Nostalgia

We've launched the new Blackad website. Let us know what you think. Spot the deliberate (honest) typos for a chance to win a half day web copywriting session for your UK-based business. Email us via the contact form on the site. Usual terms and conditions apply. Copywriters can go up as well as down. Not suitable for small children.

Funnily enough, some poor souls miss our old site. Fear not - it's saved for eternity on the old site archive.

Cutting edge?

I was copywriter-in-residence with a client today, putting together a trade site for a new retail development. The site looks great (nice one, David), and we really went to town on the copy.

This is unusual in trade sites. Most play it dull - and I reckon dull is dangerous. In fact, the safest way to approach anything creative is to take risks. That way, you stand a chance of surprising and delighting your audience.

But let's be honest, the real tests will be:

1. Will the client buy it?
2. Will the copy work

I'll let you know.

Ta very much

I just bought a bit of audio equipment from www.hificables.co.uk

The nicest part was a personal email to say thanks - and explaining how fast I would receive my order. They even reminded me to be in to sign of it. Nice.

It's a far cry from the efforts of automatons writing order acknowledgement emails at other shopping sites.

Web-only-words

I went out for a drink tonight with a writer who - wait for it - has only ever worked online. That's quite incredible really. No press ads. No brochures. Just websites.

Is this a good thing? Probably. The internet needs writers who understand how people view information online. Then again, it also needs a kick up the backside from outside the industry - sometimes sites can be oh-so-worthy, but oh-so-dull to boot.

Me? I'm glad I started on the printed page, but I'm also happy to have been writing for the web since 1997. Everything feeds off something - mixing it up is A Good Thing.

Setting the tone

I was up in Aberdeen on Friday, seeing a new client (thanks Miles). I'm writing their website, so the first thing we had to do was work through their draft site plan. It was really pretty good - but a lot of the content was buried, something we've now sorted.

But the most interesting thing was discussing tone of voice. We've got some nifty data on the target market, so we know what media they buy. On the way home, I picked up an armful of magazines and started looking for little tricks we can use on the site.

Is this stealing? No - far from it. The idea is to create a tone that's 100 per cent original, but sits in the context of what people are used to. It's a bit like a mood board, but for words. Try it.

The sweet, sweet horror

Web copywriting for senior corporate people
Are you human? Do you have a personality? Not, it seems, if you're the reader of a big business-to-business website.

Whereas the offline guys (think of the UK's Financial Times and The Economist) have an engaging tone, the online copy aimed at senior business people is often dull, dull, dull.

Think about it - that's the opposite of what you'd expect on the web. Short copy should become shorter. The tone more personal. The distance between reader and writer that little bit closer.

Why be dull?
Are these writers afraid of something? The answer is probably "yes". They're afraid of annoying their client. It's easy to write some bland copy that will sail through the review process.

And it's just as easy for this copy to pass by unnoticed by the audience the writer is doing such a bad job of second guessing.

The press guys have got it right
Newspapers need to sell copies. Their editors know this. So they make sure the content isn't just bang-up-to-the-minute. It's got to have a personality - it's got to hook the reader.

So here's my advice: check out the tone of the quality press before settling down to write another dull piece of copy aimed at senior corporate people.

That way, we might actually end up selling something.