© 2011 Joanna Wiebe – Copy Hackers Book 2 – FREE Sample 1

EBOOK SAMPLE Copy Hackers Book 2: Formatting & the Essentials of

Web Writing (Chapter 3)

The Great Big List of Little (But Critical) Web-Writing Details

The biggest parts of writing for the web require explanation and a little theory to get them right. But then there are the other things. The little things. Things that are critical but are easy enough to understand, once you see them written out. Those “little critical details” – all 25 of ‘em – are listed here, complete with examples, of course.

1. Write copy with substance. The only points that matter to your customer are points that express value. If your customer is willing to pay for something or tell their friends about something, then write a line or two of copy about it. If they’re not, don’t put it on your website.

TrunkClub.com

© 2011 Joanna Wiebe – Copy Hackers Book 2 – FREE Sample 2

2. Follow the rule of 3. Everything sounds better and is more memorable when it is presented in groups of 3. That means three short sentences in a row. Three chunks of copy grouped together. Three bullet points in a list. Three adjectives to describe your offering. Three, three, three.

FullContact.com

3. Hack off intro words. Get rid of phrases like “first and foremost”, “little did they know”, “the truth of the matter is” and other related phrases that create visual clutter and interrupt the acquisition of info.

SimpleUPC.com

4. Lead with a verb where possible. Starting your sentences with an action is a great way to keep your messages clear and ensure you’re cutting out unnecessary stuff, like “there is” and “welcome to”.

striiv.com

© 2011 Joanna Wiebe – Copy Hackers Book 2 – FREE Sample 3

5. Don’t waste time or energy. Studies show people read about 20% of the words on the page. So keep your sentences short. Keep your paragraphs to fewer than 4 lines. Use bullets, but keep your bullet lists short. Don’t exaggerate points or waste visual time.

Kik.com

6. Address 1 small idea per copy chunk. If you want to address a larger idea, do so in a series of grouped copy chunks.

PunchBowl.com

7. Every copy chunk needs a meaningful headline. Whether 3 words or 10, a headline for a copy chunk should give a precise, well-toned overview of the feature or benefit about to be described. (See next page for example.)

© 2011 Joanna Wiebe – Copy Hackers Book 2 – FREE Sample 4

Evri.com

8. Avoid paragraphs. In the Copy Hackers series of ebooks, I sometimes – but rarely – refer to paragraphs. I do so only because people know the term ‘paragraph’ more than they know ‘chunk’.

But the fact is you don’t want paragraphs on your website because paragraphs are hard to read on-screen and time-consuming. Stick with single sentences or groups of single sentences. And, as I mentioned in the previous chapter, keep chunks to 4 lines or fewer.

Crowdbooster.com

9. Get attention with bright icons. It’s hard not to look at color. And it’s hard not to scan the copy next to bright colors.

So if your brand gurus tell you that your icons have to be in shades of blue or grey, send them on a vacation and change the icons to attention-grabbers while they’re away. (See next page for example.)

© 2011 Joanna Wiebe – Copy Hackers Book 2 – FREE Sample 5

Atlassian.com

10. Short sentences are best.

impermium.com

11. Front-load critical info. The first 2 to 3 words of every line are the first – and sometimes the only – words to be read. Put the powerful stuff there! This applies to headlines, subheads, body copy, text links and bullet lists.

Gild.com

© 2011 Joanna Wiebe – Copy Hackers Book 2 – FREE Sample 6

12. Support every statement with proof. When you make a claim about your feature, your company, your team, your future, your product in general, support it with images, demos, testimonials, press releases, videos.

This not only makes you more credible but it doubles the impact of a statement.

elacarte.com

13. Use customer feedback as copy. Your customers can usually see the value of your product more clearly than you can. So when you survey them, pay attention to the language they use in the long-form response questions, and go ahead and use it.

Not as a testimonial! This isn’t social proof.

This is just taking the words from the horse’s mouth and using them with the belief that they will resonate with other similar customers.

14. The F-pattern still applies. People view your site by reading the top-most area, then dropping down the left side a bit, then darting their eyes right again, then dropping down the left again. You can use images to draw their eyes out of this pattern.

Be sure your critical copy is in the F and/or positioned near images.

© 2011 Joanna Wiebe – Copy Hackers Book 2 – FREE Sample 7

15. Considered asking questions? When you ask a question – especially a question where you know your visitor’s answer will align with the message you’re trying to communicate – you mimic conversation and make it possible for your visitor to feel like you’re both on the same page.

PayNearMe.com

16. Some intro text is good. Although ‘welcome’ text and self-talk is not effective in web writing, a little intro text on the home page can help users stick around.

If you use intro text, be sure it briefly answers just the two questions: what can visitors expect to find on this site, and what’s in it for them?

theflud.com

17. Write with keywords. Never compromise a great message for SEO, but do your best in your headline and subhead to incorporate keywords that match your visitors’ common search queries. This will help them feel confident they have arrived on the right page. (See next page for example.)

© 2011 Joanna Wiebe – Copy Hackers Book 2 – FREE Sample 8

Assistly.com

18. Avoid repeating words in the same space. Your bullet list should start with different words, not the same one.

Your subheads should start with the absolute best word possible – the strongest one, not the one that comes naturally to you – and not be the same. (The following example shows what not to do.)

Vizier.com

19. Prevent lines of copy from running the width of your page. Even though longer lines are faster to read, they appear to be harder to read. So avoid letting your sentences run long. (The following example shows what not to do.)

hbloom.com

© 2011 Joanna Wiebe – Copy Hackers Book 2 – FREE Sample 9

20. Be concrete, not abstract. People don’t know what a “sizable loss” looks like, but they know what a “55% loss” looks like. They don’t know what “save time” is, but they know what “save 6 hours each week” is.

jpegmini.com

21. There is a time for jargon. Some body copy requires jargon to communicate a point to your target audience. Sometimes jargon is necessary to show your audience that you’re qualified and credible to solve their pain. But when jargon gets in the way of clarity, as it can often do in more prominent copy, it needs to go – so hold off on jargon in headlines and subheads.

sharethrough.com

22. Own your attitude. Is the tone of your brand friendly? How about funny? Or edgy? Whatever it is, own it – don’t dilute it or try to cover it up with too-nice language. Be sure not to offend by crossing accepted lines, but don’t be afraid to write the line “The Shoes Sexy B*tches Love to Strut In” if you believe that sort of tone matches both your brand and your audience expectations.

© 2011 Joanna Wiebe – Copy Hackers Book 2 – FREE Sample 10

LetsFreckle.com

23. Copy kids’ books. Great big fonts, short sentences, lots of spacing and small chunks of text in large fonts make things feel easy to read. The more your site feels like it could have been created by Dr. Seuss (minus the unclear language), the better.

Strawberryj.am

24. Let your images & icons do the talking. Not every single thing you want to express needs to be done in copy. Images can grab a visitor’s eye better than plain text can – especially when your page begins to fill with copy.

© 2011 Joanna Wiebe – Copy Hackers Book 2 – FREE Sample 11

gootip.com

25. Enhance credibility with visual design. No matter how stellar your copy, if it’s sitting in a clunky, ugly website – and I don’t mean an intentionally ugly sales letter – you will fail to convert a good portion of your visitors.

Gain trust by matching visual expectations. Look professional.

Look like you spent a buck or two on art.

testflightapp.com

© 2011 Joanna Wiebe – Copy Hackers Book 2 – FREE Sample 12

NEXT STEPS ~ Apply What You’ve Learned On Your Site Now ~

Refer to your home page with the chapter you’ve just read open on your desk or your monitor. Now, go through the copy on your home page and do the basics – like cutting copy that doesn’t seem to express any sort of value, including intro copy.

Replace abstract benefits with concrete ones – preferably those that can be quantified.

Shorten lines that run the length of the page, and front-load each one of those lines with powerful, meaningful words – to leverage and benefit from the F-pattern.

That’s what you can do now. It should take you about 10 minutes to do all of the above.

When you’re ready to bump things up to the next level, review points 22 through 25 and do your best to address those. They can be pretty major, from a conversion perspective.

© 2011 Joanna Wiebe – Copy Hackers Book 2 – FREE Sample 13

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