Doing copywriting for your own website without proper knowledge and tools is pretty much like flying blind in a snowstorm without piloting experience or instruments.

It doesn't work too well.

A very basic knowledge of copywriting and direct marketing principles will take you a long ways on Web.

Here are three simple keys to writing better online copy. Armed just with these, you'll have a jump on 90% of folks out there doing copywriting for their own sites. And you'll increase pulling quality of your site's copy today -- even if you've never written a word of copy in your life.

1) Wake up your prospect

In today's overkill ad world most people have become numb to standard sales messages. Television, newspapers, magazines, Internet, radio, etc. all blast us non-stop with advertising. After a while we just naturally tune most of it out.

Copywriting great John Carlton says to imagine that your prospect is a giant blob sitting there on couch or in a chair. Now what would you need to do to get that blob to take action to buy?

Getting someone to stop... actually read your website copy... AND click through (or fill out a form) is serious heavy-duty action on click-and-run Web. Your prospect has a million things on his or her mind.

Reading your copy isn't exactly Priority One...

So how do you wake your prospects up and get 'em to read your copy?

The secret is right here in this headline:

"ARE YOU TOO BUSY EARNING A LIVING TO MAKE ANY REAL MONEY?"

This is from Joe Karbo's sales letter for his "The Lazy Man's Way to Riches" book. The letter was probably responsible for over a million dollars worth of sales for Joe.

Joe's secret here, and one which you can use too, is based on a simple principle for getting a prospect's attention.

You need to...

2) Enter conversation going on in your prospect's mind

You should know enough about your target market to know what keeps them awake at night. If you don't yet, then you'll need to find out right away.

In example above from Joe Karbo, it's about working like a dog and barely making enough to pay bills. Marketers like Joe who target opportunity seekers understand that frustrations about money cause a lot of people pain.

But what concerns does your target market have? What problem(s) do they need solved? What itch(es) do they need scratched?

If you've been in copywriting realm for very long at all, you've heard phrase "features vs. benefits." It's a fundamental copywriting principle and driving force behind much of what we, as copywriters, create. But there's also another aspect to this equation.

What happens after customers buy your product or service? Once they've used what you have to offer, what will be different in their lives? What will end results, of their buying decision, be? Getting your customers to look at end results of their actions can be an extremely powerful persuasion tool that you'll want to incorporate into your copy.

Let's look at features, benefits and end results and see how all three work individually and collectively to create a targeted push to point of purchase.

Features - The Basic Outline of Your Product or Service

Features, in copywriting, are a starting point. They provide a basic outline for what your customer needs to know. Features describe (most often) attributes of a product or service. If we're using example of a cordless, telephone-answering system, some features might be:

• 5.8GHz FHSS • Talking caller ID • Expandable to 4 handsets • Selectable ring tones • Speakerphones

For a person who knows nothing about cordless phones with answering machines, this list might not mean much. It's a basic blueprint of telephone and nothing more.

Benefits - Make Product or Service More Personal

Benefits enliven features. Benefits make features, and product or service, more personal. They explain how features will improve customer's life in some way. Using features list above, see what benefits might be. (The list below was taken from Panasonic™ marketing materials and relates directly to their KX-TG5230M model phone.)