So, finally, you have finished the design of your web site, or your targeted email ad that is going to blow your counter off of the page-and a fine piece of work it is! You've got the scripts, the applets, and the flash animations all ready for their big debut. You've got graphics that would impress George Lucas, but does your content have the personality of a storm trooper?

Lately, as I browse the web looking for new information, new tips, new tricks, new affiliate programs, new books, new success stories, I run into very cold, impersonal content that gives me the same feeling as being in math class for the first time in junior high. I'm, of course, a human, and we humans love to feel cozy and at home. So when tuning in to a site, an email, an ezine, I don't want to feel like a fresh college grad on my way to the first day on the job, wandering down Peachtree Street in Atlanta. I want to feel like I have just been invited into my neighbor's home. Well, I guess it might depend on just who the neighbor is! It's a simple concept: make your audience feel comfortable, and they will not walk out on you. With comfort, comes trust, and with trust, comes a relationship. Be direct, but simplify your message. Talk to your audience; it's okay to use the words "you" and "your." You know?

All of my successful email marketing campaigns have one thing in common, and that is that they are all personal. I speak directly to my reader with simplicity. I don't design an ad that reads like a geometry book. It reads like the reader is a friend. I even go as far as using humor, or maybe my ad is so horrible that some find it to be humorous! So, maybe you are thinking that your topic is too technical to be discussed in simple terms and on a personal level. Well, a great success story of "techie talk" taken down to the "not so techie" personal level is the series of books For Dummies. I mean you can get almost any subject, no matter how technical, in these books that talk directly to you and simplify very technical topics. Why have these books become so popular? Well, let's face it-most people are not experts! So, in the future, as you develop and design your content, for whatever it may be, you might want to consider making it personal. Talk to your readers. Remember: comfort, simplicity, trust, relationship, customer!