I’m a copywriter, not a coder and I don’t like fancy coding jargon because it scares me and because my mind shuts down like a malfunctioning computer when I hear it. This explains why when I heard about semantic markup for the first time, I was slightly resistant to the idea, until I starting reading about the benefits and realised that it’s actually quite simple for even a right-brain dominated writer to understand.

A simplified definition of semantic markup is as follows:

But let’s take a step back and think of semantics in a more general context. Semantics was originally a linguistics term and dictionary.com gives the following definition:

I read somewhere that you should be able to write a blog or online article in fifteen minutes. That includes doing research, thinking about the topic, coming up with a headline, checking your grammar, writing a good introduction and conclusion, organising your ideas and optimising for keywords. Jim Estill said on copy blogger that he can do it in 20. And I like his writing, it’s concise, engaging and accessible but, with all due respect to Mr. Estill, I would still never spend less than an hour or two on a blog or article.

Much has been said of the difference between great and merely good writers. For millennia, I think, the latter will aspire to become great, and many will not succeed. I read this post from the CEO of We Build Pages, which is a great site, by the way, and while what the author says is correct (I’ve tabulated it below), I think the difference between great and good writing is far less tangible or attainable.

Pic credit: Concurringopinions

Laissez faire copywriting means walking into a meeting of your company`s board of directors and speaking nonsense. It is constructing the most elaborate and eye-catching billboard on the busiest highway in your country, and making a spelling a mistake. It is giving your sales pitch to a person who does not know you company intimately and does not have experience in selling it, and then leaving her alone to guess. It`s playing golf in the dark. With black balls.

Image courtesy of dailymail

Too many high profile clients nowadays request copy to make search engines happy, and don`t bother to work with copywriters to make a sales pitch that inspires action. As any two-bit SEO will tell you, targeting search phrases for the sake of visibility and traffic volume is only part of the equation: facts, arguments, rhythm, culture, invitations, interaction and conversion make up the rest. The laissez faire attitude has the potential to trickle down into a business`s prospects, no matter how far a copywriter is willing to go to make up missing lengths.

A lot has been said about Google`s complicity in the death of a host of traditional media, such as radio, music and, of course, print journalism. Many people decry the death of proper investigative journalism and lay the responsibility squarely at Google`s door. Google`s size and it`s fairly global dominance make it an obvious and easy scapegoat for a multitude of traditional failings. Why look at the inner workings and mechanics of a traditional establishment in search of the real problem and a constructive solution when the Big G is there just waiting to be blamed. And with IT and algorithms still being so hazy in many people`s minds, it`s all too easy to get away with it.

Humour is one of those rare things that has global appeal. While it is true that humour does differ from nation to nation (think dry British humour vs. the more slapstick physical humour favoured by Americans), there are some cases where humour is broad enough to bridge the widest divides (the bizarre antics of pets are usually always good for a laugh, as are people falling or hurting themselves in unusual ways). Humour has the ability to unite, but injudicious use of humour has the ability to divide, insult, affront and incite anger, which is way you should approach humour with caution in your writing.

Advertising campaigns, both online and offline try to tap into the emotions of their target audience. They try to evoke feelings of pleasure, joy, happiness, contentment, pride and desire; feelings that can only find release or be brought to fruition with the purchase of the product or service concerned. However, these efforts often fall short as advertisers fail to relate to their audience. They fail to get the audience on their side and this usually results in consumer apathy. People shop out of habit, or chase prices and can seldom be convinced to switch brands. One of the most effective ways to gain consumer sympathy and generate loyalty is to share something personal that relates in some way to the campaign at hand. Revelations of this kind are known as back-stories.

I recently wrote straplines/taglines/spirit lines for MVI Data Recovery. It proved to be a difficult task, or at least, not something a writer can pull out of her hat of preferred epithets (not that I ever do, of course). To clarify, a stapline is a short sentence, sometimes a fragment of just three words (“Just Do It”), which escorts a company`s logo into the public eye. I`ve seen it referred to as business`s war cry. I`d add that it`s like the Lunar Module landing on the Moon: delicate, precise, and if all goes well, an opportunity to explore new territory between business and client.