27 Writing & Editing tips, tutorials, techniques & resources
The Blogger’s Library: 28 Free eBooks and Excerpts for Bloggers
"Looking for some reading material? These eBooks cover topics ranging from content creation, promotion, social media, general blogging, business blogging, making money blogging to web writing/copywriting, SEO and design."
Warning: Use These 5 Surefire Headline Formulas at Your Own Risk
"When you understand why the original headlines worked, you’ll be able to select an appropriate structure, and you’ll be a better headline writer in general. If you don’t, you might not only write a bad headline, you might come off looking bad in general. So, here are 5 more headline templates that work, but use them at your own risk."
Ten Great Technical Writing Tips
"Here are ten tips for improving your technical writing skills, and these may be applied to not only software, but also to internal processes and procedures that define how a company operates:"
Calls To Action - Click Here!
"As we go about our online lives we are all exposed to “Calls To Action” on a day by day, and sometimes minute to minute, basis . This article examines what a Call To Action is and how you can make yours stronger than the competition."
Just Say No to These Three Enemies of Clear and Direct Writing
"Your goal is to inform your audience, not to impress them. What does it matter if they love the words you use but don’t act on the message those words are intended to convey? Anything that hinders your goal should be eliminated. Thus, you should just say no to the following three enemies of clear and direct writing."
10 Questions Every Blogger Should Ask Themselves Before Posting
"To help you in these crucial editing stages, we thought we would lay down some important questions bloggers can ask themselves so they can make an honest, constructive and critical appraisal of their work before posting it up for the world to see."
Back to the User: Creating User-Focused Websites
"This article summarizes five key lessons learned from listening to and observing all kinds of users (from teens to seniors to doctors) try out all kinds of Web sites at various stages of development. Our goal: to provide some overarching guidelines about bringing a customer voice to site design."
Resurrect Your Writing, Redeem Your Soul
"Bad writing that has been “Webified” can look great on screen and to search engines, but to human beings, it’s still just bad writing. Applying the new rules of Web writing to muddled thoughts is a bit like hiding dirty hands in clean gloves."
Does Your Copy Hold Up To A Quick Glance?
"The average visitor scans a web page rather than reading it. If words don’t reach out and grab your visitors, your killer verbiage doesn’t mean squat. So how do you turn scanners into readers? "
Greatest Copy Shot Ever Written
"Anyone can be a copywriter, but the best copywriters actually think about what they’re writing."
Reviving Anorexic Web Writing
"We’ve starved all the life out of web writing. The kind of writing we encourage is lifeless, insipid, and calorie-free. If we want to get back on track—to allow writers to write wonderful user experiences—we have to change our expectations and our rules."
Better Writing Through Design
"It’s one thing to write copy that fits on a website. It’s quite another to write copy that fits in with a website. You wouldn’t try to force an incongruous visual element into a carefully considered design. Same goes for written content."
Who Needs Headlines?
"A good headline will seduce site visitors. It should grab their attention and convince them the information on the page is worth investigating."
Gentle Reader, Stay Awhile; I Will Be Faithful
"In order to earn my reader’s trust, in order to convince him to “stay awhile,” I must be faithful."
Calling All Designers: Learn to Write!
"...when it comes to experience on the web, there’s no better way to create it than to write, and write well."
Attack of the Zombie Copy
"...the zombification progresses so gradually that you don’t realize it’s happening until your ‘About Us’ page begins to smell bad and tries to bite your face."
Helping Your Visitors: a State of Mind
"Even the simplest website is harder to figure out than a catalog or magazine. We all know how to “use” a catalog: start at the front cover and keep turning the pages. But with every new site we visit, we have to “learn” how it works, how its “pages” turn, how to find what we’re looking for. Text that takes visitors’ needs into account can help guide them through the maze."
A Fairy, a Low-Fat Bagel, and a Sack of Hammers
"Never underestimate the importance of words on the web."
10 Tips on Writing the Living Web
"Your information architecture is as smooth, clear, and inviting as a lake. Your design rocks. Your code works. But what keeps readers coming back is compelling writing that’s continually fresh and new. Updating daily content can challenge the most dedicated scribe or site owner. Mark Bernstein’s ten tips will help you keep the good words (and readers) coming."
Typography Matters
"It’s a style thing. It’s a usability thing. It’s a tricky thing for large content sites and a step up for independents. It’s typographically correct punctuation on the web, and ALA’s Erin Kissane makes the case for it."
How to Write a Better Weblog
"Great writing can’t be taught, but bad writing can be avoided. Mahoney shares tips to enhance the writing on your personal site, blog, journal, etc."
Your About Page Is a Robot
"An About page should provide context and necessary facts, but should also give the reader compelling reasons to do what you want them to do."
Evolving Client Content
"Content management systems are only as good as the content they manage. Garrity explores the care and feeding of low-budget clients who need high-quality content."
Beyond Usability and Design: The Narrative Web
"Crafting a narrative web: To succeed profoundly, Bernstein says, websites must go beyond usability and design, deeply engaging readers by turning their journeys through the site into rich, memorable, narrative experiences."
A Case for Web Storytelling
"In our attention to style and technology, we often overlook a vital element in the web design mix: narrative voice."
Language: The Ultimate User Interface
"Words. Language. Meaning. They’re a nutritious part of your complete website. So why do so many webmakers treat language like an afterthought? Julia Hayden explores ways to make words work."
10 Sure-Fire Headline Formulas That Work
"So, you're seeing too many of those "how to" and list headlines, and want to try a few different angles? Let's move beyond those common headline formulas you see over and over, and add some new blood to your attention-grabbing arsenal."