Wonder Words of Wisdom

Sometimes it pays to feel a little silly!

2008-02-27T16:45:00.003+11:00

Sometimes, it pays to do things that make you feel a little silly at the time. To be clear, I’m talking about doing something that you may not otherwise do – not the sort of sheer stupidity that leaves us humiliated, guilty or ashamed.

At first, exposing our silly side may make us feel uncomfortable or a bit anxious. We might also feel embarrassed about what we are doing and not want anyone else to know about our little quirk. But, the silly things we do can often lead to valuable insights and memorable experiences.

What’s this got to do with writing? More than you might think because the best thing you can do to improve your writing is to read it aloud. At first, you will feel silly because it will feel strange to read your words aloud with no one listening. But,if you persevere, you'll find the quality of your writing improves.

This is because reading aloud is the best way to ‘hear’ your sentences. You’ll get a much clearer idea of how well your sentences flow and whether you need to restructure the ideas. You’ll hear any abrupt changes of subject or clunky sentences. You'll also know your sentence is too long or needs commas, if you run out of breath.

The other advantage is that reading your work aloud makes you focus on every word. When we edit online, it’s easy for our impatient eyes to skip over spelling or grammatical errors.

So, next time you have to write something, try reading it aloud at least once before you send or print. You may feel silly but I think you’ll find it’s worth it.

To yellow highlight or not to yellow highlight

2008-01-30T14:18:00.000+11:00

First up, I have to confess yellow is not my favourite colour. It doesn't suit me because it makes me look sallow. So now I've come clean and I'll admit that what follows may simply be a reflection of my own prejudices.

You might think it a little girly, but picking a colour scheme for your site is a bit like getting dressed. One of the things you do is make sure your clothes co-ordinate. Most of us wouldn't team a pale pink top with an acid yellow bottom or lime green with baby blue because, most of the time, the colours just don't go together. Clothes are a little different because the fabric is often patterned and sometimes odd combinations look good. I'm not convinced the same is true for web sites.

I've been to quite a few sites lately where yellow highlights have been used to draw attention to information on the page. It's a good idea to highlight the most important information on the page, but I'm not convinced yellow highlights are the way to do that.

My biggest problem is they often clash with the site's colour scheme, particularly when the highlight is fluoro yellow. A lot of the time, this makes the site look ugly. I think it's better to stick with bold or use a colour that harmonises with the rest of the site.

It's worthwhile spending some time experimenting with various combinations to find one that suits you and your business. Color Match is a good place to start. You simply select a colour and are given six shades that match.

Yellow highlights may work for your colour scheme, just as yellow looks good on some people. But if they don't, you may want to think about alternatives.

Why a pile of ironing is like unformatted text

2008-01-24T20:28:00.000+11:00

I've been looking at the pile of ironing I have to do and successfully putting it off for about a week now. If you are anything like me, there are always more important, interesting or entertaining things to do.

I've also been thinking a lot about formatting and I decided my pile of ironing is like a big chunk of plain text. Just as my growing pile of ironing is less appealing the larger it becomes; the less formatting you use, the more of a chore it becomes to read your content.

When we are online, we want to find information quickly. We also know if we don't see what we want, we can always go somewhere else.

If your text consists of slabs of plain text, there's nothing to attract a visitor's eye. They will probably think it's too much hard work to trawl through looking for the piece of information they want and go somewhere more appealing.

Make it easy for your visitors by highlighting the information they are most likely to want. By using headings, bold, bullets & indents, you make it clear what information is on your site and where it is locate it, making it more likely your visitor will stay on your site.

Unfortunately, there is only one solution to my ironing problem & I'm off to plug it in now.

Taking a Break

2008-01-05T17:03:00.000+11:00

On Monday, most people are heading back to work after the Christmas break. In the holiday spirit, I thought I’d put down a couple of lines about taking a break. Everything benefits from a rest – even your writing!

If you are anything like me, there are times when inspiration is sadly lacking. You think, you doodle, you scribble out your doodle, and then you get another sheet of paper and start thinking again. You waste hours and all you have to show for your efforts is a pile of crumpled paper.

The best thing to do when nothing inspires is nothing. Although you can keep trying to write something you probably won’t be happy with it and you’ll probably rewrite it anyway.

Take a break, avoid thinking about what you are writing, and start fresh. Some people swear by naps, walks or meditating, but I tend to do something mundane and repetitive, like vacuuming. It doesn’t matter what you do, the important thing is to stop and recharge.

Rest well and the words will follow.

The It Problem

2007-12-19T07:43:00.000+11:00

How can one three-letter word cause so much confusion? I'm talking about how many people get "its/it's" wrong.

While enduring the annual Christmas shopping battle, I’ve seen quite a few shop windows and brochures announcing “Its Christmas.” In my writer brain, I wonder who or what "it" is and what "it" has to do with Christmas.

English is a weird and wonderful language with all sorts of strange quirks. Most of us know an apostrophe either shows possession or a contraction. We write “Jim’s shoes” to show ownership or “there’s the cat” when contracting ‘there is’. But "it" is different - we write “its” for the possessive and “it’s” for the contraction.

When you next start to ponder whether you should use "its" or "it’s", try rewriting or saying the sentence aloud without using the contraction or stating who owns what. For example, if you want to say “it is Christmas”, you write “it’s Christmas”. If you want to say “it owns that present,” you write “its Christmas present”.

I still don’t know who it is, but I hope they have a great Christmas and you do too.

A Short Rant on Spelling

2007-12-06T06:26:00.000+11:00

I was walking down the street yesterday and happened to notice a shop window. It wasn't the fabulous Christmas display or the products in the window that caught my eye, but my anal word brain in action. The owners had paid someone to write a message on their window and they now had a glaring spelling mistake in giant letters.

I was telling someone about this and they told me about a small bank that had spelt mortgage "morrtgage". (Thanks Adam!) Would I go with a mortgage broker who couldn't spell mortgage? Er... no. Why would I trust a firm that doesn't care enough to spell their service correctly with my financial future?

In the grand scheme of things, no one will be damned to hell for poor spelling. But if you're going to pay someone to write something for you, especially if it's going to be plastered all over your front window, your website, or your brochure, you should make sure they can.

Wonder Words of Wisdom

2007-12-01T11:02:00.001+11:00

If you want to sell anything, including yourself as a potential partner, you need to send the right message. And communicating your message means you need the right words.

This doesn't mean you should reach for your thesaurus. In fact, it's better to use everyday words the average person understands if you want reach as many potential leads as possible.

While everyone wants to use the right words, many businesses use the wrong ones. The example below shows how not to do it. As you'll see, the wrong words are confusing, vague and overly complex. They will leave the reader uncertain about what you do or what you can do for them.

Imagine you received a brochure from X Financial Planners. The brochure contains photos of serious men in suits pointing at whiteboards, contact details for the firm, and only one sentence about the business. That sentence is:

"X Financial Planners utilise their expertise in financial management counselling strategies to deliver an effective and efficient solution that can be easily implemented for immediate cost benefits."

It almost sounds impressive, doesn't it? But there's no compelling reason for anyone to choose X Financial Planners because there are too many abstract words and no clear message.

Abstract words (such as utilise, efficient, effective, solution) have become clichés and few people take notice of them or even believe them anymore. You should aim to use these words as little as possible and focus on communicating your message as simply and clearly.

How do you weed out abstract words? First, read your sentences and circle any words which don't have a clear meaning – adjectives are a good place to start. Then try to rewrite each sentence using a simple word or phrase. For example, 'cost benefits' is saving money.

Eliminate as many as of these words as you can and you'll ensure you get the right message across.

Wonder Words of Wisdom

2007-11-16T12:23:00.001+11:00

Why writing for your customers is like dating II

In last week's post, I suggested that writing for customer is a lot like dating. The key point was you should think of your copy as a conversation – talk 'to' rather than 'at' your customers. This week I'm going to continue with the dating theme but this time it's the superficial world of first impressions.

Have you tried internet dating and the person who shows up looks 10 years older than the photo they posted? Have you ever been on a date with someone who turns up to the bar or restaurant wearing a tracksuit that's at least five years old? Have you suddenly got close enough to your date and realised they don't understand basic oral hygiene? Did you give them a second date? I'm guessing probably not. No one wants to be superficial but we all have things we find instant turn-offs.

Most of us form opinions based on first impressions and, regardless of whether it's superficial or not, it's reality. If you are writing for your customers, particularly new customers, you must create a good impression. How do you do that? You choose the right words and you make them attractive to the reader.

Plan first – write down a list of your points and put them in a logical order.

An easy way to do this is to imagine that you are telling your customer you have new product X, and considering what they would want to know about X in order of importance (for e.g. price, benefits, availability). Regardless of whether you are communicating online or offline, customers don't want to hunt for information. Make it easy for your customers to find the most important information quickly because it's easy to throw a marketing letter in the bin and easier still to move to another website. You should also remember that if the information in your documents is disorganised or illogical, customers might well think that's how you run your business.
It's an obvious point but spelling and grammar are super important.

Use a spelling checker but remember it will miss things and/or make grammatical changes that make no sense. It often helps to print out a hard copy and read the document slowly. This is because we tend to skim read screens and miss errors that may be obvious on a printed page. While customers may tolerate a mistake or two, documents riddled with errors make you look careless, sloppy or unprofessional – just like turning up for a date in an old tracksuit!
Avoid boring text

No matter how good the information, if the document is just a large chunk of unformatted text, most people won't bother to read it. Try using formatting devices, such as bold and italics. This breaks up the text and draws attention to the important points. Create headings for your main points and make them stand out by using slightly larger, bold font. You can also use bulleted or numbered lists to draw the reader's attention to the important points.

This tip comes with a word of caution – don't overdo it and keep any formatting consistent throughout the document.

These three easy tips work for any type of document, regardless of whether you are preparing content for your website or writing a direct mail letter for your customers. First impressions can deceive and Mr/Ms Stinky Breath may turn out to be Prince/Princess Charming, but there are very few chances for second dates with customers if you make a poor first impression.

Wonder Words of Wisdom

2007-11-03T11:59:00.000+11:00

Have you ever been on a date with someone who talks incessantly about themselves and hogs the conversation? Every second word coming out of their mouth is ‘me,’ or ‘I,’ or ‘my’. Every time you say something, they yawn or turn the conversation back to themselves. It’s all about them baby and you know it. It doesn't take long for you to find an excuse to flee, convinced that this person is too in love with himself or herself to have a relationship with anything but the mirror.

It might sound like a strange analogy but writing for your customers is like going on a date. While the customer wants to know about your business and the products and services you offer, their main aim is to find out whether you can give them what they want. It’s not about impressing them with big words and fancy sounding phrases – bottom line is that it’s about what you can do for them.

Here are 5 simple tips:

Before writing, make a list of benefits customers get from using your products or services and include the most unique ones in your copy.
Avoid clichés— every business says they provide great customer service but...
Rewrite your sentences using the word ‘you’ rather than ‘we’ - you want to talk to customers, not at them.
Never use a big word when a simple word will do – you aim is to communicate your message to a broad audience.
Be direct & say what you mean.

Just like dating, the aim is to find someone with whom you can have a successful, ongoing relationship. And any relationship is built (or not) on the words you use.