Top 10 Common English Goofs by Web Authors
In reviewing and browsing web sites over the years, I have compiled a list of the most common misuses of English by web authors. Here they are in Letterman (reverse) order.10. Who, which or that?"Who" (or "whom") refers to persons. "Which" refers to animals or things, never to persons. "That" can refer to either persons or things.Examples:The girl who was hungry.
The dog that wagged its tail.
The software which I wrote.9. Anyone vs any one"Anyone" means "any person," not necessarily any specific person. It could refer to multiple people simultaneously.As two words, "any one" refers to a single person.Examples:Anyone can download my software. But the software can only be used by any one user at a time.8. Commonly misspelled wordsAll right
Dependable
Independent
Recommend
Responsible
Separate7. Don't put punctuation at the end of a URLWhile not technically an English grammatical error, don't put a period or anything immediately after a URL reference. Doing so will usually invalidate the URL. You might call this an internet grammatical rule.Example:Notice the lack of a period in the following sentence. My URL is http://article-promotion.blogspot.com6. Software not softwares"Software" can be singular or plural. Never use "softwares."5. Do the quotes go after or before the period?Put quotes after a period or comma. Put quotes before a colon. Put quotes after a question mark unless the entire sentence is a question. This is a US English standard. British English usage can differ.Examples:He asked, "Are you hungry?"
She replied, "Yes, I am hungry."
Did she say, "Yes"?4. There, their, or they're"There" is used in two ways. It can specify a place. It can also be used as an expletive or empty word to start a sentence."Their" is used as a possessive form of "they"."They're" is short for "they are."Examples:I live there, not here.
There are nine planets in the solar system.
The two boys raced their bikes.
They're both tired after walking up the stairs.3. PowerfulToo many developers describe their software as, "XXX Software is a powerful, easy-to-use, ... ." I searched download.com and found 2149 descriptions or titles of software containing the word "powerful." Powerful has many meanings, most referring to how effectively something is performed, as in muscular. A car with 450 horsepower is clearly more powerful than one with only 200 horsepower. But what is powerful software? If you mean feature-rich (like Adobe Photoshop), then say so. If your software does only one thing, but it does it completely or thoroughly (like CounterSpy), then say so. But please, no more powerful software.2. Site or sightA "site" is a place."Sight" refers to your sense of vision.Examples:A web site is a place on the internet that you visit with your browser.
A beautiful sunset is a marvellous sight.And, finally, the most common English blunder by web authors is:1. Its or It'sUse "it's" only when it means "it is." Unless you can replace "it's" with "it is," use "its." Never use "its'."Examples:It's raining today.The dog wagged its tail.Conclusion:English is very difficult for persons whose native language is not English. It is also difficult for many English-speaking authors.Unfortunately, most of the common grammatical errors will not be caught by a spell checker, so you have to manually check your writing for them.An excellent reference is the short and timeless book, The Elements of Style, by William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White. A free online version of this book is available at http://www.bartleby.com/141/index.htmlI hope that web authors can use this article to recognize and correct some of the most common grammatical blunders that abound on the internet.Kempton Smith helps internet businesses promote their products or services online by ghostwriting affordable, unique, keyword-rich articles for them. Email him now at articleghostwriter at yahoo.com for a free article for your online business, no obligation. Or for a free report on how to use articles to promote your product or service, visit http://article-promotion.blogspot.comCopyright
The Top Ten Ways to Attract Buyers, Not Just Visitors to your Web Site
Have you put a lot of effort, time, and money into your site and are frustrated with low sales?
If you are like many professionals out there, you know your subject; you are excellent at your craft. You have a great service and maybe a great product to sell.
You may have hired a web master who didn't have a marketing background. You may have written home page copy about your mission and who you are. But when sales fall, you need to look at what's missing in your Web copywriting. You have only 10 seconds to impress your "to be" buyer.
Here's the top 10 ways to attract buyers, not just visitors to your web site:
1. Preplan and know your Web site's purpose.
Financial Planners Publicity - Increase Your Search Engine Ranking with Web Articles
The goal of free publicity is to get your name in front of as many people as possible. So if you write an article, don't bury it on your web site.Why hide it? You want as many eyes as possible to see your intelligent professional advice. So offer that article to other web sites.Articles you author that appear on someone else's web site ? a professional association's, another organization's, your target market's news and resource sites ? are powerful publicity tools. Get on them. When prospective clients find your article on someone else's site, you can drive them right over to your site by telling them they will find deeper information there.Not only does having articles on other web sites bring web users directly to your site, it also helps improve your search engine ranking. The major search engines now rank sites based on how many other sites link to it. The more places a link to your site appears, the higher you will appear on the search engines.I've gotten to the top of a search engine search page on the strength of just one article linked to my site. So many people search for services on the Internet now, anything that pushes you up the rankings is a major marketing boon.Ned Steele works with people in professional services who want to build their practice and accelerate their growth. The president of Ned Steele's MediaImpact, he is the author of 102 Publicity Tips To Grow a Business or Practice. To learn more visit http://www.MediaImpact.biz or call 212-243-8383.