Tags |
|
|
Links |
|
|
Will You Add? - How to Write Simply for the Web So That Everyone Understands You
I began my venture into cyber space having some knowledge about computer but I didn't know a thing about the Internet.One of the very first things I learned soon was that the Internet can be a very lonely and impersonal world. When I started surfing the net, nobody told me what's about. The main rule was learning by doing. Me alone in front of a computer screen hour after hour, day after day, reading, all kind of things I had the chance to see.My first thought was to find minded people and to establish contacts wi
1. Keep your sentences short. Get rid of conjunctions, turn a long sentence into two.
2. Use alternatives for long, multi-syllable words.
3. Use personal names, personal pronouns
4. Add the following phrase after every technical term, "This means that……"
5. Break up long paragraphs, add headings.
The shortest sentence in this pricing tip is two words. The longest word in this pricing tip is incomprehensible. So I failed.
Will it help you get better web results? Well, put it this way. If your proposition is up against a rival proposition and your customer can understand yours but cannot understand your competitors’ are you not more likely to get the business? Have a look at this page on our w
Have you looked at your Yellow Page ad recently? You know, the one you’ve had for years. Has it changed much? Is it getting all the customers you want? Are you really tracking the results? Perhaps you are doing everything you can or don’t have the time to do anything at all. The day will come when the rep calls to renew the ad and you should take a few moments to make sure it’s working hard for you. Besides a headline that excludes your name, unless it’s a brand-name, and a picture that ties back to this headline, have you give
I’ve never forgotten it. She looked at me from behind horn-rimmed spectacles and said, "Why do you hide behind all those big words?"
It changed me for ever. I was a 22 year old account executive in an advertising agency. I had to brief this senior, elderly copywriter with what the client wanted. Doing the finals of the Advertising exams I knew all the technical terms. "Target market" was a new phrase, "opportunities to see" was another. Commercial television was very new. She was senior to me and a bit scary so she had the lot, all the big words, all in one paragraph. Wallop.
The thought of hiding behind big words was new to me and it hurt, because it was true. It made me search the library for books on writing, talk to journalists from newspapers and then deliberately modify my style.
I made a specific study of writing and speaking in simple language and I’ve used it ever since. The lack of precision is possibly part of the reason why much of my stuff is not too acceptable to academia but then academics are not in my target market.
You are.
We all see masses of incomprehensible junk. Computers must be the worst. At this moment, I am going in to the first three sites at random assuming I’m looking for a bit of software, something about palmtop machines and a scanner. What follows is from the only three sites I opened. It is bog standard junk.
From a Play Golf software programme. "CPU Type Pentium 200 MMX or faster/Graphics Any 4Mb Direct X 6.0 compatible graphics/" Your nine year old can understand it probably, but he/she does not play golf.
This wondrous selling pitch is from the second site selling Linux for palmtops "A new kernel for the netbook, supporting 32MB or 64 MB memory, large ram disks and PPP, and a new initrd filesystem can now be found at openpsion. The initrd is borrowed from the openzaurus project.
Compactflash is not yet supported. Here is a screen shot of linux on the netBook showing mounted filesystems, the output of ifconfig, and the memory available. See the netBook HOWTO at the "howtos" link above". Love us, the Linux promoters have go a long way to go yet. Would this stuff make you switch out of Windows?
From a retail seller of scanners. "In addition, the ScanMaker 6800 offers high 4800 x 2400 dpi resolution, 48-bit color depth, FireWire and Hi-Speed USB (USB 2.0) interfaces, plus an integrated 4" x 5" transparency adapter."
Now the following is better. From the Which? Report on low price scanners. Everything is in simple-to-understand phrases.
· What the Twain does
· How to choose the right scale and resolution
· How to edit your image at scan stage
· And our hints and tips for getting the most from your scans.
FIVE THINGS YOU SHOULD CONCENTRATE ON.
You need to use a lot of highlighting, and bullet points, because people scan the page rather than reading it thoroughly. But sometimes you need paragraphs of text.
These are from the notes I made many long years ago. Send them around your technical people, your sales people, your customer service people, your finance people. Use these rules for writing your web site.
1. Keep your sentences short. Get rid of conjunctions, turn a long sentence into two.
2. Use alternatives for long, multi-syllable words.
3. Use personal names, personal pronouns
4. Add the following phrase after every technical term, "This means that……"
5. Break up long paragraphs, add headings.
The shortest sentence in this pricing tip is two words. The longest word in this pricing tip is incomprehensible. So I failed.
Will it help you get better web results? Well, put it this way. If your proposition is up against a rival proposition and your customer can understand yours but cannot understand your competitors’ are you not more likely to get the business? Have a look at this page on our we
You know one of the greatest things that a mobile auto detailing business can do is to hook up with a large property management company, which leases out office buildings and office complexes. Why you ask? Well, simple really you see if they allow you on the property and they have a copy of your insurance and an understanding or even a written contract then indeed you get the exclusive on the property for auto detailing services.This means that all those customers are now a captured audience, just for your company and it
I made a specific study of writing and speaking in simple language and I’ve used it ever since. The lack of precision is possibly part of the reason why much of my stuff is not too acceptable to academia but then academics are not in my target market.
You are.
We all see masses of incomprehensible junk. Computers must be the worst. At this moment, I am going in to the first three sites at random assuming I’m looking for a bit of software, something about palmtop machines and a scanner. What follows is from the only three sites I opened. It is bog standard junk.
From a Play Golf software programme. "CPU Type Pentium 200 MMX or faster/Graphics Any 4Mb Direct X 6.0 compatible graphics/" Your nine year old can understand it probably, but he/she does not play golf.
This wondrous selling pitch is from the second site selling Linux for palmtops "A new kernel for the netbook, supporting 32MB or 64 MB memory, large ram disks and PPP, and a new initrd filesystem can now be found at openpsion. The initrd is borrowed from the openzaurus project.
Compactflash is not yet supported. Here is a screen shot of linux on the netBook showing mounted filesystems, the output of ifconfig, and the memory available. See the netBook HOWTO at the "howtos" link above". Love us, the Linux promoters have go a long way to go yet. Would this stuff make you switch out of Windows?
From a retail seller of scanners. "In addition, the ScanMaker 6800 offers high 4800 x 2400 dpi resolution, 48-bit color depth, FireWire and Hi-Speed USB (USB 2.0) interfaces, plus an integrated 4" x 5" transparency adapter."
Now the following is better. From the Which? Report on low price scanners. Everything is in simple-to-understand phrases.
· What the Twain does
· How to choose the right scale and resolution
· How to edit your image at scan stage
· And our hints and tips for getting the most from your scans.
FIVE THINGS YOU SHOULD CONCENTRATE ON.
You need to use a lot of highlighting, and bullet points, because people scan the page rather than reading it thoroughly. But sometimes you need paragraphs of text.
These are from the notes I made many long years ago. Send them around your technical people, your sales people, your customer service people, your finance people. Use these rules for writing your web site.
1. Keep your sentences short. Get rid of conjunctions, turn a long sentence into two.
2. Use alternatives for long, multi-syllable words.
3. Use personal names, personal pronouns
4. Add the following phrase after every technical term, "This means that……"
5. Break up long paragraphs, add headings.
The shortest sentence in this pricing tip is two words. The longest word in this pricing tip is incomprehensible. So I failed.
Will it help you get better web results? Well, put it this way. If your proposition is up against a rival proposition and your customer can understand yours but cannot understand your competitors’ are you not more likely to get the business? Have a look at this page on our w
When you here about myspace what do you think of?Most likely a place to talk to your friends, keep in touch with distant friends, and even a place to meet new people. This is how most people look at myspace.Myspace now has over 15 million unique users and over 110 million accounts sign-ups. For most people, myspace is exactly what is explained above; a place to socialize with old, current and new friends. So you may be asking yourself, how can anyone look at mypace differently than that? That's what it is righ
This wondrous selling pitch is from the second site selling Linux for palmtops "A new kernel for the netbook, supporting 32MB or 64 MB memory, large ram disks and PPP, and a new initrd filesystem can now be found at openpsion. The initrd is borrowed from the openzaurus project.
Compactflash is not yet supported. Here is a screen shot of linux on the netBook showing mounted filesystems, the output of ifconfig, and the memory available. See the netBook HOWTO at the "howtos" link above". Love us, the Linux promoters have go a long way to go yet. Would this stuff make you switch out of Windows?
From a retail seller of scanners. "In addition, the ScanMaker 6800 offers high 4800 x 2400 dpi resolution, 48-bit color depth, FireWire and Hi-Speed USB (USB 2.0) interfaces, plus an integrated 4" x 5" transparency adapter."
Now the following is better. From the Which? Report on low price scanners. Everything is in simple-to-understand phrases.
· What the Twain does
· How to choose the right scale and resolution
· How to edit your image at scan stage
· And our hints and tips for getting the most from your scans.
FIVE THINGS YOU SHOULD CONCENTRATE ON.
You need to use a lot of highlighting, and bullet points, because people scan the page rather than reading it thoroughly. But sometimes you need paragraphs of text.
These are from the notes I made many long years ago. Send them around your technical people, your sales people, your customer service people, your finance people. Use these rules for writing your web site.
1. Keep your sentences short. Get rid of conjunctions, turn a long sentence into two.
2. Use alternatives for long, multi-syllable words.
3. Use personal names, personal pronouns
4. Add the following phrase after every technical term, "This means that……"
5. Break up long paragraphs, add headings.
The shortest sentence in this pricing tip is two words. The longest word in this pricing tip is incomprehensible. So I failed.
Will it help you get better web results? Well, put it this way. If your proposition is up against a rival proposition and your customer can understand yours but cannot understand your competitors’ are you not more likely to get the business? Have a look at this page on our w
If you are publishing an ezine you may be wondering how often you should send messages to your list and whether it effects the response rates to your offers. The frequency of your emails will determine how successful you are.The key to creating a responsive list is building a relationship with your subscribers and this is achieved by sending messages on a regular basis. If you provide quality content you will quickly build credibility and brand yourself as an expert in your chosen field.For best results you should
Now the following is better. From the Which? Report on low price scanners. Everything is in simple-to-understand phrases.
· What the Twain does
· How to choose the right scale and resolution
· How to edit your image at scan stage
· And our hints and tips for getting the most from your scans.
FIVE THINGS YOU SHOULD CONCENTRATE ON.
You need to use a lot of highlighting, and bullet points, because people scan the page rather than reading it thoroughly. But sometimes you need paragraphs of text.
These are from the notes I made many long years ago. Send them around your technical people, your sales people, your customer service people, your finance people. Use these rules for writing your web site.
1. Keep your sentences short. Get rid of conjunctions, turn a long sentence into two.
2. Use alternatives for long, multi-syllable words.
3. Use personal names, personal pronouns
4. Add the following phrase after every technical term, "This means that……"
5. Break up long paragraphs, add headings.
The shortest sentence in this pricing tip is two words. The longest word in this pricing tip is incomprehensible. So I failed.
Will it help you get better web results? Well, put it this way. If your proposition is up against a rival proposition and your customer can understand yours but cannot understand your competitors’ are you not more likely to get the business? Have a look at this page on our w
Many small business owners make the mistake of thinking that putting up a web site is advertising. They think it's like putting an ad in the paper that will bring in business. However, they usually end up frustrated when no business comes in. Learn how to avoid this mistake and save your web site from being lost in cyberspace.Why is my web site not advertising? So why is putting up a web site not advertising? Well, let's begin by looking at what advertising really is. Advertising means attracting
1. Keep your sentences short. Get rid of conjunctions, turn a long sentence into two.
2. Use alternatives for long, multi-syllable words.
3. Use personal names, personal pronouns
4. Add the following phrase after every technical term, "This means that……"
5. Break up long paragraphs, add headings.
The shortest sentence in this pricing tip is two words. The longest word in this pricing tip is incomprehensible. So I failed.
Will it help you get better web results? Well, put it this way. If your proposition is up against a rival proposition and your customer can understand yours but cannot understand your competitors’ are you not more likely to get the business? Have a look at this page on our web site. Then ask your Mum if she can understand what you have written.
John Winkler "http:holidayhomewebsupport.blogspot.com
HTTP = HTML link (for blogs, profiles,phorums):
<a href="http://www.atriclecheck.com/article/66966/atriclecheck-How-to-Write-Simply-for-the-Web-So-That-Everyone-Understands-You.html">How to Write Simply for the Web So That Everyone Understands You</a>
BB link (for phorums):
[url=http://www.atriclecheck.com/article/66966/atriclecheck-How-to-Write-Simply-for-the-Web-So-That-Everyone-Understands-You.html]How to Write Simply for the Web So That Everyone Understands You[/url]
Related Articles:
Break Out Strategy for the Invisible Salesperson
Prescription for Success: The Role of the Pharmacy Call in Pharmaceutical Sales
Advantages to Starting Business Online
Bookmark it:
|