Give me that old time copywriting

Thanks to By Will McInnes for pointing me to 5 Sure-Fire Social Media Headline Formulas That Work

Sounds very much like something Don Dunnington pointed out in a comment on IAOCblog.com

The top SEO trick is no trick at all. It's called good copy writing. I've seen content taken from an old, tired-looking website that had zero search visibility, freshened up with a little copy editing, a good headline and a few subheads, and suddenly the page ranks first in Google and second in Yahoo. I asked a friend who makes a living optimizing websites for search engines what made the difference. He took one look at the page and said, "the headline."

Now where have I heard that advice before? Could it be John Caples, David Ogilvy and Claude Hopkins? Hmmmm. The more things change.....

As Bob Bly points out:

Remember, you are writing for human beings first, and computer algorithms second. The key phrases must smoothly flow within the writing.

Call it SEO. Call it Social Media. Call it Web 2.0... or whatever this week's flavor is. It all boils down to this:
YES--the Net is different.
NO--—people are not different. You still have to appeal to their needs and offer them benefits. Or else they won'’t buy....

There's no point in attracting thousands of people to your store... if they don't find anything they want to buy! You still have to write copy (or content, if you prefer) that attracts, interests, creates desire... and gets action. You have to write to motivate people... not search engines.

Search engines don't buy products.... People buy products.