My new website is like the first few hours after a snowfall. The landscape is pure and white, and I can see exactly when people have stepped out into it and the route they’ve taken because their footsteps are starkly visible in my analytics. 

Did that headline get your attention? I hope it did. Writing effective headings is not easy. This one is very much of the “it does what it says on the tin” school — and that’s often no bad thing.

But when your audience is skimming through hundreds of emails, posts, tweets and blogs, how do you write headlines that grab their attention?

When it comes to websites, sales pages are often overlooked. Home pages get all the attention and design love, ‘about’ pages get all the storytelling magic, but sales or ‘our services’ pages push people away.  Here’s how to write pages that encourage people to buy from you.

Being able to say what’s needed in a few good words is a skill that will help you communicate more easily.  Not every piece of writing needs to be short, of course, but in many places short copy is vital.