Hot Text Web Writing That Works

by Lisa Price, Jonathan Price,  , et al.

This book presents style guidelines based on quantitative research and practitioner lore about what works on the web, what flops, and what looks like leftover newsprint. It shows how to apply those guidelines to many common Internet genres such as customer assistance, product descriptions, distance learning, marketing emails, or webzines. The book also includes case studies of the prose from popular sites-two page spreads that will show a screenshot,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0735711518
• ISBN13: 9780735711518
• Release Date: January 2002
• Publisher: New Riders Publishing
• Length: 512 Pages
• Weight: 1.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 7.3" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Everything You Need under One Roof

This manual for online writing has it all--and more. 1. Detailed instruction for every conceivable page of Web site content. 2. Super tips and insight on PR content and dealing with editors and publishers. 3. The history of HTML (very cool!) 4. All sorts of useful style tips. 5. How to write your resume. 6. How to get a job. 7. Hundreds of online resources. The writing (needless to say?)is clear, concise, and conversational. Had the book been written in 2006 instead of 2002, I'm sure the authors would have thrown in much more about blogs. Other than that, the material seems to be up to date. This book is worth every penny!

More than how to write online text!

There are only a few books about writing that I consider classics, and despite the relative newness of this one, it qualifies.First, the advice on writing online text is on the mark, especially with respect to organizing your message and presenting it with impact. Much of the advice can also be effectively used in paper-based documents. I particularly liked the way the authors presented punctuation because in paper-based text a mark such as a colon is easy to spot, whereas on a monitor it's lost. I've since begun using a dash instead of a colon when developing online content and that small piece of advice works where a colon does not. Of course there are literally hundreds of other tips and advice that will combine to make your content readable and understandable.Second, the way the authors show you how to organize your thoughts, distill them into a coherent and succinct message, and how to present that message is a strategy that anyone who develops online content needs to carefully read and heed. Finally, this book covers much more than how to write - it also gives excellent advice on a full range of related topics, including search engine placement using meta tags, humanizing the technical nature of web pages (such as making URLs easy to read and remember for non-technical users), and how to structure your content to find items of interest. The latter extensively uses principles from Information Mapping©. One disappointment was the omission of any mention of Robert Horn, the inventor of Information Mapping©, from the extensive list of cited references and recommended reading because the authors' approach is closely aligned to much of Horn's work.If you're developing online content you cannot afford to pass this book up. Mine is a constant deskside companion and is likely to remain so for years to come.

Gold mine for the web content professional

Hot Text is a veritable gold mine of brilliant information for the web content professional. It is very comprehensive and full of practical tips and focused advice. As I read it I had my pen out and was underlining lots of quotes that I have since used in my presentations. Hot Text is written in a warm, friendly and direct manner. I always hate it when people try to be pretentious in their writing, but Hot Text is the very opposite. Jonathan and Lisa Price are passionate and extremely knowledgeable about what they do - and it shows!

A highly recommended "how to" manual

Collaboratively written by webmaster experts Jonathan and Lisa Price, Hot Text: Web Writing That Works presents easy to understand style guidelines based on quantitative research and practitioner lore about what works on the Web, what flops, and what looks like leftover newsprint. A highly recommended "how to" manual for anyone charged with the responsibility of building an effective, practical corporate or entreprenurial website Hot Text: Web Writing That Works shows how to apply those guidelines to many common Internet genres such as customer assistance, product descriptions, distance learning, marketing emails, or webzines. 528 pages.

Good advice on getting the attention of the impatient

As the number of web sites with extensive textual content continues to contract, it is time for all content providers to reevaluate their creative policies. Web users are the most impatient of people and no extra words are tolerated. In most instances, you have one or two sentences to get your main point across and keep your reader interested enough to read beyond that. As someone who has written a great deal of material for the web I found the advice in the book to be accurate and wish that many content creators would read it and apply it. There are many before and after examples of how text should be written and edited when the target is the web. Many of them are in the category of obvious after the fact, as the before segments often seem fine before the after is read. Chapter 18 is a list of websites where you can get additional information as well as sites that publish web content. The web is really no different than any other mass medium in that the key currency is attention sufficient to create retention. The difference on the web is that you have less time to create the attention and this book is packed with advice on how to do that. I have recommended it to others who write for the web.