Using the web for selling, pitching, spinning and plain old profit

No one doubts nowadays that the one motive that has propelled the Internet into almost every facet of our everyday lives has been profit. If the web were not a new and efficient way of making money for lots of people, it would have long ago gone the way of the Edsel and Betamax. If you're a writer and not writing for the web, you should be. And once you start plowing this new, lucrative field, remember that every word you type has but one supreme purpose: sales.

Yes, all of us have bought and sold something during our lives. Truth be told, a multitude of things. Yet, how often do we stop to think, what is selling? In its basic form, it is simple persuasion. Yes, the things you learned in editorial writing, advocacy publications or doing columns, all apply to selling as well. You want to persuade the reader to buy what you have to offer, usually for a small fee of course.

Writing web copy is no different. Whether you're writing for an ecommerce website where the sales purpose is obvious or a personal/official website where you're not asking for someone's credit card, the endgame is the same. Public relations and marketing still sell the reader on a person or point of view, if not an obvious product or service. Every word you write must point toward these purposes: buy, buy now, and buy more. Your reader must end up feeling that he or she wants or needs this thing, person, idea, place or thing. In some way, your words have to grease the wheels of commerce, and this includes politics and fandom as well.

The first rule of selling is that you must stress the benefits of what you're selling. It's not just a nice list of bells and whistles, features and satisfiers. Your subject provides great benefits to your reader. In fact, it has many, many excellent benefits the reader simply cannot do without. A coat doesn't just keep you warm, it keeps up with the latest fashion. This car won't just take you from place it place, it's the supreme status symbol. Our cruise isn't merely a nice vacation, it gives you an incredible adventure. You get the idea.

Secondly, good sales language creates an interesting, hopefully exciting narrative that connects the reader with what's being sold. If whoever reads your website "story" relates to the point of seeing himself or herself with the product, service, person, whatever, then most of your job is done. The famous sales slogan of the '50s "See the USA in a Chevrolet" says it all. Our cologne will bring you romance and sex. This celebrity lets you identify with athletic masculinity to the max. These books will turn your child into the next Albert Einstein. Plant the right story in your reader's mind, and imagination will do the rest.

Finally, the oldest sales maxim still holds true, that is, you have to close the deal. Here's where persuasion comes full circle. Make the right argument, the best sentence, the most persuasive paragraph to bring your reader over the finish line and pull out the old credit card, see the movie, love the celebrity, or attend the event. At this point, you gently but inevitably twist arms to make the sale final. Say whatever you need to, as long as it's legal and ethical, to make the reader do what you want. There are no real rules here. Your personal skill and creativity as a writer are your only tools to get the job done.

The main idea to remember when you write web copy is to enter this realm with the mind of a salesperson. Whether you're doing ecommerce, promoting a person, or advocating ideas, the most important rule is to sell, sell, sell. If your words are successful, clients will flock to your email box and telephone. Money may talk, and it always does, but we writers provide the words.