Writing, marketing and technology
This is another great guest post from my intern, Laura Connell. According to The Gender Genie, a free online tool that analyses your writing for feminine and masculine keywords, a man has written seven of my eleven Bad Language posts – this post is especially manly. The Gender Genie uses a simplified version of an [...]
{ 12 comments }
Research has identified two types of people, those whose left-brain is dominant and those were the right-brain dominates. The dominant left-brain is ‘content’ oriented, while someone with right-brain dominance will be ‘process’ oriented. Left brain dominance: Logical Sequential Rational Analytical Objective Looks at parts Right brain dominance: Random Intuitive Holistic Synthesising Subjective Looks at wholes [...]
{ 2 comments }
People make buying decisions based on rational and emotional motivations. When structuring your writing you need to identify how you can appeal to both. In “Confessions of an Advertising Man” David Ogilvy listed the 20 most persuasive words in advertising: suddenly now announcing introducing improvement amazing sensational remarkable revolutionary startling miracle magic offer quick easy [...]
{ 8 comments }
People look all over the place when they first land on a page. Eye tracking studies have shown people tend to look at websites in an ‘F’ pattern, but it’s not quite that simple. People don’t read what they look at– they scan for keywords People skip almost anything if they can avoid it. They [...]
{ 5 comments }
Portmanteau: a word formed by blending sounds from two or more words and combining their meanings. All the cool kids are doing it now but that doesn’t mean it’s good, right? Hijacking perfectly good words Take ‘neutraceuticals’ for example. It combines two perfectly good words into one dismal one. Nutrient: a chemical that an organism [...]
{ 3 comments }
Sometimes a headline needs to be serious: ‘Iran accuses journalist of spying’ and sometimes it needs to be fun: ‘Freddie Starr Ate My Hamster. But in every case it needs to be good. BBC News’ headlines are the best in the world according to web-usability guru Jakob Nielsen. Nielsen’s guidelines state that web headlines must [...]
{ 8 comments }
How many words do you need to say ‘we will protect your privacy’? Five if that is your real intention. However, if you want to make money, you need a lot more, as these graphics from the NY Times show. (Hat tip: Steve Clayton.)
{ 9 comments }
This made me giggle. Hat tip Bruce Schneier. From a writing perspective, satire can be a great way of making you see the structures that sit below writing conventions. In this case, the authors send up most reporting on terrorism: Abuse of technical-sounding catchphrases: “weapons of mass dilution.” Selective quotation from experts: in this case Hans [...]
{ 0 comments }
Shorter, punchier copy is more readable and more memorable than obese copy. You can test this in your own life. Why do we like top ten lists, for example? The claim is also supported by experimental data; such as Jakob Nielsen’s research. So how do you put your copy on a diet? Zap filler text. [...]
{ 21 comments }
I’m watching a big box set of DVDs at the moment. I paid for them. I’m an honest, legitimate, fee-paying customer and yet I have to waste about five minutes per viewing session watching a compulsory ‘piracy is theft’ video. It’s the same at the cinema. Even, computer games now come with elaborate copy protection [...]
{ 6 comments }
Matthew Stibbe is CEO of Articulate Marketing and Turbine, the easy, online way to deal with office paperwork. He edits Golf Hotel Whiskey and writes the Forbes Aviator column.
Check out my new, free eBook, 30 Days to Better Business Writing, 71 pages of expert tips and advice to make you a better writer. Available on Kindle, paper and free online.