Comments on: Writing copy for the website http://www.barenakedapp.com/the-text/writing-copy-for-the-website A behind-the-scenes look at selling dropsend.com Wed, 07 Jan 2009 14:32:31 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.2 by: dsafutures.com » Blog Archive » How to Start Writing Content Your Website http://www.barenakedapp.com/the-text/writing-copy-for-the-website#comment-3209 Thu, 05 Oct 2006 00:48:44 +0000 http://www.barenakedapp.com/the-text/writing-copy-for-the-website#comment-3209 [...] It’s time to write content for your website, how do you get started ?    I came across this blog article by  Gillian Carson of CARSON Systems His ideas, paraphrased below,  hit the nail on the head.   The problem: What to write, and how to write it ?   A.      For some period of time, like a half day,  write nothing at all but look at other sites, and think about what do your visitors want to know.    Good site content is concise, short, to the point with absolutely no jargon, but do not expect it to start off like this.   B.      Get your ideas down first,  the content can be tightened up later.   C.      Create a short sentence that tells the visitor in five or six words exactly what the site is for, or the product does. The sentence or “strap” should be short, to the point and leave people in no doubt what your service does and/or who it’s aimed at.   Once you have the strap pinned down things get much easier. Firstly, because you know who to aim your copy at tone-wise and secondly because you should begin to get a clearer idea of what information people will want to know next.   D.      Try to step away from your immediate reality for a moment, and become a new visitor to the site, which has a nice “strap” line ,  and perhaps a logo. a.      “Oooh! nice, tell me more…”                                                          i.            What does it do? (If this is solved by the “strap” line)… Sounds great. Now think - what’s your next question?                                                        ii.            It could be ‘how much is it?’                                                       iii.            Or, ‘how does it work?’ ,                                                      iv.            or ‘how do I sign up?’    E.       Of course try to you may not be your target audience so you have to be sensible when writing your copy from this point on. It’s useful to imagine that when your customers arrive at your site they will know as much about your app as your mom probably does right now, so make sure to explain everything in clear terms.         H.      Gillian Carson uses his site, Skype, which follows these principals very well.   I.        In school, when taught how to structure writing,  you are told to use the ‘Who, What, Where, When, Why, How?’ test . a.      Who did it? b.      What did they do? c.       Where did they do it? d.      When? e.      Why? f.        How? g.      J.        A good news story will give you all these facts very quickly in the first paragraph and usually in this order. K.      L.       Use the same technique to double check the content your visitors require.   Who - who is the web site aimed at? What - what does it do? Where - where do I sign-up? Why - why should I use it? How - how does it work? (edit: better still, How much?)   All this information should be on the first half of the home page.   It’s very important to keep your message concise. People get bored if you go on and on. o        Use the fewest words that will suffice. o        The space on your home page is precious. Each pixel is marketing space that needs to work hard for its place.   Don’t use phrases that are vague, can be misconstrued or include jargon.   Jargon in particular will alienate your potential users. You may know that your ‘Ajax-driven’ interface is kick-ass but your customers don’t care. Leave it out.   Trim your sentences to get your message across in the quickest way possible. Adding more words doesn’t help the reader.   A couple of examples of this are:   What you write - What you should write At the present time - Now Provided that - If Owing to the fact that - Because In order to - To The majority of - Most Accordingly - So Facilitate - Help Frequently - Often Commence - Start Nonetheless - But In conjunction with - And   And you can pretty much delete the following words from your copy altogether because they don’t mean anything: at the end of the day basically by and large currently simply well   Gillian Carson  suggests the book, ‘English for Journalists’ by Wynford Hicks.     Best Regards: SteveB.   Gillian Carson’s  article can be found on Bare Naked App. [...] […] It’s time to write content for your website, how do you get started ?    I came across this blog article by  Gillian Carson of CARSON Systems His ideas, paraphrased below,  hit the nail on the head.   The problem: What to write, and how to write it ?   A.      For some period of time, like a half day,  write nothing at all but look at other sites, and think about what do your visitors want to know.    Good site content is concise, short, to the point with absolutely no jargon, but do not expect it to start off like this.   B.      Get your ideas down first,  the content can be tightened up later.   C.      Create a short sentence that tells the visitor in five or six words exactly what the site is for, or the product does. The sentence or “strap” should be short, to the point and leave people in no doubt what your service does and/or who it’s aimed at.   Once you have the strap pinned down things get much easier. Firstly, because you know who to aim your copy at tone-wise and secondly because you should begin to get a clearer idea of what information people will want to know next.   D.      Try to step away from your immediate reality for a moment, and become a new visitor to the site, which has a nice “strap” line ,  and perhaps a logo. a.      “Oooh! nice, tell me more…”                                                          i.            What does it do? (If this is solved by the “strap” line)… Sounds great. Now think - what’s your next question?                                                        ii.            It could be ‘how much is it?’                                                       iii.            Or, ‘how does it work?’ ,                                                      iv.            or ‘how do I sign up?’    E.       Of course try to you may not be your target audience so you have to be sensible when writing your copy from this point on. It’s useful to imagine that when your customers arrive at your site they will know as much about your app as your mom probably does right now, so make sure to explain everything in clear terms.         H.      Gillian Carson uses his site, Skype, which follows these principals very well.   I.        In school, when taught how to structure writing,  you are told to use the ‘Who, What, Where, When, Why, How?’ test . a.      Who did it? b.      What did they do? c.       Where did they do it? d.      When? e.      Why? f.        How? g.      J.        A good news story will give you all these facts very quickly in the first paragraph and usually in this order. K.      L.       Use the same technique to double check the content your visitors require.   Who - who is the web site aimed at? What - what does it do? Where - where do I sign-up? Why - why should I use it? How - how does it work? (edit: better still, How much?)   All this information should be on the first half of the home page.   It’s very important to keep your message concise. People get bored if you go on and on. o        Use the fewest words that will suffice. o        The space on your home page is precious. Each pixel is marketing space that needs to work hard for its place.   Don’t use phrases that are vague, can be misconstrued or include jargon.   Jargon in particular will alienate your potential users. You may know that your ‘Ajax-driven’ interface is kick-ass but your customers don’t care. Leave it out.   Trim your sentences to get your message across in the quickest way possible. Adding more words doesn’t help the reader.   A couple of examples of this are:   What you write - What you should write At the present time - Now Provided that - If Owing to the fact that - Because In order to - To The majority of - Most Accordingly - So Facilitate - Help Frequently - Often Commence - Start Nonetheless - But In conjunction with - And   And you can pretty much delete the following words from your copy altogether because they don’t mean anything: at the end of the day basically by and large currently simply well   Gillian Carson  suggests the book, ‘English for Journalists’ by Wynford Hicks.     Best Regards: SteveB.   Gillian Carson’s  article can be found on Bare Naked App. […]

]]> by: CoffeeCritters - » Copy writing for the web http://www.barenakedapp.com/the-text/writing-copy-for-the-website#comment-1348 Tue, 01 Aug 2006 07:43:46 +0000 http://www.barenakedapp.com/the-text/writing-copy-for-the-website#comment-1348 [...] Link Via Digg [...] […] Link Via Digg […]

]]> by: The Web Hosting Show » Web Hosting Catch-up Day - Podcast 61 http://www.barenakedapp.com/the-text/writing-copy-for-the-website#comment-1063 Wed, 12 Jul 2006 16:11:13 +0000 http://www.barenakedapp.com/the-text/writing-copy-for-the-website#comment-1063 [...] Bare Naked App - Writing Copy For The Web site [...] […] Bare Naked App - Writing Copy For The Web site […]

]]> by: mambo italianom http://www.barenakedapp.com/the-text/writing-copy-for-the-website#comment-1019 Fri, 07 Jul 2006 13:36:59 +0000 http://www.barenakedapp.com/the-text/writing-copy-for-the-website#comment-1019 <strong>mambo italianom...</strong> Kansst du mir ein Speisekarte zeigen ?m... mambo italianom…

Kansst du mir ein Speisekarte zeigen ?m…

]]> by: playground blog http://www.barenakedapp.com/the-text/writing-copy-for-the-website#comment-503 Mon, 12 Jun 2006 09:27:57 +0000 http://www.barenakedapp.com/the-text/writing-copy-for-the-website#comment-503 <strong>Writing copy for websites...</strong> A good article on writing for the web, some excellent pointers and general good practise regardless of...... Writing copy for websites…

A good article on writing for the web, some excellent pointers and general good practise regardless of……

]]> by: Redacción para la Web » EfektoMagazine http://www.barenakedapp.com/the-text/writing-copy-for-the-website#comment-420 Tue, 06 Jun 2006 04:33:30 +0000 http://www.barenakedapp.com/the-text/writing-copy-for-the-website#comment-420 [...] Este art&#237;culo en Bare Naked App inspir&#243; esta adaptaci&#243;n. [...] […] Este artículo en Bare Naked App inspiró esta adaptación. […]

]]> by: inkbluesky » Blog Archive » butterfly “89″, writing for the web, a better phone company, hope for nerve damage http://www.barenakedapp.com/the-text/writing-copy-for-the-website#comment-174 Thu, 18 May 2006 13:51:52 +0000 http://www.barenakedapp.com/the-text/writing-copy-for-the-website#comment-174 [...] How to write for the web. It is a challenge everyday for me. Ultimately what ends up on-line is a rough 1st or second draft. So, for me anyway rather then try and be a great essayist and devote time I just do not have, I&#39;m trying to take a kind of casual news story approach. I found this site useful, Bare Naked App. While the advice is directed toward someone that is writing about a software application or web service much of the guidelines offered would also apply to most blog posts. In journalism college when they teach you how to structure a news story they tell you to use the &#8216;Who, What, Where, When, Why, How?&#8217; test on your copy. Who did it, what did they do, where did they do it, when, why and how? A good news story will give you all these facts very quickly in the first paragraph and usually in this order (grab today&#8217;s newspaper and check it out, most still use this structure). [...] […] How to write for the web. It is a challenge everyday for me. Ultimately what ends up on-line is a rough 1st or second draft. So, for me anyway rather then try and be a great essayist and devote time I just do not have, I'm trying to take a kind of casual news story approach. I found this site useful, Bare Naked App. While the advice is directed toward someone that is writing about a software application or web service much of the guidelines offered would also apply to most blog posts. In journalism college when they teach you how to structure a news story they tell you to use the ‘Who, What, Where, When, Why, How?’ test on your copy. Who did it, what did they do, where did they do it, when, why and how? A good news story will give you all these facts very quickly in the first paragraph and usually in this order (grab today’s newspaper and check it out, most still use this structure). […]

]]> by: webgoddess http://www.barenakedapp.com/the-text/writing-copy-for-the-website#comment-143 Tue, 16 May 2006 22:45:29 +0000 http://www.barenakedapp.com/the-text/writing-copy-for-the-website#comment-143 um... john's grammatical corrections are incorrect and he made a grammatical error of his own. if you're going to be stupid enough to correct someone's grammar in a public forum, be smart enough not to get caught making the same stupid mistakes yourself in the course of your correction. um… john’s grammatical corrections are incorrect and he made a grammatical error of his own. if you’re going to be stupid enough to correct someone’s grammar in a public forum, be smart enough not to get caught making the same stupid mistakes yourself in the course of your correction.

]]> by: BlueSparc design, technology news » Blog Archive » Writing is Part of the Design Experience http://www.barenakedapp.com/the-text/writing-copy-for-the-website#comment-142 Tue, 16 May 2006 20:26:35 +0000 http://www.barenakedapp.com/the-text/writing-copy-for-the-website#comment-142 [...] Update: For some practical tips for writing short, concise, to-the-point copy for your website or web app check out Bare Naked App&#8217;s Writing copy for the website. This article will helps you get you ideas down on paper, or on the screen, and smarten them up with a few tricks stolen from the world of journalism. [...] […] Update: For some practical tips for writing short, concise, to-the-point copy for your website or web app check out Bare Naked App’s Writing copy for the website. This article will helps you get you ideas down on paper, or on the screen, and smarten them up with a few tricks stolen from the world of journalism. […]

]]> by: Olav http://www.barenakedapp.com/the-text/writing-copy-for-the-website#comment-139 Tue, 16 May 2006 16:20:44 +0000 http://www.barenakedapp.com/the-text/writing-copy-for-the-website#comment-139 Great entry! Way too many sites underestimate the power of great type. Great entry! Way too many sites underestimate the power of great type.

]]>