The Upward Path

your message matters

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You can’t find the perfect title for a mystery project

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Every so often I see a post: “Can you guys help me choose the best blog name/post title/domain name/book title/book cover?”

People at computerBecause I’m a helpful sort of person, and my skills often enable me to unlock this sort of thing, I sometimes try to engage with these.

And often I end up frustrated because the person prevents me from giving the help they’re asking for.

For instance, they give a list of four titles and ask people to pick the one they like best. But the titles sound like they’re referring to four different pieces of work. So I ask, can you tell us a bit about what your project is so we know what we’re aiming for?

Most often, that doesn’t get answered.   [Read more…] about You can’t find the perfect title for a mystery project

Why web designers suck (and how to spot good ones)

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When I talk to people about their websites, it’s surprising how often they have a story of a poor experience with their web designer.

Surprised at screen graphicSome of them feel unsatisfied with the results, or bruised by the process, but powerless to do anything about it. Granted, those stories may have another side that I don’t hear.

But there are certainly all too many examples of sites that have a design company’s name at the bottom but are doing a poor job for their owners. (Who may not even realise it, assuming the designer has done it the best way.)

It singes my stoat to see good messages getting short-changed. So this post is to help people understand the territory better, hopefully leading to better working relationships and increasingly fab message channels.   [Read more…] about Why web designers suck (and how to spot good ones)

How to make great word graphics for social media sharing

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Word graphics image

Images like the one above are a great way to share little pieces of your message. If you get them right.

You can spread them on social media. They’re like message sweeties that people can share with their own contacts. Images like these are also good for putting in web pages, to show up when people share that page. (And you can’t share a page on Pinterest if it has no images.)

The point of these ‘word graphics’ is to be visually attractive, with a message the reader can take in quickly. Then they can have a smile, or a pause and think, and then carry on with their day. You might even change someone’s life, if they’re in the right place for your message to go in deeply.

A lot of us have discovered tools that make it easy to create these graphics: choosing from a selection of backgrounds and text styles and outputting the final image, without having to use full-blown graphics software. I use an iOS app called Wordswag that someone introduced me to. There are lots of other apps too. Some people use Canva, an online design tool.

But just because it’s easy doesn’t mean the software will automatically make good graphics. That’s down to you.

Remember: attractive, and easy to absorb. If the reader’s brain decides that processing your text will be too much like hard work – or if it threatens to hurt their eyes! – they’ll move on to the next thing and never absorb your little nugget of wisdom.

So here are some tips.   [Read more…] about How to make great word graphics for social media sharing

Trying to go big? Check these 10 comms pitfalls

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Person in spotlight image

At the beginning of the year a lot of entrepreneurs were talking about this being the year they took a big step forward.

And, believers or not, none of us were going to say no if the Chinese year of the Horse brought more energy and creativity!

How is that going for you?

I expect you’ve found that getting anywhere involves hard work, a generous sprinkle of luck, and a lot of frustration when nothing seems to be happening. Much like any other year.

One of those areas of work is communication. Don’t leave it to happen by some sort of magic.

Getting your message in front of someone is an achievement in itself. It’s just so wasteful if it scares them off rather than drawing them in. You need to clear away any speed bumps that would stop them getting to the thing you’ve got to say.

Here’s a checklist. Go through and make yourself a scorecard with ticks and crosses.

How many out of ten will you get? Does it highlight any areas for improvement? [Read more…] about Trying to go big? Check these 10 comms pitfalls

What’s your writing style?

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The words you choose and the way you put sentences and paragraphs together combine to make an overall shape, and that shape is the voice your readers perceive for you.

Style pinboardThe way you write can make a big difference to how easy it is to get your message across, and readers will also be extracting clues to decide whether to like and trust you.

So, what sort of writing style do you want to have? Here are some common baseline styles to think about.

Academic style

When you’re working in academic circles (or perhaps specialist teams in other settings), one of the key payoffs of your writing can be to show people how clever you are. It’s a natural social status thing, but it can lead to some peculiar writing. There’s a perceived reward for using big words, complicated sentences and jargon.

Now jargon can be a very useful thing, for speeding up communication between people in a particular field. But you need to be able to adapt to a different style of writing when communicating to a more general audience.  [Read more…] about What’s your writing style?

Things That Go Bump In Your Site

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Haunted houseIt’s Halloween! In honour of the occasion I’ve compiled a handy checklist of things to do to SCARE those pesky visitors away from your website!

Fog-shrouded mystery

Make sure visitors can’t tell what your site is about. Don’t give away any clues! They get spooked and run away.

Maze of hallways

Have eccentric, inconsistent navigation so they can’t find what they’re looking for. They plumb the depths of despair and realise they’re going round in circles. Eventually they spy an exit and run away.

Chamber of tortures

Make the text too small, or in a low-quality font, or all squished up together. Your pages hurt their eyes. They run away.

Assault on the senses

Use a colour scheme that’s pallid, disgusting or psychedelically confusing. They clutch their heads and run away.

Strange obsession

Talk about yourself – all the freakin’ time. They excuse themselves – then run away.

Soulless husk

They look into the eyes of your site – and no living personality looks back. It reaches towards them… and they run away.

 

Swamp creatureThe more of these you apply, the more you can be sure they’ll leave you alone to conduct your arcane experiments or dig your secret uranium mine.

“Zoinks! It was Old Man Gray all the time!”

Drat. I would have succeeded if it wasn’t for you meddling kids.

If you’d prefer to exorcise the scary bits from your site, check out the ways we could work together. 

 

Art by Culhain Games and Octavirate Entertainment.