5 ways the neighbors screw up their websites

By Stella Orange | 2 Comments

It’s just like Leo Tolstoy said.

“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way,” begins Anna Karenina.

And so it is with websites.

Strong websites — ones that drive business into your business – are all alike. But screwy websites – the ones that the neighbors spent hours and hours on, that no one reads and no one buys from – are amuck in their own ways.

But here are 5 of the most common ways the neighbors royally screw up their websites:

  1. Making it all about them. “Whoa, Stella, you are blowing my mind here,” one of my students told me, after I told her that nothing she writes for her business is about her. Rather, it’s about what you can do for other people. I know, I know. There are a lot of inflated egos on the internet. It leads one to the impression that you have to be a narcissistic weenie for your writing to work. But no. Really. You don’t have to go on about how great YOU are. You just need to effectively convey the results you can get for other people.
  2. Using squishy, flowery language. No helping women in transition discover their purpose. No uncovering your real beauty and letting the unicorn light shine out loud. No riding the mystic dragon breath fire to financial, emotional, and spiritual freedom. I love not making sense as much as the next person, but I keep that claptrap out of my business. If people don’t understand, they won’t want to hire you.
  3. Writing about results that are “nice” – but no one actually wants. The following is a list of topics that people will tell you are nice to your face, but would not pay you for in a million years: being more creative, developing intuition, shining your light, making healthier choices. Find the words that connect with everyday problems that people have (hint: they will not sound clever to you).
  4. Setting off the B.S. detectors – when people make pie-in-the-sky promises like we will fall in love and get married in 30 days, lose 50 pounds in a week, or make a million dollars by signing up for a 4 week course (or any program called “mastery” that is less than 10 years long), it sets off the thinking people’s B.S. detectors. You do not want to turn thinking people off. They are the best clients ever – and the ones who tell their friends about you.
  5. “I don’t want to sell; I just want to educate people on my website.” Businesses sell things. Education is a part of that process. Why on earth wouldn’t you want to get clients from your website? Also, most people don’t want to read a long webpage for information any more. What if you don’t need to write a lot to serve people the way you want?

Along with the 5 ways above, many business owners simply write too much on their website, spend months on rewrites they could use to actually get business, or get hung up on how their website looks and not what it does.

I get so sad when I talk to someone who has spent thousands of dollars on a logo or design and development, only to feel unconfident and uncomfortable about the words on their website. It doesn’t need to be this way!

You CAN write your own website copy, and it doesn’t need to be a bear… or take months and months for it to attract clients and build your list. Just don’t do what the neighbors do. 😉

Mighty thanks to mark_boucher flickr photostream for the “Blank” computer picture. 

Stella Orange is a copywriter who helps people put their work into words. For eight years, she wrote email campaigns that resulted in more than a million dollars in sales for her clients. In that time, Stella also taught popular marketing writing workshops to business owners on both sides of the Atlantic -- and a few in Australia and New Zealand. In 2017, Stella cofounded a creative and consulting shop offering a complete and slightly unorthodox line of business advising and marketing services. She continues to write copy and advise clients on customer delight, how to resonate with more sophisticated, discerning clientele in your marketing, and just who, exactly, your ideal clients are. Stella is the founder of Show Up And Write, a weekly writing group and writes a letter every two weeks or so (here’s the sign-up). She lives with the Philosopher and their two kiddos in Buffalo, New York, a fifteen-minute bike ride to the Canadian border.

2 Comments

  1. Angela Savitri

    Very good information! How do I make it ‘all about them’ on my ‘About’ page? This is where historically I’ve been trained to share my story.

  2. Stella

    Hi Angela!

    In a nutshell, you tell them a story about how you came to do the work you do that they can see themselves in.

    /st

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