Ask questions, use long-tail search terms and more
Hey Siri: Some 50% of searches are voice search these days, according to comScore. So optimize for voice search.… Read the full article
Online communications
3 steps to better subject lines
Keep your email out of the sp@m filter!
Reach more email recipients with this three-step process for writing subject lines:
- Post your email in ChatGPT.
How to write like your CEO’s favorite newsletter
Are you ready to be loved by recipients?
It might be your CEO’s favorite email. Every policy wonk in D.C. sits by their inbox waiting for it to come.… Read the full article
Get recipients to open the email envelope
It takes 4 elements to boost open rates
Call it the envelope. Before they’ll open your email, your recipient considers four things: 1) the sender (or “from” name), 2) the subject line, 3) the preheader and 4) the preview pane.… Read the full article
How reading from screen vs. paper affects your brain
People find it difficult to concentrate online
Most Americans spend at least 8.5 hours a day looking at a screen, whether a TV set, computer monitor or mobile device, according to a study by Ball State University.… Read the full article
People skim and scan text in online news
Only 19% read word-by-word
This just in: “Readers” actually don’t do much reading.
Indeed, just 19% of participants in a Harris Interactive poll read articles word-by-word.… Read the full article
How to get the hyperbole out of your web page
Improve your fact-to-fluff ratio
Readers are busy. Fluff takes space. Space takes time. So let’s cut the fluff and get on with it.
To cut the fluff, aim for a fact-to-fluff ratio of at least 1:1.… Read the full article
Stop wasting web visitors’ time with puffery, hype
Web visitors ‘get visibly angry’ at verbose sites
Here’s an interesting dichotomy: Killing time is the killer app for mobile devices. But mobile users are in a hurry and “get visibly angry” at verbose sites that waste their time.… Read the full article
What lede (or lead) should you use for web content?
4 types of web leads to try — and 3 to avoid
Lede or lead?
You won’t find it in the Oxford English Dictionary. But the alternative spelling lede was supposedly created during the linotype era so as not to confuse lead with the strip of metal that was used to separate lines of type.… Read the full article
Reading paper vs. computer screen
Reading online hurts readers’ eyes, their bodies, their brains
I don’t know about you, but one of my goals in life is to never write anything that makes my readers throw up, resign or forget where they parked their car.… Read the full article