copywriting

Weak words are everywhere. Like ants invading your home in summer, they slip through the cracks and slowly distract your reader. They turn fascinating ideas into never-ending articles people can’t wait to run away from. Worse, they undermine you and make you sound insecure. Luckily, getting rid of weak words is much easier than getting rid of ants. Here is a list of common weak words and flabby expressions, and their alternatives....

I face the same problem every time I need to write a meta description. I have no idea where to start. Should I first mention the problem the article is solving? Should I use a call-to-action? Is it bad to repeat what I already wrote in the headline? To find out, I analyzed hundreds of meta descriptions from the New York Times, Lonely Planet and other popular blogs. The result is a list of 10 simple meta description templates you can use to create powerful meta descriptions no matter what niche you are in....

Your headline is the first part of your articles your readers see. And it may very well be the last part they see. That’s why a catchy headline is not nice to have, it’s essential. Without it your article may as well not exist because nobody will read it. But how do you write a headline that’ll capture your readers’ attention and bring thousands of visitors to your blog? Hint: headline analyzers are definitely not the answer....

Copywriting legend David Ogilvy once said that “on the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.” That’s great news because it means a great blog post title has the power to attract lots of readers to your blog and to help you build your business. Unfortunately, it also means that nobody will read your article if the blog title sucks....

After reading about the huge conversion boosts many bloggers got after A/B testing their headlines, I assumed A/B testing the headlines of 73 articles I have published on my language learning blog French Together would be a no brainer. I could already picture myself writing a triumphant article showing how A/B testing my headlines helped me double my traffic and get an extra 3 million visitors a year. Unfortunately, the magic never happened and the article you are about to read will instead share the 5 lessons I learned along the way....