I have these occasional moments where I can be really smart. Sometimes I even get the chance to record one of those moments in text or on video.
Recently, I was talking about a way to get more links from DMOZ and then there was a blast of Writing for print vs. writing for the web and it really got me thinking this would be a good topic to follow on this blog. I might have some bright ideas in the area of web development after all. I’m not going to buckle it down hard because this is still my flagship blog and personal playhouse so I require the freedom to talk about whatever I want on a given day.
So why should you listen to me?
You really shouldn’t. I wouldn’t recommend it at all. I really don’t know much about the web and my blogging skills are not what I would call developed. I’m constantly asking questions to more experienced bloggers. But I am a writer by nature and I can be a fun read.
I’m not going to pretend to have all the answers, and thats’ why I’m not really running a help blog or offering any tech support to you.
These, however, are some articles that I enjoyed writing and people have enjoyed reading. Just some good ideas I have had in the way of this whole blogging and copywriting development scheme that I have going here. However small the bursts may be, if you are here to read those, then dig in and enjoy.
So please, check out these articles and browse the archives. If you enjoy them, leave a comment. If you dig them, digg them.(Isn’t it weird how spending too much time on the web makes the normal spelling of Digg seem wrong?)
Sites like Myspace, Hi5, Blogger and Zwinky, are a fantastic way to promote your website and also a lot of fun even for those who don’t have a personal website. You make an account, begin adding friends and you’re off.
Many of these social networking sites allow your to tweak your profiles to your liking. This has lead to billions of sites that host Myspace generators, layout tweakers, page pimping, and whatever else can be thrown into the pot, all in exchange for the sacrifice of your profiles’ link juice, the sometimes even the functionality. Nearly all of the sites that host these services for you, are just looking to get free exposure from your profiles and, when you get there, the site has little to nothing to do with Myspace profiles.
The difference with pagefetti tools is that they have everything to do with profile pimping, and nothing else. No registration is required to use their page pimping and it is a free and safe, one time download.
All the tools you need to pimp your page in one download. Integrated into your browser, the Webfetti profile pimping toolbar makes it incredibly easy to customize your profile or spice up your page.
You can add glitter graffics, generate layouts and customize music players skins and pimp out frames for your photos and videos with the free pagefetti download. You will have your own unique presence on most of the profile site giants and your profile will stand out above the others. No matter what your reasons for wanting a profile page on Myspace, Hi5 or others, be it website promotion, group working, networking, dating or otherwise, you can easily see the benefit of having your own unique profile page like no others.
Print publications tend to favour articles with short, punchy sentences, information that is attributed to well known sources and articles that are written in the reverse pyramid structure (the most important information in the beginning and gradually bulking down as it continues). Space is often a factor and articles are edited accordingly. Different rules apply with headlines; i.e. - Online you would be fine to write an article like “How to open up a beer using your belly button” but in print you would be asked to rewrite (belly button beer opener?).
Another thing is that most fun and unusual punctuation and structure are frowned upon because the text on a printed page must look uniform for the ads to really be able to bounce(parentheses are out of the question).
Writing for the web
Online publications usually include a lot of keywords and keyword phrases in their copy. The text is written with search engines and the terms that people will be searching for when their page shows up. A lot of publications now are bending the traditional rules of article writing due to the increased popularity of social media sites. Lead paragraphs are especially affected as it pertains to the way media is gobbled up by users of Digg or StumbleUpon. Space isn’t as important because of the many ways that content from a given site can be parsed; i.e. - RSS feeds, MyYahoo, ect.
Internet copy writers can get away with a lot more as far as use of cliches, slang or loose grammar values.
Writing for the reader
This doesn’t include any of the above. It can have certain aspects of both styles if they are properly balanced, but neither needs to be there. Writing for the reader consists mainly of just being hospitable. It is not just opening your post with an introduction, barking out some facts and then leaving and leaving the reader to wallow through your words like a textbook. It is welcoming them to your page and greeting them warmly at the start of a post. Telling them some things about your life that they don’t especially have to know. Make the reader feel included and they will stick around.
Bring it all together
The key is take equal parts of writing for online and writing for print and present them for the reader. It is good to include some aspects of web copywriting to make your stories easier to find and the reader will thank you for that. Its also great to keep it to a mimimum and maintain an engaging factor in your writing that doesn’t just repeat terms for the sake of Google and your reader will definitely thank you for that.
Things have been a little hectic around here with school kicking off and everything else. I have had little time to get down to this stuff here. But, instead of doing something lazy, I thought I would do something lazy with a little twist.
I’m doing a roundup, but the stories are all mine. It is quite possible you missed a lot of these because they were from before we switched over to Wordpress.
Myspace photos: Which is worse? - A very true tale of censorship. Generated a lot of traffic on the original version of this site, but since the URL changed… zip.
Man Vs. Beast - Perils of living with nature. This story brought me my first big taste of the Google love. It kept turning up on the front page when people searched foolproof mousetraps.
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I have these occasional moments where I can be really smart. Sometimes I even get the chance to record one of those moments in text or on video.
Recently, I was talking about a way to get more links from DMOZ and then there was a blast of Writing for print vs. writing for the web and it really got me thinking this would be a good topic to follow on this blog. I might have some bright ideas in the area of web development after all. I’m not going to buckle it down hard because this is still my flagship blog and personal playhouse so I require the freedom to talk about whatever I want on a given day.
So why should you listen to me?
You really shouldn’t. I wouldn’t recommend it at all. I really don’t know much about the web and my blogging skills are not what I would call developed. I’m constantly asking questions to more experienced bloggers. But I am a writer by nature and I can be a fun read.
I’m not going to pretend to have all the answers, and thats’ why I’m not really running a help blog or offering any tech support to you.
These, however, are some articles that I enjoyed writing and people have enjoyed reading. Just some good ideas I have had in the way of this whole blogging and copywriting development scheme that I have going here. However small the bursts may be, if you are here to read those, then dig in and enjoy.
5 More reasons that less is more in blogging
5 mistakes made by webmasters
So please, check out these articles and browse the archives. If you enjoy them, leave a comment. If you dig them, digg them.(Isn’t it weird how spending too much time on the web makes the normal spelling of Digg seem wrong?)
I told you things would be slow this month.
Sites like Myspace, Hi5, Blogger and Zwinky, are a fantastic way to promote your website and also a lot of fun even for those who don’t have a personal website. You make an account, begin adding friends and you’re off.
Many of these social networking sites allow your to tweak your profiles to your liking. This has lead to billions of sites that host Myspace generators, layout tweakers, page pimping, and whatever else can be thrown into the pot, all in exchange for the sacrifice of your profiles’ link juice, the sometimes even the functionality. Nearly all of the sites that host these services for you, are just looking to get free exposure from your profiles and, when you get there, the site has little to nothing to do with Myspace profiles.
The difference with pagefetti tools is that they have everything to do with profile pimping, and nothing else. No registration is required to use their page pimping and it is a free and safe, one time download.
All the tools you need to pimp your page in one download. Integrated into your browser, the Webfetti profile pimping toolbar makes it incredibly easy to customize your profile or spice up your page.
You can add glitter graffics, generate layouts and customize music players skins and pimp out frames for your photos and videos with the free pagefetti download. You will have your own unique presence on most of the profile site giants and your profile will stand out above the others. No matter what your reasons for wanting a profile page on Myspace, Hi5 or others, be it website promotion, group working, networking, dating or otherwise, you can easily see the benefit of having your own unique profile page like no others.
Writing for print
Print publications tend to favour articles with short, punchy sentences, information that is attributed to well known sources and articles that are written in the reverse pyramid structure (the most important information in the beginning and gradually bulking down as it continues). Space is often a factor and articles are edited accordingly. Different rules apply with headlines; i.e. - Online you would be fine to write an article like “How to open up a beer using your belly button” but in print you would be asked to rewrite (belly button beer opener?).
Another thing is that most fun and unusual punctuation and structure are frowned upon because the text on a printed page must look uniform for the ads to really be able to bounce(parentheses are out of the question).
Writing for the web
Online publications usually include a lot of keywords and keyword phrases in their copy. The text is written with search engines and the terms that people will be searching for when their page shows up. A lot of publications now are bending the traditional rules of article writing due to the increased popularity of social media sites. Lead paragraphs are especially affected as it pertains to the way media is gobbled up by users of Digg or StumbleUpon. Space isn’t as important because of the many ways that content from a given site can be parsed; i.e. - RSS feeds, MyYahoo, ect.
Internet copy writers can get away with a lot more as far as use of cliches, slang or loose grammar values.
Writing for the reader
This doesn’t include any of the above. It can have certain aspects of both styles if they are properly balanced, but neither needs to be there. Writing for the reader consists mainly of just being hospitable. It is not just opening your post with an introduction, barking out some facts and then leaving and leaving the reader to wallow through your words like a textbook. It is welcoming them to your page and greeting them warmly at the start of a post. Telling them some things about your life that they don’t especially have to know. Make the reader feel included and they will stick around.
Bring it all together
The key is take equal parts of writing for online and writing for print and present them for the reader. It is good to include some aspects of web copywriting to make your stories easier to find and the reader will thank you for that. Its also great to keep it to a mimimum and maintain an engaging factor in your writing that doesn’t just repeat terms for the sake of Google and your reader will definitely thank you for that.
Things have been a little hectic around here with school kicking off and everything else. I have had little time to get down to this stuff here. But, instead of doing something lazy, I thought I would do something lazy with a little twist.
I’m doing a roundup, but the stories are all mine. It is quite possible you missed a lot of these because they were from before we switched over to Wordpress.
Holiday Horrors (starring me) - From this past Christmas break.
Myspace photos: Which is worse? - A very true tale of censorship. Generated a lot of traffic on the original version of this site, but since the URL changed… zip.
Man Vs. Beast - Perils of living with nature. This story brought me my first big taste of the Google love. It kept turning up on the front page when people searched foolproof mousetraps.