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

For those of you interested in learning more about web writing, there’s another series of our popular open courses coming up.
On 27 May and 1 July we’re running our usual double-whammy: Writing for the web in the morning, and Writing for search in the afternoon.
On 24 June we’re introducing a new course, Writing for email, [...]

Posted by Martin Wake to email, events, Tone of voice, Training, Web writing, Writing for search

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

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

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