Headlines are the key to everything. Try an experiment. The next time you’re in the checkout line at your grocery store, notice if you scan the magazines conveniently placed right there by the checkout line.

You probably scan all of them. In fact, you probably read the headlines and mini-headlines before you bother to look at the name of the magazine.

Some of the headlines make you laugh, some get you curious, and some might even make you pick up the magazine and thumb through it or toss it onto the moving belt along with the veges and ice cream.

Now, think about most Home pages of web sites. Very few have a real attention getting headline that piques your interest and makes you want to read the copy. At best you get Welcome to Big Boy Widgets. And then a whole bunch of copy with no scan-able sub-heads so you can find what you’re interested in quickly.

Now imagine if all those magazine covers looked like most web site home pages. Blah! They’d never sell a single copy!

So when businesses write a bunch of bland “we do this” and “we have that” and “our product this” and “our service that” copy with no introductory headline to grab the reader, no subheads for the reader to scan, and no focus on the benefits to the reader at all, why are they so shocked when all the money spent on the web site brings them no business at all?

Bob McClain or WordsmithBob, has been a website copywriter in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, since 2000. He has focused on developing new, more effective approaches to web writing, web content, web copywriting and Search Engine Optimization. Starting with a BA in Technical Communication and a minor in Creative Writing from Metro State University in St. Paul, McClain has worked diligently to end the use of "corp-speak" and "technospeak" online. His approach is to “humanize” the Web, using real information to guide people to buy rather than turning websites into advertisements that people can easily ignore. McClain is also the creator of Cheap SEO Website Marketing, a website devoted to helping people with the best solutions to DIY SEO at an affordable cost with tips and software reviews. More at Cheap SEO Website Marketing

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Originally posted 2008-09-12 10:26:34. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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