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Better Web Writing Part 3: I Like Your Style
 Now that you have found your voice and learned how to beautify your text,
it's important to set some rules for your content. You wouldn't teach
your child to speak, dress them in their Sunday best, and then let them
run amok. You shouldn't do the same to your content.
Creating rules for yourself (and others who create content) helps to
guide your content in the right direction. Like bumpers on a bowling
lane, content rules help keep you from throwing gutter balls. Take the
steps below to set up your guidelines.
Incorporate links into the text.
Avoid making links out of just "click here." Instead, build the links into a sentence. So, if I wanted you to check out a previous blog entry, I would add a link to the underlined text in this sentence.
Be consistent.
Pick a style and go with it. Not only
will this promote a clean, uniform feel on your site, but it also improves its look.
There are many established styles (AP, Chicago, MLA, APA). But you
don't have to use one of these. You can create your own by making
stylistic choices and utilizing that style throughout your content.
What will you capitalize or abbreviate? What will you call reoccurring
events? What will you name your ministries?
Here are a few decisions to get you started:
- 9:00 A.M. or 9 a.m. or 9am?
- Colorado or Colo. or CO?
- October 25 or Oct. 25th
- 5th Graders or fifth grade students?
- Children's Ministry: Jesus and Me or Kid's Club?
- small groups or Small Groups?
- address your visitors as "loved
ones" or "friends"?
- New Believers Class or First Steps or Theology 101?
Avoid Cliches and Jargon.
Keep your articles free of overused or ambiguous words and phrases from . Think of something fresh that
visitors, churched and un-churched, easily understand. A good rule of
thumb to use: if you have to explain it, get rid of it.
Start by purging your content of the following:
- "food, friends,
and fellowship"
- "come alongside"
- "lift up" as "in prayer" or "in song"
- "God put it on my heart"
- big theological words like: "dispensationalism," "parousia," and "transubstantiation"
SOURCES FOR THIS BLOG/FURTHER READING ON WRITING FOR THE WEB
The 10 Commandments of Internet Writing: Web Pro News
Better Writing for the Internet: Ask Oxford
50 Free Resources That Will Improve Your Writing Skills: Smashing Magazine
Copywriting 101: Copyblogger
Better Web Writing Part 2: Words As Pictures
Writing Compelling Content for Your Organization or Business Website.
 There's
a saying that "pictures are worth a thousand words." On the Web,
because attention spans are so brief and space is so important, words
have to be pictures. Confused? Use the advice below to start crafting your text into word-pictures.
Care how it looks.
Web content is a visual medium. Visitors like text that looks good on
the page. If a page is not attractive, why would
someone stay on that page, let alone read its content? If the text is
distracting, visitors move on without reading what you have to say.
Use white space to break up chunks of text to allow the
reader to scan the content. Use lists, bullet points, and tables to
organize your blocks of text. Use bold and italics to make important
words, phrases, and headings stand out. Limit the use of all caps and
exclamation points. Include images whenever possible.
Instead of this...
Help us serve those in our community by providing for their needs and DONATE TO OUR ORGANIZATION!!
Our current needs include: cereal, instant potatoes, canned vegetables, baby formula, and pasta.
Please help us by dropping off your boxes or bags of NON-PERISHABLE foods in the Food Pantry bins in the lobby at our headquarters!!
Do this...
Help us serve those in our community by providing for their needs. Donate to our Food Pantry.
 Our current needs include:
- cereal
- instant potatoes
- canned vegetables
- baby formula
- pasta
Drop off your boxes or bags of non-perishable foods in the Food Pantry bins in the lobby at our headquarters.
Shorter the better.
Use short, choppy sentences. Chunk these sentences together into brief
paragraphs of 2-3 sentences so as not to intimidate the reader with
long blocks of text.
Like a newspaper article, answer all the important questions at the
beginning (who, what, when, where, why, and how) and explain in more
detail as the article continues. Cut out unnecessary information,
adjectives, and adverbs. Adhere to the "Keep it Simple" attitude.
Example of short and choppy:
Calvary Baptist Student Ministries:
Impact is our ministry for students in High School. Impact students are committed to a single purpose: living for the glory of God. They meet
three times a month in home groups and at a large
group meeting twice per month.
Xtreme for Christ is our ministry for students in Junior High. They meet each Thursday at 7:00 P.M. in the Youth Room. Each week is
filled with small discussion groups, worship, and hang out time.
Jesus And Me (JAM) is our Children's Ministry. JAM meets
every Sunday morning and evening during our main worship services. Each
child is given a Bible-based lesson, activity, and memory verse every
week.
Better Web Writing, Part 1: Finding Your Voice
Writing Compelling Content for Your Organization Website.
 Visitors will come to your organization or business website
because of flashy imagery, but they'll keep coming back for fresh, well
written content. Writing for the Web is different than writing for
other mediums. Web visitors have shorter attention spans than any other
medium, so it is important to know how to write to keep their attention
as long as possible and keep them coming back for more.
Over the next several blogs,
we will give you tips for improving your Web writing. The first step to
becoming a better Web writer is finding and developing your writing
"voice." Your voice, like your speaking voice, is the tone projected by the words you use and how you use them.
Here are three keys to developing your voice:
Know your audience.
Before you begin crafting the words directed toward your website users,
it is important to understand their expectations and wants so you can
meet them.
Your clients or members want to feel in touch with your company and want
to sense being cared
for by staff from the minute they walk in your door. They want
to interact with you and not feel
like a number. You want them to feel at home,
too, so when you greet these visitors to your business or organization, you smile,
welcome them, and give them your undivided attention. Your writing
voice should do exactly the same thing.
Be friendly.
Your tone has the power to invite people in or turn people away. Use informal language. Say "we" and "you" instead of "our
clients" or "organization leaders" to make yourself more relatable. Use your page as a handshake and
your text as a "welcome."
Example of friendly voice:
If you are interested in learning more about , we invite you to attend Meet the Pastors.
Meet the Pastors is a great first step
towards becoming involved at Calvary. If you are investigating or
have recently decided to make Calvary your church home, then we welcome you to join us at Meet the Pastors.
Please register for Meet the Pastors today. We would love to see you there!
Be firm and use active voice.
Use active voice when writing news articles or blogs to energize the
content and involve the reader. Use strong commands when writing ad
content to promote action. Use the present tense and confident words to
give your text authority.
Example of firm, active voice using present tense:
Join us at one of our two Sunday services. We meet at 9:30 A.M. and 7:00 P.M. each week. We invite you to engage in Christ-centered worship and an
application-filled study of God’s Word with us.
Visit our "What To Expect" page to find out more about our services and our beliefs. If you have a question or comment, fill out a Contact Us form.
SOURCES FOR THIS BLOG/FURTHER READING ON WRITING FOR THE WEB
The 10 Commandments of Internet Writing: Web Pro News
 Why Add Highlights?
How Highlights improve the look and function of each page on your organization website.
Each page, news item, and event on your organization website has five "slots" to insert highlights.
Highlights are other pages, blog entries, news, events, or content that
you select as a highlight when you create it. To maximize your website's potential, it is important to fill each page with as many
relevant highlights as you can.
 Look
Although you may have heard that empty space is a good way to break up text on a page,
allowing too much space can make your site look empty and unimportant.
Each inch of space is valuable real estate--don't waste it by
forgetting to add highlights.
When creating a page and selecting it to be a highlight, add a thumbnail. Thumbnails provide you a chance to be make your site pop by breaking up text with images (people love images!).
Be creative. Choose a theme for your thumbnails and run with it. Have all your thumbnails feature:
- People from your organization or business
- A consistent color scheme
- Symbols and imagery from your organization or business (ex. Dentist websites: toothbrushes, floss, teeth, etc.)
- A similar look-and-feel
- Or a mixture of all
Function
Highlights help your users find related information as they explore
your website–content they might not otherwise have found. For example,
on your About Us page,
highlight your Contact Us page so visitors can easily navigate there to
send you a comment or question. On an news item about your new location, highlight the page with your map, directions, and location information. On your upcoming donors event, highlight a page where visitors can donate online.
Using highlights as links to other content on your organization website makes it easier to keep your menu clutter-free. Partnering highlights with hyperlinks, resource pages, and widgets
keeps you from adding every page into your menu. Your users will thank
you for this ease in navigation. Not necessarily in verbal (or
e-mailed) praise, but definitely in repeat visits to your site.
OTHER RESOURCES ON HIGHLIGHTS
What Is A Highlight? – Support Document
Adding Highlights (Video) – Support Video
What is a Thumbnail? – Support Document
 Using Your Website to Promote Your Brand
Bad News, Good News
Bad news: The amount of time spent by visitors on your organization or business
website can be measured in a few short minutes. And because of the
modern Web-surfer's short attention span, it has become critical for organizations to focus more on building and maintaining their brand on their website in order to keep visitors there for longer.
Good news: TriplePixel's Skin feature makes developing and maintaining your brand on your website a few easy clicks away.
Your organization has undoubtedly spent countless hours building and protecting your brand: a logo, colors, imagery, and key words and phrases that convey what you're "all about." Carrying this brand over to your website is just as crucial as the initial building process.
Your website is often your bridge to prospective clients or members and is your best way to broadcast your vision and how you go
about achieving it. You want people to know what you're all about from the moment they see
your homepage and to remember your site long after they’ve left. To
accomplish this, you have to establish your brand identity on your site.
Establishing Brand Identity on Your Website
1. Logo and Colors
Think of your organization's focus. Think of the words, phrases, visuals,
and colors to help convey this theme. Create or use your existing logo
as a symbol for your mission.
 
Keep these colors and themes in mind when selecting a TriplePixel skin or when developing a custom skin for your site.
Acucare Total Health had us create a custom skin to incorporate their new logo and to convey the same holistic, natural feel of their services. To do this, they used earth tones, wood textures, and nature images throughout their site.
2. Logo Use: Size and Position
Now that you have your logo to represent your organization, it should be the
first thing users see when they visit your homepage. Display the logo
large and prominent, usually in the top left corner of your homepage
and continue that pattern on each page of your site.
With TriplePixel's Skin feature,
the majority of the work is already done for you. You can add your own
header, and inside of it you can place your logo so that it appears on
each page.
Acucare Total Health used a custom skin and header to display their logo prominently in the upper left corner of their homepage and throughout their website (see image above).
3. Consistency
Use your logo, colors, and visuals to envelop your site with your
mission. Use the same fonts, graphics, relative positions, and
proportions for each web page on your site. A uniform navigation scheme
coupled with a good color scheme can also help reinforce your brand
image.
Pick a style and go with it. Be consistent in your content voice and style.
The use of Headers, Ads, and Thumbnails
can help to achieve stylistic consistency. All of these features are
included when you choose TriplePixel for your website needs.
Acucare Total Health relies on their website's branding to gain new clients. To achieve this, they needed to use consistent imagery, keywords and phrases (as seen in their website header), and theme (as seen in their skin).
They used closeup images of their herbal treatments, and tied it together with their wood textured skin, to continue their "natural" feel.
And chose closeup images of doctors with patients to establish a trust factor with their clients.
Sources for this Article/Other Resources Regarding Branding:
The Significance of Establishing a Prominent Brand Identity for Your Website: OneExtraPixel
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