Perfect Text

 

Your Business Depends on Excellence

There are three key components in every successful commercial Web site. If your Web site lacks even one of them, you're leaving money on the table.

In our relatively new age of Internet economics many people are scrambling to jump on board the gravy train before it rolls out of the station. Too late, a substantial number of these enterprising entrepreneurs (entrepreneur is a French word meaning self-employed-but-underpaid masochist) discover that being on the train is not enough—that they also need a ticket, to ride.

The ticket, of course, is a Web site. Not just any Web site, mind you, but a winning Web site, one that has the power to grab visitors and shake them until money falls out of their pockets.

Nearly all winning Web sites have three things in common. These are qualities that attract attention, arouse curiosity and make a persuasive argument to take action.

These key components are listed in order of progression, not in order of importance. There is no order of importance. Each has equal value.

Visual Appeal

If your Web site looks like 5 lbs. of goulash packed into a 2-lb. container, chances are that many of your site's visitors click away in frustration, if not outright disgust. Visual clutter leads to crowding, and crowding leads to confusion. You do not want to confuse your visitors because they are also your potential customers.

The layout and formatting of your Web site says a lot about you—your state of mind, your degree of professionalism, the level of your commitment to high standards and excellence. At first glance your visitors know whether you're a serious player, or an also-ran.

One thing's for certain; if you adhere strictly to the good design principles commonly used in traditional print media, you won't go wrong with your Web site's design. At least you'll have a chance of keeping visitors on your site long enough for them to read your title, headings and subheads.

Magnetic Headlines

Catchy headlines capture your readers' attention and rivet their eyes to the page. Is this enough to sell them your message? No, of course it isn't. Headlines only hint at the story, but they don't tell it. For that reason, they're not enough.

Don't believe me? Delete all the text from your site, leaving only the title, headings and subheadings. Does it now look like a page that would inspire you to buy anything? That's what I thought.

Error-free Text

It's true that visitors to your Web site may never read your Web page text if they aren't first drawn to it by a compelling headline, but it's a fallacy to say that headlines are more important than the body text that follows them. For maximum effect, you need both a killer headline and terrific text because one won't be particularly useful without the other.

Just as a well-written headline sparks interest, well-written body text sparks action. If you are using one but not the other, you've only got half a team. You may be in the game, but you're not playing with a full deck.

A Matter of Respect

No self-respecting entrepreneurs would allow spelling and grammatical errors to appear in their company literature. They take great pains to ensure that sales letters, brochures, advertisements, business cards and other printed materials are 100% error-free before the public ever sees them.

Curious, then, that so many of these same self-respecting entrepreneurs seem to be oblivious to the errors that occupy valuable space on their Web pages. At what point did they lose their self-respect? At what point did they lose respect for their customers? Oh, yes, are they so naive as to think that their Web site visitors won't notice a few minor mistakes?

What's on Your Web Site?

If you wrote the content for your Web site, or if you paid someone else to write it for you, can you say, with absolute confidence, that your Web pages are 100% error free? How can you be sure? Has a qualified proofreader or professional editor reviewed your Web pages, line by line, and certified that they contain no errors? If not, chances are very good that there are textual or formatting errors on your Web site and that they're hiding in plain sight.

The Perils of Self-Editing

A typical 'Netrepreneur bangs out an article in less than an hour, runs a quick spelling check, calls it good, and posts it on a Web page without a second thought. No time to do it right, no time to do it over, and no time to think about the consequences numerous mistakes might hold in store. Sadly, as a business strategy, it's self-defeating.

Spelling checkers are useful, but they're not enough. For instance, they won't catch contextual errors (correctly spelled words used out of context). Pike's Pique? Dante's Peek? Give me a brake!

What makes self-editing such a perilous undertaking is that the untrained eye sees only what it expects to see. The forest remains hidden in the jungle because the expectant eye expects to see something else-and does.

An Editor's Passion and Purpose

Hi, 'Netrepreneurs. I'm Phil Hanson, freelance Web page writer and resident editor currently operating from the Perfect Text Web site.

Because of a life-long love affair with the written language and an ongoing flirtation with words, I'm deeply committed to preserving our common heritage through a fastidious editing process that ensures accuracy and consistency for all my clients. Words have enormous power, and we do ourselves a grave disservice when we sacrifice that power for the sake of convenience.

Writing that's rife with errors makes you look careless, incompetent and unprofessional in the eyes of your Web site's visitors. My conscientious editing maintains accuracy on your Web pages, letting your Web site's visitors see you as the professional you are.

My mission, my goal and my passion are to make you look good. Why? Because making you look good makes me look pretty good, too. Think win/win!

The Perfect Text Advantage

Seize the Advantage

You might not be a wordsmith, but when you use Perfect Text, you'll look like one. Click here, now, to seize the advantage – the Perfect Text advantage. It's the next logical step on your quest for Internet success.

Copyright © 2005 by Phil Hanson
All rights reserved.

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