Jagella
06-02-2009, 04:20 PM
If you're interested in a book about web-copy writing, then you may wish to consider our colleague Dan Furman's Do the Web Write (http://www.amazon.com/Do-Web-Write-Marketing-Business/dp/1551808323/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243973595&sr=1-1). I recently finished reading it, and I thought it might be helpful to the members of this forum to review it here.
Do the Web Write is an attractively bound paperback book that has 154 pages of text plus a CD that can be used to install Web (HTML) templates and Word documents to your hard drive. The topics covered include:
Website Conversion
Text Formatting
Homepage Writing
About Us (Why US) Page Writing
FAQs
SEO Writing
Microsites
The HTML-template files on the CD include:
Homepage
“Why”
“FAQ”
“Services”
“Quote”
The Word files include but are not limited to:
“How to Make Your Website Fail”
“Press Release 1”
“Nice Home Office”
“The Furman 21 Website Questionnaire”
The last Word file appears to be especially useful assuming you can get anybody to complete it for you. (I asked my classmates to fill it out for me, but nobody bothered.) It's cleverly worded so that the people who fill it out provide honest, objective feedback about your website. It asks the person filling out the questionnaire to visit the website and then provide answers to questions about the site. It's easy to see how such feedback can tell you a lot about what people are getting out of your website.
One of the key questions I asked myself when reading Do the Web Write is: How good is Dan at writing? I'd say he's very good at writing. His writing style is very confident, engaging, humorous, and “light.” By “light” I mean that it's quick and easy with short paragraphs and sentences. It's very conversational and follows Dan's principle of “writing like you talk.”
As you might expect, Dan recommends such writing for Web copy. He points out that reading text on a Web page is harder than reading printed material, and thus Web copy should be scannable. With one glance the visitor should have a basic idea of what the page is about. Dan recommends using short paragraphs and bulleted lists to make the page's copy quick and easy to read.
What really impressed me with Do the Web Write is it's emphasis on building confidence in readers. In this book, Dan answers the question: “Why should you listen to me?” He answers by explaining that he's a professional business writer, author and consultant. He says he's an expert on the Internet and websites and has helped businesses of all sizes write effective Web copy that converts visitors. As you might imagine, Dan recommends such confidence-building copy be used on websites as well.
Does his advice work? I don't know because I haven't had a chance to apply much of it yet. If you're curious about how Dan explains how to write good Web copy, though, I think Do the Web Write is a good bet. If you win the bet, you've got a website that converts visitors; if you lose the bet, you're only out of $15.
Jagella
Do the Web Write is an attractively bound paperback book that has 154 pages of text plus a CD that can be used to install Web (HTML) templates and Word documents to your hard drive. The topics covered include:
Website Conversion
Text Formatting
Homepage Writing
About Us (Why US) Page Writing
FAQs
SEO Writing
Microsites
The HTML-template files on the CD include:
Homepage
“Why”
“FAQ”
“Services”
“Quote”
The Word files include but are not limited to:
“How to Make Your Website Fail”
“Press Release 1”
“Nice Home Office”
“The Furman 21 Website Questionnaire”
The last Word file appears to be especially useful assuming you can get anybody to complete it for you. (I asked my classmates to fill it out for me, but nobody bothered.) It's cleverly worded so that the people who fill it out provide honest, objective feedback about your website. It asks the person filling out the questionnaire to visit the website and then provide answers to questions about the site. It's easy to see how such feedback can tell you a lot about what people are getting out of your website.
One of the key questions I asked myself when reading Do the Web Write is: How good is Dan at writing? I'd say he's very good at writing. His writing style is very confident, engaging, humorous, and “light.” By “light” I mean that it's quick and easy with short paragraphs and sentences. It's very conversational and follows Dan's principle of “writing like you talk.”
As you might expect, Dan recommends such writing for Web copy. He points out that reading text on a Web page is harder than reading printed material, and thus Web copy should be scannable. With one glance the visitor should have a basic idea of what the page is about. Dan recommends using short paragraphs and bulleted lists to make the page's copy quick and easy to read.
What really impressed me with Do the Web Write is it's emphasis on building confidence in readers. In this book, Dan answers the question: “Why should you listen to me?” He answers by explaining that he's a professional business writer, author and consultant. He says he's an expert on the Internet and websites and has helped businesses of all sizes write effective Web copy that converts visitors. As you might imagine, Dan recommends such confidence-building copy be used on websites as well.
Does his advice work? I don't know because I haven't had a chance to apply much of it yet. If you're curious about how Dan explains how to write good Web copy, though, I think Do the Web Write is a good bet. If you win the bet, you've got a website that converts visitors; if you lose the bet, you're only out of $15.
Jagella