Capitalization rules in copy guidelines?

I usually naturally want to capitalize certain words randomly for some reason... Maybe it has to do with the way I feel them when writing... I just leave them that way myself because somehow I feel like they bring out the natural feeling of the writing...but I dont advise this because it comes across as ignorant to some, of course, if thats the case, they just dont get me and they arent my market.

I have learned from some great marketers here a valuable lesson , especially John Cornetta - and especially Myers "The Voice" report...Dont be afraid if some people are offended by your style... If you are pleasing everyone, you are trying hard enough to be you, which is what your customers buy.

Anyway, still we should follow copy rules Im sure... so dont take my advice, just saw you here and thought I would post!

Completely capitalized sentences are harder to read. If you do this you must keep them short.

It would then be more ordinary to capitalize every single word. This usually looks the best and has the best conversion from what I've read & seen.

Next you can capitalize only the main words leaving 'the, and, this, etc.' all lower case. You can use this if you have erroneous words that can't be removed.

And finally you should capitalize power words. (ie. WARNING, AMAZING, SALE...) but don't overdo it. The most powerful words is the first word I reckon. So you see many powerful headlines doing something like

WARNING: 1000% Profit in One Week Guaranteed

Yeah, I think the consensus is go with readability first.

Grammar is something that is fairly subjective; not many people know the rules so they understand what's right and wrong in their own way.

And, the people that point out errors won't buy from you anyway, as Mr Cornetta says. Either that or you'll be able to start a dialogue with them, which is pretty useful in its own way.

Thanks awwdude,

In other words what you are telling is that there are no hard and fast rules?

I just need to follow my intuition.

Di

I think some of the basic rules of English are important if you want to be successful, especially if you're writing for an educated market. This stuff isn't quite as subjective as some suggest.

Proper names should be capitalized. The first word in a sentence should be capitalized. Cities, states, countries... capitalized. Names, etc.

Here's what you need to consider: No one is going to get upset if you do it right. But there are people who you will alienate (not buy) if you do it wrong. They tend to think that if you weren't able to get the copy right, what the heck does the product look like. And that's a fair assumption.

To me that means doing it right is a positive or at the very least, a neutral point. And doing it wrong is potentially a negative point. One thing I absolutely strive to do is keep negatives out of my writing. For example, the word "work" is something you never want to put in an MMO offer if you can help it.

Another thing is cursing. In some markets it's almost expected. But I doubt there are people who would refuse to buy because you didn't curse in your letter. Again, positive and neutral stuff, okay. Negative, no. A good writer knows his/her market well enough to know which is which.

As for some of the other stuff mentioned, I would agree, much of it is subjective. I always capatilize each word in a headline. Same for bullet points. Same for paragraph headers.

I'm not saying this is right, it's just what I do. Here's the thing that's important. Whatever you decide to do, be consistent. If you're capitalizing the words in your paragraph headers, do it for all of them. Otherwise your writing looks sloppy and lopsided.

ALL CAPS is YELLING! (but everybody knew that already) Capitalizing Every Single Word is Speaking Excitedly! Capitalizing. With. Periods. can be a great way to create the sound in your audience's mind of emphasis.

With your title, generally, you'll want to capitalize all the important words. That's even used in academic papers.

In your copy body, decode what you want emphasized.

Thanks guys

Ken, what is AP?

In general a copywriter, as much as he/she applies his skills, should still stick to most of grammar rules. Once learned, grammar becomes natural and it becomes hard to work with it in a different way from what is expected. I therefore believe that anything that is far from correct grammar should be avoided. Subject words should be capitalized or even made bold to attract. Proper nouns should be capitalized. In short a copywriter should be able to mingle his skills with what is expected in grammar.

As everyone said capitalizing all the letters of words in a sentence will make it difficult for the reader, but you should not rule that out because people say so.

You should think of usability and emotional response you seek from the readers. Capitalizing the letters or not should depend more on that, and not on the rules of English grammar.

The goal of a sales letter is to push the readers to the buy button, so if writing words or letter in All-Cap serves the purpose than by all means go for it.

I suggest the AP Stylebook also. I learned how to write - at least professionally - as a print journalist in the Marines. We wrote all our articles and headlines using the AP Stylebook. It has helped me...

For headlines, capitalizing all non-articles (a, the, it, an, etc...) is how you do it in newspapers. I generally stick to that when writing headlines for blogs.

I think my journalism training in creating interesting headlines has been one of the most beneficial tools I have in creating content that people want to click on and read.

Thank you for the feedback. Appreciate it