Jun 30, 2009 by Lindsay Gower
….but you’re not. So remove the Latin abbreviations i.e., e.g., and etc. from your writing.
Maybe you got used to using the Latin when you were writing term papers in college. You’re in the business world now, communicating with customers and colleagues.
It’s time to express yourself in English. Why? Because:
- Writing to customers should be conversational, not a thesis. Do you ever say i.e. or e.g. out loud?
- Not all of your readers speak English as a first language. They might come from a country that doesn’t use Latin abbreviations in its educational system.
- You just might be using them incorrectly. A lot …
Jun 25, 2009 by Aaron Rubman
One of the types of reproduction that is allowed under the United States’ Fair Use laws is duplication for the purpose of parody, and as today is the 43rd anniversary of “Paperback Writer” reaching #1 on the American charts it also seemed an appropriate time to roll out this caution against banal and derivative blogging.
SEO writer
SEO writer (SEO writer)
Dear Sir or Madam, will you read my blog?
It took me hours to write, will you give a slog?
It’s based on some posts by a man named Cutts
And I need a job, so I want to be a SEO writer,
SEO …
Jun 23, 2009 by Lindsay Gower
You catch more flies with honey. Make sure readers stick to your web site!
We’ve talked about how to keep readers on your site longer. Now let’s look at how to get them to come back often.
Offer Your Expertise
You are an expert at what you do. Make your web site a resource of the useful, the informative or the entertaining: Reader will remember you. They’ll bookmark you. They’ll come back to your site—and to your business—and they’ll mention both to others.
Let’s say you’re promoting your restaurant. Post the menu and some ambience-expressive photos and you’ve …
Jun 19, 2009 by Aaron Rubman
Given the choice between having a human visit your website and having a machine visit your website, you would probably prefer the human.
Humans are more likely to be responsible for purchasing choices, humans are more capable of understanding what you write and coming up with reasoned replies, and humans are more likely to generate original content of their own.
Unfortunately, since computers are themselves a form of machine, you can’t just forbid all contact from other machines or you would never have anyone visit your site.
The Turing Test
Before the first computers were ever built, Alan Turing theorized that it would eventually …
Jun 18, 2009 by Aaron Rubman
Over the past couple of decades, Internet users have learned that not all websites are created equal. There are a few things that the web savvy browser will look for without even realizing it. If you do not provide the answer, your visitors will come to their own conclusions.
Who wrote this page?
Remember that not everyone will find your website by typing it’s URL directly into their web browser. Most new visitors will follow links from search engines or other sites. One of the first things they’ll want to learn upon arriving is whom they are …
Jun 16, 2009 by Lindsay Gower
You catch more flies with honey. Make sure readers stick to your web site!
When last I blogged, I talked about using your site’s information to either make the sale or to move toward the sale. Now let’s look at how you can use information to keep readers on your site longer.
Little Links That Loop
None of us lingers on a site that isn’t keeping our attention. The more interesting we find a site, the longer we stay. The longer we stay, the more we remember the site—the business, the product, and the person.
Keep readers on …
Jun 16, 2009 by Marissa Berger
You have heard of blogs and think they are not for you. Maybe your business doesn’t really suit the type of back and forth communication a blog thrives on, or maybe you simply don’t have enough time to write articles several times a week. Or, maybe you don’t like to write at all.
Don’t dismiss a blog just yet!
A blog site may be just what you need. A blog is really just a website. It just has the added functionality that allows visitors to comment on what you have to say or post. In addition to these posts people comment on, …
Jun 16, 2009 by mhall
Backing up our data, we all know we should do it but it somehow always ends up at the bottom of that never ending To Do list. I’m really late, I’ll do it tomorrow, this proposal has to go out today, the system has never had any problems, the reasons it didn’t get done are endless. The time to learn that a backup is important is not when the system won’t start so you can’t check your appointments for the day or see if that prospective client has responded to the proposal you emailed them. It’s not when that project …
Jun 11, 2009 by Aaron Rubman
Last night one of my friends organized a potluck on two hours notice.
It’s not the first time something like this has happened, but when I saw the various dishes we’d prepared, it reminded me of the various ways that people will approach their website design.
One person brought a pair of French baguettes and some nice cheeses.
Another looked about her apartment, saw what ingredients she had available, opened up a cookbook and made us an eggplant/Poblano pepper relish from fresh ingredients, making substitutions as necessary.
Me, I heard what the other participants were making, ran off to the supermarket, saw some …
Jun 10, 2009 by Aaron Rubman
Ontology is a fancy word for thinking about the universe, sorting it into categories, and determining how those categories relate to each other.
It is especially important to people who are trying to develop “smart” search engines that can formulate answers instead of just presenting relevant web pages. This is because different types of information should be handled and interpreted different ways (which is why Wolfram | Alpha will frequently ask you for clarification).
For an example, just try a Wolfram Search for “internet” (just remember to hit the back button in your web browser to return to us).
Wolfram …
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