Holding interest with your copy

It?s one thing to write copy for your website. Quite another to make anyone want to read it. Just because it?s there doesn?t mean they will of course. Or keep them interested enough to read until the end if they do.
To you it might seem like a masterpiece of creative writing. But that?s not what someone has visited your site for.

It?s not as if they?ve chosen it in the same way they would a novel. Or a newspaper which won?t tax their powers of concentration too much. If they?re prepared to read copy it?s because to them it?s a means to an end. And you?re expected to ensure they get there.

But without sounding like a contradiction, it still matters that?s it?s written well. Not with purple prose or rhyming verse, but with a simple honesty and flair for speaking to them in their own language. That?s not to say you have to be a linguistic genius. Just understand the people you?re writing for.

Perhaps one of the best ways to interest them in what you?re doing is to know why they?re likely to be interested in the first place. Why they?re likely to need or want what you have. Once you have some idea of that you can write your copy accordingly.

Just remember they won?t hang around waiting for you to get into your stride. If the first few lines don?t grab them they?ll go somewhere else. Now is not the time to string them along and leave the best until last. They probably won?t ever get there.
It might seem selfish on their part but they really don?t care much about you. If at all.
They?re there for themselves pure and simple.

It might seem like a tall order but being entertaining as well as informative is the only way to stop your copy becoming dry and dull. As most people are aware there?s more than one way to say something. It?s finding the right way that counts.
Which for the web is short and sweet. And to the point. You don?t need reminding that most readers online skim rather than absorb every word. Boring them to tears with pages of irrelevancy is not the way to go.