#112: The Freelance Copywriter’s Guide To The Perfect Website

“There are reasons some businesses are hugely successful, others ‘get by’ and the less fortunate fail. From a marketing perspective it seems quite simple: You must know your customers and what it takes to make them happy.”
–Bruce Johnson

In This Issue:

The Freelance Copywriter’s Guide To The Perfect Website
by David Coyne

Welcome to the all-important second half of our website conversation, continued from last week. Last week was all about the whys of having a site. Today, let’s look at the very concrete hows of getting one up and running.

Your first step is to decide on your domain name and register it. Opinions abound about what a copywriter should call his or her website. Some copywriting gurus insist you create your own personal brand by using your name in the domain, such as www.janedoe.com. That’s fine – as long as your name hasn’t already been registered, and that’s how you plan to practice as a freelancer – simply by your name. Many of the best in the business do this. Bob Bly, Paul Hollingshead, Clayton Makepeace – to name a few. Why not you?

I chose to use my niche and “copywriter” in mine: www.b2bcopywriter.net. Inserting your niche into your URL indicates you’re serious about writing for that sector and you’re not just dabbling. If the name you want with a dot com extension is taken, see if it’s available with a .net or .biz extension. (Note: To secure a domain name, you might try GoDaddy.com – they offer .com domains for only $8.99 a year and non-dot com extensions are often cheaper.)

The most important considerations are: your domain name should be logically related to copywriting and/or easy to remember.

Once you’ve got your name registered, you need to decide what content to include on your site. The bare essentials are:

  1. benefit-rich copy about why a prospect should hire you,
  2. a short biography of your career-to-date, including both copywriting credentials and other professional experience,
  3. writing samples (this is the bread-and-butter of the site),
  4. and contact information (of course!)

When you’ve got the basics down, you can add more info as you go along such as articles, case studies, maybe even a blog.

While setting up a website can be dirt cheap, your site shouldn’t look cheap. You’ve probably come across what I call “homemade” business sites. They look like they were thrown together at the last minute. The typeface is hard to read. And the pages are plastered with hokey clipart.

When your website looks ugly or busy, it shoots a bad vibe to prospects. It gives the impression you’re not professional. Your website doesn’t have to be loaded with every bell and whistle, but it should be pleasing to the eye. My websites are nothing fancy, but they’re clean, readable, and easy to navigate.

Many web-hosting companies offer pre-designed web templates. While not a replacement for a good web designer, the templates help keep your text and graphics visually balanced. Best of all, you’ll never have to fiddle with finicky html code. You basically point and click where you want your web page elements to appear. BlueVoda (http://www.bluevoda.com) offers a point and click interface. Similar sites include GoDaddy (http://www.godaddy.com), and Register (http://www.register.com).

Last, but not least, when it comes to effective website lead generation, there’s one tool you must have: an email capture form. With this opt-in form on your site, you entice web visitors to sign up by offering a free incentive, such as an ezine, white paper or case study.

There are three major reasons why it is so important to capture your visitors email address:

  1. Few web visitors take action the first time they arrive at your site. Often they’re still browsing for the right copywriter. You need to expose your “offer” six or seven times before a prospect takes action. With their email address, you can follow up with an ezine and expose them to your services multiple times – with their permission.
  2. Publishing a white paper or ezine demonstrates your expertise to prospects. This builds their confidence in your abilities, which in turn makes them more likely to hire you.
  3. You’re a high-ticket item. A copywriter’s services can cost anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars, plus a piece of the action in the form of royalties or a performance bonus. This can make for a very discriminating prospect. But when your ezine creates a rapport – and it should – it can melt away much of the natural resistance that comes from hiring an unknown and untested copywriter sight unseen.

Even when you do everything right, don’t expect a flood of prospects to immediately sign up. According to Marketing Sherpa, fewer than 10 percent of web visitors actually register for a white paper. But quality is more important than quantity. With proper promotion and persistence, you’ll be able to build prospect list in a relatively short time.

Finally, take time to plan your website – don’t rush into it out of some false sense of urgency. The need to create a steady income stream is often a very pressing and real one (trust me, I know!) – and the important of self-promotion shouldn’t be underestimated. But when you rush your website out to the world before it’s the best you can make it, it can do more harm than good. The best sites are like having an electronic business card, sales letter, resume, and portfolio case all rolled into one. Done poorly, it can kill your chances of landing a client. Done well, it can be the self-promotion tool that sets you apart from the competition. Take your time to do it right.

David Coyne is a copywriter and consultant specializing in business-to-business and alternative health. http://www.healthcopywriter.net

Resource Referral: Start With What You Know

There are so many people I’ve met through my association with AWAI, like David Coyne, who are figuring out the best way to make their copywriting skills work for them. There’s no cookie-cutter path to success. But one thing that seems true – and those who heed this advice will enjoy greater success more quickly: pick a niche.

For David, it’s been the B-2-B Market and alternative health. For me it’s been financial writing. For Krista, self-help. We’ve each been drawn to these areas for a combination of personal and professional reasons. But we all have one thing in common: we picked something early on and stuck with it. Now, it’s your turn.

Check out anyone of these specialty programs from AWAI – and pick your niche today. The uphill climb to success will go much faster.

Secrets of Writing for the Health Market – The demand for this specialty continues to skyrocket. And this course has just been revised and expanded and is better than ever – and it was pretty good before…

Secrets of Writing for the Financial Market – This is another area that never seems to have enough writers…and you could probably pick this up more easily than you might imagine…

Secrets of Writing for the Fundraising Market – This specialty is more lucrative than you might think for its copywriters…plus it has the added bonus of helping others…

Secrets of Writing for the Business-to-Business Market – This is a very savvy choice. You’d be shocked at how large and underserved this market is – and how many skills you probably already have to write for it based on your past job and life experience…

Secrets of Writing for the Catalog Market – Frankly, this is the one I’m working on adding to my list right now. In fact, I want to start a catalog that would raise money for my favorite nonprofit – how’s that for combining a bunch of passion into one endeavor…

Secrets of Writing for the Self-Help Market – Another favorite of mine – and of course, Krista’s bread and butter. It’s a huge industry with a voracious appetite for copywriters. But it has an added allure. When you’re writing about how other people can improve their lives, guess what? Yours gets a little better, too.

Secrets of Writing for the Internet – And finally, the no-brainer. No matter what’s on your list, you can write about it for the internet. So what are you waiting for?

Bootcamp Journal #3: Nerves Get Steadier As Goals Get Clearer

Here’s the third installment of Ann-Marie Giglio’s bootcamp journal series – and the last before we meet up in Delray Beach for the AWAI bootcamp. Today, Ann-Marie shares the goals she’s made for her experience, and what she’s doing to prepare to achieve them.

I realize that Bootcamp will be a pretty small chunk of my big picture. Only 4 days out of the next ten years or so of copywriting. But I’ve got some very specific goals that I think will help me make the most of it: land a spec assignment, meet people I’ve been reading about, connect with peers, and leave with contacts.

In other words, launch my career.

To prepare, I’ve been working on some specs…analyzing controls…figuring out which of my samples are strong and which are weak…and why. I know more than I thought. Or do I?

Some days I’m not sure. And uncertainty is too tough to navigate alone. That’s where finding supportive peers comes in. I’ll look for a partner to bounce things off of, quid pro quo. We can be a team of two. Or maybe, if I’m lucky, I’ll find more than one kindred copywriting spirit, and we’ll form a group. Following up with those real clients in real-time will be scary. I know I’ll need hand-holding. And feedback. Before I click the “send” button.

At this point, I’m feeling more excited than nervous. All this prep and study time is definitely steeling my nerves and building my confidence. Except…

Job Fair—honestly it makes me nervous. I’m hoping some of the veterans will help me with that. I’ve got my eye on a spec assignment that I’d like to land. If I do well and end up getting paid for it – it could easily cover my Bootcamp fees (which is another one of my goals, for sure!). And I think that’s a reasonable start.

Before I sign off – I have one confession. I’ve also been doing things that bear no relationship whatsoever to copywriting. Like checking the tide schedule and agonizing over the appropriate bathing suit to pack for such an event. But honestly, how cool is it to be heading to such a beautiful spot. Might as well make the most of it.

Next week, I’ll write to you from the beach! Glicken, already! Hard to believe. And if I’m not like a deer in the headlights after the first day, I might even have something useful to share with you.

Wish me luck!

Ann-Marie Giglio is an AFAA certified group fitness instructor and a certified ChiRunning/ ChiWalking instructor. She’s written a book called Labor Day. When she’s not complaining to her accountant, she’s taking care of her 2 children, 2 dogs, 2 cats, 4 gerbils, and one husband. She’ll be attending AWAI bootcamp for the first time this year – and Copy Protégé is tracking her thoughts and feelings about the ordeal in real time. Stay tuned for more next week…