Six Ways to Get People to Say “Yes” — Copyblogger
http://www.copyblogger.com/get-to-yes/

Getting people to say yes is the goal for any sales message. It's what psychologists call “compliance. However, my ...

Writing for the web is a skill set of its own. Website text, or copy, needs to be written in a different tone for the web than a brochure. It needs to be

by Cathy Curtis posted on AIGA | the professional association for design website

Great website!!! Article is very instructive

Excellent guide to writing for the web from Cathy Curtis, a former staff writer for The LA Times.

"It struck me recently that the web has led me to develop a different way of writing—tighter, simpler, more transparent. The results, I believe, are greater clarity and persuasiveness, and a speedier, more user-friendly read."

Mark Twain said the difference between the right word and the almost right word is “the difference between lightning and ...

Twitter has become the place for sharing content links. If your content catches attention on Twitter and spreads, suddenly you’re getting significant traffic from people who may have never visited your site before.

Artículo con consejos acerca de escribir entradas en Twitter con valor añadido.

Yes! This will be covered in @TheBook.

Better by Adobe.

The gold standard in web headline concision

BBC News may be a good place to point to as an example of good writing for the web.

how short headlines explain a lot of info. Great for sci. articles

Creative Ways You Can Profit From Content Marketing

Maybe you think “content marketing” means having a blog that makes money. Or that it’s about producing content for sites ...

What Charlie meant by that is that news journalism works best when it’s simple and direct, at least in the story’s lead sentences. And simplicity (and other tenets of good journalism — like brevity, and clarity, and immediacy) are now cornerstones of how many businesses, brands and individuals communicate on Twitter.

"Microcopy is small yet powerful copy. It’s fast, light, and deadly. It’s a short sentence, a phrase, a few words. A single word. It’s the small copy that has the biggest impact. Don’t judge it on its size…judge it on its effectiveness."

Microcopy counts

The fastest way to improve your interface is to improve your copy-writing.

You can write a headline in an infinite number of ways. However, certain types of headlines have proven themselves repeatedly ...

The following 9 headline formulas are some of the easiest to write and the most powerful. When it comes time to write a headline, try one of these first. At the very least, this can give you a creative jumping off point to write a headline that works.

I think the notion of content templates will be useful. Both for the Collections overview working group and for the implementation of a CMS at NLA Web.

Just how poorly constructed was Sarah Palin?s good-bye speech? V.F. editor Wayne Lawson whips it into publishable shape, with a lot of help from his red pencil.

Vanity Fair copyedits Palin's resignation. She's a moron. If she were a man, I would call her a fucking moron. Oh, but wait! That's a double standard. She's a fucking moron, sorry. We're about equality here.

If you watched Sarah Palin’s resignation speech, you know one thing: her high-priced speechwriters moved back to the Beltway long ago. Just how poorly constructed was the governor’s holiday-weekend address? We asked V.F.’s red-pencil-wielding executive literary editor, Wayne Lawson, together with representatives from the research and copy departments, to whip it into publishable shape. Here is the colorful result.

Do you want to become a better writer? Silly question, eh. The good news is that writing makes you a ...

Great blog about writing

"Ever since I’ve started blogging about technology a couple of years ago, I’ve been consistently growing an immense feeling of hate towards press releases, and it’s not getting any better. - It’s not that I dislike the PR industry in general, although I often wonder how so many of these firms continue to be in business when the large majority of them have been doing it exactly the same way for the past few decades, instead of evolving."

Ingen ansvarlig voksen ville idag bruge nogle af de ti ord in the first place.

Beefcake sells! I don't know if this site got him a job, but it got him tons of publicity (including the NYTimes) and LOTS of traffic.

articulo intersante

REcherche de contenus pertinents

Finding great content online from a social media and search marketer’s standpoint is a very vital aspect to building out ...

Finding great content online from a social media and search marketer’s standpoint is a very vital aspect to building out social accounts, writing blog posts, researching target markets, link acquisition, and blogger outreach. The following 9 sites and mashups are ways to help facilitate the discovery of great content.

copyblogger eBook with links to dig deeper on developing online authority.

When it comes to online marketing… Authority is what works.

Don't miss these guys at Copyblogger. It's a gold mine!

from Copyblogger

Interesting article with links to related info

August 19, 2009: Copyblogger writing a great blog post is like running a relay race. Your headline starts the race, but then it passes the baton to your opening paragraph, and its job is done. Sure, it’s important to start the race well, but if the next guy falls on his face, then how well the first guy did doesn’t much matter, does it? Every piece has to do its part.

how to write headlines that get attention

Bad: We lost the sense of news that "announcing" implied in the previous version. Because many companies molest their poor followers with repeat postings about the same event, users have become somewhat hardened against event promotions.

A really awesome post about iterating a punchy, credible, and viral TWEET announcement.

NN Group on iterative design of Twitter posts. "The shorter [the text] is, the more important... to design text for usability."

Interesting set of rules to follow, when writing for an online audience.

2009 list

With the popularity and ubiquity of writing online, there’s a new demand for web writers. If you’re studying to become a web writer, blogger, or copywriter, there are lots of courses that can offer you the education you need. Read on, and you’ll learn about 50 awesome open courses for web writers.

50 siti per imparare a scrivere, gratis

7 Bad Writing Habits You Learned in School - http://ow.ly/x7o1 [from http://twitter.com/JasonThibault/statuses/5243611493]

Good writing doesn’t have to be educated or well supported or even grammatically correct. It does have to be interesting enough that other people want to read it.

A wise man once said "We are all at the mercy of our wild monkey minds. Incessantly swinging from branch to branch." With multiple windows and applications all vying for our attention, we have sadly adapted our working habits to that of the computer and not the other way around. Ommwriter is a humble attempt to recapture what technology has snatched away from us today: our capacity to concentrate. Ommwriter is a simple text processor that firmly believes in making writing a pleasure once again, reinvindicating the close relationship between writer and paper. The more intimate the relation, the smoother the flow of inspiration. If you are a scriptwriter, blogger, journalist, copywriter, poet or just someone who enjoys writing, welcome back to concentrating.

Ommwriter is a simple text processor that firmly believes in making writing a pleasure once again, reinvindicating the close relationship between writer and paper. The more intimate the relation, the smoother the flow of inspiration.

なるほど、きれいなエディタ。 マックはトランスペアレントおおいな。

Writing for the web is a challenge. There are usually word length restrictions, the fact that users scan rather than read every word, and sometimes style guides to adhere to. There are enough writing tips online to keep you reading for longer than you probably desire. Here are 1o tips that have been the most useful to me: Know your audience This sounds obvious but is often taken for granted. The only way you can write relevant copy that is targeted at the right audience in the right tone of voice, is to understand who that audience is. Depending on where your audience are located, you may have to include local expressions or if writing for a wide audience be specific with things such as dollars. If it is US dollars then say so. If it is Cardiff in Wales then say so as there is also a Cardiff in New Zealand and other countries.

Reading: 10 Tips for Kicking Ass as a Freelance Writer | Copyblogger: http://bit.ly/Xk2Bc [from http://twitter.com/nickdaws/statuses/2666528238]

Tips from Constance Hale.

"Trick #1: Write in English, not Jargon. ... Trick #2: Use specific, concrete nouns. ... Trick #3: Pick action-packed verbs. ... Trick #4: Avoid fluff. ... Trick #5: Find the right pitch."

Trick #2: Use specific, concrete nouns. Nouns are cornerstones of writing—they give us characters, images, and themes. Search for the most evocative and exact. Why choose “house” when the options include cottage, shack, duplex, dacha, bungalow, and bachelor’s pad? (Stay away from abstractions like abode, dwelling, domicile, or residence.) Beware clusters of abstract nouns. When a principal wrote to parents urging a “communication facilitation skills development intervention,” he should have asked them “to help kids write better.” Trick #3: Pick action-packed verbs. All verbs are either static (to be, to seem, to become) or dynamic (to whistle, to waffle, to wonder). Static verbs pour out naturally when we write—“is” clutters most first drafts. But dynamic verbs give writing action, power, drama. Do a verb brush-up on every draft, tossing out static verbs and perking up your prose.

Words sell.

Many copywriting and marketing gurus teach simplistic ideas about psychology. They insist that people can be fully understood and manipulated ...

People are highly complex and often mysterious, so we all struggle to understand our fellow humans. However, now that you’ve gotten over being afraid to sell, here are a few basic psychological tidbits that can help you write compelling copy.

You are the most important person in the world. Wow, I got you to read the second sentence. Your interest is now piqued and you want to read more. If you do

Idéias para comercial Netlogos

58 of the World’s Greatest Offers — Copyblogger

A cut 'n' save special: Some of the phrases I see a lot that can easily be replaced with one word without losing meaning are: at all times: replace with always at the present time: replace with now or currently...

How to use one word instead of several.

Phrases that can be replaced with single words.

A cut 'n' save special: Some of the phrases I see a lot that can easily be replaced with one word without losing meaning.

"Some of the phrases I see a lot that can easily be replaced with one word without losing meaning…"

Via Winer; a nice list of longish phrases that can be replaced by a single word without loss of meaning. Useful for Twitter, or, indeed, for any writing.

cut 'n' save special: Some of the phrases I see a lot that can easily be replaced with one word without losing meaning.

A cut 'n' save special: Some of the phrases I see a lot that can easily be replaced with one word without losing meaning For use in twitter

A cut 'n' save special: Some of the phrases I see a lot that can easily be replaced with one word without losing meaning are

"Users come for the content." True.

Users do not commonly browse the internet looking for a good design or decent user experience. Users browse the web in search of good content. When it comes to designing a website, content is often overlooked, but why? Very rarely do users browse the web looking for a good design or decent experience. Users come for the content. Not giving them what they want with poorly written content will frustrate users. Not only does it waste their time, but your time as well.

When it comes to designing a website, content is often overlooked, but why? Very rarely do users browse the web looking for a good design or decent experience. Users come for the content. Not giving them what they want with poorly written content will frustrate users. Not only does it waste their time, but your time as well.

A Wordy editor will check your text for grammar, spelling, punctuation and structure. Wordy has editors that specialise in a wide range of subjects, which ensures your text will be of the very highest quality.

danish company that does editing with a very quick turnaround

Wordy is the fastest, most reliable way of adding professional copy-editing to your writing process

Words that Zing

"SEO Copywriting Made Simple"

State your message in one sentence. That is your title. Write one paragraph justifying the message. That is your abstract. Circle each phrase in the abstract that needs clarification or more context. Write a paragraph or two for each such phrase. That is the body of your report. Identify each sentence in the body that needs clarification and write a paragraph or two in the appendix. Include your contact information for readers who require further detail.

NOT JUST ENGINEERS

The first thing I do when I want to cut out some words is not read the original version. I just write a new one.

DETTE er copywriting av høg klasse og teksttrimming med riktig fokus: Kort og handlingsorientert, dvs selgande.

“I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” - Mark Twain An example of rewriting text to be shorter and more focused.

Retour sur les bancs de la FAQ http://bit.ly/cvUxjq

An exploration of the whys and wherefores of website FAQs. (Maybe you shouldn't need one.)

Couldn't Agree More!

Nearly every company relies on the written word to woo customers. So why is most business writing so numbingly banal?

One of my favorite phrases in the business world is full-service solutions provider. A quick search on Google finds at least 47,000 companies using that one. That's full-service generic. There's more. Cost effective end-to-end solutions brings you about 95,000 results. Provider of value-added services nets you more than 600,000 matches. Exactly which services are sold as not adding value? Who writes this stuff? Worse, who reads it and approves it? What does it say when tens of thousands of companies are saying the same things about themselves?

“Proofreading is vitally important, hard to do well, and tedious as hell.” ~Brian Clark That’s the best quote I’ve ever heard about proofreading, but I’d like to extend Brian’s remarks a bit. In fact, I’ve got 14 tips that are just about guaranteed to make you a better proofreader, and maybe make the task a tad less terrible. Ready? You’re still watching for those typos, right?

Not just for editors!

Dave Navarro's thoughts on getting visitors to stop what they’re doing, give you their undivided attention and take the immediate action you desire.

Get someone to read every word? Isn't that impossible these days? It's not impossible if you put your mind to ...

Users rarely begin their relationship with a company though its About page. More often than not, they learn about us based on what we do, the product or service that we offer. Why, then, should they want to learn more? About pages help users discover who lives behind the websites we create.

http://www.stevenlittledesign.com/

via Lisa Bledsoe

ideas for making the home page content and article teasers better

Copywriting

"design and copywriting are two sides of the same coin; inseparable in every way"

【deli_post】The Importance of Copywriting in Web Design | Design Shack http://goo.gl/NBAf #deli_post

ideas for making the home page content and article teasers better

Copywriting

【deli_post】The Importance of Copywriting in Web Design | Design Shack http://goo.gl/NBAf #deli_post

ideas for making the home page content and article teasers better

Copywriting

【deli_post】The Importance of Copywriting in Web Design | Design Shack http://goo.gl/NBAf #deli_post

ideas for making the home page content and article teasers better

Copywriting

【deli_post】The Importance of Copywriting in Web Design | Design Shack http://goo.gl/NBAf #deli_post

ideas for making the home page content and article teasers better

Copywriting

Consistently publishing content requires that we deal with a foe known as content management. Content management is just what it sounds like: a way to manage the creation and dissemination of content. To systematically do that, it’s imperative that publishers employ what’s (aptly) known as content management systems (CMSs). The most common of kind of which is called a blog.

Complete Beginner’s Guide to Content Strategy

“If [Information Architecture] is the spatial side of information, I see content strategy as the temporal side of the same coin.” - Louis Rosenfeld

If you’re used to traditional press release formats its evolution to social media press release (SMPR) won’t be too much of a challenge. Knowing what to include and how to format your SMPR will be a big help in securing media and blogger coverage for your brand’s news and happenings.

See also the 2006 version, which is still relevant: http://www.pr-squared.com/2006/05/the_social_media_press_release.html

Back in the day, press releases were the primary means of communication between business enterprises and the media. However, the advancement of the internet has made the traditional format of a press release less effective as journalists, press members and readers crave small chunks of succinct details that incorporate social media, linking and multimedia to make it more digestible and relevant. If you’re used to traditional press release formats its evolution to social media press release (SMPR) won’t be too much of a challenge. Knowing what to include and how to format your SMPR will be a big help in securing media and blogger coverage for your brand’s news and happenings. The basic SMPR parts are: 1. headline 2. secondary headline 3. overview 4. body 5. facts 6. about 7. multimedia links 8. relevant links 9. tags

How To Write A Social Media Press Release http://bit.ly/bXG2AW #socialmedia

TIp