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Handy
Website Checklist |
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The objective: a website doesn't work unless and until prospects leave their e-mail addresses. Thus, the single most important objective of any website -- and thus all design elements -- is to CAPTURE THE PROSPECT'S E-MAIL ADDRESS! Look at your site as you proceed: IS YOUR DESIGN AND LAY-OUT GOING TO ACHIEVE THE OBJECTIVE? If not, redo! 1) Always stress benefits, not features. Remember, words like "newsletter" or "ezine" are benefits. What does the prospect GET from the ezine? It's better to write, "Get one savvy money-making & money-saving tip after another" to capture the prospect's e-mail address than write, "Get a free ezine subscription." Keep in mind at all times, what combination of words will be more likely to get prospects to leave their e-mail addresses? 2) Use different ways to capture visitor information. For instance, add check-off boxes in the guest book so visitors tell the owner what they're interested in. Use language like this. I'd like to benefit in the following ways; check what you're interested in... 
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Profit by giving away UNLIMITED FREE Greeting Postcards!I'd suggest having no more than 10 such information fields on a single form. Make sure the form concludes by getting the prospect's name, e-mail address, postal address, day phone, URL 3) Use emotive language. Don't just say, "Learn how to make more money." Say instead, "Get buried in bucks!" "Stuff your pocket with money!" "Buy yourself a pair of stilts! You're going to need them to wade through your new profits!" Remember: the people coming to your site are most likely in information overload mode; they see too much and get dazed. Your job is to break through every surfer's defensive shield, to capture their attention, rivet their brain, and compel action. Strong, sharp bursts of highly emotive language are always better than longer, dull, slow-moving sentences. Thus, "You, YES YOU. Okay, so, you're bored! Tired! Overwhelmed! But you can still use some extra money, right? SO, PAY ATTENTION!" Or, "OF COURSE YOU HATE YOUR JOB! You're smart, aren't you? Well, then, discover what it takes to build a million dollar empire on the Web now! Click here and open the money faucet!" Remember, what I wrote about "the gnome in the box." The job of that gnome is to stop the surfer in his tracks and make him PAY ATTENTION and ACT. Look that surfer in the eye and talk to him directly about what's going to make his life better and why he should stop, look, and act NOW! 4) Use your major color and design elements to direct the eye to where information is posted that captures prospects email addresses. Thus, don't waste color and other major design elements at the top of the page unless you have placed the prospect capturing information there. If you direct the prospect's eye to a place where there's no action step, that's wrong. Remember, design is always subsidiary to capturing prospect e-mail! 5) Keep all sentences short, fewer than 12 words whenever possible. In writing sentences, less is more. Take note! Remember the ancient Manchu emperors ruled the Celestial empire with three words "Hear and obey!" Learn from them! 6) Make every sentence active. Always include an action step like, "Get this!", "Act now!", "Get it now!", "Get the facts!". Don't overuse "Click here." Instead use other action words and turn them into the links. 7) Keep reminding visitors of all the things they GET from the site. You can never overdo benefits. But if you just tell list features, you're killing the site. Thus, don't just write "listserver." That's a feature... not a benefit. Benefits are about what people GET! To get a benefit, the prospect must ACT (in this case, click). Write instead, "Find out how you can send UNLIMITED non-spam e-mail for just pennies a day!" In this case "UNLIMITED non-spam e-mail" would be the link. Similarly don't write, "Free postcards." That's a feature. Instead write something like this: "Show someone you care with a FREE Greeting Postcard. Send it now!" There are three potential links in these two sentences: "someone you care"; "FREE Greeting Postcard", or "Send it now!". I like "someone you care" because it stresses love, the strongest motivator of all. 8) Don't just add things to fill up space. There's nothing wrong with empty space so long as it helps emphasize key points. 9) Emphasize and re-emphasize key points. If you start by saying, "Get hundreds of FREE money-making tips. Request them now!" at the topm then a little later in the text, write "Have you asked for those hundreds of FREE money-making tips yet? We're standing by to start sending them now...!" In other words, since capturing the prospect's e-mail information is so important, make sure each site offers two or three ways to achieve this. 10) Use street language whenever possible; write the way people talk. A website should convey a sense of intimacy; it should read like a conversation between the owner of the site... and the prospect. Thus, an easy-going, conversational mode works best. "YES, you can get over a million hits a day for your website. I'll be glad to show you how! YOU know how important traffic is. That's how you make $$$ on the Web! Get the facts now!" Short, active sentences, packed with action verbs and reader benefits, all done as effortlessly and conversationally as possible works best. 11) Put the owner's name in the site. All owners like to see their names in lights, or, in this case, on the 'net. Oblige them. But not at the top of the page. Remember, an owner's name is a feature, not a benefit. Instead, say I'm the owner. You could write, "Dr. Jeffrey Lant's Personal Favorite: Build your traffic by GIVING AWAY UNLIMITED FREE CLASSIFIED ADS! Boy, oh, boy, I love this puppy. Just think! The more free classified ads you give away, the higher your traffic goes. That's why I've made this my personal pick. Don't leave without giving yourself a FREE CLASSIFIED AD NOW!" Dr. Jeffrey Lant, your obliging proprietor 12) Use language and paragraphs taken from my daily "Marketing Hot Tips." Six days a week I'm helping you by writing timely, fast-moving copy. Allen Zuk culls each issue and excerpts language you can use in your design work. Make use of this resource! 13) Always make sure there is a banner on the site connecting to World Banner Exchange. 14) End the site with a bang. People often read the first few lines of copy... then quickly scan the middle and slow down again towards the end. That's why you've got to end with a bang. Remember: capturing prospect e-mail is the most important objective of any site. Thus, at the end re-emphasize this. Say, "Have you made sure you're getting thousands of money-making tips by e-mail? Don't say good-bye without leaving your e-mail address! You'll benefit as we send you one money-making, money-saving tip after another!" 15) Get excited. When I write copy myself, I write it from the reader's standpoint, not the owner's. Only if readers get excited does action take place, and without action the site fails. Thus, ask yourself after writing a section, and certainly after writing the whole, DOES THIS ITEM, THIS SITE EXCITE ME? Or am I just going through the motions? If the latter, then the site's a flop and needs substantial reworking. Sure, maybe you are not yet a candidate for a truss, but if you cannot write copy that'll entice people who need one to click here to get it... then you have failed. You know when copy -- and the site overall -- work because you get EXCITED and want to know more about the benefits, so they can improve your life. Last Thought: Building a business isn't about getting a customer, it's about keeping a customer. If the customer's website doesn't work, that customer will not only complain, but she won't renew. Even worse, she'll tell others she's unhappy, thus compounding the damage. That's why your design work is so important. Your job is to help make the website a success by helping the owner make money. If you need additional information from the site owner to achieve the objective, ask for it. Then take what you've got and turn into one reader-catching hook after another. In this way you benefit site owner, Worldprofit, and yourself.
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