Is YOUR Website Full Of YAWN INDUCING DRIVEL?

As a long in the tooth direct response ad man turned internet marketer one of the 'things' that really chews and stirs my broth is the acres and acres of boring, banal, officious, yawn inducing drivel I see posing as 'copy' on websites.

If you have a website that is trying to sell a product or service or motivate your prospect to contact you I will set you a little test to prove that what I am saying about 'acres and acres of yawn inducing drivel' is true.

Pick something you are interested in ... Google the keyword ... and click on five sites.

Before you click on the site make a quick list of the three benefits that are most important to you about that 'thing' you are interested in, the benefits that will make you rush to get your credit card out, ping your email address or instantly call for more info.

Ready? Right ... start clicking.

Now when you click on the site I want you to STOP and STARE where your eye is INSTANTLY drawn. What are you SEEING?

Is it the answer to your prayers? Is it one of those three benefits you listed? Is it a fantastic limited offer? Does it grab your ATTENTION? Does it get your juices flowing? Does it make you excited? Does it make you desperately want to stay on the site and find out more?

Or ... are you looking at ... the company name? A photo of the company owner? The business premises? A bland product or service description? A photo that has nothing to do with what you want? A piece of flash that has not loaded yet? A swathe of text that is already starting to bamboozle you?

In short ... are you already getting excited ... or already getting bored?

If you find one site that truly gets you INSTANTLY EXCITED gets your INSTANT ATTENTION or INSTANTLY ANSWERS A BURNING PROBLEM you should bang a few quid on the lottery because it's your lucky day.

Because the biggest mistake made on websites is that instead of starting off with a BIG BANG that just keeps on getting BIGGER they raise not a whimper which boringly fizzles out into a zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Let's get back to that site you are on ... have a read of the copy.

If it starts off with 'Welcome to ...' SCREEEAAAMMMM ... AAAGGGHHHHAA!!

Because I just know that anyone who has written copy that starts off with THAT word 'Welcome' has all the awe inspiring copywriting skill of a gnat.

They will blunder on (as most sites do) with what I call WE, WE, talk.

And no I am not taking the P ... but the 'copywriter' certainly is ... especially if God forbid you PAID them to write WE, WE, drivel.

This is an example of WE, WE, drivel ...

Welcome to the Acme Co. We are one of the biggest suppliers of blah blah products and we are renowned for our quality and we strive to provide customers with a service that we are proud of. We were founded in 1946 (my note - if only it had been a year earlier the Germans might have bombed the factory and saved us from this nonsense) and we take great pride in offering a range of blah blah products that we feel have stood the test of time.

To understand why WE, WE copy is boring (if you are still awake after reading the snippet above) let me ask you a question. Are you interested in who made the machine that will unblock your drain or how quickly that machine can unblock the stinking mess? Exactly.

Which proves that instead of WE, WE copy a site needs YOU, YOU copy ...

What is YOU, YOU copy?

Well I am sure many of you know already but before I give you examples (which I will do in another post) I want you to now go back and click on YOUR site and be BRUTALLY HONEST with yourself.

See where your eye goes on your site ... put yourself in the place of your prospect ... read your copy ... and ask yourself "is my site instantly drawing my prospects eye to a big benefit, offer, headline etc., instantly solving a problem, instantly exciting and is my site full of WE, WE or YOU, YOU copy?"

Let me know what you find.

Colin Parker