ITList Information Technology Blog » Website Content http://itlist.com Current IT field related information Fri, 03 Jun 2011 16:40:29 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.2 Tips for Website Content Writing http://itlist.com/tips-for-website-content-writing/ http://itlist.com/tips-for-website-content-writing/#comments Thu, 23 Dec 2010 17:00:00 +0000 bikram http://itlist.com/tips-for-website-content-writing/ It’s not only web design which counts but the content too. Web design may give a good feel about the website and draw attention in the beginning, but if it lacks good content people will leave it immediately and won’t refer to it again in future. Web content writing is very important task to captivate visitors in a website, since poor content takes only few minutes to make the visitor bid adieu forever. Don’t forget even one single line of trash write up can spoil a reader’s mood. Be very careful while crafting web content. Here are few simple tips for your help.

Keep it simple and relevant

Simplicity is the key to success of web writing. Unless your message is well comprehended by all, the whole purpose of writing will go in vain. Keep it simple yet strong, crisp yet impactful, creative yet relevant. No one is interested in reading pages after pages, so keep it short but powerful, including all important things you wish to communicate to your visitor. You can’t beat around the bushes and for the sake of creativity commit the mistake of losing focus. Stick to your topic, stay relevant.

It should be informative

Often web contents are seen repetitive, vague, and lacking concrete substance. But if a website is not informative, doesn’t convey anything meaningful even a good style of writing can go wasted. So, know what all to be included, what are the important points and include them all. Don’t beat around the bushes.

Make it tightly knit and avoid disconnection

Structure your write up properly, in a smooth flow moving from one thought to another. One sentence should be well connected to the next, but shouldn’t convey the same thing. A well-knit writing with a smooth flow will make reading pleasurable and beneficial for the reader. There shouldn’t be any disconnection. Many writers often use too many conjunctions to make the write up well-knit. But conjunctions show writer’s weakness. Instead, you may change paragraphs to convey different things.

Next time keep these few simple tips in mind while writing web content. It will be easier for you to craft captivating and effective web content.

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How to Make Web Writing Business ‘Big’? http://itlist.com/how-to-make-web-writing-business-big/ http://itlist.com/how-to-make-web-writing-business-big/#comments Mon, 18 Oct 2010 20:25:41 +0000 bikram http://itlist.com/how-to-make-web-writing-business-big/ Web writing business has witnessed tremendous rate of growth. Web writing is ever growing and has opened many doors of opportunities for good writers. Freelance writing has taken shape of an industry and has been a constant source of earning for many. But not, just good writing skill is enough, one has to treat it like own business, cultivate it, and secure a good future. These tips will help you to evolve as a better web writer and a good entrepreneur.

Welcome new things

Always remember, web business is constantly evolving, so keep your eyes open. Learn new things, incorporate them, and follow new trends in the business to keep pace with the clients’ demands. Try new things, slowly you will master it. If you are a website content writer, try blogging or other latest trends. Try for yourself first. A good e-book for yourself could do your publicity and also showcase your skill. In the mean time you will also master the tricks and skills behind it. Don’t be rigid with acquired skills, learn new things.

Keep the marketing process ‘on’

Whatever, be the situation, don’t underestimate the power of marketing. Even a great masterpiece goes unnoticed, in the absence of good marketing efforts. Even if it takes a little share of your income, consider it as the investment, which will keep your name ahead of others and will fetch you continuous work. Make a great image, profile of yourself. Advertise yourself in multiple places on web or promote through social networking sites.

Build network

A good networking works as a silent catalyst behind growth. A good networking could also help you to develop a team of writers and share the total profit, in form of a joint business. It could fetch loads of work and also make your name popular on web.

Make your identity on web

Treat it like a serious business; build your online presence with an arresting identity. Build personal website or blog, logo, business card, portfolio, contact information, testimonials from clients. Make proper business plan, set target. Despite flexibility, make sure there are fixed hours of working every day.

Invest for a better future

If some latest technologies and software like keyword research tools, a smart phone, a fax machine, a virtual assistance service, automatic posting tool, or plug-ins can bring along high hopes for your business – grab them and make best of it. Little investments can bring in huge help.

Keep goals in front

Don’t just go with the wind and work aimlessly for mere bucks. Set a goal, what you wish to achieve in a year or five years time. A pre-determined goal always works as a light at the end of tunnel, towards which one moves with a quest to excel.

And the web is all yours. Go and explore.

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Creating Website Content That Drivers Visitors Mad http://itlist.com/creating-website-content-that-drivers-visitors-mad/ http://itlist.com/creating-website-content-that-drivers-visitors-mad/#comments Fri, 30 Apr 2010 17:47:00 +0000 bikram http://itlist.com/creating-website-content-that-drivers-visitors-mad/ Yes, this is not a myth, nor is it a magic. Many webmasters know the secret, and after reading this you too will be in possession of this knowledge.

There is only one thing that significantly affects the conversion rate of visitors into customers. No, it is not the layout or a design or cool graphics or awe-inspiring animation. It is the website copy that makes the conversion rate surge up or dive down. High-converting website copy follows a set of principles which I am going to share here.

Secret of high-converting website copy

Magic Headline

Some headlines work better than others. Most of the people err here. When it comes to writing headline for a post, all they do is write whatever first comes to their mind and use it as title. What possibly could be worse than this — not writing the copy at all?

Do not commit this mistake. Think hard before writing a headline. I will suggest you to write 10-15 versions of a headline before choosing any one.

USP

USP stands for Unique selling proposition. In the beginning, you would like to know what is that one thing that you would want to talk on a webpage. Do not build too many selling propositions in a web page. This will confuse your audience. Yes, even two is too many in this context.

Focus

Your copy should not waver. It should be laser focused on the promise it is attempting to deliver on. Do not let is waver even for one word. Keep your audience and its needs in mind when writing copy. Use your audience’s language to communicate.

Descriptive copy

Copy that builds on the promise made by the headline converts better. Do not just write anything on your web page — you can do that but you should not — as it will dilute the effect of the proposition made in the headline.

Tell story

People do not care about data and stats as much as they care about story. Tell them anecdotal tales and they will believe you. Give them data and they will yawn.

These are some of the principles of copy writing, which you should include in your writing to make your web page convert like crazy.

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3 Elements of Web Design http://itlist.com/3-elements-of-web-design/ http://itlist.com/3-elements-of-web-design/#comments Thu, 22 Oct 2009 03:56:23 +0000 bikram http://itlist.com/?p=1874 When a person comes to your website, what does he notices first? The quality of your content or is it the design that retains the visitors?

Well, the first thing that gets noticed is the design. People come to your website, and decide to read or leave your website on the basis of how it looks. Not on the basis of how it reads. No matter how informative your website is, or how well researched your content is, your website is not going to witness visitors, unless you have a well-designed website. If you want your website to be read, make sure that it doesn’t look visually cluttered. There are 3 elements that you need to keep in mind while designing your website.

  1. Clutter-free layout: Content is the king. No one is contesting this fact, but no one will care, if a king is draped in rags. Hence, a visually appealing website is a must. A visually heavy and informative website will have the same effect on the visitors as will have a non-informative website. In either case, the users are not going to stay on the website.
  2. Flat Navigation: Navigation of your website, as the name suggest, is the doorway through which one person travel between different pages. If you have not planned a proper link structure then your visitors will have hard time in going from one place to another. And the more difficulty they face, the quicker they will be out of the website. Navigation also helps search bots in crawling through the pages; therefore, you should avoid using JavaScript or other opaque elements in your navigation link.
  3. Awe-inspiring Over-the-fold elements: use over-the-fold space of your website to garner visitors’ interest by seeding website content that excites the visitors. Do not waste this space by explaining everything. Rather, use it to pull the visitors to the inside pages. You can use it as teaser, but be very judicious in using this space. You can also put your highest-paying ads in this space.

Along with these, there are quite a few more things that affect the quality perception of the website. Can you suggest some? Use the comment box below to add your view.

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Is Copywriting Important for the Web? http://itlist.com/is-copywriting-important-for-the-web/ http://itlist.com/is-copywriting-important-for-the-web/#comments Sat, 11 Jul 2009 03:45:30 +0000 bikram http://itlist.com/?p=1447 Yes, it is! Who said it’s not? If this is what you think then please go to all those article spinners who think just making 8 or 10 or god knows how much articles using some keywords, some verbs, and some conjunctions are enough to produce a great website.

There are people who think, a good design, a good layout and of course SEO is all it takes to make a good website. Content always comes secondary to the subscribers of this school of thought. They see no value in copywriting until they come to the verge of extinction, and many even do not realize the importance then.

They feel it was something else, not the lack of good content that forced their websites untimely demise. The group that put no value on a well-researched informative content feels, it might be the quality of the central idea on which the website was build that failed them. You bet, it does lead to a sudden death, and so does a badly written website.

We need to understand that users that visit our websites are humans (not just search engine bots) who come to our websites (by whatever means) because he or she is seeking some information of the topic we claim to cover in our websites. For them the clever design, and jaw-dropping technology is just a good to have things, not the things they are looking for. What they are looking for is information, and information can only be delivered via content, not via technology. And here written words along with videos, audios and animations, become important.

Indeed, there is no denial that, people have moved away from reading (active mode of information consumption), and went closer to watching and listening (passive mode of information consumption), nevertheless, they are consuming content only, not the technology. Each one of us, who is not meditating in Himalayas for last hundred years, is aware of the way in which the information consumption has changed.

Much of the contents are now converted into either a video or an audio file, but still there are things that cannot be put into video or audio, and which need assistance of written words to convey the idea properly. Despite the growing popularity of video sharing sites and podcasting, we spent most of the time reading on the Internet.

We might be time starved, and hence, use multimedia contents to help us become multi-tasking, but watching and listening (despite it’s being passive medium of information consumption) are still secondary to reading on the Internet, which is an active mode of information consumption. And did I say, it’s the written words that command more respect and trust then the spoken ones. Always remember, written words sell more products then its spoken counterpart. Hence, quality copywriting is still important.

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