Stickyblog

A comment I’ve heard a few times recently from content types of various kinds — especially writers with a print or advertising background — is that web writing isn’t creative. Is that true?

Posted by Dan Fielder to style, Tone of voice, Web writing

I notice that the customer service desk in every Sainsbury superstore now sits under a banner that says not “Customer service” but “Here to help”. It’s a reminder that real-world retailing often has some useful lessons for online best practice (they’ve been using eyetracking for years, too).
That Sainsbury’s sign is a great example of how [...]

Posted by Dan Fielder to style, Tone of voice, usability, Web writing

Stylistic variation versus writing for the web: fight!!
Many writers – journalists especially – find it hard to call something the same thing twice. If you’re writing about Michael Owen, for instance, you might refer to him as “Michael Owen” the first time round, then perhaps “the Newcastle striker” at the second mention, then perhaps “England’s [...]

Posted by Dan Fielder to style, Tone of voice, Web writing, Writing for search

Further to our attempts to rehabilitate the passive voice – or at least demonstrate that using the passive appropriately doesn’t make you a spineless victim type – we were intrigued to read Jakob Nielsen’s recent newsletter topic, “Passive Voice is Redeemed for Web Headings”.
The grand wizard of usability argues that the “active voice is best [...]

Posted by Dan Fielder to style, Web writing, Writing for search

We’ve now got full confirmed details of our open courses in web writing skills up on our website.
Just to recap, we are running four half-day courses over two days in October 2007.
These courses are a cheaper alternative to our bespoke training days, ideal if you’re looking a good overview of the subject or just want [...]

Posted by Dan Fielder to email, Training, Web writing, Writing for search

Still sitting on my desk is the show guide from the recent Online Marketing Show 2007. Browsing through the little blurb which each exhibitor gets to introduce themselves, I was struck by the dreadful similarity of the language in each one.
Every other exhibitor referred to themselves as a “search marketing solutions provider”, a “search engine [...]

Posted by Dan Fielder to events, Online Marketing Show, Tone of voice

New open courses from Sticky Content in October 2007…
The focus of this year’s Online Marketing Show was very much on search, and on our stand we spoke to a great many people interested in finding out more about what you can do to improve your search results in the way you write and edit [...]

Posted by Dan Fielder to events, Online Marketing Show, Training, Web writing, Writing for search

It’s standard practice among dispensers of business writing advice to rubbish the passive. Examples like “mistakes were made…” and “the decision was taken to…” and “it has been decided that” paint the picture of a clunky verbal construction that produces language that is invariably woolly, bureaucratic, evasive.While it’s probably no bad thing to observe the [...]

Posted by Dan Fielder to style, Web writing

Does your site have a distinctive tone of voice? Does it matter? And if so, how do you get one?
As online copywriters, we are constantly asked to ensure that the words we produce for a client are “on-brand” or “in our voice” or “checked for style and tone”.
As the web has matured and big brands [...]

Posted by Dan Fielder to Content 2.0, Tone of voice, Web trends, Web writing