5 Web Writing Wrules

Quite often when I search for specific stuff, I come across some cruddy websites but the content was almost always spot on for my needs. That tells me that the author made a site that performs what it is 'designed' to do and not what it is perceived to be - perhaps the site was not intentionally 'designed' but hey I'm happy lucky down with it.

My thoughts on three 'web writing' resources...

Nielsens paper is still current but I wouldn't say it was applicable to all web writing. In fact Nielsens list would have helped me more if each (valid) point focused on a particular audience i.e. a student, retail customer, home-maker, HR manager. As the interest from budding web designers increases and creates new meanings, so would the list. Meaningful results for web designers are not all based on web copy. Sometimes it's just about how the reader got to your website.

The Dartmouth College information was great because it went further into the context of the web user/reader and gave all those web rules some meaning. I agree with one of the points mentioned, that long web copy is probably not suitable for Joe surfer but for certain users it presents no barriers and in fact necessary. Sales pages for a popular in-demand product or service could get away with longer web copy.

I liked the site by Dennis G. Jerz and especially his direction offered to 'newbies' in web design. I think his content is helpful and relevant even 6yrs later.

5 Rules for Writing Online

1. Say what your site says! Write at least one sentence or short paragraph that tells the reader what is to follow on the webpage. Apparently people on the web have short attention spans and are fickle (don't know who proved that but it's mentioned by many in web design and development).
   
2. Write for your audience. Know (figure out, consider) who your typical interested reader might be and write like you are speaking to her. Formal or informal? Should you use a friendly tone or write with more authority?
   
3. Watch what you say! There's a big difference and certain unpleasant implications between what you 'think' and what you 'say as fact'. Add another sentence if you have to, just to be clear about what you mean. If you're joking, make that clear in your text! Adding disclaimers may not keep you out of trouble.
   
4. Do some basic proof reading. On the web first impressions might make the difference between a sale, a subscriber, positive credibility or your reader might leave the site if it's too hard to read.
   
5. Know the difference between copyright and copywriting in the context of web authoring. Copyright is the one that could get you into trouble, it involves the issues of legal and rightful use of images, audio, video etc. Copywriting is what a guy like Joe Robson would do for your website by writing uber-sticky words on a webpage to help sell your widget or whatever you like really, he's that good.
   

Log Week 1 - Top 5 Tips

To answer the question posed by my tutors at Curtin... my "Top 5 Tips for New Bloggers" focus on the common questions that beginners have asked or at least should have asked. There is much written about how to find and choose a blog host and what to do to get a bigger following (audience) but I found little mention in a quick Google search about the reasons people would want to start a blog and why this is an important step to consider before they begin to type a word.

My top 5 tips are probably valid and certainly personal however I think they will be helpful tips all the same, regardless of ones technical skills and knowledge about internet communication. So here we go:

1. Who are you? Ask yourself this question and categorise yourself! For example: Are you an individual toying with the blog idea for fun and interest or are you an entrepreneur looking for more market exposure? Why do you want a blog? Stay with me, this is a tip but I just needed you to categorise yourself because this would be your blogs purpose.
   
2. Individuals can approach blogging in much the same way as an ordinary conversation. People with a business or a slightly more professional purpose would be advised to write in the same professional manner. It's important to add personality and connect with your audience too but don't forget who your blog reader is.
3. So you've started a blog, you've started to communicate with the world. Great. Keep your readers interest and help them to stay in touch with your updates. Install an RSS feed, set up a subsribe widget and plugins so we can enjoy being on your blog and return to read it. Entertainment (a bit of humour) never hurts and it's especially cool to make someone smile. If they like you, they will stick by you and follow, you need to give your readers the tools to remember you and return.
4. Keep at it, regular posts and helpful or interesting angles that would otherwise be newsworthy helps keep your blog alive. Your own reason for starting your blog will come to the fore here, so get creative and enjoy sharing your knowledge and opinion.
5. Familiarise yourself with netiquette, that is, how to write without inciting a mini hateful war of words, not misleading your readers, not putting someone elses work into your own words or quoting them without crediting (citing) them etc. Bascially make sure you are aware of your blog host (or website host) terms which usually state that spam practices, racist, hatred and other seriously unlawful opinions are kept off your space - which is actually their space. Avoid being officially slapped or worse "kicked off" the service you use for your blog. Prevent your blog from being terminated! Not knowing the rules is no excuse.