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Excess Voice Newsletter
October 2006, Issue # 118
In this issue:
>> Intro: Some good questions...
>> Review: Search Marketing Benchmark Guide 2007
>> Article: Guide site visitors forward to the next page
>> Post/Find a Job: The first two listings
>> Survey: Do you charge less for online copy..?
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Greetings,
In the last issue I asked you to make a few suggestions for survey questions.
There wasn’t a huge response, but I got a few good ones. In this issue, check out an excellent question submitted by Bob Bly.
Also, if you are an employer wanting to hire a writer or copywriter, full-time or freelance, be sure to check out the new Excess Voice Job Board at:
https://excessvoice.jobcoin.com/jobs/new
While there are not many jobs posted yet, if you are looking for writing work, check out the current job listings further down in this issue.
And, finally, I finally reading MarketingSherpa’s Search Marketing Benchmark Guide 2007, and have posted my review.
Until next time,
Nick
Nick Usborne
Newsletter: http://www.excessvoice.com
Copywriting and consulting: http://www.nickusborne.com
>> Feedback: mailto:nick@excessvoice.com
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REVIEW: MarketingSherpa's Search Marketing Benchmark Guide 2007
This is another impressive guide from MarketingSherpa. It is over 250 pages in length and covers every aspect of search marketing.
You’ll get everything here from stats on the growth of SEO as an industry, right down to the detail of people’s behavior as they search, including eyetracking heatmaps.
MarketingSherpa gathered data from variety of sources. What I particularly like is that they didn't just rely on other research, but collected and compiled costs and results data from 3,944 marketers, agencies, and affiliates.
If your business depends on strong search results, whether organic or PPC, or both, consider getting a copy of this guide.
Read my review here:
http://www.excessvoice.com/search-marketing.htm
>> Previous Reviews
::: At ExcessVoice.com :::
#1. Keyword Discovery – a keyword research and analytics tool for SEO and PPC.
Filled with advanced search features, Keyword Discovery draws on search results from over 200 search engines. If you are serious about attracting organic search engine traffic, or optimizing PPC campaigns, you'll want to check this out.
Read my review:
http://www.excessvoice.com/keyword-discovery.htm
::: At Freelance Writing Success :::
#1. The InfoGuru Marketing Manual
A manual by Robert Middleton that delivers a wealth of hands-on information, strategies, techniques, examples, stories and ideas to help freelancers attract more clients.
Read my review:
http://www.freelancewritingsuccess.com/infoguru.php
#2. The Keurig B60, the perfect one-cup coffee maker for your home office.
It had never occurred to me just how convenient it would be to have a coffee maker in my home office. I no longer have to go to the kitchen to make a whole pot. Now I can make coffee just one cup at a time, with no grinding, filters or mess.
Read my review:
http://www.freelancewritingsuccess.com/keurig-b60.php
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ARTICLE: Guide site visitors forward to the next page.
All too often web pages, even home pages, provide readers with a variety of choices, but don’t really provide a clear way forward.
This is particularly true when a site has multiple products or services to sell.
But this lack of direction is also evident on some sites which have just a single offering.
>> Help your visitors move forward...
If a visitor reads your home page and becomes interested in something you are selling or offering, what should they do next?
Where should they click? Are they ready to go directly to the order page?
Would conversions be higher if they first read a full sales page?
One way or another, you need to make it simple and obvious to the reader what he or she should do next.
I have seen pages where you read and read down the center column for two or three screens, but then there is no link forward at the end of the text. You have to scroll back up and actively look for links that might advance you towards buying the products.
I have seen pages where you read and read, but then have to scroll back up to find the “Next Step” link further up the page, sometimes even in another column.
I have seen pages where you read the text and find three or four different hyperlinks within the text...but no primary link at the end of the page. So which of those links should I click on?
>> The more you make your readers struggle, the lower your conversion rates...
To optimize any sequence of sales pages, you need to make it blindingly obvious what the reader should do next.
Of course, it is not always the case that you have just one pathway available.
It may be that you have several, or even hundreds of products or services people can choose from.
But the principle remains the same, whether your sales sequence in two pages in length, or five.
Regardless of the underlying complexity of the site, on the surface you have to make it very clear to every reader what he or she should do in order to take that next step forward.
The more passive you are, the more you leave it to the reader to figure out, the lower your conversions will be. People will become lost, lose momentum and give up.
Put another way, it should never be the reader’s responsibility to have to work hard to find the product or service they want, and then buy it.
Instead, they should find themselves clearly directed along a clear, simple and short pathway of pages.
>> How do you achieve this?
Put at its simplest, each page not only has to fulfill its own purpose, but also has to pre-sell the reader on the next page to view.
In other words, every page has to be written and designed not as a stand-alone source of information, but as part of a dynamic, linear sequence.
And each page in that sequence has to build momentum in a forward direction.
** If you found value in the article, please forward this newsletter to colleagues and friends who might be interested.
** And if you want to pass on a url, this article is not at excessvoice.com. It's on my nickusborne.com site at: http://www.nickusborne.com/articles_art20.htm
>> Feedback: mailto:nick@excessvoice.com
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POST A JOB, FIND A JOB: 2 New Jobs Posted
The Excess Voice Job Board has been up for just a week so far, and I am looking forwarding to seeing more jobs listed. (It's not expensive, and your listing will be promoted to 15,000+ writers and copywriters each month.)
Here are the first two listings:
1. Fundraising Copywriter
https://excessvoice.jobcoin.com/jobs/show/149
2. Financial and Travel Editors
https://excessvoice.jobcoin.com/jobs/show/151
** Looking for a good Writer, Copywriter or Editor?
POST your job listing here:
https://excessvoice.jobcoin.com/jobs/new
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SURVEY: Do you charge less for online copy than offline copy?
An interesting question submitted by Bob Bly. I don't have an answer, because I haven't written any offline copy since 1997. But how about you?
[ ] I charge the same
[ ] I charge more for offline copy
[ ] I charge more for online copy
Comments: ....
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