Our brave friend Copyblogger has plunged into the dodgy no man's land located between marketing and writing. No matter what you write--a for-profit blog or a virtual collection of your poetry--as web writers we need to be very conscious of the signals we send.
Copyblogger is building a reference guide (along with Copywriter Henry Gold) to help writers use promotional language without crossing over into spam posting. Here, he discusses the idea in relation to sites that got in trouble for using the WordPress name in promotional copy.
Check it out:
"[T]hey use those highly effective long-copy sales letters that many in the blogosphere hate. And the sentiment from WordPress was they looked 'spammy' and 'scammy.'
"Now, we could jump up and down and say that it’s substance (i.e. 'content') that matters, not the format it’s delivered in that should determine whether something is 'spam' or a 'scam.' For the record, neither of the two sites in question are scams..."
Hi Jason
Thanks for the link
The Wordpress situation is slightly more complicated.
The 2 sites in question were being judged on whether they have commited a trademark violation based on what the website looked like, and not the content, or value of the service provided (to the community as a whole)
Just one additional (very small) note:- it would be good if you used keywords that relate to sites or content you link to. It makes it easier for search engines to calculate relevance.
Posted by: Andy Beard | November 10, 2006 10:43 AM | Permalink to Comment