But sometimes the land is barren, the sun is hot and there is no water source nearby, and if you want to grow things there, you have to till, you have to make the soil soft, you have to add manure and you have to bring water to your fields. It’s hard work, but if you’ve made a conscious decision to get a harvest from that land, you’re going to get it.

Being a writer I’m a bit biased. Writing is more akin to creating a world and then diving into it whether it is molten lava or pleasantly cold writer. It is a story, and a story has its agony and ecstasy, and this is the beauty of writing.

Having said that, I believe writing-related difficulties and blocks are overrated and needlessly blown out of proportion. Some people are constantly writing, and some are perpetually caught in the cobweb of their mental blocks. Whenever you feel trapped like that, do some reading, especially writers you enjoy reading, aspire to emulate. Write on a subject slightly different from the current topic you’re writing on. Write from a different perspective. You will soon emancipate yourself from the “torture” and start writing as if you’re seamlessly playing music and are enthralled by it.

How does using keywords increase your traffic?

Once you have made a list of your important keywords, you start preparing your content. You use those keywords to convey your message, and if somehow you don’t seem to be able to use them in your copy, then they’re probably not important to you. If your keywords are important to you, then there should be no dearth of material for them.

For instance I provide online copywriting and content writing services. I have more than 60 pages (I know, it isn’t sufficient, and I must have more) discussing various aspects of online copywriting and content writing. I’m constantly writing for my blog on the topics of online copywriting, content writing and SEO, and so I get plenty of reason to use keywords and expressions relevant to my business, and this is gradually increasing my traffic for various combinations.

It’s not always possible to rank well for your keywords due to massive competition; what do you do then? Try for longtail search expressions. Longtail search expressions constitute of longer strings of 5-6 words. It’s often not easy to make a list of longtail search expressions; they gradually begin to surface as you regularly generate interesting and valuable content for your website, using your important keywords.

So does it make me bitter when clients vanish without paying the remaining 50% or 60%? Of course I feel bad, but no, I don’t become bitter and consider other clients suspiciously. First of all, it rarely happens. Ever since 2004 (when I stopped designing and developing websites and started writing content for websites) I have served more than 300 clients (according to the number of folders I have on my laptop currently) and among these it must be just 15-20 clients who didn’t pay the money they owed. So it is hardly a worrying trend. I wasn’t worried even when I think my 3rd client used the content and never paid the remaining amount.

Second, it gives me a psychological level playing field. Some clients are suspicious: what if I take the advance and never deliver? Most of the clients are overseas and it will be very difficult to chase me (legally or physically) in case they pay the advance and then I vanish or stop responding. Very valid fear and I try to assuage it by encouraging them to go through my website, my various blogs, my social networking profiles and search for my name on Google. I couldn’t have survived by taking advances and not delivering content. About the level playing field thing – if they are still doubtful, I tell them that I too have the same fear. What if I deliver the content and they don’t pay? Just like them, even I cannot chase them, and like me, they don’t even have an extensive profile on the Internet. So I’m at a greater risk.

Why did I start writing this post? It’s because of the writers I work with. Almost all of them are so cautious about getting paid that it begins to sound cheap after a while. They don’t ask what sort of work I’m going to give them and what must be their level of writing skill. They ask, “When are you going to pay, how you are going to pay, are you actually going to pay?” Imagine if I start asking such questions from my clients. Will I get work from them? Fat chance.

The reason they give is that they have had a “bad” experience. Well, when you work on your own you do have bad experiences but it doesn’t mean you carry your frustration out on the person who is trying to give you work. I don’t work with such writers unless they are exceptionally good.

While working on an online copywriting project my main focus is understanding features, and then communicating the most compelling benefits. Below I’m trying to lay down the basic difference between features and benefits

Features

Let’s suppose you are selling a desktop blog editing software. It’s features would be:

• Ability to add multiple blog accounts.
• Inbuilt word processor, thesaurus and spell-check.
• FTP functionality to upload images.
• Support for offline and online editing.
• Support for CSS formatting.

These are the features, things that the software lets you do. But how do you benefit from these features?

Benefits

• Post blog posts extremely fast and conveniently.
• Work in a familiar, world-processor like environment.
• Reduce spelling and grammatical errors.
• Upload images easily.
• Format your blog posts to your heart’s content.

All in all, become a better, prolific blogger.

Not all features are equally beneficial to all, but we use products and services for their benefits and not for their features. This is why it is very important to highlight the benefits when you are preparing the copy to sell a product or a service.

Of course we all have different definitions of being better. By being a better copywriter I mean you can improve your conversion rate and by being a better online copywriter along with improving the conversion rate you also improve your search engine rankings. In the end what matters is what the results are and how consistently your copy can perform.

When you understand the needs and desires of your target readers you can provide them exactly what they are looking for. An average surfer on the Internet is looking for solutions. Even when people are looking for brands they are actually looking for solutions. For instance if I am looking for an iPhone, although I am looking for a particular brand I am actually looking for two things: my desire to own a trendy gadget and the things that I can do with all the functions the phone carries. You have to cater to both the aspects if you want people to buy iPhones from your online store.

So when you are working on a copy understand what your customer is looking for and highlight that thing. If you are promoting yourself as an online copywriter, along with highlighting the sort of service you are providing, also highlight the greatest benefit your clients are looking for in case they want to hire you.

• Do they want a more professional voice on their website or blog?
• Are they looking for a particular style of writing?
• Are they looking for a particular expertise (technical writer, medical writer, film critic, instructional writer, blogger, SEO writer, etc.)?
• Do they want to improve their conversion rate?

These kinds of things immediately convey to your prospective customer or client you have what they are looking for. If you simply go on and on about what a great writer you are and how many clients you have worked for it is not going to make much impact.

This goes for any kind of product or service. Whenever you are starting to write think about what your customer or client would like to read. If it helps make a list of all the things your customer can gain if he or she purchases your product. Feel enthusiastic about all the benefits your product can offer. Why must your customer feel excited about your product or service? This should be the starting point.

On the Internet, especially these days, we are always in conversations, whether on Twitter, or FaceBook, or on different blogs. Content on social media websites is engaging. We read, we provide feedback, we react, we respond, we present a counter-argument; we like it when people talk to us instead of talking at us. We no longer live on solitary islands of the World Wide Web. We want to feel a part of whatever is going on. Even when we’re simply lurking, we immediately feel like responding when someone talks to us or talks about something we feel passionate about.

Unconsciously, we are looking for an identical experience of interactivity wherever we go. We like it when we are expected to react, and that’s why blogs became such a hit. They became a network of conversations. Reacting to an opinion or a news became as easy as firing up your favorite blogging software and publishing your thoughts, and if not, at least leaving your comments on the blog or the news page.

But how do you make your content engaging when you’re writing a company’s corporate page? Given the preferred turgid style followed by various corporate copywriters and content writers, I know it’s not easy to convince people, but this is something you have to do. Even when you’re writing for a company website, talk to your readers. Write as if you are addressing to them, as if you know what bothers them. Present them with a solution rather than a product or service.

So what exactly is SEO copywriting?

It is definitely not repeating keywords and key phrases umpteen times, as many clients mistakenly understand. As I’ve previous explained in a blog post titled SEO tips you should know as an online copywriter, every well-written copy that properly handles the topic can qualify as an SEO copy.

Keywords? Yes, they are important, and if you totally ignore them in your copy, then definitely the search engines are going to find it difficult to rank it well for those keywords. For example, if I want to optimize this blog post for SEO copywriting, but I write about SEO content writing and SEO writing, then definitely the search engines will not show this blog post when people search for SEO copywriting. That is why it is very important that when you’re writing about a subject on a particular page or blog post, stick to it. If I want to get traffic for SEO copywriting, then I should better focus on this particular phrase, rather than trying to be esoteric and cryptic.

SEO copywriting involves writing the copy in such a manner that it judiciously talks about the subject, while taking care that the keyword or the key phrase appears sufficient number of times, at appropriate places, without sounding silly or repetitive. There is no point getting the first position on Google by creating content that means nothing to your visitors.

Does SEO copywriting improve your search engine rankings?

It definitely should. Even if you don’t immediately improve your search engine rankings (it depends on lots of factors, not just the copy), it is a step in the right direction. It’s like, if you require n steps to reach B from A, then a well-written page by an experienced SEO copywriter definitely makes the number of needed steps n-1.

Does SEO copywriting improve your conversion rate?

The underlying rationale behind every copywriting exercise, ultimately, is to improve your conversion rate. Your search engine rankings shouldn’t be improved at the cost of your conversion rate. In fact this is why good SEO copywriters are in such a great demand: they are copywriters in the conventional sense, and they also create you copy that improves your search engine rankings.

SEO copywriting may not bring you instant results, but it is indisputably the focal point of your SEO effort. Nothing precedes it. No amount of tweaking and hacking is going to give you lasting results. Once you obtain decent rankings through proper, legitimate SEO copywriting, no amount of search engine algorithmic changes are going to be able to take that away from you.

To be frank, your visitor doesn’t give a damn what a great product or service you’ve got, because he or she has probably, already visited scores of websites offering the same thing with little difference. How do you stand out, even if you have nothing unique to offer? You need to strum the emotional chords of your visitor. Let him or her know that you totally understand what he or she needs. Make it your sole purpose to solve a particular problem people have, and then convince them that you can solve it. More than products and services, people are looking for solutions and gratifications. But does it mean people never search for products and services?

They definitely do. Let’s suppose I want to improve my search engine rankings and for that I’m searching for a good SEO company. Even if I’m looking for an SEO company, I’m basically looking for a solution: improve my search engine rankings. I may have budget constraints and I may not. I may have a tight schedule and I may not. I may be eager to work with an inexperienced company or I want a highly experienced company with lots of client testimonials. These are my needs. When I visit a website, even if I’m not consciously looking for these traits, they will be a deciding factor.

That’s why it is very important to be clear about whom you want to target through your website copy. Targeting helps you define the needs and the solutions to those needs.

But how do you make your content useful; how do you make it cater to a particular need? It’s very simple — by putting your visitors’ interest first. This may seem like a cliché beaten to pulp by various "copywriting experts" but you know what, consider it a miracle, but it really works. Whenever you are creating content for your website, or whenever you are getting it written, keep in mind what you can offer in the best manner and how it can help your visitors. A few days ago I wrote about instilling confidence and trust with your copy. If your visitors can trust you and have confidence in what you have to say they are not apprehensive when they have to purchase a product or service from you. This trustworthiness can be established by encouraging your visitors to come to your website again and again, and this can only be achieved by providing something extremely useful and informative, and on a regular basis. Once trust is established they buy from you even if you don’t ask them to and simply mention that you offer a particular product or service.

Every product or service has a niche market and people are constantly looking for useful information.  Let us assume that you sell an accounting software. Instead of mentioning on every second page of your website or blog how great an account package you’ve got, you can publish interesting trivia about your product. Recognize your market and generate content accordingly.  If you are targeting small businesses with not much knowledge about accounting and bookkeeping you can publish lots of tips and tutorials on how to easily maintain books with your accounting software.  You can also talk about various accounting procedures and how your software tackles them. You can publish objective reviews of other accounting software products so that people can compare and make educated decisions. You can also publish cheatsheets that make it easier to use your software. Sky is the limit when it comes to creating useful content around your product.

The same goes for a service that you provide. Take for example my online content writing service. You may think what is the use of publishing content that helps others become better content writers and online copywriters? When  I am sharing my knowledge and experience I am establishing my authority. I agree…90% of my visitors must just be coming to learn content writing and copywriting, and I’m really glad, and humbled, that I can teach them something, but the remaining 10% can see how much I know about content writing. By going through various pages and blog posts  they can make out that I can improve their conversion rate as well as search engine rankings by my writing experience.  I may not be one of the best writers on the Internet but I definitely know what I’m doing and I abundantly share that on my website.

By constantly generating highly useful content I also increase my chances of getting linked to by other Webmasters and bloggers and consequently, increase traffic and search engine rankings.

Creating useful and valuable content may seem like an uphill task in the beginning but you will find in the end that it is genuinely rewarding. You increase your goodwill, you strengthen your brand, and you encourage people to pay close attention to what you’re saying and offering.

It is a bad, bad world isn’t it? Especially so on the Internet where every unscrupulous element can quickly set up a website and start executing his or her spurious activities to deprive you of your money. The situation is worsened by the fact that the Internet has no geographical boundaries and it is not bound by local jurisdictions. So someone in America can easily cheat someone in India and vice versa.

As rightly mentioned in the Copyblogger link, we are all haunted by our previous experiences whenever we want to buy something or subscribe to something. The imminent fraud is amplified when money is involved; you feel more stupid when you pay for something that you don’t get.

A person trying to sell a product or service on the Internet has to overcome a greater challenge compared to the actual world. On the Internet the only mode of communication is your website. You are not just fighting with mistrust you are also fighting with a zillion distractions. In order to the business on the Internet your website copy has to:

• Engage the prospect
• Dispel his or her fears and apprehensions
• Lead him or her to carry out the transaction

How can you do that?

Have lots of quality content

The first thing that you can do is have lots of quality content on your website. Having lots of quality content on your website means that you are really putting your money and effort where your mouth is. You will put so much effort only if you are serious about your work and feel confident about delivering.

Aside from establishing a sense of confidence high quality content also helps you attract targeted traffic from search engines, blogs and social media websites.

Provide all possible solutions

When a prospect arrives at your website he or she is full of questions not only regarding what he or she wants but also regarding how well you can deliver. You need to answer all the questions your visitor can possibly come up with. Take for instance these questions:

• Are you for real? Display your contact information prominently. A photograph may also help. A regularly updated blog is quite reassuring and if you are constantly interacting with your visitors, nothing like it. Create a strong social media presence so that your customer or client knows that your reputation is at stake if you don’t perform.
• Is my money safe? How do I make sure that I will receive the product or the service once I have paid? Properly explain this procedure on your website and also clearly specify what your refund policy is in case something bad happens and the customer is unable to receive the product on the service.
• Are you easily reachable? Make sure that you are just one call away in case the customer or the client needs to call you.

There might be many more questions; it depends on the kind of product or service you are providing.

Put visitors’ interest first

Okay, this reminds me to change my copy to (I am constantly learning and sometimes I teach myself). Highlight benefits instead of features. Handle the most pertinent question in the very beginning: what is the greatest benefit of your product or service? For instance, if I write your copy how is it going to benefit your business or your presence on the Internet? There are two things I am confident about:

• Increasing your conversion rate
• Writing search engine optimized content to increase your search engine rankings

Now, a person shouldn’t be bothered about how well I write and how I can juggle around words and how well-read I am. Can I really solve your problem? If you want to increase your conversion rate can I achieve that for you through my copywriting services? If you want more traffic from search engines can I do that?

Put your visitors’ interest first instead of blowing your own horn and feeling gung ho about what a great offer you have got.

What do your existing customers and clients have to say about you and your business?

For this you need a testimonials page where you publish all the great things your customers and clients have to say about you and your business. In fact your testimonial page is one of the most important aspects of your website.

The basic idea is that your copy should communicate a sense of trustworthiness and accountability.