I heard a talk recently by some higher up in a marketing company about the loss of communication skills (or skillz) by the younger sect, because they use U instead of “you”, etc. He probably mentioned 10 examples or so.

That would be fine and all if the company’s brochure didn’t have ”B2B” in big letters, right on the first page.

Oops.

I’m a big believer in the power of words (being a writer and all!) This goes both ways, though - words have the power to do good, and words can have a detrimental affect on what you do. And sometimes the damage is very difficult to undo.

Now I’m not talking about saying bad things or sending an angry e-mail and such. I’m talking more about unintentional damage. Damage where the words you used actually undo (or harm) your message or intent.

I’m going to use the phrase Global Warming as an example.

The big mistake the environmentalists made was calling it “Global Warming” to start with. Why was it a big mistake? Because it pigeonholed them. All it takes is a cold day in May for people to say “yea, where’s that global warming I’ve been hearing about?”

In other words, the argument gets completely caught up in being about the word “warming”. “Global Warming” is a definitive name. “Climate Change” (which is what they are now starting to use) is MUCH less restrictive.

See what I mean? “Climate Change” doesn’t have an easy, built-in opposite at the ready.

I came across this example because I am somewhat a believer in the phenomenon. While I’m not sure of a lot of things, I am pretty convinced that we, as a species, have some effect on our environment. But whenever I’m in a discussion about it, the “cold day/week/winter” argument always arises.

Side note: this is just an observation on words - I don’t want you to think I’m some environmentalist nutjob. I’m not (nor am I against such, either… listen, I’ll happily recycle the bottles, but I’m not going to lose my mind over losing a species of insect. Nor am I buying a puny little electric car…)

Truth be told, I think Global Warming is probably inevitable, and will be nature’s way of thinning us out a little… ok, back to the business part of this post. 

Another aspect of this is business names. Naming your business “Bills Bug Killing” prettymuch limits you to killing bugs. Which is fine if that’s all you do. But most guys like this also handle other pests, like rodents. Naming your business “Bills Pest Services” is much better.

There are exceptions to this. But they are usually due to popular conventions. For example, I expect “Joe’s Pizza” to have Calzones (and a guy named “Joe”.)

And speaking of which, it’s time to eat.

I remember, way back when I started my writing business, making the first “Clear-Writing” website. It was basically a left hand table for navigation, and right hand space to put the “stuff”. I coded it myself in notepad. It was nothing fancy, but it looked nice, and did the job.

For several years, my little homemade site worked well, but as I grew, I felt it really didn’t represent my professionalism, etc. I’m an “ok” web designer, but my skills are much more suited to 1998 than 2000-something.   And in looking at competitor’s websites, it was clear many others were “nicer” than mine. So I hired out – my friend Kelly Rao of Web-Eze did it for me (I basically had her code one page, and I took it from there.) It came out great – it looks wonderful, it’s easy to take care of, etc. In fact, it’s the site I’m still using today.

And that got me thinking – that website is more than 5 years old. Which is an absolute lifetime in internet years (internet years are like dog years on steroids.) So last month, I started thinking – “gee, is it time for another update?”  To answer this question, I looked around to see how I looked compared to others… and I was pretty surprised at what I found:

It is abundantly clear to me that web design is getting worse. Many of today’s “modern” websites, by and large, look like crap. The proliferation of the WYSIWYG / CMS-era of web design has churned out millions of cookie-cutter sites that just look bad.  They look blocky, the text looks awful, they can’t space anything well (you should leave a space in between bullet points, etc) – it’s just awful.

My five-year-old professional copywriting website looks infinitely better than any CMS site out there. Even this site you’re reading, which started life last year as a wordpress template (but uses traditional HTML coding in the meat of the pages), looks tons better than most sites out there.

I don’t want to sound old-fashioned, but the move away from traditional HTML coding has really changed the web design business. It’s likely opened the door to a lot of people who really aren’t skilled web designers, and I’m guessing CMS sites are a lot cheaper and easier for the end user as well, but I have to say, I’m not impressed with the look. It’s akin to a stately old house versus cookie-cutter tract housing.

Personally, I’m not using CMS style websites anytime soon. This blog is as close as I’ll get. All else being equal, I really feel a CMS designed site will hurt you business-wise.

Any web designers want to chime in?

Know what I do (or don’t do, to be more accurate)?

I don’t do business with websites that don’t provide a phone number. Not because I want to call (I don’t), but because it makes me feel like they are hiding something. I’ll make an exception for huge, well-advertised sites like Amazon.com (who has proven to be very adept at customer service), but otherwise, if you don’t provide your phone number, I’ll pass.

Why many companies feel they are too good to get away with not posting their phone number is beyond me.

So here’s a tip - not having your phone number on your website is almost certainly costing you money. Trust me - as disturbing as the thought may be, there are a lot of people like me out there.

I get a lot of e-mail from aspiring writers asking for work. I’m almost always nice, and say something like “don’t have any work now” or something similar. Truth is, I already have a few people I use for overflow (yes, I’m talking about you, J, G, and M), and they probably aren’t getting unseated until they wish to. But hey, you never know - maybe someday I get a project where I need five extra hands/pens/whatever - a good “have any work for me” request just might pay off someday.

I got one the other day that won’t pay off, however. But it made me laugh enough to write a post about it:

 Hello I am <name deleted> from India. I am a professional writer. I can provide well researched high quality content for you. I have a content provider team of writers. Please give me a chance in your company.  I would be highly obliged if you give me a chance. Thanks

I don’t even know where to start here. Let’s break this down a little:

 - Ok, you think maybe, just maybe, you could write some type of personal greeting? “Mr. Furman”.. “Dan”.. “Clear-Writing guy”… whatever. I mean, you are a “professional” writer, right? This should be standard stuff.

- I’m not an English teacher, but c’mon… How about some proper punctuation? Like after “Hello”… at least throw a comma in there. Again, professional writer and all.

-  Maybe a space or two as well. Just cramming everything together makes it hard to read, Mr. Professional Writer.

- You write “I have a content provider team of writers”. That sentence makes no sense. I understand what you were getting at, but please… that’s something a six year old would write. I understand English is probably not your first language, but you ARE claiming to be a “professional writer” asking this English speaking/writing writer for work, so you get no slack here.

Ok, I’m done ripping the poor guy. May he find work somewhere… but it’s not going to be in writing.

I’ve said earlier that cheap competition from India doesn’t faze me. This kind of stuff is exactly why.  Hope you are enjoying your week.