How To Write For The Internet

Writing That Gets Results I

When you are writing for the Internet, you have about 3 seconds to grab an individual's attention before he/she moves on to the next site. Therefore, your headlines and ad copy must grab attention immediately and hold the reader's attention long enough to get your message across.

There are 3 effective ways to grab a viewer's attention online, Words, Visual Images ( sometimes referred to as graphics), or a combination of Words and Images. Companies spend millions of dollars every year researching words and images that move people to buy their products or use their service.

You don't have to spend millions. Believe it or not, practically all the words you will ever need to write good ad copy or any effective written material are in the dictionary. Your problem is you don't know which words to use or in what order. The best way to understand effective writing is to realize all words produce images in your mind that relate to that word.

For example: When you say the word chair. A picture of a chair will form in your mind. The opposite is true for visual images. Visual images will produce words in your mind that will help you describe and relate to the image. When words (spoken or written) and visual images are combined, they have a tendency to move a person emotionally and logically. Provocative visual images can arouse intense emotions within an individual that can move him/her emotionally with little or no regard for intellect, logic, or reason.

If you combine provocative imagery with acting, drama, words (spoken or written) and music and you can arouse an emotional reaction within an individual of such high intensity until he/she may completely abandon intellect, logic, and reason. When this happens, that individual has just seen a good production in a theater, on his/her computer, or television.

If you remove the visual imagery and just use spoken Dramatic Words and music you have an excellent audio production. IMG.Ws defines Dramatic Words as words or language that is spoken with feeling, emotion, emphasis, voice inflection and intonation. Your problem is you might not know how to do any of this. And... You really don't know which words or images to use, or how to use them for maximum impact.

You really don't need theatrics to write effectively for the Internet. Start by choosing words that produce a vivid image in your mind. Select images that trigger compelling words. Choose words and images that are colorful, captivating, expressive, and descriptive. You have the beginnings of an effective Internet advertisement or web page when you combine colorful, captivating, expressive, and descriptive words with imagery.

If you remove visual imagery, drama and music, all you have left are words. Captivating, descriptive, expressive and colorful words will allow to reach a person emotionally, intellectually, and logically. This must be done quickly because you don't have time to paint a picture like a novel or short story. The best method to use to guide your writing is the A.I.D.A. Principle. AIDA is an abbreviation for:

Attention: Conscious awareness.

Interest: Having a sense of concern, an advantage or profit, appeal, or curiosity.

Desire: To wish or long for, crave, covet, have an appetite for, passion or lust.

Action: Putting forth effort, activity, doing, working, operating or exerting power.

Basically, what you are doing with The A.I.D.A. Principle is getting a person's conscious awareness, so you can appeal to his/her longing or desire, so that he/she will put forth effort to contact your, or take advantage of your offering.

You can use this principle to write Headlines for your ad copy. IMG.Ws defines a Headline as the word or words that summarize the content of a message or story. Your ad copy needs a good headline just like a newspaper or magazine story. A good headline grabs attention and predisposes an individual to your advertising message. The following are headlines IMG.Ws has used to garner thousands of hits and responses to our ads.

"Still No Sales or Recruits? Then you Need.."

"Tired of Losing Money with Internet Opportunities?"

"Earn $500.00 to $30,000.00 a Month."

"Earn While You Learn."

"Is Your Internet Opportunity Taking You Nowhere Fast?"

"Guaranteed Downline or Don't Pay."

"This was a Secret."

"Incredible Moneymaker."

"Nothing on Earth Pays Like This."

Some of you using this Warehouse right now, responded to one of the ads listed above. Even though the response to these ads have been very good, this is still not enough to have a successful Internet based enterprise. There are other aspects of writing for the internet that you need to know about.

On the Internet, good headlines and the A.I.D.A. Principle still might not be enough to be completely effective, you need to know about Fonts. You may have to use different fonts in order to make your ad more compelling to a reader. Fonts are an assotment of printing type of a particular face, size, and style. The fonts in the Trellix Sitebuilder we use to write IMG.Ws' web pages are Arial, Verdana, Times and Courier.

Some website builders have more fonts, some have less. In addition to knowing about fonts, you need to have a working knowledge of Color. If your text editor has only a few Fonts and a Color Palette, you can choose a variety of different colors to express your written words and make them more appealing to a reader. However, be very careful with color in your background and words. Too much color, or too many different colors can be distracting.

IMG.Ws uses white backgrounds,instead of color oriented backgrounds, with black Arial, Verdana, and Times fonts, with colored words, sentences, and highlights for emphasis. Our primary colors are black, dark blue and red. You can also use italics, bold italics, or bold or darken words to identify or emphasize a specific word, sentence or paragraph. Underlining and highlighting can be used to add additional emphasis. Choose a color scheme that works for you.

You will need something about Layout. Layout is how your written words and/or visual images will actually appear on the written page. Layout involves the actual positioning of the components; such as top, side, middle, bottom, or embedded.

You will need to know about Graphics. Even though visual imagery is sometimes referred to as graphics, graphics can include and cover a variety of different aspects from artwork, artistry, and animation, to simple lines and circles. Many people never think of lines, circles, or triangles as a visual images, but they are, and when used effectively, they can& make your web page or ad copy much more appealing.

Finally, you will need to know your Audience. Your Audience is the people you are going to appeal to. To whom and for whom are you writing emails, web pages, responses, letters, ad copy or putting together a production? This final element is not a component of the mechanical process, your audience is the reason why you are expending time, effort and resources to reach them intellectually, emotionally or logically. Therefore, decide in advance what specific audience or target market you are trying to reach with your message.

These are the basic components and final element you will need to know about in order to write effectively for the Internet. The easy part is combining them in an intelligent and organized manner to produce a finished product. Lets review the components and the final element before proceeding to the next section. To write for the Internet, you will need to know:

How to Use Headlines
How to Use Colorful,Descriptive, and Expressive Words.
How to Use The A.I.D.A. Principle.
How to Use Visual Imagery.
How to Use Fonts.
How to Use Color.
How to Use Emphasis for Words, Phrases, Sentences, or Paragraphs.
How to Use Layout Methods and Techniques.
How to Use Graphics Effectively.
How to Use Intelligence and Organization to Reach a Specific Audience or Market.

You don't have to be a marketing guru to write an effective text ad, or produce a good website. However, if you are going to embark upon an involved and expensive ad campaign, it will be in your best interest to consult or hire professionals. IMG.Ws is concerned with the vast majority that may not have the financial resources to initiate such a campaign.

IMG.Ws programs and information must be simple, effective, duplicatable and adaptable so that anyone of reasonable intelligence can use them to improve his/her financial situation. The vast majority may not have hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend on advertising initially. However, they will still need to get their message out to prospective buyers or team members.

An email is a condensed expression for Electronic Mail. Emails are correspondence or data that is transmitted from one computer to another over telephones lines are by wireless transmission. To receive an email, a person must have an electronic address. Correspondence can be a memo, letter, or an advertisement. Emails can be one or more pages. You can write an email with any computer word processing program or HTML Editor.

An editor is included with your email address. A HTML Editor is a databased system that can transform ordinary text, visual images or sound into electronic signals. Html editors can also do the reverse, transform electronic information into ordinary text, images, sound, and/or graphics. If you have an email address, you have the ability to compose an email.

When you write your email ads, follow this Rule of Thumb. Keep your lines short, no more than 65 characters per line. This includes the space between words. This is necessary to maintain the integrity of your sentences. Some editors can, and will, chop and crop long sentences. Imagery in printed text is how neat and organized your words appear.

Now, let's combine what you have learned about writing ads with The A.I.D.A. Principle. What you are doing in your writing is grabbing the readers Attention or making an individual consciously aware of your offer. Once you have the individual's consious awareness, you appeal to an Interest or benefit he/she may want to experience. You heighten Desire or his/her longing or craving by giving a feature and benefit of your offering. Then you make it possible for the individual to take Action or do something.

Use the Subject Line in your email as your ad Headline. For example: If you are sending an ad email that is about a diet product, the subject line in your email might read as follows:

"Lose 30 lbs in 30 days. Guaranteed or Money Back"

"Guaranteed Weight Loss or Money Back"

"Like to Lose 15 lbs this week?"

"Incredible Weight Loss Product"

"Scientifically Proven Weight Loss Formula"

"Sensational Weight Loss Product"

"Cut Your Phone Bill By 50%"

"A Drop Dead Discovery"

After the headline write the body of your message using the A.I.D.A. Principle.

Dear Ms James,

I have lost 80 lbs with a wonderful product that will also help

you lose those unwanted pounds. You can lose 30 lbs in the

next 30 days by using Zirtan. Zirtan is an amazing weight

lost discovery that works with your natural metabolism.

You can eat what you want, when you want, and still lose

weight. Zirtan is guaranteed to work or your money back.

You can get that dress or suit you have always wanted and put

excitement back into your life with a slimmer.. trimmer.. sexier

body. This amazing product normally sells for $39.95. However,

because of this special email offer, you can get Zirtan for only

$29.95. This special promotion ends soon. So act now.

Remember: You must lose 30 lbs in 30 days or your money

back. Click on the following link or call toll free...1-800-331-1274.

Order your slimmer, trimmer, body today; or go online to:

http://www.independentmarketinggroup.ws

Thank you Ms James for reading my email.

Sincerely

Joyce

The product and names are fictitious but the message is real. Let's examine the mechanics of this email to see why this email gets sales.

First: The headline grabbed Attention by summarizing the primary benefit the individual would receive by using the product:

Second: The Greeting gave maximum respect to the individual by using a title and last name. 99% of all marketing professionals make this mistake. Someone told somebody that anyone could be approached more easily by immediately getting on a first name basis. But, no one has ever proven this is a better method than using common courtesy and respect. Common Courtesy and Respect has been and always will be more effective. You can prove this to yourself anytime you desire to do so. "Familiarity Breeds Contempt" is as true today as it was 1,000 years ago.

Third: A Personal Testimonial was given concerning the effectiveness of the product.

Fourth: The body of the letter established Interest by repeating the primary benefit.

Fifth: Desire for the product was was increased by stating features and benefits.

Sixth: The Price Issue was dealt with in the email. Therefore the individal already knows the price.

Seventh: The person was told how to take Action to acquire the product before an impending deadline.

You can use this outline to compose your own ad emails. And... As you can plainly see, all the words in the ad can be found in any dictionary. All the companies in our Showcases that have monthly fees or startup cost have professionally prepared letters you can send to a list of names. This saves you the time and effort of trying to design, layout, place graphics and text in a sales or marketing letter. Use these marketing tools, if you have them.

If you have a Home Business Enterprise or a Home Business Shop Operation you wouldn't need an individual website. The company/ies you joined will give you one. However, if you decide to offer more than one income opportunity you will need a sponsoring site. If you have an Internet Based Business or Business Group with multiple offers, you will definitely need your own sponsoring website. Producing web pages is more time consuming.

A web page is also much more involved than writing an email or letter, even though you basically follow the same format. Some web pages have little or no graphic material and are largely text. How to get a website is covered in the information bin entitled: . Go back to that bin for a quick review.

The best way to proceed is find a hosting company that has a website builder that is easy to use. IMG.Ws recommends OLM.Net. This is the hosting company we use and it has a Trellix Sitebuilder. Of all the web building formats we've used at IMG.Ws, we discovered Trellix is one of the easiest to use for beginners.

If you have html experience you may want to use a sitebuilder that gives you more control of the text, fonts, imagery, grahics and layout. If you don't have these skills a website builder will suffice for right now. If you use a sitebuilder you can acquire pictures and artwork from the public domain. Save them on your computer and download them as needed. 90% of the pictures used in the Warehouse and our main sponsoring site came from the public domain.

It is difficult to give you guidelines for producing a web page other than what we have already provided. The reason for this is that we don't know which sitebuilder or program you will use or the fonts that are available. Just remember, write for an audience and not yourself.

Writing letters to people that respond to your ads is the only aspect of writing for the Internet that is entirely you. Simply be yourself. Be honest and to the point. Do not ramble in your letters. Every good piece of writing has a beginning, a middle and an end. Let your letters and responses follow the same format. If an individual ask you a question, put the question in the subject line of your email and the answer in the body of the letter.

If someone desires more information about your offering, use the A.I.D.A. Principle to formulate an effective response. Basically what you are doing is giving a mini Presentation. Highlight key features and benefits of your industry, company, products, sales and support, and the compensation plan. Devote 3 to 4 sentences to each.

Each time an individual writes back for more information, provide more details. By doing this you are developing a relationship. Do not send them the same old warn out material. So many marketers on the net make this mistake. Keep your information as fresh as possible. If you are using an autoresponder with a pre-printed message, use it only once to answer an inquiry. After that, write an original response targeted at the interest an individual has shown for your offering.

If you must contact an individual more than once, write a different letter each time. If you are interested in saving time, write a series of letters and save them as drafts at your mailbox. When a person writes you, send him/her a pre-written draft copy. Do this until you run out of letters to send. Then write more. After a period of time, you can use your first series of letters over. Simply add the words, "do you recall" or "do you remember" at the beginning of each paragraph. This technique keeps your letters fresh.

If you have an individual's offline mailing address, you can really build a relationship by sending them a postcard or a letter. Write these letters with your word processing program and save them to a file. When the opportunity presents itself, mail postcards or letters to new inquirers. Follow up with a postcard at monthly or bi-monthly intervals.

This is a Cardinal Rule of Sales and Marketing: Never let a prospect forget you and don't you ever forget a prospect.

There are a variety of web tools you can use to work more efficiently and build you own in house list. In addition to autoresponders, you can also use an Automailer. IMG.Ws defines an Automailer as an Internet based contact system that sends out a pre-written email or advertisement to a list of names. Using this service really saves time and effort. However, once you get a response to an ad or email, autorespond once and then go personal.

There are other web tools or web gems as well. Such as,

Chat Rooms
Hit Counters
Calenders
Guestmaps
Guestbooks
Today in History
Mini Polls
Tell-a-Friend
Headline News
Comment Forms
Forums
Downloads
Search Windows
Horoscopes

Out all the web tools that are available to use, IMG.Ws recommends that you limit your tools to sytems that will help you work more efficiently and forms that will allow individuals to contact you. The rest you can add to your family website or a personal website, do not place unnecessary tools on your main sponsoring or recruiting website. They can be too distracting.