If you don't care, don't call me

I took a call this week from a prospective new client. He wanted me to re-write some pages of his (frankly dire) website. It was a personal injury claims/compensation business. You get the idea.

Now, this person wanted to see how effective my copywriting was, but wasn't prepared to look at some of the other issues dragging down his conversion rates. Like a page template from the mutant sales-letter school of design. Or the spammy copy on many of the other pages. Not to mention the appalling SEO, which got in the way of the reader understanding what was being sold.

So I've politely turned the job down. Frankly, the personal injury claims industry isn't something I really want to get involved in promoting. But the main reason was that this prospective client was looking to judge my worth based on the impact of new copy for three or four pages.

That's like repairing the radio on a car with a blown engine. Sure, it'll be a slightly better car, but the neighbours will still laugh at you as you attempt to start it in the morning.

So please, if you're thinking of tinkering with the copy on your site, take the time to step back and make sure there aren't other areas getting in the way of your site's success. And if something really is broken, don't be tempted to put a sticking plaster over the most obvious parts.

Customers aren't stupid - on the web you'll soon get found out. And your attempts at emergency repairs will have been in vain.