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Grow your Internet Business with Pay Per Click Search Engine
By © Arthur, The Online Internet Home Business Opportunity
As you probably know, Google is the world largest search engine serving around 200 million requests of information a day at the time of writing this article. With such a large users...
Hard Work - A Dirty Concept
As I sit here in front of the fire and TV at 8.30pm on a Wednesday evening,
many would be mistaken for thinking that working from home is easy. But then
that is before you take into account my daily routine:
I get up at around 7.45am and...
“I Made $17428 in Profits Last Month” Thing
On many sites that consider themselves to be helpful to the community of people that try to make an income on the Internet you’ll find messages of this type. Those are similar to paid TV commercials for “internet informational” products with...
Submit Site To Announce It To The World!
SUBMIT YOUR SITE TO 10,000 SEARCH ENGINES!!! NO, don't bother! It's a waste of time, and you'll probably just receive lots of unwanted e-mail. Instead, submit your site to the major search engines and directories (i.e. Google, and a few others)....
The Jigsaw Virus
Stay with me on this, the ‘penny may drop’ about half-way into the article!
Target - in very general terms, this article is targeted at anyone involved in business, whether it be offline ‘real-world’ business, or online ‘cyber’ e-business.
...
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Does Hype Work on the Web? (The Sequel)
I recently wrote an article that asked readers, "Does Hype Work on the Web?" My contention was that today's web users are too savvy to fall for hyper-inflated sales language like "Totally insane offer!" and "Expires soon, don't delay!" and we're jaded from having been subjected to it by TV advertisers over the years. The response I got to that article suggests my theory was mostly correct.
A group of e-booksellers and publishers used the article to jump start a discussion on their forum about marketing hype. Rod Purnell concluded that whether we like it or not, hype is effective.
He said, "Hype still works and I think people as a whole are still eating it up, even if they don't want to admit it." He contends that the excitement created by hype is contagious and can actually drive people to buy.
But Teresa King of eBookWholesaler.com says there's a fine line between using hype and using a strong call to action to create excitement. If you cross that line, she says, you lose your credibility.
"I think enthusiasm is very important. I think a page that promises to show you how to make 400 extra dollars per month is way more realistic than a page that says make a million in six months. Those are so hyped up that they come across as totally unbelievable."
Usability expert Jakob Nielsen would agree with that. He and John Morkes conducted a study into the way people read online and found that users detest what they dubbed "marketese" - the promotional writing style that uses boastful, subjective claims like "hottest ever". He says credibility suffers when users can clearly see that the site exaggerates.
"Promotional language imposes a
cognitive burden on users who have to spend resources on filtering out the hyperbole to get at the facts," Nielsen wrote. "When people read a paragraph that starts 'Nebraska is filled with internationally recognized attractions,' their first reaction is 'No, it's not' and this thought slows them down and distracts them from using the site."
Another problem with hype is the word itself. It can mean both a flamboyant promotion (yay) and a questionable, exaggerated claim (boo). So if old man Webster can't even figure out which way it swings, how can webmasters and copywriters?
Online marketer Andrew Tegenkamp of http://lightningbiz.com/ipc/ has an answer to that dilemma. He posted this on the forum: "I think that if creating hype on your sales letter makes you lie, you've gone too far. If you're still selling the truth but using words that inspire people, you're two things... a genius and an honest business owner!"
Nobody ever said being a genius was easy, however. Writing web copy that's exciting and persuasive without using false claims or inflated language is a tall order. But it's a challenge that pays off in the end. After all, using hype-free copy means never having to say, "Your results may differ from those you see in our promotional materials."
Copyright (c) 2003 by Heather Reimer
About the Author
If you'd like a free content analysis on your website (including hype barometer!) visit: http://www.TheWriteContent.com or send me an email to Heather@TheWriteContent.com
The Write Content delivers action-inspiring web content, sales letters, newsletters, press releases and more. SEO copywriting at a painless price. Satisfaction guaranteed.
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