Web Writing
« Previous EntriesWriting For the Web: Tips & Common Mistakes We Make
Wednesday, September 1st, 2010Eyetracking studies have shown that readers SCAN text, rather than READ. Another bad news is, readers read more slowly on the screen than in print. There is just an abundance of information online. For the reader, he/she has nothing to lose if he misses your article. Hence, you have to allow your readers to gain [...]
How to Write Successfully for the Web
Thursday, July 15th, 2010Online readers love free information. They scour the Internet daily looking for specific information to solve their problems, help them be successful, live longer or get healthy. You should join the information revolution too! Publish your free, helpful solution-oriented articles to the web. View the original here.
Writing on the Web: Letting Go of the Words
Monday, May 3rd, 2010I’m reading a good book called Letting Go of the Words, by Ginny Redish. This is a really good book for anyone charged with writing on the Web. In fact, it’s a must-read for anyone with a website or blog. If you’re a fan of usability and you’d like to improve your site’s performance with [...]
Web Writing: The Good, Bad, and Ugly
Monday, April 5th, 2010How do you get online visitors to take interest in your products or services? Write about things they care about. Most would say that’s brain-dead obvious. Yet, it seems 90% of websites miss the mark completely. The problem: self-absorbed web content. The cause: self-absorbed copywriters and business owners. To engage prospects and turn them into [...]
How the Internet Changed Writing in the 2000s
Thursday, March 11th, 2010Back in 1997, Jakob Nielsen looked at how people read web content (basically, they scan it) and argued web writing should highlight keywords (often using hypertext links) use straight, clear headlines and subheads deliver one idea per paragraph cut word count to half that of conventional writing employ bulleted lists. Many web writers, whether they’ve [...]
Ten Words to Ban from All Websites
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010In twelve years of running digital copywriting agency Sticky Content, there are a few words and phrases I’ve grown to hate with a passion. If I had my way, I’d ban them from all websites and for some sound commercial reasons, too. View the original here.
Ten Pathways to Inspired Writing
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010As writers, inspiration is one of the most important of the criteria for success. Without it, well, our writing ends up pretty lame. For example, a huge percentage of blogs see their demise before the six month milestone. Why? Because people don’t know what to write about–writing becomes a chore and when that happens, you [...]
Five Rules for Better Web Writing
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010Perhaps one of the most overlooked aspects of putting together a website or social media campaign, is the copy. Many people assume that the same words that work for print campaigns or materials can just be copied and pasted for the web, but that’s just not true. The web is an entirely different medium, and [...]
10 Tips on Writing the Living Web
Monday, December 21st, 2009Some parts of the web are finished, unchanging creations – as polished and as fixed as books or posters. But many parts change all the time: news sites bring up-to-the-minute developments, ranging from breaking news and sports scores to reports on specific industries, markets, and technical fields weblogs, journals, and other personal sites provide a [...]
Writing Style for Print vs. Web
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009I’ve spent many columns explicating the differences between the Web and television, which can be summarized as lean-forward vs. lean-back: On the web, users are engaged and want to go places and get things done. The Web is an active medium. While watching TV, viewers want to be entertained. They are in relaxation mode and [...]
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