Web Copywriting and Content Development — click2try.com

Presage Technologies is a Houston, Texas-based, dot.com start-up company that developed click2try.com, a community-oriented web site where people can try-out Open Source software as virtual machines in a browser on their desktop for free. Throughout most of 2008, I worked for Presage as their creative web copywriter and director of marketing communications. This page in my portfolio web site provides links to work samples that I created while working for Presage Technologies on a consultant basis from February through August 2008. These writing samples reflect the concepts and strategic marketing communications plans that were in effect during that period of time.

A dynamic company that was still in beta when I prepared these pages of my portfolio web site in late October 2008, Presage Technologies ultimately made changes in their marketing communications messaging by the time their innovative, proprietary technology was perfected and their complex web site was ready to be released to the public in February 2009. Consider these writing samples, therefore, as a snapshot in time of an innovative, high-tech start-up company in its initial developmental stages. I got them started in the right direction by collaborating on the marketing strategies and by writing the copy for all of the key marketing pages. How they end up, of course, is now entirely up to them and the choices they've made since then.

I present these samples as further evidence of my ability to assist in strategizing a marketing plan on a conceptual level, as well as to execute that plan on a detailed level. Anyone who takes the time to go through the material should be able to conclude that I can analyze and comprehend complex, high tech material, and, once absorbed, I can structure the content of a web site, and I can write both short- and long-form copy in a compelling, persuasive, marketing-oriented style that can reach a wide audience throughout the world.

To fully evalute the web content I generated, it would be helpful if you had some background on the marketing communications objective of this enterprise. In researching the market and in strategizing our marketing communications plan, we identified three different target audiences that we believed would benefit from participating in the community we intended to create at the click2try.com web site:

Business Professionals in small- to medium-sized companies, who are not necessarily technically oriented and who want to find ways to be more productive and cost-effective in their jobs.

IT Professionals, who are technically savvy and who would readily welcome an easier, faster, safer way to select software applications and implement those applications throughout their networks, while also freeing themselves from all the headaches associated with the traditional methods of configuring, deploying, and maintaining their companies' software installations.

Open Source software developers, who can appreciate the unique opportunity click2try.com offers them to vastly expand their markets by having their software reside on click2try's host servers (at no cost to them) in the form of virtual machines that can be quickly and easily delivered over the Internet and run inside a browser.

Site Map and Structure of click2try.com web site (The Site Map has hot spots. Click on a topic to read the copy for that particular section in a new page.) Beyond the conceptual strategizing, my primary role was to craft the distinctly different messaging that would appeal to each of these target markets and to show them how this was a win-win-win proposition. While designing the content and pointing out the unique features and benefits that would appeal to each of these audiences, I also had to create the feeling that the click2try web site was the one place in the world—virtual and otherwise—where these three otherwise disparate groups could come together as a community to share information and ideas that would help them individually and collectively reach common goals. Writing copy that would appeal to each of these markets, as well as developing the types of content that would prove to be valuable to all of these target audiences, was my over-arching objective. So, when looking over my writing samples, that is the perspective with which this material should be viewed and the criteria against which it may be evaluated. I do not mean to imply that developing this web site, even in its initial stages, has been a one-man show. Far from it! Developing this particular website is a monumentally complex undertaking. There are e-commerce elements to be factored in to support the Software as a Service (SaaS) model; a content management system needs to be integrated to manage all the dynamic data; proprietary programming still needs to be written, de-bugged, and maintained; an interface to the virtual machine jukebox must be designed so that it works like a charm; forums need to be constructed and maintained; QuickStart guides need to be written; video tutorials have to be produced; remote servers must be treated with tender loving care. All of those tasks must be completed before the many other content-rich elements that were on my To-Do list can even begin to be implemented. I was just one of the contributors in a team effort. My area of responsibility was to ensure that the marketing-oriented messaging, the development of marketing-based content, and the overall look-and-feel of the web site presented this new venture in the most intelligent, most utilitarian light possible. To help me achieve that objective, I was fortunate to work with an excellent team of graphic artists and web designers in the form of Hexagroup, a Houston-based firm that proved to be worthy, creative collaborators. They came through with an ability to visually execute the logo design concept I presented to them in an early brainstorming session; they were constantly able to transform my rough sketches and visual concepts into tangible graphic designs and Flash animations; and they excelled at laying out the individual topics of the web site in an efficient, flowing structure. Through many give-and-take brainstorming sessions, they were also good at coming up with a colorful, attractive style that matches the bold, innovative, cutting-edge look-and-feel that my client and I wanted to brand on this web-site adventure.

My method of organizing all the content I wrote for the click2try web site involved using a Macintosh outlining program called OmniOutliner Pro. I created a template of all the relevant fields of data that each item of content would need to have filled in —like headlines, sub-heads, body copy, meta tags, suggested images, and notes to myself on how to hyperlink the articles to other related topics on the click2try site to weave a powerful tapestry of content. As I wrote the body copy, I also populated the template with the HTML meta tags that would be helpful in search engine optimization, so that people could locate our site on the Internet.

• To read all the click2try.com web site body copy and headlines as a web page, click here.
• The click2try Site Map shown above has hotspots, so if you only want to read a selected section, click on the topic you want to read. (A new window will open up, taking you directly to the place on the web page where that particular topic begins.)
• To read all the click2try.com web site body copy and headlines as a PDF file, click here.
• To read all the click2try.com web site body copy, headlines and the meta tags as a PDF file, click here.
• To read click2try QuickStart guides: A Conceptual Overview and Guidelines for Writers