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I would recommend this book to anyone who is new to writing for the web and wants a very simple and direct introduction. I think it’s out of print now, but if you can find a copy it’s worth a few bob. Unfortunately, it looks a bit Baby’s first book of online content. I half expected it to come complete with pop-ups of Jakob Neilsen. An offputting thought about a decent primer.

»» Find ‘Writing for your website’ on Amazon »»

What happened to the design? To know more about why styles are disabled on this website visit the Annual CSS Naked Day website for more information. Edit: that was fun.

The results of the NCVO Successful Online Publishing survey are nearly in. All types and sizes of voluntary organisations were asked about their current activities, plans, and objectives. It makes for interesting reading. I’ll post full analysis here, but I’ve promised to present the results first at the Publishers Forum: Online Publishing conference (sold out now).

Now works with Firefox 1.5.0.* Should keep you all quiet for a few days More info and download »

Drop back in the first quarter of 2006 for these posts and more…

• Ten ways (count them) to be more productive in MS Word
• Free pocket web writing guide
• High impact copywriting, fast
• Common web writing mistakes you can avoid
• Free handbook for web editors

That’s all for this year. See you again soon.

Megan asks, “is there an optimum length for a blog post?” I don’t think there is a optimum blog entry length, any more than there is an optimum web page length. Entries vary from one line, to a few paras in length, to much longer posts.

However, blogs are informal. Each post generally focuses on one point in the context of much larger train(s) of thought. Normally, then, a couple of paras will be enough.

Don’t get too hung up size. The most important question is, “is my writing cogent, entertaining, and succinct?”

Two updates in as many days - you lucky people. The Streetmap Firefox extension now includes a fix for OSX builds. Thanks to Joe Maller for the solution.
More info and download »

Development of the Streetmap Firefox extension inches forward to version 0.931. The extension should now work with Firefox 1.5. Any problems - particular in Mac builds - please leave me a comment.
More info and download »

(Part two of ‘Effective copywriting: the basics‘.)

Copywriting is writing that does a job. It persuades someone to act. Typically, the action is to buy something. But it might be to make a call, write an email, or join a free course. Everytime you are writing to persuade, you are copywriting.

AIDA is a useful way to check your writing is doing the job of persuading the reader to act.

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(Part one of ‘Effective copywriting: the basics‘.)

Relevance means connecting your message with your audience. Before you start writing, you must really understand your message and your audience. So good copywriting depends on preparation.
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