Just what is web copy? Some people think that web copy is anything that is written on a web page. But that is "content" and it is decidedly different than web copy. Simply stated, web copy is copy that is used to sell anything on a web page. So now you say, but that's "sales copy." And you would be partly correct, but traditional direct mail copy and web copy are two different animals.

You see, people are used to a certain way of expression on web, and you must be able to tap into that to make your web copy effective. Traditional direct mail copywriting is filled with hyperbole and exaggerations, and people are used to seeing that in direct mail. However, on 'Net, it's an entirely different ball game. People are used to a more relaxed style on Internet and most won't tolerate anything else.

With that said, what should you do if you're writing copy for web? Write in a friendly, engaging style. Use soft-sell approach with web copy. Make your copy more informational. Maria Veloso recommends writing in an editorial style. And I agree. I've been using Internet since 1993, when it first became available for use by general public. I've read thousands of web sites. I've been exposed to traditional direct mail copywriting on Internet and I've read it all. I have to side with Maria on this because of my vast experience on Web.

My regular readers will know that one of things I highly recommend doing with any online business is automating as many of your day to day tasks as possible.

From a personal point of view, one of tasks that takes up a lot of my time is answering emails. It isn't just answering email that eats up hours - sorting through and deleting spam and junk mail absorbs a lot of time too. In good old days, I used to get a couple of spam emails a day. Now it is closer to 1000 a day!

In fact, when you look at it, email isn't always best form of online communication. Not only is there junk mail issue to contend with but also fact that email is not 100% reliable. Emails do 'go missing' far more regularly than you might expect. Often this is simply because recipients email software has decided that a particular email is junk and has transferred it directly to 'Delete' folder. Other times it may be because recipients ISP has decided that email is junk and deleted it BEFORE it has even been seen by recipient! (Yes this really does happen - imagine if your postman sorted through your mail and made decision of which letters you want and which ones he should throw away?!)

One way to help avoid spam problem when dealing with customer support enquiries is to make use of a contact form on your website instead of posting an email address. This will certainly help to cut down on spam but it still means that you have problem of emails not getting to their destination (and when you have a frustrated customer waiting for assistance this is not ideal).

Therefore, probably best option on market presently is a full-blown helpdesk system. Setting up a dedicated helpdesk is a superb way of automating your customer support and speeding up process of dealing with enquiries and support emails. Not only that but if you use a system that allows customers to create 'tickets', you don't have to rely on email as your customers can login to a special web page and view both their tickets and your replies online.

Another feature of many helpdesk scripts is an 'FAQ' or 'Knowledgebase' section. This is simply a collection of most frequently asked questions/queries/problems along with answers and solutions. This means that customers can search knowledgebase and hopefully find answer to their question without having to contact Support at all.

Some of more advanced scripts will even scan customers support ticket prior to submitting it and then list a few possible answers to their questions just in case they didn't read through knowledgebase before typing ticket out - very clever stuff.