Words have always fascinated me. A skilled writer can weave just a few words into a breath-taking scene, plunge us into deep depression or raise our excitement level to the point where we can hear our heart pounding in our chest. On the other hand an unskilled writer can leave us totally bored and with little idea of what we have just read.
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"If you want to use it [text] to its full potential you need to understand how surfers view and read text on the internet." |
As I said in a previous article, words are still important in today's modern world of SMS messaging and the internet. Carefully crafted text can make a major impact on a surfer and encourage him to buy the product we are selling. Poorly constructed text has the opposite effect and blinds the surfer to the product we are selling.
Research suggests that people read at a far slower rate when they are looking at a web page than they do when they are reading a book. That does not mean that they are taking more in when they read a web page, it simply means that it takes them longer to read less on the internet.
Another way of putting it is to say that reading on the internet is more difficult than reading a book. So what does that mean for us and why should we even stress about it?
Let's consider how a surfer views a web page.
Does he start at the top and carefully read his way down to the bottom or does he quickly scan the page looking for items of interest? In most instances a surfer will quickly scan a page for items of interest. He doesn't want to get bogged down in bucket loads of text that may or may not interest him.
To get your message across on a page that is full of text you need to make it easy to read. You need to use short sharp paragraphs because that will help the reader to skim the page and easily locate the information that he requires. Some experts recommend that paragraphs be just 2 or 3 lines in length.
You also need to cut the fat out of your writing. Why use 6 words when 3 will carry the same message? Why use big words when short words will do the same job? Words such as 'motor vehicle' and 'car' carry the same meaning but one is much longer than the other.
It is even more important to use short, sharp and effective text when it comes to building an adult site. People surfing adult sites are usually looking for the images rather than text so it is important to make your text stand out and have it get the message across quickly.
People who design free sites and TGP galleries that are clogged with huge amounts of text are just wasting their time because the majority of surfers do not want to spend lots of time reading.
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If research has shown that surfers find it harder to read on the internet then it must follow that if you use a lot of text on an adult site surfers will skim right over it and not even notice it.
How do we overcome that?
If you are a webmaster who uses a lot of text then try and cut out at least half of it. Use short and simple words that will quickly get the message across to the surfer. Use power words that will capture the surfer's attention and you can help those words along by using large clear fonts and bright contrasting colours.
Don't be afraid to use different colours in the same block of text. The surfer is looking for the images so you need to catch his eye and focus his attention on your advertising. Look at, and think about the way some contrasting colors give a vivid 3D effect on a web page and use that as a trap for the surfer's attention.
Be prepared to put your advertising text in tables that have backgrounds that contrast with the page background. Remember, the surfer is scanning your site looking for the images so you need to use every legitimate trick you can find to stop that scan and bring your advertising into focus for the surfer.
Economy in the use of text is critical on a TGP gallery but on a free site or an AVS site you can use a bit more text to set the scene and to encourage the surfer to look at your sponsors. However don't over-do it with text. Keep the blocks of text short and sharp, incorporate keywords and use it to focus the surfer's attention on your sponsor.
Text is still a very important tool for the adult webmaster. If you want to use it to its full potential you need to understand how surfers view and read text on the internet. If you use the correct techniques you may not get good marks from your old English teacher in High School but you will make sales.