Web Copy That Sells: The Revolutionary Formula for Creating Killer Copy That Grabs Their Attention and Compels Them to Buy - Softcover

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MARIA VELOSO is director of Web Copywriting University, a sought-after speaker on Internet marketing strategies, and CEO of Think-Outside-the-Book Publishing. She has generated millions of dollars in online sales for a diverse stable of clients as well as her own online enterprises through her unique model of direct-response Web copywriting.

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Web copy—the words on a website that make people buy what you’re selling—is the single most important element that can turn a lackluster site into a “perpetual money machine.” This book is the definitive resource for mastering the skill of writing attention-grabbing online copy that makes people take action. Starting with a five-step blue­print and powerful psychological tactics for writing irresistible e-mail, marketing, and website communications, veteran web copywriter Maria Veloso also provides guidelines for writing and producing high-converting video sales letters (VSLs) . . . writing copy for mobile devices and the “portable web” . . . and writing copy for highly clickable interactive advertising banners.

New and timely additions to this third edition include methods for standing out in the ever-changing social media landscape and mining the endless possibilities of this new market, plus smart tips on crafting highly targeted Facebook ads that will help you capture the attention (and dollars) of more than a billion Facebook users, and also how to:

• Monetize e-zines and e-newsletters to generate maximum revenues

• Write search-engine-optimized articles that generate massive traffic to your website

• Streamline your communications into compelling “cyber bites” that rivet the attention of your prospects and customers

Throughout, case studies provide real-world examples of actual web businesses that have flourished using Veloso’s unbeatable methods.

“Web Copy That Sells is, without a doubt, a treasure for any copywriter, entrepreneur, or marketer. If you want to unleash the power of the written word and apply it to the web and make millions in the process, you’ve got to read this book. Even though I have more than five decades of direct marketing and copy­­writing experience, I was blown away by how much I learned from reading Maria’s great advice.”

— Joseph Sugarman, Direct Marketing Legend, Chairman and Founder of BluBlocker Corporation

“Veloso’s book is one of the single best books on copywriting I’ve ever read. When building my first website to sell my service, I used this book as a ‘bible’ to make sure my copy performed. I must have read this book at least five times and each reading would bring fresh insights that would send me back to my website copy to make further changes. Results? My first piece of copy, adjusted and tweaked with ideas from this book, went on to sell $3 million dollars’ worth of products.”

— Vishen Lakhiani, CEO and Co-Founder,MindValley.com

Maria Veloso began her copywriting career in 1977 and is now widely acknowledged as the leading expert in web copywriting. She is the CEO of Think-Outside-the-Book Publishing and Breakthroughs Unlimited and the director of Web Copywriting University. Through her unique and powerful approach to direct-response web copywriting, she has sold over $150 million worth of products and services for her online clients, as well as for her own online enterprises.

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INTRODUCTION TO THIRD EDITION

The Greek philosopher Socrates once said, “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” Very few stories convey the profound truth of his statement better than this story of Chinese Taoist origin:

There was a farmer who lived in a poor country village. He was considered quite -well--to--do because he owned a horse which he used for plowing and for transportation. One day his horse ran away. All his neighbors exclaimed how terrible this was, but the farmer simply said, “Maybe, maybe not.”

A few days later the horse returned and brought two wild horses with it. The neighbors all rejoiced and told the farmer how fortunate he was, but the farmer just said, “Maybe, maybe not.”

The next day the farmer’s son tried to ride one of the wild horses; the horse threw him and as a result, his son broke his leg. The neighbors offered their sympathy and told the farmer what a terrible turn of events he had encountered, but the farmer said once again, “Maybe, maybe not.”

The next week draft officers came to the village to take all the -able--bodied young men for the army. They rejected the farmer’s son because of his broken leg. When the neighbors told him how lucky he was, the farmer replied, “Maybe, maybe not.”

This story underscores what Socrates must have meant when he penned the words “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” Things of this world are in such a constant state of flux, that nothing remains the same for very long. Just when you think something is true, it ceases to be -true—-like Google’s search algorithms. Therefore, true wisdom might be defined as freeing one’s mind to be a blank canvas upon which the ebb and flow of the universe can paint a changing landscape.

Such is the outlook we must adopt when it comes to the rapidly changing world of the Internet and -e--commerce. Instead of clinging to benchmark standards, methods, and techniques that have consistently shown superior results during the early days of the web, “best practice” must necessarily become better as improvements are discovered. Although we’ve all learned a few things since the dawn of the Internet, if we were to take the stance that we know a thing or two about Internet marketing or web copywriting, we may run the risk of “knowing just enough to be dangerous.”

The operative word for our business behavior is therefore . . . nimble. Just as the Internet is nimble and -ever--changing, so must the art of web copywriting be.

The first edition of this book (2004) presented web copywriting principles that catered to the prevailing business climate at a time when Yahoo! reigned supreme as the brightest star among web directories, Google was still in its infancy, and Facebook and Twitter had not made their entrance yet. By the time the second edition was released in 2009, Google had become a verb in our vocabulary (due to the popularity and dominance of the eponymous search engine), and the YouTube revolution had come to dominate the hearts and minds of Internet surfers. I introduced advanced online communications in that second edition that were tailored to the -then--emerging age of Web 2.0. Within a few short years thereafter, the Internet had metamorphosed into the -next--generation version of itself and has yet again altered the way we communicate to our prospects, customers, and the general public online.

It is this next generation of the Internet (Web 3.0, if you will) that the third edition of Web Copy That Sells addresses. In order to stay a step ahead of the trends that dominate the web, you must also change your online communications at the speed of change, while still embracing fundamental principles that are the undercurrent of all marketing and copywriting.

There is another reason why the aforementioned tale of the farmer is one of my favorite stories of all time. It illustrates one of the psychological devices that I present in this book, called reframing (see Chapter 5, “Using Psychology to Motivate Prospects to Become Purchasers”). Reframing, simply put, suggests that the meaning of any event depends upon the “frame” in which we perceive it. When we change the frame, we change the meaning. When the farmer gains two wild horses, for example, that event might be perceived as a good thing until it is seen in the context of the farmer’s son’s broken leg. The broken leg appears to be an unfortunate event in the context of peaceful village life, but in the context of the draft, it suddenly becomes fortunate. Reframing is one of the most powerful web copywriting devices, which I discuss in greater length in this third edition.

The Trifecta -Neuro--Affective Principle™ (Chapter 6) is another powerful device that is designed to change your prospects’ minds in favor of your product or service and accelerates their decision to buy what you’re selling. This device, which can be utilized in any selling situation either on or off the web, has exceedingly more applications within the current Internet trends. This comes at such an opportune time because the current landscape of the web tends to favor short, succinct, digestible bites of copy, for which I coined the term cyber bite. Cyber bites have the power not only to create a -sales---advancing impact on people but also potentially to become memes (a term coined by Richard Dawkins in 1976, derived from the words mime and mimic, representing cultural ideas that are passed from one individual to another in a manner analogous to the propagation of biological genes) that get transmitted verbally and virally, thereby creating significant buzz for any product or service.

The expanded material in the third edition makes this book useful not just for online marketers and copywriters but for anyone who sells -anything—-either on or off the web.

Web copy refers to the words on a website, in an e‑mail, or in other online marketing communications that cause prospects to do what you want them to -do—-pick up the phone, register, subscribe, or buy your product or service.

The World Wide Web is forging ahead, and the age of Web 3.0 is already upon us, yet I find that most people who do business on the Internet are still in the dark as far as selling on the web is concerned. The fact is, most companies, business enterprises, and entrepreneurs who are selling products and services on the Internet are still conducting marketing and sales operations online the way they do business in the -brick---and---mortar world. They’re still taking marketing principles that work well in the offline world and trying to force them to work on the web. And they still don’t realize that many principles that are effective in print, on the radio, on billboards, in direct mail, and via other types of offline advertising simply do not translate well on the web. In fact, they can even kill sales.

Most of all, they still make the common mistake that most website owners, Internet entrepreneurs, and online companies make: They drive traffic to their website before making sure they have web copy that sells.

Words are the true currency of the web. The single most important ingredient in a commercial website is web...