Posts About Writing

This simple chart by Jessica Hagy is perfect when you think about web pages:

A single web page addresses a single topic. As the amount of information on your site grows, each page’s ability to walk this fine line grows more important.

Include the right amount of information—no more—and give the visitor a clear set of next steps. (You may have heard of these next steps referred to as “calls to action.”)

Even as a writer, you are also a designer.

Read the rest of this entry »

If you only had 11 characters to describe your content, what would your message say? As it turns out, sometimes that’s all that you can get people to “see” when they’re scanning for links to click.

This puts importance on how you’re using those characters in your page titles, but it also has a ton of implications for things like your headlines, headers, and how you start paragraphs.

Read on to find out why.

Read the rest of this entry »

Want to see how horrible it is when you overdo your keyword optimization? Tell me how long you can honestly pay attention to this article about what to look for in an SEO consultant. I laughed out loud as I read it.
My favorite sentence:
Many SEO consultants offer more SEO services than just content so if [...]

Read the rest of this entry »

As HTML knowledge is becoming more and more important for marketing in general, it would behoove you to know some of the ins and outs of HTML.

That said, here’s a little trick. It involves keeping some of your words together, even if they span across more than one line. This is done by using non-breaking spaces.

Read the rest of this entry »

Aaron Wall came up with the great point that we need to have sections on our sites with articles, separate from our blog entries. Both content types should be written differently and marketed differently.

I, of course, realized this after starting a mini-series of articles on my blog. Something didn’t feel right, so I’m chalking it up as a mistake and moving on.

Read the rest of this entry »

SEO Black Hat came up with a great tip about writing effective headlines: mimic tabloid headlines.
Think about it: tabloid headlines must grab your attention immediately to get you to make that impulse buy. Sound anything like internet marketing? Hmm…

Technorati Tags: adwords, Blogging, digg, Email Marketing, internet marketing, ppc, Search Marketing, technorati, web writing, Writing

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve always wondered how some bloggers do it. How do they consistently release stories? For me, inspiration has always come in spurts. When I write one good post, I more than likely can write 10 more quality posts in the same sitting.
If you’re anything like me, then it’s a good idea to write your posts [...]

Read the rest of this entry »

I recently came across a widget for creating filler copy. Its purpose is for designers to have some fake text to use as filler in their designs. (It’s not a designer’s job to write the content, right?)
Here’s what the widget would look like if you installed it on your Mac:

The joke is that some people [...]

Read the rest of this entry »

Most web designers and web developers ignore accessibility. Now that Target is being sued for not having an accessible web site, the bar is going to be raised for your own site as well. Yes, this is yet another thing to worry about. And no, you should not half-ass it.
If you cater to those with [...]

Read the rest of this entry »

I attended an excellent webinar on Thursday, hosted by Marketing Experiments.
A key takeaway from the presentation:
Stop bragging. It’s disgusting.
Craft every element of your marketing campaigns around the value that you bring to your customers. Don’t brag about yourself. Nobody wants to hear it.

Technorati Tags: internet marketing, marketing, Social Media, web 2.0

Read the rest of this entry »