

That being said, I have noticed a fair amount of ads lately that pay $1-5 for a blog post, which is nothing short of ridiculous. I even had an incident where a major search engine executive asked me to list a job on my freelance writing site for a rate that would have been unacceptable to most people who have graduated from high school. Not only do I not post these ads, I actively discourage my readership from even accepting such jobs to build a portfolio.

I should answer the question posed in the headline. PWAC rates at writers.ca are considered to be the industry standard, even if I find them a little on the high side, even impossible in some cases. Your ideal quality writer that you are not sourcing overseas should be charging anywhere from 50% to 80% of those rates. If they have a boatload of experience, they will charge the exact rates found on writers.ca and you probably want to hire them; they are very much worth the price. I wouldn’t pay those rates for someone who hasn’t been a professional writer for at least a decade, but if they have the experience they are more than worth it.

If you want to be charged a fair but not irrational price for your writing projects, contact me today. If I’m busy, I’ve got other great writer friends that do awesome work that I can refer you to.