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All I ask is that you attribute the quote to me, and provide a link back to Excessvoice.com

Online Copywriting

"Whatever you are writing, the outcome should never be to please yourself, your peers or an awards committee. You are not being paid to express your keen wit and showcase your writing talents. You are being paid to articulate the right message in a clear and simple manner."

-- From the article: Focus on What You Are Trying to Say

"If you are just jumping up and down with excitement about your business service or new product, pull back your own enthusiasm a notch or two. With all the sincerity in the world, TOO much enthusiasm will always sound false.

And this is particularly true online, where readers have a heightened sensitivity to a 'bs' sales pitch."

-- From the article:The Enthusiastic Sell

"Good copywriters say the right thing well, and then add final touches to make the copy work online. Mediocre copywriters skip the part about the right message and writing well. They simply jump to the part about 'power' words and formatting."

-- From the article:3 Steps to Great Copy

"Every time someone clicks on a link and a new page begins to open, the reader is thinking, in one way or another, “Is this page going to give me what I’m looking for?” This is particularly true of first-time visitors."

-- From the article: Four Things Every Website Headline Must Do

Writing Web Content

"All too often, organizations impose their own, organization-centric desires on the structure, layout and messages on their sites. And all too often, this imposition gets in the way of the user finding what she or he wants."

-- From the article: Helping Your Readers Make Choices

"Our audience, online, are our peers, our colleagues. They are as much the ‘authors’ of the Web as we are. In fact, through emails, weblogs, instant messaging and forums etc, our audience is creating more online content than we are."

-- From the article:The Dangers of being Too Professional

"Creating great content for your site, and newsletters, is still a very smart thing to do. It’s good for your customers, good for your conversion rates, perfect for search engines and does a great job of separating your site from your competition."

-- From the article: 3 Reasons why Content is Still King

"Say something worth talking about. Unlike any other medium, the online experience is linked, networked... through sites, email, newsletters, discussion lists, forums, weblogs, wikis, cell phones, PDAs and more. If you have products or services that people actually want, then invest some time in talking about them in an interesting and different way. Talk about them in a way that stands out, makes your readers smile, laugh or scream in outrage.

Don't be safe. Say it as it is. Say it loud. Say it in a way that strikes home and is memorable. Do that, and you'll have done something worth talking about...and the network will reward you."

-- From the article: Say something worth talking about

Search Engine Optmization

"While some writers find it frustrating to have to accommodate the needs of SEO, doing so will actually help you. The better you know and understand what people are entering into the search box, the easier it will be for you to write text that is relevant to their expectations and needs."

-- From the article: Four Things Every Website Headline Must Do

"SEO helps us focus on writing in ways that are directly relevant to the task our visitors have in mind. My point is, don't consider the job completed when you have optimized the homepage or any particular landing page. Use the same approach, the same way of writing, to help that visitor all the way through to the moment when they complete their task, whatever that may be."

-- From the article: The Search Doesn't End at Your Homepage

Writing For the Web #1

7 Challenges every Writer and Copywriter faces when writing for the Web

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