Published in Marketing on Thursday, March 15th, 2007
Spurred on by this review of GetWebContent.com over at Paul Stamatiou's site, I got to thinking a bit about web content and hiring, defining and measuring good web copywriters.
Near the end of his post, Paul asks:
If you’re going to spend that kind of money [e.g. $89 per post] for professional copy, why not just post something on the 37signals job/gig boards looking for a motivated, experienced copywriter?
My experience has been if you have the amazing luck of finding someone who has experience at writing plus they know how to write web copy and they will keep some SEO in mind when writing, you will also find someone who charges a lot of money for their work. Deservedly so, of course, as what would the web be without findable words that are worth reading?
Even if the person outlined above doesn't do the SEO bit, but they have experience writing successfully on the web they would be worthwhile, in my opinion, as keyword manipulation of text after the fact isn't tough to do.
If you notice above, I said they have experience writing successfully on the web
, so the question is, how is successfully quantified?
The eyetracking study I posted in the resources quantifies good web copy in terms of how quickly the person can find the copy and comprehend it. These seem like good measures, and one would hope that these facts would result in more leads or interest in your clients services - that is, after all, what your client likely wants from their website.
Unfortunately this kind of study is not feasible in most cases, so we are left with testing click thru rates of copy, monitoring the conversion rates on our clients' sites after adding new copy etc.
I suppose the real answer would be a combination of reader comprehension and retention, conversion rate, traffic and maybe to some degree the inbound link count to a given site or piece of copy (or RSS readership).
Whatever the metric, well written web copy is something worth paying for. People shell out for great designs, but what would a great design be without great content?
Sitepoint's web devlopment books have helped me out on many occasions both for finding a quick solution to a problem but also to level out my knowlegde in weaker areas (JavaScript, I'm looking at you!). I am recommending the following titles from my bookshelf:
I started freelancing by diving in head first and getting on with it. Many years and a lot of experience later I was still able to take away some gems from this book, and there are plenty I wish I had thought of beforehand. If you are new to freelancing and have a lot of questions (or maybe don't know what questions to ask!) do yourself a favor and at least check out the sample chapters.
The author line-up for this book says it all. 7 excellent developers show you how to get your JavaScript coding up to speed with 7 chapters of great theory, code and examples. Metaprogramming with JavaScript (chapter 5 from Dan Webb) really helped me iron out some things I was missing about JavaScript. That said each chapter really helped me to develop my JavaScript skills beyond simple Ajax calls and html insertion with libs like JQuery.
Like the other books listed here, this provides a great reference for the PHP developer looking to have the right answers from the right people at their fingertips. I tend to pull this off the shelf when I need to delve into new territory and usually find a workable solution to keep development moving. This only needs to happen once and you recoup the price of the book in time saved from having to develop the solution or find the right pattern for getting the job done..
Comments and Feedback
I think that well written web copy is something really hard to find even if you are willing to pay good money for it... The main reason is also because as you said unlikely the other domains, it is really difficult to mesure the results for this and it makes a big problem
If people want to spend money for professional copy write why not people are writing on website 37 signals/gig board who are experienced enough to motivate.
Now a days people want have copy write because on web development various work are found.As per it goes the companies do the wright thing by copywriting, it is being done absolutely in wright method.
If people are going to spend money for some professional copywriter just post to 37signals job/gig.It has been good to post in some experenced site.
People are spending money in buying professional copy writer why they are not posting in 37signals job/gig to relevant his website.
For professional business who are the best in the world they best idea of copy in the web site.Then why people are spending money in hijaking copy writer.
A professional man who knows the working caliber of copy write in web site they are the actusl reality.O ne should hold a website to for copy write so to do that one\'s must provide a satisfaction reality in business.
People are now cheered about the copy write in website.Companies are trying to be a positive about there work .Experienced companies are the main surver of copywriter in website.
Companies are in demand of copy write on today \'s competition market.All the companies are in process to valdate his own web site and to produce they have deliver the gods.
What linda said idon\'t agree because copy write is a different and it is useful or curse to know we have to deal with copy write.
People spend lot of money for various purposes to make a stable condition of there companies.Why not people are buying copywriters for there own reservement and als o for company benefit.
Copy writers are the main selected theme in now a days .Because company who are forwading there works on line they must secure a copy writer.
To day in this competitive market where companies are ensuring there wealth by means of keeping good copywriters.This is a selected theme where companies can be assure about there profit.
Experience comnpanies can handel the situation in this stress environment.Copy writers are the actual propaganda to make money for the individual companies.
Just pick at the right time to have experienced copy writer to be expected in this competition market.
To need to have a experienced copy writer companies need to higher there work standard. So copy writer being a handy user for every individual companies.
Today in this competitive market companies had become little causious about handling the copy writer.
Copy writer are the main suggestive of the lot for a companies progress,different companies are optional in having there copywriter.