Articles by: Michael Alexander

Why Writing for the Web and for Print Differ and What to Do About It

Visitors to your Web site won’t read much of your content word-for-word. They’ll scan the text, cherry picking what to read. They’re in a hurry, easily distracted and have limited attention spans. If they don’t see right away what they’re looking for, they’ll bail out. You can look it up. Go to the Poynter Institute’s or Jakob Nielsen’s site. Those guys have done lots of studies on how people read on line. [Continue reading this tutorial]  Read More →

Cross This Line and You’re Dead and Other Writing Tips

My first writing job was for a small small publishing company that published magazines for consumer electronics and major appliance retailers. Writing for trade magazines is not as glamorous as writing for consumer magazines but the pay is a heck of a lot better. It was one of those places where the writers did the work of two times as many people. We pounded copy like crazed monkeys including nights and Saturdays when deadlines were on top of us. I wrote my ass off and I learned a lot, thanks to... [Continue reading this tutorial]

Today’s Pet Peeves

Does anyone know what notoriety means any more? Notoriety is a synonym for infamous (usually a bad thing). It does not mean famous (usually a good thing). John Wilkes Booth was notorious for assassinating President Lincoln. His notoriety was widespread. Brat Pitt is famous. His fame is widespread. He hasn’t done anything to make himself notorious, at least as far as I know. If something pisses you off, you’re irritated, not aggravated. If you pick at the scab on your elbow, you’re aggravating... [Continue reading this tutorial]

More Linking and Less Talking

Like most people, I need to practice more and preach less. For example, I need to verify that I’ve done all I can when I create internal and external links and spend more timing chasing inbound links to my sites. It’s hard for me to find the time. I have to visit my rich aunt every day at the nursing home to make sure she signs the will I drew up. She likes to talk a lot. Google reminded me not long ago that I should pay more attention to my links. The Big G ran on its Official Goggle... [Continue reading this tutorial]

15 Things Writing for eBay Can Teach You about Writing for the Web

Do you ever sell stuff on eBay? I used to be an eBay fool. I sold everything in my house I no longer wanted. I sold stuff I inherited but couldn’t use. I sold leftover motorcycle parts when I was building my 1977 Honda CB750 cafe racer. I even sold two cars. Over about 5 years, I completed 715 transactions. My feedback rating is 98.9 percent, which is better than most sellers’ when you start getting into high numbers of transactions. Heck, eBay gave me a purple star, but I forget what... [Continue reading this tutorial]

Your Press Release Wants to Be Free

So you’ve written a great press release, properly formatted it and packed it with all the newsworthiness you could muster. Now what? It’s time to set your news release free. I’ve written some about using email to spread your news and that’s a topic I plan to elaborate on sooner or later. You can usually count on getting terrific results by tailoring your email press message to specific journalists, much in the same way a highly tuned email sent to your customers who have opted... [Continue reading this tutorial]

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