Cozahost Newsletter Archive

Newsletter Archive

Art vs. craft: perspiration and not inspiration is required - we also talk about writing copy for your web site and optimizing your web site for search engine ranking.

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Vincent van Gogh's paintings are perhaps some of the most valuable artworks in existence.  His paintings sell for tens of millions of US dollars.

Personally, I don't get it:  It's just paintings for Pete's sake!

If I had a few million dollars hanging around, buying a picture with a six figure price tag will be last on a very, very, very long list. 

I had to smile when I heard that police in Europe arrested a man for forging Van Gogh paintings.  Apparently the forgeries were so good that even the top experts in the field had difficulty detecting the copy.

The policy had to release the man when the painter pointed out that he signed the paintings with his own name - not van Gogh's.  Everything was perfectly legal.

This painter will not be paid tens of millions for his efforts - even though his copies may be better than the original.  Even though he may be a better painter than van Gogh was.

A bit sad don't you think?

It was only a while later when it hit me:  I was watching a rock band perform at a local club.  The band performed songs made famous by bands like Coldplay, Live and Nirvana.  I could barely tell the difference between this band and the real thing.  It sounded exactly the same as the "big guys" do on CD.

The kids in this band will not become rich and famous - even though they can perform the songs of superstar bands brilliantly.  They will not sell millions of CDs by imitating other bands.

This begged the question: How could technically brilliant products like this band and the painter not be successful?

Take a McDonnalds hamburger as contrast:  It's is not a great hamburger, but it is not bad either.  Simply a beef patty, two buns, a slice of tomato, a bit of lettuce and a little sauce.  Just about anyone can make a better hamburger, yet McDonnalds is the biggest fast food vendor in the world.

What's up with this?  Two brilliant artists will never be successful while a mediocre, so-so imitator makes billions?

Answer: It's art versus craft.

Art is only important if it is original. 

Craft is only important if it is effective.

In business, it is not the art that buys the groceries - it's the craft.  If you can make a gazillion hamburgers efficiently and cost effectively - you will make billions. 

On the other hand, even if you can paint better than van Gogh, you will for ever be second - irrelevant - because it has been done.  You will be just a copy.

Artists make history, craftsmen make industry.

Now I ask myself: why are so many people looking for a new and original way to make money (on the internet or otherwise)?  Why are they searching for an artwork instead of simply improving an existing craft?

Take the biggest internet companies on the internet today:  Google (search engine), eBay (auctions),  Amazon (books) - not one of them were first with either a search engine, an auction site or online book store.  Someone else invented the art - they perfected the craft.

So, the point?  

Well, ask yourself: Do I want to make history, or do I want to make money? 

If it is money you want, then the way to your destination is called "perspiration" - and the time to start walking is right now.  If not, I'm afraid you will have to continue waiting for the horse called "inspiration"...but I must warn you:  she is a very illusive and fickle beast.
   

For the web, this approach is fundamentally flawed. 

The thing is that offline adverting is inherently intrusive - in other words, the advertiser must try to intrude while you are doing something else: like watching tv, listing to the radio or reading the paper.  They have to "steal" your attention by using colors, sounds, half naked ladies or anything that will your attention.

On the web, you don't have to interrupt your visitor - in fact, you want to go out of your way not to distract him.  Just the fact that your visitor is on your page means that you have his attention already.  All you have to do now is keep it.  Your job is therefore to organize your web page in such a way that a glance will tell the reader what it is about - and you have about three to seven seconds to do just that.

Now is not the time to try and impress with fancy fonts, subtle shades of hippy pink or pictures of your dog.

The crux of the copy

The make or break your site will be your "copy", ie the text that makes up your page - not the design elements like pictures, colors, etc.  Your page can be dog-butt ugly and still be effective.

Building an effective web page has more to do with craft that it has to do with art.  Your page does not have to be unique in the 6 billion page universe of the web.  In fact, if your page looks like the accepted standard (header, left margin and footer) your visitor will feel instantly at home.

Hammer and nails, keyboard and dictionary and not canvas and paint are the tools of this trade.

Sure, you need the know-how to build an HTML page, but that you can learn by playing with a HTML editor or NukeX for a few hours.  The really important thing is the copy you produce.  The words you write.

I heard that!  Who said they are not a friggin Shakespeare?

When I say "copy" I don't mean haiku's, sonatas or novels. 

I mean the words and sentences you use when you speak to your customers.  Just the everyday language you use (excluding any four letter expletives of course)

Here is a practical tip if you struggle to write copy: make a list of questions you are normally asked about your product or service and simply answer them one by one - like you would if you were speaking to a person.  (For an example, see our Fax to Email FAQ here...)  Even a list of bullet points will do just fine.

So, we can agree that building a web page is a skill (craft) that can be learnt by anyone - all you have to do is show your visitor why he should do business with you. 

Note I say "show" and not "tell".

Show and tell

People generally don't like to be told what to think.  It's only in the military where they can tell you what your opinion is.  Out here in the free world people reach their own conclusions.

For example, I am selling shoes online, and I could describe my product as follows:

"The shoes we make are the toughest in the world, and it will last a long time."

That's telling.  Let's try to show instead:

"A patented process reinforce natural leather to reject stains and resist aging.  Water or oil can not penetrate or stain the shoe - even after years of heavy use."

To a large extent it comes down to detail: if you sincerely believe your product or service is better than most, then you must be able to explain why.  Provide your prospect with detail - SHOW him why your product or service is better: because you use better materials, better project management, better trained staff, etc. etc.

You will automatically write more copy this way because you won't just say: "My product is the best", but you will show the reader your product is the best by providing detailed information - allowing him to reach his own conclusion.

Give a little back

By writing more: perhaps explaining in detail how your manufacturing process works, you not only provide people with information about your product, you also give back to the same web community where you found out how to bake a bread, smoke a pipe, build a nuclear weapon or arrange flowers.

By giving back, you earn good karma - but perhaps most importantly, search engines will now be able to rank you on more search phrases and you will get a LOT more visitors to your site. 

It's beautiful - instant karma:  The more you give the more you get.
  

 
If you are ranked first on Google for a relevant search phrase, you are going to have a very, very busy web site.

If you remember our previous article on search engine spiders and how they work, you will fully appreciate that a search engine's first and only loyalty is to it's own users.  The engine will go to any lengths to make sure that it supplies it's users with accurate search information. 

This is where the problem lies.  Most of us do not have the time, inclination or sober habits to spend hundreds of hours tweaking web pages by hand. 

Enter Web Position, a fully automated search engine optimization expert system - software in other words.

It works like this:  You decide what key phrase you would like to optimize for and also for which engine.  Then you ask Web Position to analyze your page for that phrase and with specific reference to the search engine you choose. 

In the example above, lets say we want to optimize for the phrase "work shoes" on the Google search engine.

After a brief analysis, Web position will tell us that, for instance:

1. We have to increase the prominence of "work shoes" in our page title.  Ok, we change the page title from "heavy duty work shoes" to "work shoes for heavy duty".

2. By bolding the phrase "work shoes" on our page, we "show" the engine we consider the phrase important.

3. The first heading on the page should start with "work shoes".

4. Web position will also compare our page with the top ranking pages for that keyword so that we can model (imitate) them.  Not steal their content, but if they have the phrase "work shoes" 5 times on the page, then so must we.  If they have 2 pictures, then so must we; and so on.

5. Etc.

The point is: search engine optimization is a craft - not an art.  Get the right tools and you will reap the rewards.  Simple.

You can download a free 30 day trail copy of the software here...
     

At Cozahost we help small companies and professionals tame the internet so that they can concentrate on making money.  We take care of the technical stuff so that they can take care of business.  Here are some of our products and services:
 

  
This time we break from tradition: Instead of a joke, let me introduce you to sudoku - a deceptively simple and highly addictive puzzle. 

A Sudoku player don’t need any mathematical or arithmetical skills to solve a puzzle, just plain patience, reasoning and modest logic. Although numbers are frequently used, nothing has go add up to anything else. There is only one solution to each puzzle.

You will find tips on how to play here...

All you need to do is place one digit in each cell so that every row, every column and every box contain numbers 1 to 9 once only.  (The solution for the puzzle is here...)

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Thanks for reading this newsletter and we hope you enjoyed it!  Please contact us if you have comments, suggestions or questions - we would love to hear from you!