In Which I Say a Sad Farewell to Webmonkey.com...

I was shocked and saddened to hear that Terra Lycos is closing the doors on Webmonkey.com. As a Web designer, I loved Webmonkey.com. That site saved me time after time. Whenever I had a question about stylesheets, or when I couldn't remember the hexadecimal code for a particular shade of blue, Webmonkey was the place I went to find the answer.

I'm going to list a few of my favorite pages at Webmonkey so that you can go and salvage what you can while there's still time. I haven't been able to find a definite closing date listed, so don't put this off!

• HTML Cheatsheet
• HTML Special Characters
• Hexademical Color Codes
• Browser Chart
• Stylesheets Guide

Another option is to try the Internet Wayback Machine, a site that archives Internet pages. Here's a link to what the Wayback Machine has for Webmonkey: http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.webmonkey.com.

Here is the feedback address for Webmonkey if you want to write them your own farewell: webmonkey@wired.com. I don't think a "Save Webmonkey" campaign will work, but you never know...

The Comma Sutra

I'll admit it; I'm a punctuation freak. I love a well-placed comma as much as I hate seeing a comma abused. This week I'll be tackling a few common punctuation errors and how to correct them. Please note that I will using the rules for standard American English, as punctuation in British English is a little different.

1. Put Periods and Commas INSIDE Quotation Marks

For arcane reasons that this site explains very well, periods and commas go inside quotation marks in American English. For example:

"I love surfing the Net," she said. "My favorite browser is Opera."

NOT

"I love surfing the Net", she said. "My favorite browser is Opera".

This holds true even when you are putting quotation marks around a title:

He loves the movie "Kill Bill."

NOT

He loves the movie "Kill Bill".

Having stated the rule, though, I will admit to using an exception. When using quotation marks to indicate typing directions, I will put the period outside to avoid confusion.

At the command prompt, type "show frame-relay".

To make things worse, semi-colons (;) and colons (:) always go outside the quotation marks. Really, check this site out; it explains everything!

2. Use The Comma of Direct Address

When writing a sentence that addresses someone, set the naming word off with a comma. This is the "comma of direct address," and it goes before or after the name, depending on its position in the sentence. If the name is in the middle of the sentence, place a comma before and after the name.

"Jimmy, could you help me with this?"
"I'll get you this time, Superman."
"Hey, good-looking, we'll be back to pick you up later!"

The comma of direct address is not used in the salutation of a letter or email. However, if you're starting your letter or email with "Hi," it is acceptable to use the comma, as in "Hi, Joe!"

3. Don't Put Spaces Around a Slash

It's "and/or," not "and / or." That's all I have to say about that.

4. "Use the Net, Luke!" There are a host of excellent punctuation sites on the Web. Here are a few you can refer to if you ever have a question.

• http://ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/marks/marks.htm
• http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/HANDOUTS/punct.htm
• http://www.transaction.net/web/tutor/text/punct.html
• http://www.davidappleyard.com/english/punctuation.htm

Feel the Love

This week's column is a pure opinion piece, folks, so if you prefer your articles more factually-based, you might want to visit Google News today instead. It's OK, you won't hurt my feelings. I'll see you next week!

For those of you still with me, here ends the warning. On to the opinion!

If you don't love a subject, you can't do justice to it in your writing.

Oh, if you're a good writer, you can certainly do a decent job writing on any topic, but to do an exceptional job, you have to be emotionally involved. Whether it's an essay on lofty goals or an ad for margarine, if you can't find something to love in your topic, there will be a hollowness to your writing that readers can sense. And that' s the trick: to find something to love about everything you write.

Sure, it would be nice to write an essay on, say, writing for the Web, but I wouldn't might working on the margarine ad, either. Maybe this margarine helps lower cholesterol, or has more calcium, or tastes better. Like Pollyanna (a little girl who really gets a bum rap), I try to find the good in the subject, the element that appeals to me and makes me love it. Then I try to show my audience why they should love it too.

As for me, I love writing. I love the challenge of discovering a new idea and then finding the best words, the perfect words to share that idea with you. I love the Web, for making it so easy for that exchange to take place.

Thanks for being here and "listening" to my opinion. If you'd like to leave a comment, I'll return the favor! See you next week...

"The Same Thing, Only Different" Marketing departments have an interesting set of challenges when writing for the Web. They need to align their print, TV/radio, and Web campaigns so that they send a consistent message to the public, while realizing that writing for the Web calls for a very different style from "normal" marketing. I've seen a couple of items in the last few weeks dealing with this issue. Gerry McGovern mentions the issue in his article Web design: never let an ad agency near your website.

"The average advertising agency fundamentally doesn’t get the Web. Saatchi & Saatchi, BBDO Worldwide, J. Walter Thompson and Ogilvy are great advertising agencies. When it comes to managing their own websites, however, they are rank amateurs. They bring their print and TV thinking to the Web with embarrassing results.

Then I saw this article by Robyn Greenspan in the Cyberatlas newsletter: E-Marketing Efforts Leave Room for Improvement.

"More than one-third (38.9 percent) of companies that participated in a collaborative study by the CMO Council, BtoB Magazine, USA Today, and Responsys would give their marketing departments a grade of "C" or below in terms of how well they understand sophisticated digital marketing. The survey of more than 400 top marketing decision-makers in North America revealed that while strides are being made online, there is still considerable room for improvement."

A 180 Degree Turn-Around The biggest hurdle marketers face in writing for the Web is changing their "mode of attack." When you're creating a TV or magazine ad, you're competing for the viewer's attention, fighting to get them to notice you and your product. The bigger and "splashier" your ad is, the better your chance of winning the viewer's attention. When you're writing for the Web, you've got your customer's attention. And what your customer wants is information: copy that's clean, to the point, and that has a minimum of hyperbole. Anything that keeps the customer from what they want (a 60 second Flash intro, unclear navigation, "marketing-speak," etc.) actually encourages your customer to leave your site for a competitor. When marketing for the Web, it's better to speak softly and deliver big value.

Ask, Listen, Respond

When your job is to create Web content, you need to take "reality checks" constantly. You need to make sure your content is meeting your audience's needs. Fortunately, this isn't hard to do.

Ask

If you want to know what your readers think, just ask them! You can do this through an automated poll, a feedback form, or a "tell us what you think" e-mail address. Whatever you decide, make sure the feedback process is quick and easy. You want to hear your readers opinions, and they're doing you a favor by providing it. Don't make them jump through hoops to do it. If you choose the form option, don't make them include unnecessary personal information, such as a mailing address and phone number; people will suspect that you'll just use their information to add them to a mailing list. You can ask them to include an e-mail address if they would like a personal response, but make that optional.

Listen

If someone has been good enough to provide you feedback, think hard about what they've said. Perhaps the person isn't terribly familiar with how the Web works and is asking for something your site simply isn't equipped to provide; you can still use his/her feedback as a starting point for possible new options.

Also be prepared to hear things you don't want to hear. Say you've installed a new feature that you love, but your readers hate it. Cut the feature. After all, you're not creating the site for you, are you?

Respond

Finally, respond to the feedback you receive from your audience. Send them an e-mail telling them how you are going to act on their suggestion (not a form letter, folks, but a real, personalized message from you to them). If your readers have an idea for a new feature and you can give it to them, do it. If they tell you they don't like something, see what you can do to change it.

The one thing you must avoid is the "ivory tower" syndrome, where you ignore reader feedback because you "know more than they do." The customer may not always be right, but they know a lot more about their needs than you do!

Ask, listen, and respond. Constantly.

Column Update

Last week I wrote about news aggregators, such as Bloglines.com. Well, Blogger has just arranged things so that you can receive this column in XML in these aggregators! Add this URL to your subscription, and you'll be able to view "Wordsmithing and Web Spinning" in your favorite news reader or aggregator: http://www.carolynmwallace.com/atom.xml