Writing, marketing and technology
I went live with my new company website last week (although I still need to write copy for a few pages). I’m really pleased with the result – it’s shiny and a big improvement over the previous version – but it’s been a struggle and I learned a few things along the way which may [...]
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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 [...]
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Today I spent 45 minutes helping my father-in-law fix a problem that had been caused by a kludgy bit of UI design in Windows 7. It has so many options and buttons and ways to do things that it’s really easy for a naive user to do something that appears logical but actually causes real [...]
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Check out the Campaign for Plain English’s site and especially: How to write in plain English (PDF) Tips for clear websites (PDF) Also, check out Jakob Neilsen’s articles about writing for the web. In particular: How users read on the web Writing style for print vs. web How to write for the web If you [...]
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I am working on a number of website projects right now. My mission is to banish ‘lorem ipsum’ by working text into page designs before development starts. (To find out why, read my article: Want a good website, on time? Prioritise content) I wanted to find a tool that would let me create page mockups [...]
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Email Etiquette 101. How to use BCC so you don’t send everyone’s email address to everyone else. Great video on YouTube that shows how to do it in different email programs. Internet safety 101. The Get Safe Online blog has some great videos that teach the basics of internet safety – how to avoid rip-offs, [...]
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The Discipline of Content Strategy. “Content is the web. It deserves our time and attention. And that’s where content strategy comes in.” Couldn’t agree more. Content-tious Strategy. “To those of us who work daily and intimately with words, the phrase “lorem ipsum” sounds out a special kind of death.” Yes, again, I agree. American English [...]
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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.