Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Business Writing for the Web: The Easy Way
    Business Writing for the Web: The Easy Way
    Business Writing for the Web: The Easy Way
    Ebook111 pages1 hour

    Business Writing for the Web: The Easy Way

    By Dan Furman

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    The hardest part of making a business website successful is writing great content that will attract readers and encourage them to choose what you are offering. Whether you are selling physical objects or a service, what you write and how you write it will make the difference between a quick look-and-leave visit, and a new customer. This is not a book on how to code your website, but a book on how best to write the pages on your website. The book is written in plain English and is written to be a quick and easy read. Online technology changes constantly, but what remains constant is that a website needs great content, written in an engaging and web-friendly manner, to make it a success. This book takes you inside the techniques of a master communicator, whose rules start with, “break the rules!”
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSelf-Counsel Press
    Release dateDec 15, 2012
    ISBN9781770409149
    Business Writing for the Web: The Easy Way
    Author

    Dan Furman

    Entrepreneur Dan Furman runs a successful company out of his home. For more than 20 years he has run several home businesses, and has helped countless others with his writing services. Dan knows firsthand how good communication helps a business succeed and is ready to share his vast wealth of knowledge and experiences with you. Dan is also author of the best-selling Self-Counsel Press books, Start & Run a Real Home-Based Business, and Do The Web Write.

    Read more from Dan Furman

    Related to Business Writing for the Web

    Related ebooks

    Reference For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Writing Great Copy: 20 Lessons

      Aug 12, 2018

      First let me say, being a full-time freelance writer is a great way to live. The work is always mentally stimulating and different, you work from the comfort of your own home office, you wear absolutely whatever you want and a teapot is always within

      3 min read

    • Article

      Account Based Marketing

      Jun 9, 2021

      Account Based Marketing
      2 min read

    • Article

      Mailchamp

      Feb 1, 2018

      Mailchamp
      13 min read

    • Article

      Tips for Optimizing Your Content

      Sep 28, 2020

      To create the kind of content that entertains to the point where audiences want to invest in a product, you need to adhere to certain principles of the web and add your own spark. Learn about the principles of writing for the web. Headings, short pa

      1 min read

    • Article

      Your EAT Is What You Are

      Oct 23, 2019

      Your EAT Is What You Are
      2 min read

    • Article

      Sign Me Up!

      Jul 16, 2019

      Sign Me Up!
      12 min read

    • Article

      Explaining Marketing Automation

      Mar 27, 2017

      “In the New Zealand market, marketing automation is still a relatively new discipline for some organisations,” says Nathalie Morris, managing director of New Zealand marketing automation company Ubiquity. “But over the last couple of years, we’ve see

      8 min read

    • Article

      Six Sells

      Aug 12, 2018

      Six Sells
      4 min read

    • Article

      Snippets

      Apr 22, 2019

      Snippets
      4 min read

    • Article

      10 Reasons Social Selling Is Failing

      Nov 2, 2016

      1. LACK OF CONTENT Your social selling program isn’t going to work without content. You may want to make noise on the social channels, and you may want attention. You can’t have attention without content. Salespeople without content are unarmed. 2.

      2 min read

    • Article

      How To Create Winning Blog Content

      Jan 21, 2021

      How To Create Winning Blog Content
      3 min read

    • Article

      Keeping A Record Of Your Art

      Feb 26, 2017

      Keeping A Record Of Your Art
      7 min read

    • Article

      Discover Top NFT Marketplaces

      Feb 15, 2022

      Finding the right NFT (non-fungible token) marketplace is about more than just where to sell your art. You need to consider which platform best suits the type of NFT you’re creating, how much of a fee the marketplace will take per sale, and which blo

      1 min read

    • Article

      Find Work Through Social Media

      Aug 7, 2020

      The past few months have been tough for freelance artists and illustrators, to say the least. With projects cancelled left, right and centre, and with physical networking becoming nigh-on impossible, many have turned to social media as a way to find

      6 min read

    • Article

      Facebook Is Testing Ways To Compensate Video Creators So It Can Cut Into YouTube's Dominance

      Mar 19, 2018

      If you're a die-hard fan of a Facebook video creator, the social network may soon give you a way to pay for exclusive content and award you with a digital badge to declare your fandom. Those are some of the new ideas Facebook is introducing in the co

      2 min read

    • Article

      Get Your Website Listed by Google

      Jan 27, 2017

      RapidWeaver 7, your own website hosting space you will learn How to publish your site to the web IT WILL TAKE 30 minutes part 5 of 5 missed an issue? Visit myfavorite magazines.com to order! It’s sensible to buy a domain and hosting space; cats.com l

      3 min read

    • Article

      Niche Market PR

      Sep 28, 2020

      Niche Market PR
      3 min read

    • Article

      SEO When You’re Rebranding

      Dec 24, 2020

      SEO When You’re Rebranding
      1 min read

    • Article

      ONE LEG At A TIME

      Oct 30, 2019

      ONE LEG At A TIME
      7 min read

    • Article

      Build It Into Your Day

      Jul 22, 2023

      Build It Into Your Day
      6 min read

    • Article

      A Window On Your Words

      Jul 1, 2021

      A Window On Your Words
      6 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Business Writing for the Web

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Business Writing for the Web - Dan Furman

      Introduction

      Okay, it’s time to discuss website writing. Or writing for the web. Or writing website copy…

      Whichever name you prefer (and I’ll generally be calling it web copy from here on out), it’s probably THE most important part of your website. In my opinion, it’s even more important than design. Of course, me being a writer, one would expect me to think that, but think about this: Some of the most successful websites out there are those long sales letter pages that have almost no design at all. Some are just blank white pages with tons of words. And many of them convert very nicely.

      Think about that: almost no design at all.

      Now I don’t want web designers getting upset. I’m not advocating that design isn’t needed (don’t come to my house with torches or anything). For almost all business sites, design is entirely necessary. In fact, it’s VERY necessary. Bad design will drive people away before they even start reading. Throw up green text on a yellow background with orange spots (heh — it was completely unintentional that I chose the words throw up for that description) and people will probably leave rather quickly (and the one guy who stays is a perpetually stoned 60-year-old hippie who isn’t buying anything, but really likes your colors).

      So yes, design matters; it pulls (the right) people in. But, I AM saying that when it comes to conversion, the words matter more.

      Website copywriting is definitely the main part of my business, so I’m going to spend some time on this. Thus, to make things simpler, I have broken the topic up into 11 rules. This makes things far more manageable, and easier to read.

      Since I am doing it that way, some of the advice may be repeated in several sections, and some of it might even seem to contradict other parts (this is because writing web copy is NOT an exact science). What works for one type of website might not work quite as well for another, and the only way to find this out is to test. So (as usual), I am expecting you to take these rules and tweak them to your situation (and test the results). In addition, these rules are basic rules, and meant to generally be followed no matter what page (Home, About Us, etc.) or type of website for which you are writing.

      Before we start, let’s discuss persuasive writing and action words. They are misunderstood concepts, and I see them in every book about writing.

      I don’t have a rule that says, Here’s how you write persuasively. That’s because, taken collectively, my 10 (well, 11) rules will result in persuasive writing all on their own. Believe me, I have never once sat down to write and said, Okay, let me turn on the persuasion. Yes, I advertise my writing as persuasive, because that’s naturally what it is. And it’s naturally that way because of my rules. Follow my rules and you’ll be persuasive.

      I also do not believe that there is a mystical set of action words that will magically transform your writing. I know this isn’t conventional thinking; every marketing writing book I have ever read says to use action words. Well, I’m not going to tell you to do that. Instead, I will give you some very effective confidence words and phrases in Rule 7. But these are to be used in addition to your writing, not in place of anything. I do not believe in forcing you to do anything in regards to writing. So instead, fit these 11 rules into your current writing.

      In other words, I’m not here to change your writing. I’m here to help make your writing (and your web copy) better. There’s a big difference.

      Rule 1: Web Copy Must Be Scan-able

      The most important rule of writing great web copy is that web copy must be scan-able. You can be an average writer and still write effective web copy if you follow this one rule.

      What I mean by scan-able is a visitor should be able to glance at the page and know what it’s generally about, and also understand the salient points. This is important because people read websites differently than they read other things (like newspapers, books, or other print media). They don’t read word for word from the start; instead they scan the page to see if it’s something that they want to invest the effort in reading. And if something catches their eye, they’ll start reading right then and there, and not at the beginning.

      Notice that I also said invest the effort. There’s a reason for that.

      See, we don’t realize it, but reading on a computer is harder than reading a book, magazine, or newspaper. Computer eye strain is very real. In fact, I personally need glasses when working on the computer, but don’t need them for anything else (the upside here is my wife thinks I look cute in them … although I’m not sure I want to look cute). The thing is, we really don’t realize the extra effort online reading takes while we are doing it, so it’s generally unnoticeable. But the bottom line is it’s harder to read online content, so without even realizing it, we scan webpages before we start reading them.

      Now, we scan other places too. After all, we choose which newspaper stories to read based on the headline, right? But my point is we do this even MORE so online, so your web copy must be scan-able over the entire page. If it isn’t, you will have a very hard time converting visitors the way you want to.

      So how do you get your web copy to be scan-able? You’ll use three things in general:

      Headlines

      Subheadings

      Bullet Points (like now)

      Let’s look closer at these three items.

      Headlines

      Headlines lead off most pages. They capture interest and/or give the reader an idea of what to expect on a page. You don’t HAVE to have a headline, but I use them on most pages I write because it just helps lead things off. When people scan a page, they see the headline first.

      Now, there are a lot of opinions regarding headlines.

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1