Today it’s not just Newspapers and Coffee

May 28, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Thanks to Norwegian journalist Kristine Lowe who picked up on the BBC’s coverage of changing media habits. I missed the original piece, no doubt because my copy of NetNewsWire hasn’t recovered since I lost all my bookmarked feeds last week!

Yes, web-readers are getting more ruthless in their browsing. I’ve seen that for myself, but it’s nice Dr Jakob Nielsen and his boffins at the Nielsen Norman Group have some figures to substantiate what’s been my gut feeling for a couple of months now.

As someone who’s just months away from launching an online magazine with a team of 12 writers, I’m genuinely concerned with how we go about publishing for readers who savagely ignore stacks of well-designed, admirably crafted content.  Especially as advertising revenue is one of the major ways of monetarizing a website.

What happens when the community creates tools to kick advertising into touch?

I’ve not initially been worried by younger readers configuring browsers to block out all the ads, but now that non-techie oldies I know have gone on a binge of installing plugins to Firefox to keep the ads at bay, I’m genuinely concerned. Let’s face it, when people in their sixties actively learn how to block ads on the Net, it’s time to worry.

From what Nielsen says, SEO is clearly going to be massively important in the next few years. Even more so than the last two. With online publishers grappling for readers that read, remain on site AND get clicky with the ads, thing could very well get nasty.

Ah, for the golden age of newspapers and coffee.

Filed Under: journalism, web writing

Are Your Emails Being Read?

May 15, 2008 By Leave a Comment

With literally hundreds of emails flooding in-boxes around the world on a daily basis, it’s not surprising that a lot of email doesn’t get read.

I’m convinced much of this has got to do with sloppy subject-line writing.

Customers I’ve worked with tell me: “I don’t have time to read my mail religiously. I zip through looking for the important stuff.”

The subject line of your email MUST entice the reader to open up the mail and read what it says. That’s it’s job.

To leave this field empty or just use “Re:” is asking for trouble. In the business world it’s commercial suicide.

When writing email subject headings think of them as writing marketing copy. You’re writing headlines to draw attention to the body of the mail. Imagine if the marketing industry used sloppy headlines like this…

Filed Under: web writing

Good Web-Writing Skills Will Sell You

March 4, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Web Worker Daily notes that blogging won’t make you rich when it comes to click-thru advertising revenue. But the significant thing about blogging is that you can earn money because “it can be the centerpiece of your professional promotional and networking activities, leading indirectly to new money-making opportunities.”

If you write well in public, engage in something with a professional manner, a blog can be an excellent way of promoting yourself. It’s not about telling people how great you are; instead, you show your portfolio of skills by crafting and maintaining a blog over a (considerable) period of time.

I wrote a now defunct blog (the Grey Notebook) between 2000-2004. Because of it I came into contact with editors and it helped get me picked up as a journalist covering the Nordic region by the British press. People also bought some of the books I had written.

If you’re blogging in English, though, it’s paramount that you care about your writing. Each typo, spelling-mistake or grammatical error will show how sloppy, slap-dash, etc, you are.

Bottom line, good writing skills on the Internet will benefit you as individual blogger. The more effort you put into crafting a well-written blog, the easier it will be to make your skills more transparent.

Filed Under: web writing