A quick rundown on how to make good copy.

"Grabbing the reader's attention should be your #1 objective. On the Internet, you must assume the reader is merely "scanning" your sales copy. Therefore, it is absolutely imperative that your sales copy forces readers to stop scanning and start reading your copy!"

Catch it @ http://www.smallbusinessbrief.com/articles/copywriting_and_website_content/006700.html

And finally, it's all about results. It's not about style points. It's not about writing award-winning copy. It really doen't matter what someone else thinks about your writing.
None of those things matter. The only thing that matters are results.

Y’know, maybe I’m going to get shot down here, but I think consistent quality copy that is well-written does matter. Where I can get behind the idea that well-constructed copy that garners no response is not very useful, I think badly worded copy with a lack of style that should otherwise illustrate “the voice of the company”, is equally detrimental to overall credibility. And to me, credibility is the long-term goal of any copy. Even if dumbed down, mediocre, generic, utilitarian copy produces results in the short term – a couple of clicks here and there, maybe even some one-off sales - I don’t think this is the way to win the game.

It does matter what someone thinks of your copy. On the web particularly, your copy is you or at least your company]. Results are important, but results that are the fruit of a relationship with a customer who trusts you are the results to shoot for, in my opinion. This should be the goal of any copy on any site. I am in doubt that copy with no style that gives nothing away about the personality of the company, and only serves a utilitarian, “click here” purpose really delivers this.

Good copy must follow five basic rules:

1. It must grab the readers attention with a compelling headline.

2. It must hold interest, by immediately delivering what was promised in the headline.

3. It must be absolutely clear what your message is.

4. It must have a strong guarantee.

5. It must produce the desired results.

Let's examine each of the five rules, one at a


1 more rule, it must clear explaination about the author and how author prove the result.

Your information is very useful,I agree all the points which you have written:yippee:

I agree with you, Rob. Formatting elements, style points, design accents, etc. all make up what is good copy. To just have unformatted words on a page all bundled together. Even direct mail copywriters will tell you of the importance of formatting.

That's where all these "rules" are coming from. Direct mail. There the same ones that get repeated over and over. Which is fine. Most of them bear repeating from time to time and are at least somewhat applicable to other copy methods also. But please keep in mind that there are way more types of copywriting than just direct mail sales letters.

That's why it's a good idea to "dumb down" your copy, and write so that a child can understand it.

That means staying away from big words or words that a child can't figure out what they mean.

It also means staying away from long paragraphs, and long sentences.

This completely depends on who your target audience members are. If I'm writing to corporate CEOs about benefits coordination packages for their top executives, I am certainly not going to "dumb down" the copy so that a child could understand it. My audience would think I was patronizing them. They would be insulted.

In fact, everything here is subject to drastic change depending on who the target customer is. That's the #1 rule... know who you are writing to and know them well.

"On the Internet, you must assume the reader is merely "scanning" your sales copy. Therefore, it is absolutely imperative that your sales copy forces readers to stop scanning and start reading your copy!"
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I think this applys to ALL sales copy - not just on the internet

Today people are bombarded with so many messages they are trained to tune out your sales copy.... you need to make ALL your copy interesting and attention grabbing no matter what the medium is