Fascinate Your Readers
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the current rage — grabbing the attention of spiders and crawlers in the hopes that the message will surface all over the Internet.
I have spent the past 50 years as a copywriter. OK, I also ran book clubs, started a newsletter about junk mail, wrote eight books of fiction and nonfiction and launched this publication. But my bread-and-butter has always been writing copy. I learned to start with a head-line that grabbed the reader by the throat, and then create copy that won't let up until I get the order, inquiry or donation.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the current rage — grabbing the attention of spiders and crawlers in the hopes that the message will surface all over the Internet. Yet it's flesh-and-blood people that want information, spend money on goodies and give to charity — not emotionless, pre-programmed electronic robots. Go ahead, fascinate robots. But if your message is a bore, you are a mouse click away from oblivion. Call me Luddite or troglodyte, but I will continue to write headlines and copy for people, not robots.
