Stickyblog

Vote for the word or phrase you’d most like to see removed from the web – best suggestions will feature at ad:tech 2009

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

First in an occasional series highlighting organiastions that are great at using tone of voice to communicate themselves online
Who: Codegent is a London-based digital agency that “fuses creative ideas with solid technology to produce outstanding results”.
Why we like: Everywhere you look on this simple, logical site, the language conveys the impression of an agency [...]

Posted by Dan Fielder to Tone of voice, Web writing

A short list of words and phrases that should never darken your online doors again…
1. Welcome
On a homepage, a Welcome message contains no information and is a massive waste of very valuable screen space. The way to welcome your visitors online is to provide information that shows them exactly what you’re about and how you [...]

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

Boost your email open rate by paying attention to your from fields

Posted by Dan Fielder to email, from fields, marketing, writing for email

Sticky Content releases new dates for our web-writing open courses
We’ve now released some new dates for our digital copywriting open courses. These friendly half-day sessions are a great refresher or primer for refining your own skills or training up members of your team.
We’ve had some great feedback from trainees, many of whom represent big brands [...]

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

Think twice before adding a prominent “News” section to your site – chances are your users aren’t interested.

Posted by Dan Fielder to headlines, news, SEO, Web writing, Writing for search

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