What rules about writing are really meant to do.
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Issue 0512
Advocate for your readers
As a professional writer, I have two bosses on every project: the client who pays me and the reader who is the designated audience. Know the needs of both. Understand the problems they strive to overcome–both large and small. Your message and your audience will grow.
More than ever, mobile matters
The consumer trendwatchers at Nielsen are [5]reporting that in the first quarter of 2012, the vast majority (79%) of smartphone and tablet owners used their mobile devices for shopping-related activities. Links: 5. http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/how-us-smartphone-and-tablet-owners-use-their-devices-for-shopping
Phones were used more than tablets for on-the-go activities, such as locating a store or redeeming coupons. Tablets, on the other hand, were much more likely to be used for point-of-sale transactions.
Make it easy for your customers to buy from you. If your content is geared to consumers, make sure it fully supports mobile devices. copyright icon
What nobody tells you about copyright, but should
Copyright protection for any work begins when your work is prepared in a tangible form.
This includes webposting or even writing it down on paper.
A copyright notice is not required at the bottom of your work (but that wasn’t always the case back in the 20th century when this practice became commonplace).
Similarly, notices of “all rights reserved” were rendered obsolete as far back as 1995, when the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works was adopted by the World Trade Organization.
Despite this, copyright notices continue to abound online and in print as a matter of habit.
Recently posted at thinkitcreative.com
[6]What John Coltrane can teach you about building your audience Links: 6. http://thinkitcreative.com/blog/john-coltrane-teach-building-audience
Mastery of any creative skill only comes from finding good influences and by putting in the hours to hone your skills. Work to emulate. This is how you learn to construct great ideas. [7] Click here to read this post. Links: 7. http://thinkitcreative.com/blog/john-coltrane-teach-building-audience
What our clients say…
“Through his company, thinkit creative, Patrick Gant goes beyond just providing great writing on direct mail and webcopy projects for not-for-profit organizations. He shows a sincere interest in helping organizations like the Learning Disabilities Association of Canada be truly successful. And he does that by going the extra mile on every project, showing you how you can implement methods and techniques that grab an audience’s attention and turn readers in donors.” —Judy Kerr, Learning Disabilities Association of Canada
[8]Read more about what our clients have to say about how we can help you. Links: 8. http://thinkitcreative.com/about/testimonials
What rules about writing are really meant to do
Periodically I get an email from a friend of mine asking for editorial advice on punctuation and usage. Sometimes it involves a problem with semi-colons and as anyone who knows me well can attest, I’m among those eager to encourage the quick demise of that obsolete, hopelessly snobbish tool in our language. But let’s leave my personal vendetta against semi-colons out of this for now.
It’s what he said next that really struck a chord: “I’m just not a writer. I never remember all the rules and I just don’t want to look dumb.
It makes me sad when I hear people say things like that, because it is patently false. Everyone is a writer. And everyone can be a better writer. The basics of hammering together a sentence is something that most of us do everyday. The voice you bring to your work is uniquely yours. It will get stronger as your confidence grows.
To be clear, adhering to rules of language is still important. But not for the reasons some might have you believe.
It barely matters at all what editors think of your copy.
What your reader thinks, on the other hand, matters a lot.
The job of writing is to attract and sustain your reader’s attention. Out of that fact emerges the only reason why rules matter at all: rules help make your reader feel comfortable.
If your copy has spelling mistakes, your reader will conclude you didn’t work hard enough to care. If your prose is too dense, your reader will get bored. If you are inconsistent with punctuation, your reader will get confused. If your tone is improper, you might alienate your audience. Each of these avoidable mistakes carries the risk that your reader will get uncomfortable and will move on.
On the other hand, if you don’t make proper use of the Oxford comma, almost no one will care. What about the voice and tone you bring to your own copy? A little edgy?
Maybe your ideas need a message that breaks some rules, or tips over some sacred cows of orthodoxy.
Just be consistent. And be true to your reader.
By all means, hire an editor to proofread where necessary. Choose one who is as interested in enchanting your reader as you are, who will help you make full use of the voice that is uniquely yours in how you communicate your ideas. Always remember who you are really writing for. cloud
Where are most writers selling their ebooks these days?
According to data compiled by [9]Aptara between 2009 and 2011, Amazon is still the publishing platform of choice for writers. Links: 9. http://www.aptaracorp.com/home/Survey
It commanded 38% of sales in that period, whereas iBooks, Barnes and Noble and Kobo comprised only 5% of sales (I expect that figure to grow substantially in 2012).
Here’s something just as noteworthy: a quarter of all book sales were from author-owned e-commerce sites. at symbol
Important changes at Google and what that means for your web content
Just days ago, Google implemented the second round of changes to the way its search engine evaluates and ranks webpages. This newest round of changes is called Penguin, which along with its predecessor, Panda, means that special care is needed to avoid what’s known as content overoptimization. [10] Read up on what the SEO experts have to say about that, along with details of what’s entailed in these updates. As always, apply the following common sense advice to your site: write great content that readers will love and share with others. Make it easy for web crawlers to understand. The rest takes care of itself. [11]follow on Twitter | [12]friend on Facebook | [13]forward to a friend |IFNOT:ARCHIVE_PAGE| |LIST:DESCRIPTION| Our mailing address is: |LIST_ADDRESS||END:IF| |IF:REWARDS| |REWARDS_TEXT| |END:IF| [14]unsubscribe from this list | [15]update subscription preferences Links: 10. http://www.seomoz.org/blog/penguins-pandas-and-panic-at-the-zoo 11. |TWITTER:PROFILEURL [$format=text]| 12. |FACEBOOK:PROFILEURL [$format=text]| 13. |FORWARD| 14. |UNSUB| 15. |UPDATE_PROFILE|