By Alexandre Kavinski and Luana Gomes
Webinsider: – You have published a book, Web Words, and often write articles on webwriting for several websites, including yours. Aside from this theoretical face of your work, do you also perform webwriting services for commercial sites? If so, what kinds of companies are among your clients list?
Nick Usborne: – Yes, I make most of my living through speaking at corporate events and consulting and writing for companies online. Over the last year or so I have worked with MSN, Wells Fargo Bank, Intuit, Future Shop, the J. Paul Getty Trust and many others.
– There is another great writer in this same field, Crawford Killian. Some people even consider him the father of webwriting. Like you, Killian is also Canadian. Is that just a huge coincidence, or do you think there is some specific reason why Canada is the hometown of several writers concerned about this matter?
– Pure coincidence! Scratch any profession and a fair number of the top performers will turn out to be Canadian.
– Could you name a well–known company, whose website is very well constructed, from your point of view? And which one is an example of how websites should not be done?
– A long–time favorite of mine if Fool.com. I like their site and particularly enjoy their writing style. As for how sites shouldn’t be done, I’m not sure I feel comfortable pointing my finger at any one site. But for me, a top indicator of a flawed site is if the site has been constructed and written for the company or organization, rather than for the audience it is intended to serve. In other words; is the site organization–centric or visitor–centric?
– Could you explain what the main differences between plain webwriting and copywriting (for the web) are?
– Well, let me phrase that a little differently. There are writers of content for the Web, and writers of copy. The distinction between the two is not always cut and dried. However, to put is simply, I see content as being the editorial, non–sales information that the visitor wants to read. The copy comprises the messages, headings, links, subheads and text that move the reader forward, towards achieving their goal. As an example, if I go to a consumer electronics site and want to buy a digital camera, I might look for a ‘Buying Guide’ of some kind on the site, to help me decide on what features I should be looking for. That guide is ‘content’. I might then go to a product page, with the image, price and link to the shopping cart. Much of the text on that page will be ‘copy’, moving me forwards towards making the purchase.
– Do you think the professional involved in webwriting should have different background from the one involved in copywriting, or do you think one professional could deal both aspects?
– I think that the first requirement for both kinds of writers is that they write well. As for copywriters, I think a key skill there is the ability and willingness to make a sale. When I say ‘sale’, I mean it broadly. I may be selling a digital camera. Or I may be ‘selling’ a subscription to a free newsletter. I could even be ‘selling’ the benefits of moving from one page of pure content to the next page.
But when you write with a view to driving an action of some kind, that is very different from simply writing editorial content. Moving people to take some kind of action is a very particular skill. And if you don’t have that skill, you probably won’t be a very good copywriter.
– We have read some of your articles where you say that commercial websites must be presented in several different versions as time goes by. Each one of these versions must be tested and rated so that the website’s contents influence and its efficiency can be measured. Do you perform this kind of experiences? If so, how do these tests happen? How are the results rated? What kind of modifications tend to get the best results? Is it common for American websites to execute this kind of tests?
– The sad truth is, as far as I can tell, very few sites make a practice of consistently testing their pages. An excellent exception to this is Amazon.com. If you use their site regularly, you’ll notice small changes being made to the design, layout and copy. You may see a new version one day, and then find that the next day everything has reverted to how it was before.
To my mind, Amazon does it exactly right. They test small, incremental changes. Then judge its performance and either keep the change or not. When you make a single, small change to your site, you can be pretty confident of the result. When you make big changes, it’s hard to tell which part of the change actually had the greatest impact.
So that would be my advice. Make small changes, consistently. Measure the results and react accordingly.
– The Search Engine Optimization (SEO) business has been growing pretty fast while its importance on websites strategies also increases. This service involves some webwriting knowledge. We understand you have published a few articles about this kind of service on several websites, like Search Engine Watch.com. What are your thoughts on this new market?
– Well, it’s not a new market by any means. People have been optimizing their sites for search engines right from the start. It has become particularly important over the last few years because of the sheer quantity of sites out there. The majority of first time visitors to sites arrive there through the major search engines. That being the case, it is extremely important that you do everything you can to get your site listed as high as possible on the first page of results. And as the search engines increase the complexity of the algorithms they use in determining the order of listings, the demand for SEO experts has also increased.
– Anything else you could tell us about SEO?
– Anyone writing for the Web must be acutely aware that the words and phrases they use will have a significant impact on the search engine listing. Using the best key words and phrases is a significant part of the process of SEO.
– It is pretty hard to make a living of webwriting here in Brazil. Is that also hard up there in US? Do you have any tips you would like to share with the Brazilians webwriting professionals?
– Perhaps the simplest piece of advice, if you write English, is to forget your geographical location and treat all North America as your market. That’s what I do. And most people who have heard of me don’t even know I’m Canadian.
If you don’t write in English and are confined to your own, national market, then you need to broaden your skill base. Write content, copy, newsletters, emails, ads – anything and everything. To specialize, you need a pretty big market.
– We are pretty anxious about your next book. Is there a new book on its way? If so (we really hope so) – What is it about and where does the project stand right now?
– No, I don’t have a book on the go right now. Although I do have an outline ready to go, for when I find the time and opportunity to sit down and write something of that length. That said, I will be publishing a number of short e–books through my site this year. The first two should be available in a few weeks.
– The webwriting business is pretty new. In your opinion, what lays ahead? What does the future hold for the webwriting professionals?
– The profession will mature. We’ll see more training. The various roles of different kinds of writers will become clearer. There will be a larger body of proven knowledge about what works and what doesn’t. We’ll see more ‘best practices’ and less guesswork. And these are all good things. I think the quality of writing online will improve significantly over the next few years.
– And at last, but not least, please live a message for the Brazilian webwriters.
– Absolutely. It’s the same advice I give to any writer, of any kind, regardless of where they are or who they are.
Write well.
Really. Whether it’s fiction non–fiction, journalism, technical writing, features or copywriting – the real joy to be had from writing is the knowledge that you are writing as well as you can. [Webinsider]
