Present participle heads may be worse than labels
Barney Kilgore, the legendary editor of The Wall Street Journal, once wrote: “If I see ‘upcoming’ slip in[to] the paper again, I’ll be downcoming and someone will be outgoing.”… Read the full article
Display copy
What’s the best link format?
5 ways to draw eyes, fingers
Your most important links are calls to action, writes HubSpot’s Kyle James. So how can you increase the chances that they’ll get clicked?… Read the full article
How to write a link that’s the right length
Give visitors enough information to decide to click
Think of links as the Goldilocks of microcontent: Some links are too long. Some links are too short.… Read the full article
Why tip sheets?
Service stories get read, shared, used and acted upon
How-to information is the No. 2 type of content that gets retweeted, according to research by Dan Zarrella, viral marketing scientist for HubSpot.… Read the full article
Sell benefits, not features, in lists
Make benefits lists parallel, verb-based
When Mr. Wylie’s Writing Tips had a hip replacement recently, he had to take a break from grocery shopping. I went searching for my new BFF, an online grocery delivery service.… Read the full article
How to write killer headlines for web content
Google never laughs; so must web heads be dull?
There’s a lot of sniveling and squawking going on in the web writing community these days. Consider the headlines:
- “This Boring Headline Is Written for Google,” grumble journalists.
How to write short online headlines
Web heads must fit on mobile apps, more
Not everyone wants to play, “What’s the last word in the headline?” says Andy Bechtel, associate professor, School of Journalism and Mass Communication at UNC-Chapel Hill.… Read the full article
A way around the pyramid
Lift ideas off the page with display copy
There is one great thing about the inverted pyramid lead.
“The only benefit of the inverted pyramid lead was that it put a lot of valuable information high in the story,” write Mario R.… Read the full article
From McCall’s to Buzzfeed
Social media listicles descend from 1890s women’s magazines
Social media seems to run on service stories, from “13 Comebacks For The Most Overused Breakup Lines” to “21 Ways To Demonstrate Your Passionate Love For Beer.… Read the full article
Format subheads for clarity
Think contrast, hierarchy
Subheads tell readers what content exists on a page and how different sections relate to the others. That guides readers to the copy they want to read and shows them how the parts fit together.… Read the full article