If you start your body copy with a drop capital, you increase readership by an average of 13%

The term 'drop capital' is used to describe the large capital letters that you often see at the start of a paragraph in books, magazines and newspapers. It's called a 'drop' capital because it literally drops down inside the paragraph. The big letter 'T' at the beginning of this paragraph is an example of a drop capital.

The drop capital or 'drop initial' as it's also known, was originally used to add decoration to a page. Large hand drawn and very ornate drop capitals were often used to mark the beginning of a book or a chapter.

Many of today's publishers who want to give their work a more professional looking appearance, will often use a drop capital for that all important finishing touch.

With billions of web pages available to read on the Internet, getting people to read the pages on your website is getting harder and harder. You will often only have a few seconds in which to catch the fast surfing Internet user's attention.

In addition to just being decorative, the drop capital has also been proven to increase the number of people that read the first paragraph on your page. The larger than normal letter at the beginning of the first paragraph manages to grab the readers attention. As the letter forms part of the first paragraph, the reader's eyes are lead naturally from left to right into the text.

I actually noticed that renowned copywriter, Michel Fortin, has stated using drop caps in his sales letters. When asked about it he confirmed an increase in conversion after adding drop caps.

Creating your own drop capitals, does require a little bit of time and effort. You can make the first letter of each paragraph larger and bold using HTML, you can use JavaScript & CSS or you can just add an image to the beginning of each paragraph

Ready-Made Professional Drop Caps
http://dropcaps.trafficologyresources.com

Do-It-Yourself CSS Drop Caps
http://www.javascriptkit.com/howto/pseudoletter.shtml

Another Drop Cap Resource
http://www.frenchspot.com/WebTips/Dr.../dropcaps.html