Amazon.com is currently having a huge sale on all its Star Trek TV series box sets. Most of them are at around 50% off, so if you’re looking to build up your collection with complete series of the different shows, now is the time to do so.
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04May
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04May
There are at least 35 ways to celebrate Star Wars Day. Here’s more Star Wars silliness:
The First Time I Saw Star Wars.
The Secret of Star Wars Fandom.
Backstroke of the West. (NSFW)
Silent Movies from A Galaxy Far Far Away.
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04May
Creating great content is not hard. In fact, it’s quite easy. That is, if you understand three simple words.
If you summarized every single book and article written on writing for the web, you’d get these three words. Yet, no one–not even the experts, authors, or pundits–have ever consolidated all this knowledge into one simple, sticky formula.
Until now.
Write with these three words in mind, and anything you publish on the web will rivet attention, stoke desire, and get action.
Don’t believe me? Well, after you’ve read the rest of this article, give it a shot. And let me know what you think.
1. Clear
In less than four seconds visitors need to be able to comprehend what you wrote on your web page. I didn’t say “read.” I said “comprehend.”
Even before Steve Krug wrote it, the unbreakable law of the web has always been this: don’t make me think.
Your headlines, subheadlines, links, labels and navigation should all communicate clearly what lies in, under or behind them.
This is part of giving readers control. No tricks. Nothing clever or cute. Never lie. Just straight, uncensored, easy-to-digest truth.
Do it any other way and you’ll repel people. Bore readers. Lose money.
2. Concise
Writing for the web is a minimalist affair. Your words, sentences and paragraphs are short. Precise. Lean. Tight. Web writing trades in sheering off useless words. Cutting flabby paragraphs…
Even shedding entire pages.
Think that’s harsh? Jakob Nielson recommends you cut up to half of the words for every print page you plan to put on the web.
There’s a great benefit for you behind all this editing: You’ll become a ruthlessly good writer. You’ll get much better, in fact.
Best of all, writing clear and concise won’t make you boring or dull. Far from it.
3. Compelling
The Rich Jerk is irritating, annoying and loathsome. But he’s compelling. Interesting. Persuasive. That’s why he won’t go away.
Why? Because he’s tapped into human emotions—greed and pride—that pull people into his copy… whether they like it or loathe it.
You have to do the same. You have to uncover what makes your reader tick. What strokes his ego. What plucks his gut strings. What keeps him up at night. And when you uncover that hot spot, punch it.
If he’s a political junkie, wave breaking news in front of him. An Apple addict? Share the latest hacks and apps for the iPhone. A wine lover? Hustle the best bottles his way.
Whatever it is, give your reader what he wants. Or he’ll go away. It’s the law.
What About SEO Copywriting?
Forget about it. Seriously.
If you focus on writing clear, concise and compelling copy, you will naturally write keyword-dense copy. You’ll naturally write for the search engines.
In fact, that’s why I think the label SEO copywriter is redundant. Every web writer worth his salt is a SEO writer. At least they are if they write clear, concise and compelling copy.
The question is, content creator, are you?
What Do You Think?
Did I miss it? Are there more than three words that describe successful online content creation? Let me know and we’ll debate it.
About the Author: Demian Farnworth is Senior Web Writer for an international humanitarian aid organization and blogger for Fallen and Flawed. Follow him on Twitter.
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04May
The original version isn’t really entertaining, but now that I’ve seen this one, I have to get myself a Slap Chop right now!
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04May
By Casey Lynn
Contributing Writer, [GAS]As far as well-known authors embracing social networking go, Neil Gaiman has been right up there, a popular blogger since 2001 (and yes, I do rather love John Scalzi, who definitely beat him to the punch, but we’re talking pure star power here). Now he’s taking Twitter by storm, sort of like the literary equivalent of Ashton Kutcher (I’m also pretty sure that Wil Wheaton is the geek equivalent). And in celebration of hitting 333,333 followers (not quite as impressive as 1 million, but a much cooler number), he tweeted this challenge on Thursday:
In celebration of the upcoming 333,333rd follower & probable end of the world, twitter a photo of yourself & armageddon and/or tea #teapix
And of course the Internet responded, as we are wont to do, and I for one have enjoyed perusing pictures of tea (one of my favorite things) and/or armageddon (one of my conceptually favorite things). Here’s a rather nice one from a flickr user, titled The Four Teapots of the Apocalypse:
I also highly recommend searching for some of your favorite writers on Twitter, as I find that they generally have more interesting things to write about than what they had for breakfast (or at least an eloquent way of expressing it). Some of them may not be near the 333,333 mark, but are interesting just the same (sorry again, Mr. Scalzi, but would it help if I told everyone to buy 17 copies of Zoe’s Tale?).
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04MayThanks to increased efforts from the search engines and ad networks, click fraud is less of a problem than it once was, but it still exists. Here's how to arm yourself against this potential foe. ...
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04MayWith a successful presence on Facebook and YouTube, TripAdvisor was doing social media before it was the cool thing to do. The secret? Speed Wins. ...
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04May
Tech site Endgadget is reporting that Microsoft plans to launch a gadget for the Xbox 360 which extends the Wii-style motion control to cover the entire body.
According to the site’s source, which has the somewhat lightweight description of “someone who purports to be in the know”, the system would not involve controllers. Instead there would be a horizontal bar which includes a camera, a microphone and two sensors. (Pictured above)
As well as allowing for video conferencing-style features, the system would apparently allow full-body and hand motion control. Not only would this allow extended actions in fighting games, such as kicking and ducking, but it would also allow for hand gestures such as grabbing or pinching.
On the surface, the story sounds ludicrous and the technology doesn’t seem plausible. However, it was widely reported in February that Microsoft was attempting to buy 3DV, an Israeli firm which makes the Zcam, a device which captures body motion without controllers.
The system works by sending out infrared light pulses and then taking photographs with the camera at extremely short intervals. By analyzing how much light is reflected from each pixel in the picture, the system can work out how far the relevant object is from the camera and thus detect the pattern of movements.
The firm has already demonstrated the system for use in games such as boxing, so the Xbox reports are at the very least feasible.
Of course, that’s all well and good until you put your foot through your TV attempting a Prince of Persia wall jump.
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04May
-Windows 7 Release Candidate 1 impressions and expectations
When you get RC1 in your hands, it’s not going to feel drastically different than the previous beta. There are UI tweaks and tucks, and some functionality added, but mostly it’s more of the same — which is to say a really cleaned up, streamlined, nicer looking version of Vista.-11 Tiny and Useful Free Menubar Applications for Mac
Not every application needs to always shows itself to be functional. Some just do their job quietly in the background while some hide themselves until they are needed. These are the perfect explanation on what menubar application do.-Top 10 Battery Hacks, Tips, And Tricks
The gadgets you love don’t always love you back—at least when it comes to battery life. But you can get more from your laptop, your iPod, your phone, and other devices with these 10 techniques.-22 Professional Photoshop Image Enhancing Tutorials
You’ll discover plenty of tutorials that deal with enhancing images, adding unique and impressive effects, and recreating digital replications of popular traditional photography techniques in this article.-Blue Screen of Death Survival Guide: Every Error Explained
Picture this: It’s late at night, you’re sitting at your computer playing a game or working on a project when, suddenly, Windows freezes completely. All your work is gone, and you find a blue screen full of gibberish staring back at you. Windows is dead, Jim, at least until you reboot it.-50 Tools Everyone Should Own (With Tips!)
Love the fact that sledgehammer is #1, and that they managed to slip the word “elegantly” into its description.
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04May
You might not be as permanently stuck in a rut as you think. The rut you're in isn't permanent, nor is it perfect. There are certainly less perfect ruts, but there may be better ones as well. The certain thing is that you can change everything...
- Buy a competitor
- Sell to a competitor
- Publish your best work for free online
- Close your worst-performing locations
- Open a new branch in a high-traffic location
- Hire the best salesperson away from the competition
- Join the competition
- Host a conference for your competitors
- Connect your best customers and organize a tribe
- Fire the 80% of your customers that account for 20% of your sales
- Start a blog
- Start a digital bootstrap business on the weekends
- While looking for a job, spend 40 hours a week volunteering and freelancing for good causes
- Go on tour and visit your best customers in person
- Answer the customer service line for a day
- Learn to be a killer presenter
- Let the most junior person in the organization run things for a day
- Delete your website and start over with the simplest possible site
- Call former employees and ask for advice
- Move to Thailand
- Listen to audio books in your car instead of the radio
- Sell your cash cow division to the competition and invest everything in the new thing
- Find more products for your existing customers to buy
- Become a gadfly and tell the truth about your industry
- Quit your job
- Move your operations to another city
- Become a vegan
- Have all meetings in a room with no chairs, and everyone wears a bathrobe over their clothes
- Open your offices only four hours a day
- Open your offices 24 hours a day for a week
- Find every project that is near the danger zone (in terms of p&l or deadlines) and cancel it, no appeals
- Go for a walk during lunch
- Get an RSS reader and read a lot more blogs
- Go offline for longer than you thought possible
- Write five thank you notes every day
- Stop sending spam
- Do your work somewhere else. Set up your chiropractic table at the mall
- Have everyone at work switch offices
- Give your most valuable possessions to a stranger
- Go see live music
- Start a company scrapbook and take daily notes
- Hire a firm to make a documentary about your organization
- Buy some art
- Make some art.
- Do the work.
