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Copywriting Tip of the Week: Avoiding the Top 3 Mistakes in Presenting Your Copy
So you’ve written this really great article and want to put it on your website. You take one last look and are ready to publish but, like many people, you’ve probably made at least one of the top 3 mistakes. What are those mistakes? Here is a summary and some suggestions on what to do instead. Mistake #1: WRITING IN ALL CAPS Writing in all capital letters (“caps”) is very hard and tiring on the eyes. Although you may do it for effect and emphasis, if you do it a lot, the effect and emphasis will be lost. What you have left is watered down emphasis and frustrated readers with twitchy eyes. In email and internet etiquette, all caps is like shouting. ARE YOU ACTUALLY WANTING TO YELL AT YOUR READERS? No, I am guessing, you probably do not. To solve this problem, try using intense words instead of all caps to create effect and emphasis. “He has the nerve to defiantly strut away?” is more visually appealing and stronger than “He’s WALKING AWAY?” Mistake #2: Underlining Underlining is also commonly used for emphasis or to create headers and titles. However, on a small computer screen, it distracts the eye and serves to break up the text unnecessarily. Beside that, it looks boring and academic, like a textbook. To solve the underlining problem, use a different colored text than the standard black, including bolding where appropriate. It’s easy to do in most word processing programs and it serves to separate the text or title without being distracting. It’s more interesting to see The Top 3 Mistakes rather than The Top 3 Mistakes. It catches your eye without jerking your attention. In our modern world, everything is not black and white. People are used to color and respond very well to it. The only words of caution are these: Choose a limited color palette so your writing doesn’t end up looking juvenile (unless that is your intention)
Stick to a consistent color for your active links, defaulting when possible to the standard blue style link.
Don’t use too much too often or it will lose its impact. The power of contrast and variety is huge.
Mistake #3: Italics Who invented italics in the first place? I have never liked them in printed documents. Admittedly, I have astigmatism so the letters are hard to make out, but I find them especially annoying on a computer screen. Italics create thinner letters and are harder to read. It’s really just a holdover from the typewriter days when there were limited fonts to add drama and interest to typed documents. You have more modern tools available to you so you don’t have to fall back to old school techniques to create great looking articles. Often, italics are used in a sarcastic way, to emphasize authority or incredulousness. If you can’t tell, I’ve never met an italics I like. And I am not the only one so don’t tell me I am! See what I mean…sort of smart alec. To solve the italic problem, try colored highlight. Much like a yellow highlighter marker does on a sheet of paper, colored highlighting draws the attention you need for emphasis without using a thinner font or looking wisecracking. It’s much more modern and attention grabbing without being hard to read.
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Contributor's Note
To build your speaker and author platform, go to www.SmartWomanPublishing.com
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