How To Write For Blogs
May 20, 2010 at 11:48 am
I’ve made it to WordPress TV – wow!! Featuring *newly coined* words that came straight out of my head on the day, such as:
- “Easily cognicized”
- Blobby bullets
- Scannability arsenal
Note that this was a totally adlib affair. I had spent ages on preparing a lovely Flash show, but the projector wasn’t working, so this was a flipchart and marker affair out of my head! Watch the vid.
View the slides:
Tags: how to write for blogs, wordcamp ireland, Wordcamp Ireland Kilkenny 2010
Wordcamp Review
March 8, 2010 at 6:54 pm
I was there for Saturday’s Wordcamp and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Big congrats to Sabrina and Katherine who made it happen – I believe they may be persuaded to do it all again next year. Despite being in charge, the lovely ladies did not come over all Nazi like and bossy, dinging bells to mark end of time, etc. And yet, every talk I went to started and ended on time. This proved to me that Wordcamp was about sharing and learning and not egos. I like that.
Langtons was a lovely venue, although the greenhouse that I was giving my presentation in got hit with adverse weather… who would have expected such sun in March? A lot of light made the screen rather difficult to see. This meant that my *lovely* presentation that I spent hours of Friday on, didn’t get to be shown. Resorting to marker, memory and flipchat, I gave my talk on ‘how to write for blogs’. Lucky I knew the material because I was doing it from memory.
If you weren’t there, but you’d like get a condensed version, Jon Jacob accosted me with a video camera immediately after I’d given my talk. Here’s the 4 minute version on how to write for blogs! [Must remember to top up my lipstick next time I get a video camera on me!]
Check out Jon’s other post about building online communities - he really does write rather well. Needs no tips from me. Is a natural.
PS – here are the slides transferred from Flash to retro PPT.
Tags: how to write for blogs, wordcamp ireland
Content is Still King
January 8, 2010 at 4:49 pm
That’s the first thing I learned when I started working on websites back in 1999. It was important then, and it’s equally as important now. It doesn’t matter how beautifully designed your website is, if it’s got nothing to say people won’t come back to it. Often businesses put up the blurb from their marketing brochures as the text on their website.
WRONG!
On the web, the big difference is that people can click away from your website and land on a competitor’s site in a couple of seconds.
When they’re reading your brochure, that’s not as likely to happen.
So – what can you do?
- Write 50% less than you would normally. This is because we know that people – even when they’re concentrating really hard – take in 25% less when reading it off a screen.
- Write your headlines like literature; body text like a tabloid journalist. ie. Be really clear what your text is about… but when you’re writing it, keep to short sentences, no multi-syllabic words, keep it simple.
- Stick to classic copywriting rules about sentence structure and length. Bulleted lists. Punctuation and more.
It’s not rocket science, but you do need someone to show you how to write for web just the once. After that, you’ll fly. If you write content that is published on websites, on a blog, on emails, or you just generally want to spruce up your business language style generally – you might be interested in attending a 1 day online copywriting course run by Brightspark.
Thursday 28 January, 10am-5pm, Dublin City Centre, €295: www.brightspark-consulting.com/write-for-web.htm
We’ve been teaching Irish people how to write for web since 2001 and get great results. Online copywriting is a core skill for business this century. Why not get 2010 off to a good start and skill up in this important area? All that – and we guarantee you’ll enjoy yourself. More info on online copywriting training.
Tags: online copywriting training, Write for Web Training
Next Training Dates
December 3, 2009 at 8:43 am
Due to the general mayhem of work before Christmas, I’ve decided to put all the training courses off until after Christmas. Next training dates for Web Copywriting Training, Blogging Training, Internet Marketing Training, and the Social Media Widgets will be announced as soon as the training rooms are booked.
Tags: blogging training, internet marketing training ireland, social media training, web copywriting training
Your Blog Like Writing From The Middle Ages?
November 16, 2009 at 8:14 am
Before you shake your head and say “I thinketh not”, consider this:
According to noted linguistic academic, David Crystal, ‘blogs are as close to the way writers talk as it is possible to get’. This is similar to spontaneous letter writing of the Middle Ages which has a very similar set of features. Back then it was the norm to write a stream of consciousness when sharing one’s ideas with others. The only difference was that the medium was letter and so there was a bit of a time lag between idea generation and receipt.
This style of writing was wiped out late in the eighteenth century when publishers developed copy editing standards to ensure that magazines, newspapers and books conformed to an in-house style. I wonder if that will happen to blogging?
For now, however, blogging is ‘written language in its most naked form’, it has no editorial interference.
That will be all. Carry on with your blogging now!
Great Value Training – Web Writing
September 24, 2009 at 8:00 am
From time to time I do training for the Europa Academy – yes the one that Bill Cullen resides in. They offer great value training courses, from excellent trainers (not just me!), in a lovely venue. The next training days I’m doing for them are in October.
Great value training days
Writing for the Web: 15 October | €195
Internet Marketing: 13 October | €195
Tags: internet marketing training, online copywriting, web writing training
Great Value Training Courses
June 8, 2009 at 5:12 pm
My top three training courses are:
- Writing for the Web
- Internet Marketing
- How to be a good Blogger
I run these as public courses from time to time. I also run them on behalf of industry bodies. And now I run them in association with Europa Training Academy. That’s the one that Bill Cullen is involved with. It’s a really smart venue located just off the M1 and, importantly, they do a really good lunch as well!
Europa is offering some amazing value right now – check out all its training courses here.
The really great news is that you can get ME for just €195!
I normally charge way more than that; Europa are much more generous than me!
Check these dates and if you’re up for increasing your knowledge in these areas, book your place now:
- 25 June: How to be a good blogger
- 26 June: Write for the web
- 29 June: Internet Marketing
Tags: Blog Training Ireland, internet marketing training, Write for Web Training
Why Do I Blog?
April 20, 2009 at 5:45 pm
Because I have something to say. Most of the time. And I like to write. Plus it allows me to get things off my chest.
Search engine benefits of business blogging:
- If you’re writing 1 blog post a week, that’s one time per week more than your competitors that your content is changing. Google likes frequently changing content and will give a higher ranking to you than your competitors cet. par. (Wow, I haven’t used cet. par. since Trinity days!)
- Your site’s ranking will be further assisted by quality inbound links when other bloggers link to you. Or indeed, when you comment on their blogs and leave your name and website address.
- If you use tags correctly and tell Google what each post is about, this will facilitate deep ranking, ie. it’s not just your home page that will be ranked, but individual blog entries too.
Other benefits:
- If you’re selling professional services, it’s a great chance for you to show off your knowledge on your subject. If you do it often enough, it will soon attract the attention of canny journalists, so there’s even free PR.
- Blogging makes email marketing even more of a no-brainer. Your blog is your email’s content. Come email marketing send date time, simply repackage the best of the blog and ship it on out to your list who will love you for it.
- It’s a great discipline. Writing regularly hones your skills at communicating your thoughts concisely and effectively. You can plug things that you like through your blog. And diss things you don’t like. And even threaten to write about things in your blog when people are being assholes and are refusing to pay for services you’ve provided in good faith.
Soft and fluffy benefits:
- You make new friends! Because blogging is not just about writing your own one, it’s about reading and commenting on other blogs too, you will get to know loads of new people with similar interests to you. Bloggers are generally a nice bunch so you will end up falling in friendship with your new love.
- Puts people off you. By this I mean that people who do not like your style will not come knocking on your door once they read your blog! That’s a good thing. The corollary is that like-minded potential clients will read it and be turned on by it – and that’s the type of person you want to do work for.
So what are you waiting for?
If you haven’t got a blog, and you’re itching to get writing, then get in touch and we have you up and running in an incredibly short amount of time. If you’ve suddenly been tasked with writing the company blog and you’re a bit unsure about how to start, you might want to attend one of our writing for the web or blog training courses.
Tags: Blog Training Ireland, Write for Web Training
3 Awesome Tips for Making Amazing Lists
March 10, 2009 at 4:16 pm
A question came up at the online copywriting training course last week concerning punctuation for bulleted lists. Specifically question marks. I would appreciate opinions from any of the Grammar Police out there for this particular case of an obdurate question mark.
Rules for Bullets
- A numbered list of bullets is used when order is important. For example, recipes. It is important that the eggs are whisked first before adding sugar.
- A blobby list such as this one is used when order is not important.
- Try and keep your bullet points to 5 at a maximum. Any more than that and our eye can’t read them. Have a look over here and you’ll get the picture.
The Punctuation Rule
- When you present a list of bullets that will be read online
- Try not to use punctuation such as full stops at the end of the bullet point
- Because that is just adding characters for our already hard-pressed little brains to take in
But if you have a list of bullets and one of them is made up of more than one sentence, like this:
- Then the rule is to add a full stop at the end of every bullet in the list.
- This is because our brains strive for consistency. Yes, even yours. It’s doing it involuntarily.
- I’m not mad about adding full stops either.
The Conundrum
- What do you do in this case?
- Just because that one above has a question mark.
- Now I have to add full stops all the way along.
Or Not? It still looks good like this:
- What do you do in this case?
- Just because that one above has a question mark
- Now I have to add full stops all the way along
I didn’t know the answer to this one, so I consulted with Cork Copywriter Calvin Jones and he also wasn’t aware of any rules. He suggested that it would be dictated by your own writing style, or a corporate style guide if you’re working to one.
So that’s it. There is no rule. It’s a little piece of Grammar Presentation Anarchy! What do you think?
Tags: bullets, grammar, online copywriting training, punctuation
When online copywriting isn’t enough
January 20, 2009 at 5:49 pm
I’m an online copywriter. I love writing content for web; taking huge swathes of multi-syllabic, long sentences written in the passive voice and converting it to something short and punchy. When I’m not writing content for web, I teach others how to do it. It’s not rocket science. If you can write, it’s just like learning to surf – wonderfully exhilerating once you know how!
But sometimes web copywriting isn’t enough.
Recently I was introduced to a company that needed help with the copy for its marketing materials – both online and print. I was called in to help. And boy could I help! Because I am that rare and unique being (in this market at least) who also wears another hat – that of Marketing.
Long before I got into copywriting, I learned everything I know about marketing. This was before Internet Marketing had evolved (yes kids… I am that old!). Since I’ve been working in Internet Marketing since 1999 (a whole decade!) I’ve evolved with it as new techniques and ideas evolve. So when I was called out to this new client who needed a copywriter, it turned out that I could give them more, much more.
They already had asked two other copywriters to work on some content for them, and they just weren’t happy with what they’d got. I’m sure the others did a good job, but they were copywriting messages that they were provided by the client. What the client needed was someone to help them craft those messages in the first place. And this is what I did.
And so when we had identified the benefits and the key messages, then I got around to crafting the copy. We got the brochures done first and now we’re moving on to the website. Soon we’ll be introducing email marketing, and are looking to get high results on search.
The result?
One happy client who is getting the kind of results he wants. And for me, it’s all good – business that’s interesting and worthwhile and pays on time.
[Another good news story for January brought to you by Brightspark!]
