3. Show, don't tell to keep your audience reading.

When you take lazy shortcut using -ly words like suddenly, or adverb "very," your telling makes your reader yawn a "ho hum" and stop reading. Instead show "suddenly." For example, "When she saw pistol, she ran and slammed door behind her,” shows "suddenly." Instead of "Alice was fat," say "Alice's girth prevented her from buying just one airline seat."

Circle -ly and very words and sit down with your Thesaurus and replace them with power words that describe or show emotion.

4. Reduce your passive -ing constructions.

Think of a title that inspired you in past. I like "Jump Start your Book Sales" by Marilyn and Tom Ross. "Jump Starting" lacks power because it doesn't ask for action. "-Ing" construction implies passive. Next time you think heading, title, or even compelling copy, think command verbs as sentence starters as well as using other strong verbs and nouns. Keep your sentences active using verbs in either present or past tense.

5. Take "I" out of your writing to satisfy your reader

Whether you write a book introduction, biography, chapter or web sales message (did you know these are part of essential "hot-selling points?"), keep "I's" to a minimum. Your audience doesn't care about you, only what you can do for them. Think about where your audience is now--their challenges or concerns. Remember to answer their question, "Why should I buy this from you?" Put a big YOU at top of each page you write. Write three or four paragraphs. Then, circle "I's" and vow to replace them with a "you" centered sentence or question.

So instead of telling your story, (I know that's important to you) put your story in third person. Use another name, maybe a client's or friend's. If you think your bio is important, instead of placing a long passage on your home page, place it instead, on your "About Us" page. On your book's back cover, put your longer bio and photo inside back cover page, so you can put more of what sells on your back cover--testimonials and benefits. Get everything you write checked by a book or writing coach to make sure it sells.

You cannot only get more sales from what you write, you can put yourself out there as savvy friend to your audience who wants a problem solved. In long run, these satisfied readers will return to you again and again--even buy your products and services.

TIP: Don’t ask your website copywriter to be a minimalist. The search engines won’t like it. By same token, don’t ask them to simply jam every page full of hundreds of your primary keyword phrases, because your human readers won’t like that (in fact, neither will search engines). The trick is to expect each page to repeat one or two primary keyword phrases 5-10 times.

TIP: Remember, balancing human and computer requirements is time consuming. Try to have a clear understanding of objective of each page before your writer starts. You’ll get a much better product with fewer time consuming iterations.

REALITY 2 – BENEFITS, AUDIENCES, PRODUCTS, SERVICES, FEATURES A website copywriter deals in benefits, audiences, products, services, and features. This is black and white.

These things may be painfully obvious to you, but they won’t be to your copywriter. And although a good copywriter will be able to draw them out of you, they won’t be able to accurately and comprehensively identify them alone.

TIP: Before you engage a website copywriter, make a list of what you do, who you do it for, and what benefits it gives them. Your job will cost more if your brief consists of one line, “I want to increase sales!”

When it comes down to it, a good website is written around benefits. Customers are only interested in how you can benefit them. This means benefits are website copywriter’s inspiration. By end of project, you’ll be sick and tired of hearing your copywriter ask, “But what are benefits of that to your customer?” You’ll definitely thank them for asking though.

TIP: Don’t confuse features with benefits. A feature is what you do or how you do it. A benefit is what advantage that brings to customer. Your list should make a clear distinction between two. This will save your copywriter a LOT of time, and save you a lot of money. Most importantly, it will MAKE you a lot of money because your website will engage your customer.

Website copywriting is an artform. But because it’s an artform with a commercial foundation, it can be understood by anyone in business. And when you understand commercial realities copywriter, greys of artform will begin to seem more like familiar black and white of nine-to-five. Then, and only then, will you be able to make most of your website copywriter.

* Glenn Murray is an advertising copywriter and heads copywriting studio Divine Write. He can be contacted on Sydney +612 4334 6222 or at glenn@divinewrite.com. Visit http://www.divinewrite.com for further details or more FREE articles.