Posts Tagged ‘Content Marketing/Writing’
Getting Some Answers
Being a writer for many publications means a lot of interviews either by phone, email or in person. I never know what kind of interview subject I will get or how receptive they will be to what I would like to know. Finding “the scoop” can prove difficult for some interviewers, because it all lies in the hands (or mind) of the interviewee. I’ve come to find some quick tips in coaxing the story out of subjects.story out of subjects.Link Wars
I think about the links in articles on the Web, especially when I'm blogging. I purposefully put links in my writing and put them in for a reason. When I'm reading content, I click on a headline to read an article, then I am sent to another source of information, and maybe even another story. I may never make it back to the original content that I intended to read.
Getting Website Visitors: It’s About Value, Not Glitter
You can have the snazziest, coolest-looking site on the web, but if you ignore it after the launch dust settles, you’re missing a huge opportunity to capitalize on your investment.
Write for Readers
The title got me, and I immediately clicked through to read a health newsletter's article about the "25 diet-busting foods you should never eat." Strangely enough, the most valuable information was in the comments.Punctuation!!!!! – Watch Out For Exclamation Points
At the risk of sounding totally geeked-out, I hate exclamation points. When I see unnecessary or excessive exclamation points, it's my equivalent of nails on a chalkboard. Most of the custom content I write or edit at Parthenon is straight-forward, so exclamation points rarely crop up. They’re pretty rare in newspaper and magazine writing as well. But e-mails — professional and personal — now that’s a different story.Display Copy Tricks & Tips
That sigh of relief when an article is done can easily morph into a case of writer’s block when it’s time to come up with a headline. So a lot of people just throw something together, forgetting to put the same care and effort into headlines, subheads and pull quotes that they do when crafting a story. But readers use those elements to decide whether they will actually take the time to read the full story.So how do you fashion a headline and subhead that draws the reader in? How do you pull out ideas or quotes from an article that make the person skimming through pages stop and read every word?
The Making of a Great Article
The basics of storytelling don’t change much, no matter what you’re writing. Granted, celebrities may be more fun to write about than, say, the history of concrete — but there’s always a way to make a topic unique, engaging and helpful. And like any ability, writing well comes by practice and persistence. So what are the differences between a so-so article and a great article? Let’s see…
No Offense
Don't we all know better now? The best trained journalists in newspaper and television are in the midst of examining whether their coverage of Hillary Clinton was sexist. Fox News apologized for a headline about Michelle Obama that they probably thought was clever, but was, in fact, a slur. Entire websites are devoted to pointing out examples of stories or quotes in the mainstream press that show prejudice, intolerance or reinforce stereotypes. This happens at large media companies, so it can certainly happen at small, non-media companies. Nobody deliberately injects bias in a company publication or website, but it can slip in unintentionally and hurt or anger readers.
All Is Not Fair
Brush up on copyright law to avoid conflict
In June, a little-known blog got an unsettling letter from the Associated Press, the country's foremost news wire service. The AP, whose stories are printed in newspapers nationwide, ordered the blog to remove all posts that quoted its stories — and indicated that more sites might receive such notices. The story set the blogosphere buzzing, and within hours, the AP had softened its attack, but the surrounding issues linger. As a recent article in Business Week notes, media organizations are increasingly employing content recognition software to crawl the Web round-the-clock looking for improper use of their copyrighted content. And as the AP incident illustrates, these days you don't have to be one of the most heavily trafficked sites to get caught using something without permission.
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