Copywriters, designers, developers — they all have a part to play in building a successful website.

Like life, there are sequential stages of progression. A child learns to lift his head, turn over, sit up, crawl and finally walk and run.

As Stephen Covey points out in his best seller, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, he states: “Each step is important and each one takes time. No step can be skipped.”

This hold true for websites as well. The planning, copywriting, design and development take time, too, and need to be a part of the process.

Otherwise, skipping any of these steps cause websites to fall flat on their faces.

Finnish design strategist Sami Viitamäki put forth an amusing list entitled Eight Ways to Kill an Idea.

Here they are:

1. 1. New marketing manager
2. 2. Idea sent by email
3. 3. Legal department recommendation
4. 4. Creative review
5. 5. New creative director
6. 6. Global brand guidelines
7. 7. Client thinks he’s creative
8. 8. Budget

A few others that might fit:

• It’s been done
• It’s never been done
• The boss gets wind of it

Check out the illustrated list.

English novelist and journalist George Orwell, one of the finer writers in the English language through such novels as 1984 and Animal Farm, was passionate about good writing. Hence, copywriters — for both print and websites — can learn a lot from him.

Reportedly, in every sentence he wrote, he asked himself at least four questions:

1. What am I trying to say?
2. What words will express it?
3. What image or idiom will make it clearer?
4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?

Plus, he had fundamental rules for effective writing, which decades later, still apply:

1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech, which you are used to seeing in print.
2. Never us a long word where a short one will do.
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

Microsoft Sites held the largest share of time spent online among the top worldwide properties in Europe (16.8%), Latin America (35.9%) and the Middle East/Africa (33.1%), reported comScore.

Yahoo Sites captured the largest share of time online in North America with 11.2% share, while also attracting a notable 7.9% share of time spent online in the Asia Pacific region.

Google Sites commanded a strong share of time spent online in Latin America (19.4%), Middle East/Africa (9.7%), Europe (9.6%) and North America (9.1%).

Other notables:

Facebook.com, which continues to see significant growth on a worldwide basis, was the fourth most engaging destination with visitors spending 1.4 billion hours on the site in September, up 193% from the previous year.

In September 2009, nearly 27 billion hours were spent on the Internet globally by a record online population of 1.2 billion Internet users age 15 and older.

Read the full release.

Forrester Research recommends that customer experience professionals use personas founded in ethnographic research to guide the design of products, channels, and messages.

However, organizations often struggle to use personas effectively. To overcome common barriers to persona use, Forrester’s Jonathan Browne suggests customer experience professionals should brainstorm with key stakeholders to create roughly sketched profiles of target customers, called “assumption personas.”

This exercise helps build the case for creating real personas, gets stakeholders to think about their business goals in customer-centric terms, and generates hypotheses about target customers for testing in subsequent ethnographic research.

“Customer experience professionals must ensure that assumption personas are viewed as a step toward customer insight rather than an end in themselves,” noted Browne. “They are valuable tools for kicking off persona projects, but they aren’t fit for guiding design decisions.”

Since 80% of people scan web copy, versus reading word for word, copywriters need to start with the most important information.

Present unnecessary web copy in the form of filler or cute intros and you risk promoting high bounce rates, where visitors leave a website without going to a second page.

The sad thing is the desired information might be elsewhere on the page. But if it’s hard to find, visitors won’t hesitate to click the back button and check out the competition.

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Egotistical copywriters and business owners alike tend to get in the way of getting key points across to website visitors. They churn out verbiage that doesn’t resonate with audiences.

Self-Centered Copywriters

These copywriters write for themselves. They write to impress, mainly themselves and their peers. These copywriters use four-syllable terms when a simple word would get the point across more quickly and effectively.

Is simple web copy stupid? Definitely not. There’s a vast difference between communicating simply and communicating poorly.

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Businesses looking for writers often ask what’s the difference between a copywriter and a web copywriter.

In a nutshell, a copywriter is a generalist, and typically writes for print, radio or TV. A web copywriter specializes in writing website content (also known as web copy and web text).

Can web copywriters write for print and other ‘offline’ communication vehicles? Sure. The web copywriters at Webcopyplus have vast experience in everything from corporate and employee communications to media relations and journalism. Our web copywriters might specialize in writing for the Web, but we have the ability produce articles, brochure copy, annual report material, speeches, video scripts, and much more.

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Your web copy needs to define who you are and what you sell, catering specifically to your market’s needs. Plus, your web copy requires a clear voice that expresses the value of the relationship you’re seeking.

To build your brand with web copy, it needs to take into account:

• Existing perceptions of your products, services and company
• The actual position you currently occupy on these fronts

Recognize the gaps between the two points, and how they measure up to where you want to be. Then can you can tackle the differences.

To learn how web copy can foster a relationship between your brand and your audience, check out: Building your online brand with words.

A student in a website copywriting workshop recently asked me, “What do the best copywriters in the world do that other copywriters miss?”

While sales and marketing know-how, and persuasive copywriting are essential, I believe the best copywriters in the world think of copywriting — specifically website copywriting — as a sales funnel.

You start with the headline, and entice online visitors to drill down until they reach the call to action.

The best copywriters in the world don’t force audiences to read between the lines. Top copywriters are absolutely clear about the objectives.

And the objective leads to the need for a definitive call to action. A call to action — especially on the Web — must get straight to the point: subscribe; call us now; request a quote; download a demo, or what have you.

It’s amazing how many website copywriters miss the call to action. Simply adding an appropriate call to action on a website can increase conversions significantly.

The best copywriters in the world know, we might be writing copy for the futuristic digital realm, but you still need to go “old school” and ask for the sale. Conversion rates depend on it.

Get more tips for copywriters: Web Writing Tactics that Convert.