The 7 Deadly Sins of Writing for the Web

7 Quick Reasons Why No One Read Your Last Article or
How Not to Be Read in 5 Minutes or Less (originally published 9 Jan 2007)

This article is not about keyword optimization (SEO or LSI). That gets your article indexed by the mindless search engines. Keywords have their place. This is about making a human being want to read your writing. Last time I checked, robots don’t read.

Humans invented and survive on language. We need it. We love it. If we find reason to loathe it, we run from it. Here are the top 7 reasons why a breathing, literate human will pass by your article even after they’ve found it floating in the fluid space of the Internet.

The Title
This is where keywords play a part in getting your article seen. Search engines and humans alike want descriptive titles. “Fuzzy Bunnies” does nothing to make anyone look once, much less twice, at your article. “Raising Rabbits for Profit. Starting a Rabbit Farm for Less than $1000” is a laser beam to your intended audience. Rabbit farms are not everyone’s cup of tea, but you are now going to draw the attention of your serious readers.

The Abstract
A well crafted, easy to read paragraph is crucial. It should highlight the main theme of the article and entice the reader. Think of it as your article’s resume. If it gets the reader’s attention, they are likely to “hire” your article.

Short, pithy sentence are not going to get your foot in the door. “A funny look at milkshakes,” will lose eyeballs faster than nickels in a slot machine. Better to go with, “Find out why milkshakes are taking over the world, controlling the weather and may elect the next President of the United States.” That may pique someone’s curiosity just enough to make their finger fall on the mouse button.

Paragraph One
This is Writing 101. The first paragraph should not only grab the reader’s attention, but draw them down to the next. Compel these humans to read your article by whatever means necessary. Shock them. Taunt them. Tell them this article will change their life.

The first paragraph must at least assure them that it will clean their shorts, spay their cat, or walk their dog. They must feel they are getting something of worth by continuing. It costs people time to read your article. Make them know the payoff up front. The first paragraph sets the tone of the entire article. If they don’t feel the need to read beyond it, simply put, they won’t.

Attack of the Text Blob
The “Enter” key on your keyboard is a multi-tasker. One of its most important rolls is to create a paragraph break. There are two very important reasons for breaking that 40-sentence paragraph into 3 to 5 sentence blocks.

One: It is good grammar. Everything you learned in school applies to web writing. Paragraphs are cohesive thoughts and thematic exposition. Boiling that rambling trail of words down has the side-effect of making you really think and re-think your writing.

Two: Humans hate eye strain. Those 40, continuous sentences look daunting to the reader. If at first glance they think it will be painful to read your blob, no amount of brilliant insight will compel them to continue. They are unlikely to take time to wander along your stream of consciousness. Give their eyes a break. Make the white space as appealing as the words.

Conjunctions Abound
Punch up your language. Short, snappy thoughts fit the web better than run-on sentences. If you can lose the “and” to create a two-for-one punch, do it. People will read 8 pages of well written jabs before 2 pages of conjoined ramblings.

Use your software to search for every “and,” “but,” and “or” that you have written. “And” can usually be replaced with a period. This encourages you to think about your writing. Your text is going to be set in stone when you push the last button. Millions may read it. Dwell on it for just a moment longer. Really put some thought into necessary versus flowery words.

You have no authority
Nothing stinks on the web like the passive voice. “I believe this article may inform you as to the important effects of global warming.” “Global warming is the critical problem of our age.” You decide which you like better. Either way we’re all dead, but who have you convinced? (see also: Useless Phrases that Killed Your Writing’s Impact)

You are a Jerk
Reputation counts for something. You will never please everyone. Somewhere, sometime, someone will think you are a jerk. It may be because of your political leanings. It may be because you posted pictures of their grandmother in her underwear in a forum. It may be a complete misunderstanding based on a momentary lapse of judgment.

Your name counts. You spent time branding your writing. You put effort into getting your name in front of people. Protect your reputation. Stand for what you believe, but have the ability to repent your mistakes. In the end your readership will grow. Then again, jerks get read, too. Ultimately, branding is your choice.

Avoid these 7 deadly sins of web writing. Your writing will improve. Your readership will increase. We’ll all be better for it.

Yahoo User List Compromised by Hackers

I’ve often asked myself, “How much harder can Yahoo screw up their Voices (formerly Associated Content) division?” The answer has always been, “Pretty damned hard,” and today was their biggest screw-up of all.

Over 400,000 accounts, emails and passwords, were stolen from Yahoo Voices. A hack like that would not usually upset me because every IT professional knows to store all passwords in an encrypted state. Even if they’re stolen, they’re of no use. But unamazingly Yahoo stored all their user’s passwords in clear text. Encrypting passwords is IT security 101 and Yahoo failed the mid-term exam.

If you have an account with Yahoo Voices, you’ll want to change your password immediately. It wouldn’t hurt to change your email account’s password and your PayPal account’s password, too. In this article from TrustedSec.com is a link to the text file with the compromised data. Whether your account is on the list or not, you should still consider changing your passwords.

Here, I’m supposed to show my shock, surprise, and outrage at Yahoo for letting this hack happen, but honestly, I’m not surprised at all. You would think a big corporation like Yahoo would have the IT resources and know-how to protect their sites from hacks of this sort. If they can’t stop such a hack, to at least have the sensitive data encrypted. Only you would think that because I certainly don’t.

Yahoo is the accidental tourist of the internet. They wonder aimlessly around the web and occasionally stumble into some money. They have no strategic vision. They have forgotten their core business. They make money by buying and selling lines of business, not by nurturing and growing markets. Yahoo Voices is just one, prime example.

Yahoo found an attractive, little start-up called Associated Content (AC). AC was all about creating web content. It was promoted as a site where anyone from the budding writer to the experienced author could write an article and AC would share the advertising revenue with the contributor. It was a solid business model. To make it work, one need only to give some guidance to the writers, show them their due respect, and share enough of the profits to keep the writers writing more content. All of which AC did for 5 years with some success. Then along came Yahoo.

Yahoo saw the AC platform as a content generator for its other myriad sites. Unfortunately, as with most Yahoo acquisitions, Yahoo couldn’t figure out how to integrate AC, now renamed Voices, into its business model. They reduced the membership to cost line-items on a balance sheet. They painted the employees as overhead and promptly fired a large chunk of the staff. Instead of nurturing Voices as the content-generator they needed for their other sites, Yahoo put the purchase price in one column and the rest of the business in the other column. Then they tried to do whatever was expedient to make Voices profitable within the those confines. They couldn’t easily calculate the value of the content within the broader context of Yahoo’s huge web presence, so they didn’t try.

As so many times before, Yahoo was its own worst enemy. As content purchase offers fell, writers abandoned the site in droves. With only inexperienced staff left after the layoffs, there was no guidance they could give the writers who remained. What little guidance that was offered usually contradicted long-held standards or countermanded other staff’s requests. The only thing Yahoo nurtured was discontent among the writer/members. Yahoo thought they could replace the more expensive, more mature writers with less experienced, novice writers. As so often is the case, Yahoo got exactly what they were willing to pay for.

And while all this was going on, Yahoo paid no attention to beefing up the site’s security. Did they bring experienced IT professionals over from other Yahoo lines to augment the tiny IT staff that come with AC? No. They treated the IT staff like any other expense and handed out pink slips to some of them, too. Those who remained were tasked with integrating the servers into the behemoth that is Yahoo and security suffered. It suffered to the point where we are today with over 400,000 user credentials stolen.

I mean, really, Yahoo, who stores passwords in the clear? Whatdafuq?

Fare Thee Well, Yahoo! Forever

A few blog posts ago, I mentioned that I’d stopped contributing to the Yahoo! Contributor Network (YCN). Today, I asked to have my account with YCN permanently closed. If you’re wondering what the fastest way to get your account closed is, it’s the classic, over-the-top forum flounce-and-bounce. Mine included cursing, frustration, and accusations.

Basically, all the things I predicted two years ago when Yahoo! bought Associated Content have come true. Yahoo! has a terrible track record when it comes to acquiring companies. They are so poorly managed and suffer from an unfocused mission. They are the uncoordinated octupus of the internet, grabbing what they can, and killing it without a thought but to their accounting ledgers. So it has been with Associated Content.

Yahoo! has laid off hundreds of people including many in the division running YCN. Those left are so terrified of being fired, they’ll do anything to keep their jobs. It’s sickening. It leaves YCN staffed by frightened, little infants who don’t even know their own rules and regulations.

Their uneven enforcement of their publishing agreement is what has me most upset. They have been closing accounts and dismissing submissions over the stupidest things. Most of their reasoning is contradictory. Their fear has to become everyone’s fear because shit always rolls downhill. Well, I’ve finally had enough. I don’t want to be associated with such a company.

I believe the ten minutes my forum post lasted set a new record for post-to-deletion-by-a-moderator. If you’re going to go, go big, burn all the bridges, stampede the women and children, and rape the cattle. That’s what my post (captured below) did. My account was gone within 15 minutes of posting.

Goodbye, Yahoo! I can’t say, “It’s been fun,” because with mindless, corporate dickheads at the helm, it hasn’t been fun at all. I have all my original material that I care about and I will do with it as I please. Yahoo! can try to sue me, but they can suck my dick, too.

The fastest way to get your Yahoo! Contributor account closed.

Good Writer. Bad Author. “Wil Right for Foode.”

Part of my new awakening and journey of self-discovery (translated: now that I don’t get paid to write, who the hell am I?), is coming to grips with the fact that I’m a good writer, but I’m a bad author. When I say, “I’m a good writer,” it’s not just me stroking my ego. I can write. I can write well. I write better than most and have independent verification on this point. Yeah, my commas aren’t always in the right places and homonyms still trip me up, but I have a good imagination, sense of rhythm with the English language, and a writing style wholly mine, yet accessible to a wide variety of readers. Still, I’m the most sorry excuse for an author on the planet save the homeless guy who misspelled “Wil Werk for Foode” on his cardboard sign.

What exactly is the difference in a writer and an author? The answer is more simple than you might think. In a couple of sentences: writers write for any number of reasons. Authors are dedicated professionals who maintain a schedule of writing, querying, editing, publishing, promoting, and banking.

Writers can write anything, any time, anywhere, regardless of marketplace demands, editor’s requests, or reader’s desires. Writers can write as a hobby and still be mighty, fine writers. Writer’s can write with wild abandon. Writers don’t have to depend on their words for food. A simple writer such as this, am I. I have a day job to keep the lights on. Luckily, I like my day job and getting paid to do something you like isn’t a bad hand to be dealt in life.

Authors must be all of the above and have a head for business. Authors approach writing as a job. They schedule writing time and balance it with market research. They are constantly juggling multiple balls. They have a constant stream of queries in circulation. Sometimes, they write what they don’t like simply to get paid and have time to write what they want. They acquiesce to editor’s demands so the checks will get signed. They do all a writer does and they go to the bank with a decent paycheck. It’s when being a writer (something you love) intersects with being an author (the job) that you have a content, possibly happy, individual.

You can be writer, without being an author. I’ve proven that. You can even be an author without being a good writer. You need only pick up a Dan Brown novel for 50¢ at a garage sale to know that. Happily for the readers of the world, most authors tend to be good writers. It is when doing what they like and getting paid for it, we get to enjoy the writer-author’s best work.

So, I’m a terrible author and I’m okay with that. I’m still a good writer. At this point in my life, I’m fine with that. I do what I love and love what I do, all while chasing the odd, little happy. Take a stare in the mirror and tell me, which are you? Are you a writer, author, both or duck-billed platypus?

A Difficult Decision: Six Years Later, It’s Time to Change

Friends, readers, and accidental internet tourists,

It is with a heavy heart and sober mind, I make the following official and permanent. I will no longer publish articles with the Yahoo network. I will continue to write and publish mainly here on the old blog.

There were many factors weighed before coming to this conclusion. This in not a decision that was rushed. It started back in May 2010 when Yahoo bought Associated Content (AC). The assimilation of the old AC into the Yahoo network took from then until now and was done in incremental steps. The changes along the way made Yahoo a site that no longer fits my publishing needs. We have grown apart.

Associated Content was a platform where any writer, with anything to say, could publish their work in a supportive environment. Yahoo changed that. They are interested solely in work that aligns with advertisements. It’s a simple case of following the money trail.

My writing was never about ad-alignment. The type of articles I write are either too introspective to find ads to fit them or are humor/satire for which Yahoo has no appreciation. Frankly, AC had no interest in them either, at least not from a monitization aspect, but AC tolerated them and provided a easily accessible platform with good exposure. In my opinion, Yahoo has reverted to site with such tight controls, there is just no sense in my continued use of their platform.

Other changes are just plain annoying. For example, the ability to instantly publish an article for which I was requesting no up-front payment was a bonus with AC. Yahoo is requiring all articles, regardless of payment terms, to go through their “editorial” review process unless you go through some bizarre qualification process of obtaining a certain rank within their contributing masses. I use “editorial” in the loosest sense and with quotation marks because they provide no editorial support. Yahoo content managers simply check the article for viability and give it a pass/fail.

Then there are the technical bugs that remain unaddressed and which make publishing with Yahoo a chore. For example, hyperlinks put in by the author are regularly mangled and even removed by their software before the article reaches the content reviewer. The article is summarily rejected for having dead hyperlinks. It is simply easier to write here, where I know I control the finished product and have more flexibility in the final format. Yahoo still doesn’t support simple HTML code like tables which I find handy on occasion.

I could go on, but I let it be sufficient to say, “We have grown apart.” The spirit of the site that was AC, the spirit which appealed to me, drew me in, and gave me 6 years of satisfying publishing experiences, is gone. The final, symbolic act was the leaving of Luke Beatty, AC’s founder, from Yahoo’s management. Though the changes that make Yahoo no longer a fit for me were already in place, Luke’s resignation was the virtual wax seal on the document of change. The spirit of the old AC site is finally and officially gone and now, so am I.

I am grateful for the opportunities AC, and to some extent Yahoo, afforded me during the last six years. It helped me find my voice as a writer. It helped me make contact with other writers, many I consider my friends to this day. It helped me reach out to a broad audience and interact with readers of all stripes. I will continue to nourish those connections I made. I will just do it outside the confines of Yahoo.

So now begins theBarefoot 2.0 wherein I concentrate on the writing and not the trappings and politics of the site that simply distract from the content’s message. I even have the skeleton of a book in gestation. Here’s to learning when to say when and knowing how to move forward gracefully. My greatest solace is knowing that my readers can still choose to enjoy my writing here or where ever life brings us. We’ll move forward together to hopefully better writing to come.

P.S. The only bitter taste left in my mouth is the forums. I guess because when I found the AC forums, they were little-used. I jumped in with both feet and energized that community. When I started using the forums, multiple people independently contacted me to express their appreciation for my participation, humor, and helpfulness, a trend that continued until my last post, but which is not appreciated by the new owners.

I feel responsible for making the forums the vibrant, fun community it was. Sure, I had my moments of deliberate trollishness, but those were calculated responses to obvious malcontents and trolls. I still take credit for ridding the site of at least two particularly nasty personalities who disrupted the harmony of the community. Under the new regime, I am told that I am the disruptive influence. I’ve seen the same accusation made toward a few others who did nothing than freely contribute their time to mentor new members and answer the many question left moldering by the paid staff. Frankly, that hurts.

I poured my heart and soul into the community forums and there is no clearer sign that it is time to move on than when the place you nurtured tells you your services are no longer required. Being able to read between the lines, I can see that the current staff is too busy trying to keep their jobs among the hundreds of layoffs Yahoo has initiated, that they are unable to actually do their jobs. That is my one and only sour grape. The rest of my time with AC/Yahoo was a positive and productive experience.

Finally, Back to Writing

The entire month of June came and went without me writing a single article. How did that happen? I guess summer chores and summer fun got in the way.

I spent the long, holiday weekend typing up this thing about numbers that has been rattling around my mostly-empty skull for a while. I thought it would be fun to end it on “That’s a rant for another time,” immediately followed by a video called “A rant for another time.”

If you’re curious, read the short article and watch the short video. I think my head explodes at the end.

The Psychology of Numbers. The companion video is embedded at the end. Enjoy or don’t. Either way, your mom still liked them.

Back to Business – More Behind the Writing

I finally got back around to making the next installment of Behind the Writing. This one is called “Inspiration.” Basically, there are a couple of really simple places where you can draw inspiration for web articles. The great thing is, you’re the closest one to the source.

Link for the plug-in impaired.
Link to the series playlist.

Yahoo Contributor Network – Publishing Options

Here are the various rights and payment options you may select when publishing with Yahoo Contributor Network (YCN). This at-a-glance matrix¹ should quickly clarify any questions you may have about publishing times, rights, etc. If you are new to YCN, your first three articles will be reviewed no matter what options you select. The following applies to your forth article and beyond. Note: ALL YCN content that remains on the site is eligible for performance or “per click” payment regardless of rights or other payments you may receive.

Payment→ / Rights↓	Upfront (plus performance) Pay	Performance Payments Only
Exclusive	Publishes after review4 All rights transfer to YCN Distribution is automatic2	This combination is dumb Always ask for upfront w/ Exclusives All rights transfer to YCN Distribution eligibility is automatic2
Non-exclusive	Publishes after review4 You retain rights including re-publishing Distribution eligible2	Publishes w/o review You retain all rights Distribution eligible2
Display Only	Invalid combination YCN does not pay upfront for previously published work	Publishes w/o review You retain all rights Distribution ineligible Can edit anytime Can delete anytime3

¹This matrix does not apply to items submitted under the News template. All news is reviewed regardless of the options you choose.
²Distribution outside the YCN network is the sole discretion of YCN. You will receive a small payment if your work is selected for sale.
³You will lose any pending payments.
⁴Review times (other than news) vary, but should not exceed 2 weeks. News is usually reviewed within 24 hours.

Hopefully, this clarifies the publishing options. You may also review an expanded tutorial of this information in a companion video at YouTube.

Behind The Writing: Constructing Great Web Article Titles

The forth video in my “Behind the Writing” series was released at YouTube today. The topic is “Constructing Great Web Article Titles.”

The title of an article is responsible for 90% of the article’s success. In this video, I offer practical advice on how you can create good titles. One side effect of following this advice that I didn’t highlight in the video is that it keeps you very aware of your article’s topic. By adhering to step one, you will remain focused on your subject matter and be less likely to wander off topic.

Due to time constraints (the video clocks just under 6 minutes), I had to edit the connections to any of my articles. If time had allowed I would have linked this to The 7 Deadly Sins of Writing for the Web. 7 Quick Reasons Why No One Read Your Last Article. This article has been a perennial performer even though it contains my favorite, un-fixable typo.

The video has annotations to highlight the 4 main points. Have a pen handy to take notes.

Here is part 4 of Behind the Writing – A rose by any other name would not smell as sweet.

Behind the Writing: How to Write a Great Title

Bookmark the series play list and check it for updates. I’ll be adding videos to the play list as they are produced, hopefully weekly.

Happy writing!

Not Liking What I’m Seeing At Associated Content

Associated Content (AC) has gone through some major changes and problems lately. I’m not getting a good vibe from it either. As ya’ll know, I’ve been publishing with AC for about three years. I’ve stuck with them through the bad and the good. I’ve always been honest when I express my feelings about Associated Content. I praise them for what they do right and call their mistakes what they are.

Lately, AC has created several glitches. Some they have corrected. Some have been corrected, but subsequently reappeared. Some they refuse to acknowledge. As always the communications, both internally and externally, appear lacking. The most serious problem right now,one AC refuses to admit is a problem, is the de-indexing of AC articles.

The problem started in late 2008. AC writers (note, I refuse to buy into AC’s new, dehumanizing terminology and call their members “sources”) began noticing that Google would index articles as it always did, but then de-index them. The articles would show up about a week later with a much lower placement. To add insult to injury, the newly index article would have its abstract jumble with HTML code. Many articles did not get indexed by Google at all. I noticed this when the weekly Google alerts I had set up, stopped coming. When they did trickle in, the links were only to blogs and other sites that mentioned my articles, never the AC article.

The forum was awash in complaints about the problem, but they Associated Content staff seldom reads their own forum. The one guy who did participate in the forum, the one guy who kept members informed of problems and the status of the solutions, was let go from AC today along with the AC staffer who ran AC’s blog.

I’m not a conspiracy nut. I like to think there are simple, logical reasons for happenings in this universe, but the time line of events all point to one conclusion…AC has lost its mojo. The two things AC had going were its built-in audience and a special relationship with Google. That relationship has been debated and speculated numerous times, but the debate is moot. The love affair between AC and Google is over.

Here’s a brief time line that led me to this conclusion.

• Late 2008, the de-indexing of AC articles starts.
• December 2008, some AC members think the problem is a change to the article’s link because AC adds a “?cat=#” to all articles.
• January-ish 2009, AC members start comparing notes and posting examples.
• February-ish 2009, AC ignores the forum chatter completely.
• Late February 2009 AC begins deleting articles due to “questionable content and poor grammar/spelling.” This unannounced rule change, though probably for the best, was an attempt to get back in the good graces of Google.
• March-ish 2009, AC says they’re looking into it.
• April-ish 2009, AC says there is no problem with articles being indexed. AC says it’s working like always and they don’t control what Google does anyway.
• May 2009, despite dozens of forum posts and hundreds of emails with examples of the problem, AC continues to say, “There is no problem.”
• May 2009, after getting a new CEO and $6M in investment funds, AC fires some of the people who have been the best communication link for their writing members.

Conclusions:

• AC lost it’s Google mojo.
• AC doesn’t want to admit they no longer have a special relationship with Google
• AC has new management and is trying to clear out the old guard
• Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia.

Given the facts, I don’t think any of this is a random collection of events. AC is changing. AC is hiding something. AC isn’t looking so well these days. Google has devalued the AC domain so severely, it now just ignores articles posted there. If the average surfer can’t located an AC article with a search, traffic will be reduced significantly. No traffic? No per-click payments. AC’s biggest draw disappears. It’s really no wonder AC doesn’t want to admit this is a problem.  If Google is going to ignore the AC domain, there is really no incentive to put up with the other glitches and formatting limitations.  I can have more formatting options and complete control over my writing here on my blog and still get ignored by Google.  If the pay is the same, why bother jumping through AC’s hoops?

That’s my take on the situation.  It’s not one I jumped to without some serious thought. It’s one that fits the facts.

P.S. Sam we’re going to miss you, but I think you may have gotten off the AC ship at just the right time. I’m sure there are many AC members who will be following you. AC is becoming more trouble than it’s worth.