Writing Website Copy That Sells
Writing web copy that sells your products and services is another vital skill you must acquire in order to produce suitable income from your website. When you write copy for your website, you must first consider who you are writing to. Whether you are writing to a target audience or a specific individual, you must understand the audience in which your writing your copy to.
In my previous article “How To Design Your Site For Online Success” I spoke about the importance of working out your goals before designing your website. The same principle also applies here, however, you are focusing on writing and talking to your target audience.
If your stuck in wondering how to write to your target audience, try to imagine sitting in front of the individual and not a mass audience. You will find that when you write content for an individual sitting right in front of you, your content will be worded differently as apposed to writing for an audience of 1,000 people. Remember, 98% of the time, it’s only one person who’s looking at your website at that moment and your website copy must speak to that one person. Also remember to keep your copy easy to read and understand. You’re writing copy for clarity and not to include complex terminology that confuses the reader (like some websites I’ve seen and won’t mention here). Also remember to check your speeling 
If your in a situation where you don’t feel as confident writing your own website copy, there are many options you can take to get your web site copy written for your website. So far, your options are:
- Hire a professional copywriter.
- Outsource the work to job markets that contain many enthusiastic writers.
- Learn to write copy yourself.
- Get your web designer to do it for you but inform them what you want included in the copy.
With the first option, if you hire a professional and credible copywriter, your web copy will be as effective as a hiring your own online salesman. Copywriters are powerful and persuasive people who understand the psychology behind people making purchases online. Some copywriters I know make an absolute killing with their copywriting skills because they produce so many sales from their website. However, their skills are not so affordable and can range between $5,000 - $20,000. So if you have the cash, it may be an ideal investment.
The second option you can take is to outsource your web copy work. There are great websites out there such as elance.com and rentacoder.com which contains thousands of people willing to work for you. Many people on these websites are offering to complete whatever online project they can get there hand on. The websites are very secure and have a great communication management system so you can keep track of your work. As a bonus, most people who offer to complete your project are very affordable and efficient. If you were to post your job to the masses, you may be able to get 10 articles written for only $7 per hour which perhaps translate to $60 in total.
The third option would be to learn how to write the content yourself. Now there are many books out there that you can purchase in which you can learn to write your own web copy. You can simply make a small investment into this specialized knowledge but at the end of the day, the knowledge is yours and you can apply it to various other projects not just your website… but your own published books.
The final option would be to simply hand the work over to your web designer/developer. Depending on the situation, if your web designer/developer has writing skills, it’s worth hiring their services to take the job on. However, most designers/developers are focused on only their core skills which is either designing websites or programming websites so make sure you find out if they possess they skills.
Remember, you can also start a blog website and just practice writing your thoughts and ideas, eventually practice makes perfect and before you know it, your words will be translated to cash transfered to your bank account.