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Web writing or Web copywriting - what’s the difference?

Wednesday, March 28th, 2007 Subscribe To Our Feed

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I’ve had a couple of questions about the difference between Web writing and Web copywriting.

Here are my definitions:

A Web writer writes articles, ebooks, blogs, and content which informs or entertains.

A Web copywriter writes content like Web sites, Web sales pages, autoresponders and ezines, the primary purpose of which is to get a response - a sale, or a subscription, or a phone enquiry.

Of course, these two different types of Web writing overlap at times. You may be asked to write the content for a Web site, an ebook the developer wants to sell on the site, a sales page for the ebook, a follow-up autoresponder series, and so on.

I write many different types of content, because I enjoy it. Other Web writers stick to ebooks and similar longer projects, because they enjoy them.

Writing for yourself is part of the territory - you need to promote yourself

A friend remarked recently that while information product creation (writing ebooks, video scripts, blogs etc) is an easy business to get into because there are no barriers to entry - you just need a computer and Internet access - the cost of customer acquisition is high, particularly if you want to make a six and seven figure income.

Yes, some people do make seven figure incomes, but they also work like maniacs. They out-source as much as they can, but like a ringmaster in a circus, they need to organize the whole thing.

She made an excellent point, and it’s stuck in my mind. You need to PROMOTE yourself. This means a Web site, and a blog, maybe an ezine - whatever you feel comfortable doing. Some Web writers are heavily into Pay Per Click advertising, and it must work for them, because I see the same ads week after week. I’ve never found PPC particularly effective - it’s high cost and high maintenance, but it may work for you.

So do remember that you need to become visible online, and for that you must focus on promotion.

Want to get started writing for the Web?

I’ve written two ebooks to help:

Writing For The Web

Beat Your Paycheck! Web Writing SECRETS