Copyjax

It’s been a while since I’ve had some solid inspiration for writing over here, but I ran across a website today that I just had to point out. How do you ride the coattails of Web 2.0 without any new technology? Hire a copywriter of course! Let’s delve into this awesomely Web two point oh company, Infragistics.

First, let’s start off at their home page. They’ve got a nice promotional header that cycles through a few benefits of their technology. Here’s some benefits of AJAX:

  • Save Time
  • Increase performance
  • Empower your users
  • Leverage a rich toolset

Hot damn! I’m feeling empowered already! Wait, they do charting too? Let’s take a look at the benefits of charting:

  • Create compelling experiences
  • Increase performance
  • Empower your users
  • Leverage a rich toolset

That’s odd. It’s almost like I read that somewhere else. Oh well, moving on, let’s take a look at one of their products, NetAdvantage for ASP.NET Navigation. Look Ma! More AJAX:

AJAX Load on Demand – Let WebTree load nodes on demand using AJAX without doing server round-trips

Oh sweet! My current navigation (which loads with the page, on one request) was complaining just today about the round-trips it had to make to the server. This way, we’re reducing requests from one to two. Wait a second, how does that make sense? Who cares, it’s AJAX anyways! Let’s check out the features :

AJAX in WebTree
Data for web navigation child nodes can be sent on demand to reduce traffic over the wire and increase. This includes automatic AJAX in CLR 2.x and load on demand with a postback in the CLR 1.x version of the WebTree.

Alright, I’m sold. I don’t even understand half that copy! It must be too Web 2.0 for me.

The Reality

The sad reality of this company is that their code-base is terribly Web 1.0. Hell, they’ve even got support for Internet Explorer 4.0 yet don’t support any Gecko (Mozilla) browsers for half their effects (or, Internet Explorer effects, as they’re known in the Copyjax industry). Worst of all, they don’t support WebKit/KHTML (Safari) browsers at all.

But who cares when your copy can overcome people’s perceptions despite glaring misinformation? In most cases, clients don’t know the difference between AJAX and their morning cereal. Writing has the power to manipulate how people perceive the truth, and this is a magnificent example of manipulation.

Understanding your material

So, what can you take from this embarrassment to copywriting around the world? Understand your material. Don’t write about products that you haven’t used or don’t understand — take the time to really know what you’re talking about. Part of copywriting is having the technical understanding to generate informed copy about the product you’re promoting.

When you lack the technical understanding, your copy fails the very people it should be targeting — those who will be using the product. Take this as a final piece of advice: If your audience is more knowledgeable about your product than you are, you shouldn’t be writing about it.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 2nd, 2006 and is filed under Web Copywriting, Bad Copywriting and has 34 comments. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.

There are 34 comments to this entry

  1. Sep 4 | yaqui

    it’s quite easy. a good communicator should be able to -no matter how much tech-talk in the midst- word things out in a way that relates to people. talk about what people want to hear about with words people understand. you do not have to sacrifice the importance and meaning of the technology to do this. a company that has been very successful doing this is Orange (the telco). They refrain themselves from using big and new tech words and often change others like instead of wireless, wirefree. take this into consideration when you see or listen to the copy in their ads or any printed material.

  2. Oct 3 | Martijn

    Actually they do even worse than you wrote. Web 2.0 is not about Ajax - or any other technology - but about interaction of people with each other through web. Ajax is just an enabler since it allows web designers more freedom in designing the interaction.

  3. Nov 5 | Jevgenijs

    I disagree with you, Kyle. I had a client company, which did not recognized the value of its own product. But it was well sold even with poor descriptions. Because everyone in that industry knew the guy behind the product.

  4. Feb 13 | Andrew Cavanagh

    I would go further and say the biggest key to writing effective copy is to have an intimate knowledge of your prospects and how the product you’re selling will affect them.

    Great copy and great marketing is not about manipulation it’s about understanding how you serve real live people and make their lives better in some way.

    Your attitude towards your prospects and your willingness to take the time to really get to know how you can help them is the most important key you’ll ever find.

    Kindest regards,
    Andrew Cavanagh

  5. Jun 5 | Jason Dalitz

    Good Read, thanks mate.

  6. Jun 12 | Mike Jezek

    Yes that’s why it takes a lot of research and study before the writing process starts. You have to know your target market’s intimate wishes - in regards to your solution for their problems and then line them up with the right sales pitch.

  7. Jun 14 | robert

    hi all.

  8. Jul 17 | Jennifer Melinas

    Another great tool to use for good copywriting is James Brausch’s Glyphius. You can type in your copy and it lets you know how close it is to profitable and unprofitable ads. You can learn more about it here: http://www.Glyphius2007.com . Check it out!

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  11. Nov 25 | Seo Blog

    Writing is passion and if you are in passion, you are writing good.

    Thanks for this great post.

  12. Nov 28 | babs g

    As a follow up to Jennifer Melinas comment, I also heard good things about Glyphius - it comes in handy when you’re trying to think of a catchy headline and worried about conversion rates. Clients always clamor for “catchy and engaging headlines” - finally there’s a software that’s tracked successful ads and you can compare yours with it!

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  14. Dec 5 | Richard Carenton

    I’ve used Glyphius before as well, and it’s invaluable for weeding out the ads that just aren’t going to work. For submissions of copy, though, I like Artemis Pro to get advertorials or article marketing works out there.

  15. Dec 6 | Pete Crown

    I agree with you, Andrew, that you should first and foremost research and understand your target market and, even more importantly, make their live better with what you do.

    The Search Engines are also important though. As I learned over time, if you build a site to attract people coming from Google or Yahoo your “copy” needs to be Search Engine friendly, so to speak. They even go so far to give your domain name a couple ranking points (or none at all!).

    So maybe that Infragistics tool does the job in terms of Web 2.0, and, of course, you should come up with very good copywriting skills to pull your visitor to and through your site.

    But first and foremost, as I’d say, you should use Wordtracker for your keyword research, and Nemeas for your domain name analysis.

    What does it help you write very well but no one sees it?

  16. Dec 11 | Shirley Burling

    Writing is great fun, I’m a copywriter and really do enjoy my job. Problem is that everyone expects really high quality work for peanuts. Few people will spend over $5 per article which is nothing!

    There’s no easy way to get articles, although there are tools to help such as Glyphius. Still writing should be done properly and a lot of love should go into each and every article! Perhaps i’m just old fashioned but I hate keyword stuffed articles!

  17. Dec 30 | Del Grady

    Agreed. This is a smart forum. I like revisiting blogs that have smart readers and this is one of them. I am also on the Glyphius bandwagon. James D. Brausch’s software is a great tool to use and it saves time. Who doesn’t want to save more time? You want to get the most effective ads out there, right? And not kill yourself in doing it either. Evaluating efficiency and profitability is invaluable in today’s market – Glyphius makes this easy.

    • Del Grady
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  19. Jan 3 | Daniel Mcgonagle

    I agree with one of the posters here. It is vital that you know the market before venturing into it. Know what niche is profitable and learn everything there is to learn about that niche. Otherwise, you’ll end up in a business you are unfamiliar with and this can get worse, if you know what I mean.

  20. Jan 8 | David Jones

    I love copywriting, and i do agree that you need to understand the market first.

    Does anyone use any tools to help with their copy? I use some tools offered by James D Brausch.

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    I have been able to stay away from hiring a copy writer by using Glyphius. I am new to internet marketing & I was looking for a way to pay a one time fee instead of on going pay. I stumbled across glyphius in a blog. It is basically allowing me to compare my ads against popular ads to determine if mine needs to be tweaked. I enjoyed your blog if I opt for a copy writer I will come back to your blog. Thanks

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    People are still arguing about what Web 2.0 even means.

    Hopefully we have some agreement on web 3.0 before that term starts going around.

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