Web Content

My interview on writing killer headlines for web content [VIDEO]

Published on November 24, 2011 by Nick Usborne

Recently Ken McGaffin of Wordtracker interviewed me about the craft and art of writing great headlines for web content.

As always, I spoke for too long, so we had to divide the interview into two separate videos. In addition, these aren’t the most finely produced of our videos. I think I sat way too close to the camera!

That aside, we covered some interesting ground.

Too many web content writers pay scant attention to writing a great headline. This is a problem, because headlines have a huge impact both on how many people actually read your content pages, and on how widely shared those pages are through social media.

Published in Social Media, Web Content, Writing for the Web
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Is your content created simply to market your site, or to actually inform your readers?

Published on November 17, 2011 by Nick Usborne

All too often we create content simply for the purpose of marketing our website or blog.

We are driven by the knowledge that the creation of content is a powerful means to attract new visitors.

In other words, we use content as bait.

But when we do this, are we really giving our readers what they really want?

Another way to look at it would be to view your website or blog as a library.

For a moment, imagine your site as a physical library, built with bricks and mortar, and stocked with hardbound volumes.

Now think about what kinds of books you would buy for your library.

In the real world of bricks and mortar you would buy and display books according to what the public wanted to find there. You would cater to their tastes, and have yards of reference books on the shelves that might be rather mundane in their subject matter, but are nevertheless what your readers want to find.

Published in Web Content, Writing for the Web
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On your web content pages, reveal your core message slowly.

Published on November 3, 2011 by Nick Usborne

Often when I arrive at a content page online, I read the first few lines and find the answer or information I was looking for. Or I at least get the gist of it. I then stop reading and hit the back button.

In other words, the writer has revealed the good stuff at the top of the page, and has given me little or no reason to keep reading.

In fact, I have made the same error with this post. You have already finished reading the short version of what I plan to say and – if you were in a hurry – you could pretty much move on at this point.

(That said, the good stuff is yet to come…I just didn’t flag it in the intro.)

Published in Web Content, Writing for the Web
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4 Examples of Effective Headline Design.

Published on October 20, 2011 by Nick Usborne

Headline design? What does that mean?

It means writing and formatting your headline in a way that makes it jump out from the page, or email, or a smartphone.

It used to be that headlines had to do a single job, on the web page where the balance of the content followed. Read the headline, and then keep reading the body text immediately below.

Today, headlines still have to work well, immediately above the body content, but they also have to grab attention and hook readers when they stand alone.

Here are a few situations where your headline has to stand alone, or almost alone: When used as a tweet on Twitter. In an RRS feed. On a smartphone. In Reddit or Digg.

In these circumstances, your headline has to jump out from dozens of others, and get the reader to click through to the full page or post.

Published in Social Media, Web Content, Writing for the Web
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3 Ways to Make Your Web Content Headlines More Shareable.

Published on September 27, 2011 by Nick Usborne

Making headlines shareable through social media? What’s that about?

Well, if your content page headlines aren’t gaining significant traction through social media, you’re missing the boat.

Today, all your content headlines have to do double duty:

First, they have to work on the content page itself. The page headline has to compel attention, hook the reader, and drive readers into the body of the content.

Second…your headlines have to be shareable through social media.

Published in Social Media, Web Content, Writing for the Web
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Talking about the importance of quality web content with Ken McGaffin of Wordtracker. [VIDEO]

Published on September 8, 2011 by Nick Usborne

I have known Ken for a long time, but this is the first time we have got together to create a video interview.

As you can see, we touch on a few of the most important and pressing issues facing web content creators, and the connection between quality web content and…

Published in Web Content, Writing for the Web
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