One of the hardest things for me to learn when I started selling products online was writing good copy. You know things like eye popping headlines and great sales copy. To tell you the truth I struggled for a few years. Writing copy for your web site can be a very tedious and nerve wracking experience. There is nothing like the feeling that you just wrote a killer web copy just to find out that it will not make one single sale.

I discovered, after many failures and success, that you only have a split second to grab someone's attention on your web site. You only have a few more seconds in direct mail and other sales copy. So the words in all of you sales material are important to converting your prospects into buyers.

Web copy requires its own unique approach in order to be as successful as possible.

Customers have become more sophisticated and much more skeptical when it comes to advertising, especially on the Internet. So it's essential that you get things right the first time, or else you'll lose the chance of making a sale.

One crucial thing you must do is conduct exhaustively detailed research before you ever write a word of copy. This is particularly true when it comes to web copywriting. A lot of people are under the illusion that writing powerful sales copy is hard. Writing hard-hitting sales copy is actually quite easy. In fact, most of the best sales copy nearly writes itself. The reason the best sales copy nearly writes itself is that the copywriter took all the necessary time and went to all the necessary effort to do comprehensive research before ever writing a word.

Etch this point permanently into your brain. Most of the copywriters that I really respect (because their copy has sold millions of dollars worth of goods) write very quickly. Again, this is because they invested the time and effort up front to do the proper research.

Once you know your subject inside and out, it's easy to write about it. This is also why many owners of small businesses write copy that's vastly superior to what they'd get from an outside copywriter. Small business owners know their product, their market, and all the hot buttons from top to bottom. So their copy shines and sells like crazy. But many professional copywriters are lazy and arrogant. They think they know everything there is to know about copywriting. So they feel it's below them to have to bother with something as mundane as research. Consequently, their copy is lukewarm, ineffective filler that never reaches its intended goal: to increase sales and profits.

How important is the research process to creating a really successful web marketing piece? The process of creating great sales copy is 70% research and 30% writing. The secret to writing copy that breaks all performance records is research, research, and more research. You can't afford to take chances. If you really want to make your sales piece, and your business, as successful as possible, it's crucial that you master the simple process of good research.

About the Author

A veteran of the Internet since the early 90's, Greg Ray writes quality content, is an on-line marketer and web designer for various websites.

For more information about effective web copywriting, just visit Greg's web site: