** Continued From: Can You Make a Sale?
In my previous article, I hope I was able to convince you of the important role that copywriting has in this industry.
While porn on the Internet has matured, or perhaps become more saturated, the ability to make easy sales has gradually diminished. The need to carefully craft your advertising text and achieve a balance between banners and text has become paramount.
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"The need to carefully craft your advertising text and achieve a balance between banners and text has become paramount." |
Note that I mentioned a balance between banners and text. In the past everyone used banners to advertise their sponsors. Then as banners became less effective, the practice of putting 'hot text' above and below the banners became a norm. Now there are those who suggest that banners are a thing of the past and the only effective way to advertise your sponsor is via text.
I'm not sure that the latest trend is necessarily right way to go. I still think that there is a place for sponsor banners but they need to be chosen carefully and they need to be used creatively. I believe that you can even take it one step further and if you have the software and even a very basic creative ability then there is no reason not to try and create your own banners.
While banners, as a sales tool, may not be completely beyond their use-by date there is no doubt that text ads probably do better these days.
However, you can't throw up any old text and hope to make a sale. Text ads require every bit as much of effort as you would put into compiling your own graphical banner.
It may sound odd to some, but text ads are more than just words on a page. A good text ad has four different elements and every one of them is vitally important. You need to learn all you can about "copywriting" and "psychology" of making sales.
Copywriting may not sound very sexy or interesting but if understanding it is going to help you make sales and make some green then personally I can't think of anything I would rather be studying.
So let me give you a couple of good books that you should definitely read. If you have a look at Amazon for books on copywriting you will find quite a few good ones. You will also notice something else.
Many of the books listed have been around for years and some pre-date the Internet. They have been reprinted a number of times and some have even been updated while most have not. When you look at those dates don't be fooled into thinking that a book first published years ago is no longer relevant.
As I said in my previous article, the fundamentals of good copywriting remain unchanged. Once you grasp the fundamentals it is not hard to see where things differ when it comes to advertising on the Internet.
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Here are two books that I would recommend:
The Copywriter's Handbook by Robert W. Bly; published by Henry Holt and Company.
ISBN 0-8050-1194-3.
Teach Yourself Copywriting by J Jonathan Gabay; published by Hodder and Stoughton.
ISBN 0-340-86728-0.
These books totally changed the way I have gone about constructing the advertising I use on my websites. My HTML guides have migrated off my desk and into a bookcase while those two books sit right beside my keyboard.
Unless you are a natural at marketing you will find that the concepts and the ideas that these books teach is almost completely opposite to what you may have been taught on webmaster boards about advertising.
That's why those books sit right beside me so that I can continually remind myself of how a text ad should look and not how I think it should look.
I have written before about how to construct advertising that will catch the surfer's eye as he zooms over the page in search of the free porn. The basics of what I said then still holds true.
Bright text colors together with large fonts and advertising that interrupts the flow of the page for the surfer are important. Alternatively there are many that suggest that an advertisement that doesn't look like an advertisement is very effective too.
Regardless of which advertising method you go with, the words and the way the lines of the advertising are arranged is very important.