Copywriting for independent professionals means creating web pages to display your skills. But most indie professionals feel self-conscious when they describe themselves. They don’t want to brag. And they realize that vague promises (”I am a good listener” or, “I help clients find solutions”) aren’t very convincing anyway.

Telling success stories about your work is the best way to convince prospective clients that you are the best possible resource to help them reach their goals. Whether you need to develop a new accounting system or a new mindset, you can use a few techniques to demonstrate how you deliver results.

My own clients call when they want a website makeover that will attract more business with less effort. Often they have trouble clarifying the benefits they deliver. They may be unaware of what makes them unique. Before I write copy and create content, I ask them to write out at least 3 stories.

These success stories will help you identify the benefits you provide your clients. Often you will also recognize why you are unique: your approach, process and experience.

Success stories differ from testimonials because you write them yourself. They tend to be longer. You can disguise names and details, so you protect your clients’ privacy.

Here are some ways to write your own success stories quickly, so that you will attract the prospects and clients you want for your online business.

(1) Review experiences you have had with your own clients. Choose stories about clients who most resemble your ideal target market. If you target women over 40, don’t base your story on a twenty-something male client.

(2) Explain your client’s situation before you were hired. For example, “John’s business was going well and he was just starting to enjoy life. Then a crisis developed…”

(3) Explain what you did after you were hired. For example, did you use any processes that you created? What were your first steps?

For example, you might say, “I have worked in the industry for ten years. So I can get all the information I need in a four hour visit. The competition takes three days. Who needs a consultant parked on the job site for three days?”

(4) Highlight what was visibly different after you completed your project. Look for tangible outcomes. Try to dollarize your results, if at all possible. Otherwise look for scores and numbers.

For example: “After my training section, the Director said my evaluations were the highest they had seen.” An even stronger result would be, “After we implemented my suggestions, my client ‘Susan’ was able to create reports faster with fewer staff.”

(5) Use your stories to create your promotional materials, including your website. You can also add a page of success stories to demonstrate how you help clients. Now you’ve shown what you can do — without bragging or boasting.

Follow these steps and you will have success stories that communicate your value to your prospective clients. Show how you deliver unique services and your success stories will become the foundation of your promotional strategy.

Online business success requires copywriting to turn website traffic to Internet profits. But many of my clients attract lots of traffic without enjoying the rewards: sales, revenue, and more of their own clients.

The problem is they have focused all their efforts on attracting traffic. It’s like promoting a new restaurant without hiring a chef: guests arrive, look around and leave hungry. On the Internet, your copywriter is the equivalent of the chef. Bring on the hungry visitors and copywriting will turn them into satisfied customers.

Here are 5 ways you can use copywriting to turn website traffic into online profits.

(1) Build navigation into your content - Create a journey through the website from one page to another.

You do this by putting a link at the bottom of each page: “Now that you have learned about me, let’s talk about the best way I can serve you.”

You can also create your website menu so visitors moving from top to bottom (or left to right) will follow a logical flow. They can jump off the path anytime by going to the menu.

(2) Make it easy to buy from you. Have you ever spent time hunting down an order form? Getting a list of services? Tell your visitors exactly what to do. Include a suggestion right on the Home Page. For example, you could say: “Are you ready to begin taking charge of your time? Call this number to set up a free consultation with me.”

(3) Make visitors feel secure about buying from you. Use testimonials to demonstrate that you’ve been in business awhile. And use content to communicate credibility. Tell prospective buyers exactly what they’ll get and where they’ll find it. “On page 23, we share the single step that stops most dogs from chewing your shoes - forever.” Or, “In step 3 of our program, you will discover the 3 steps that sales call success by 30%.”

(4) Answer the so-what question. Many websites include promises like, “You get 3 one-hour calls.” “Or, “Our consultants have been through a certified coaching program.”

Readers find themselves asking, “So what?” and, “Who cares?” Use your copywriting skills to show how your 3-step process changes the wealth, health, happiness or relationships of your clients. What’s obvious to you (”Of course trained coaches are better!”) won’t be clear to your visitors.

(5) Communicate value. Visitors want to feel they’re getting something unique and something that solves a problem.

Many service professionals focus their websites on services. But you also need to explain why a client should hire you and not somebody else. For example, “Jim” offered consulting for distribution systems. With over 20 years experience, Jim had created a system that required him to visit the site just once. Most of his competitors required at least 3 visits. Some needed 10. Each visit disrupted business activity. Jim could document that his system saved his customers time and money.

Jim’s website didn’t even mention this unique advantage. It was only when I asked about the services page that Jim explained why he offered just one site visit. We made sure this buried treasure was highlighted when we revised Jim’s website.

Who couldn’t use a little extra income to help them get through the month? If you could make money online with a few hours of work it could really boost your budget and help offset the rising costs of gas and food and the ever present mortgage payments.
There are many ways to make money online but I’d like to just focus on three of them right now.

1.Blogging: While blogs are not a new phenomenon, it is quite new that people are starting to use them to make money online. You get a chance to share your opinion or your expertise in the topic of your choice and make money. How does this work? The easiest way is to sign up with the Google AdSense program. They will give you a piece of HTML code that you can insert into your blog (hire a tech guy to help you with this if you don’t think you can handle the installation process). That code will display ads on your blog that directly relate to what you are blogging about. This means your visitors are getting targeted ads which means they will click on them more. The more they click on those ads, the more money you’ll make.

2.Create Your Own Information Product: You’d be amazed at how information that have and think is useless, is actually really valuable to thousands of people online. Maybe you have a home remedy for acne. Maybe your mother has the meanest brownie recipe any one’s ever seen. All of these pieces of information can be constructed into an ebook. Once your ebook is written and ready be sure to upload it to Clickbank so affiliates will promote it for you!

3.Retail-E-Commerce: Many people are making great livings online selling wholesale products for retail prices on sites like eBay. The trick here will be to find a legitimate supplier whose prices are low enough for you to turn a profit.

The other trick to making e-commerce work is to make sure you’re in the right market. You need to make sure you’re in a market that has enough buyers to support the kind of income you want to create with you online business. Just because you are interested in a highly specialized niche topic, doesn’t mean anyone else is. That’s why you need to check out who are already ebay’s best sellers and consider tapping into those markets which are already proven to be profitable.

You finally realize that you need a good opt-in list. After reading countless articles and sought expert advices and have read many success stories of people creating a small fortune with opt-in lists you finally decide to have one of your own. Then it happens, you think you have known everything there is to know about opt-in lists and have followed their advices to the T and you still weren’t able to make a profit.

In fact, you may be losing money. You maybe hiring writers to help you out, or there are some expenses incurred, even if you have a big list, but only a very small percentage actually buys from you, your still losing profit. You’ll realize that after a few months when you see your statistics and sales figures.

So what could have gone wrong? Why have others succeeded where you have failed? The most common mistake is that you dived straight right in. You chose a topic where you think could be quite popular and would earn you money. This just not the case. Just because you wrote people from the list doesn’t mean they are going to buy instantly.

Here I will offer more advice, for those who have started an opt-in list and have failed, you can rejuvenate your failed venture. For those who are starting, here are three quick and easy ways to build a profitable opt-in list.
1) Get your customers to trust you and your products first. Just launching your opt-in list would not make you an expert and a believable seller. Put many articles first before you start an opt-in list. Write about the topic you know and have started and used for your site. Try to put forums first to gain knowledge about your customers about their wants and needs and target those wants and needs.

Join forums from other sites as well. Provide expert advices and recommendations. When you feel that people trust you already, you will be able to start your own opt-in list. You can build a base as well with other forum users. You can ask them to join your list. Friends are always good customers. Put up a link to your site so that they may be able to see what you’re business is all about.

The certain truth is, the money will only come in when the consumers and subscribers believe and trust in you. They want a product or service that could be a good exchange for their money. People are not going to buy something out of your recommendation if they don’t know you.

2) Find a product or service that people want and need. Although it may not be your forte, if you provide a service and product that you have researched and learned about well, you can carry it on forward. Invest your time, effort and money that you could sell as well as the buyers or subscribers of your opt-in list can use.

While it is true that it is best to sell something that you have interest in, there are not many people who have the same interest as you if you decide to sell something that is not entirely popular or profitable. Do your research well and you would see the profits come in. Also provide your subscribers with promotional material that they could actually use and spread around.

3) Make friends with other opt-in list users. This is basically beneficial especially if it is someone who has already launched a successful opt-in list. These are people that have the experience in this venture and experience is still the best teacher. While there are many articles available for you in the internet to use, there is nothing like getting a first hand account from someone you trust.

Experienced opt-in list users will be able to tell you what to do and what not to do because they have gone through it. While different situations occur for different people, the general concept can still be very helpful. There are many things to avoid and these people will be able to tell you which ones.

Building a profitable opt-in list don’t just happen overnight. There are many preparations and effort to do. Opt-in lists are built from scratch, as your list grows, you should also maintain the quality of your list. Keep it organized and manageable. Get or hire help if need be, just make sure that your subscribers are happy and satisfied and they will be willing to buy from you.

Every online business provides great service to generate satisfaction among their customers. As each and every customer receives satisfaction over their products or the services they get, there is a great chance that they will become a return customer and buy again. Better yet, they will recommend you to other people that could generate more business for you and your site.

As more traffic is driven to your site, you can entice many of them to subscribe to your mailing list or opt-in list. This is a list where in website visitors agree to be sent promotional materials such as newsletters, catalogs and such that could keep them updated about your site or the niche of your site. These promotional materials are sent via e-mail to the members of the list in different time intervals.

When using e-mail as the media of your marketing and advertisements, you eliminate the need for high costs. Email is free and if you can manage to make your own promotional advertisements you can also save a bundle there. With an opt-in subscribers list, you are pretty sure that what you are sending out is received, viewed and read by the subscribers and not simply being deleted. They have signed up for service and have consented in receiving it.

This means that there are constant reminders to your subscribers about all your products, new products and services as well as any promotions and special deals you are having. There is also the chance that they can be forwarded to other potential customers as they tell their friends and families about you and your site.

Of course you should be also aware that a subscriber may unsubscribe when they feel that they are not getting what they want or expected. Make sure that they are satisfied with your opt-in marketing strategies and keep them excited in receiving your newsletters and catalogs. Here are some tips that can help you build a list of eager subscribers.

Make your promotional materials interesting and fun. Try to use a little creativity but not too over artsy. Build around what your product or service is about. For example; if you are selling car parts, put some pictures of what is new in the auto parts world, a new wing door possibly that can fit any car and make it look like a Lamborghini.

Try to research what people are looking for, these way, you stay one step ahead of them all the time and you will be their bearer of new tidings. They will be eager to receive what you are sending them because they new you always have fresh and new things to share with them.

Write good articles that can be very informational but light at the same time. If your subscribers enjoy your articles, they will go to your site by clicking the links that you will be putting on your newsletter to read some more. You can provide articles that can connect to many people. Be diverse in your articles. Put something humorous, then put something informational, then put something that has both.

Are you wary about this because you don’t like writing? No problem, there are many professional and experienced article writers that can do the job for you for minimal fees. They know what they are doing and can provide the need that you have for your newsletters, the money that you pay for your articles are going to be met by the many sign-ups and the potential profit from the sales that you will get.

Create and send an E-book to your customers about anything that is related to your business or site. Use your knowledge and expertise in the field you have chosen to help other people who are similarly interested. Offer this e-book for free. You can write about anything informational and helpful to your subscribers. For example; you can do manuals and guides in so many things. This e-book could be used as a reference for many people.

Share this e-book with everyone, even other sites; just make sure that they don’t change the links in the e-book that will lead people to your site. If you want, you can always get some people to write it for you just like your articles. Your investment once again will be covered by the great marketing this will generate.

Add e-coupons in your newsletters that will help them avail to special discounts. Put a control number in your e-coupon so that they can only be used once. When people get discounts that can be found in your newsletters, they will be eager to receive your newsletter in anticipation of what you are promoting next.

If your subscribers can get benefits from your newsletters, they will be very eager to receive them. Just don’t flood your mailing list with mails so that you don’t annoy your subscribers.