The basic purpose in typesetting a story or article for a book, newspaper or periodical, for print or online, is to enhance understanding of the text and thereby make the reading an easy, pleasant experience.

Roman type is the straightforward, upright type we read everyday in our newspapers, magazines and books, and on our monitors.

Italic is the ‘handwriting’ equivalent of whatever roman font we are reading. It has a sloping cursive quality that reminds us of the manual writing we learned in primary school.

Bold type is roman or italic font that has been emphasized by thickening and making it darker than the surrounding text.

The question is: when should we use which version of a particular typeface – roman, italic, or bold? The answer must focus on the reader’s needs and the reading experience.

It is obvious that for most copy the roman version of the chosen font should be used. This is because, having an upright face, it is the easiest to read and it is what readers expect.

Because the bold version of a font makes text stand out strongly, it is used for highlighting important words, phrases and sections. Thus headlines, decks and subheads set in bold will, along with pull-quotes and other tricks of the typesetter’s art, provide the casual scanner with clues as to what your article or story is all about. The judicious use of bold in this way will induce him or her to read the main story.

Bold however is too strong to be used, except very occasionally, within body text. To set off words from surrounding text is the main function of italics.

So when should you use italics exactly? Here’s a sort of check-list, a mixture of accepted practice and my personal opinion.

Most of these when-to-use-italics rules apply equally to words in body copy, head-lines and captions, and whether you are typesetting books, articles, stories or web-pages.

1. The names of ships and aircraft; eg: The Caribbean Cruiser sank yesterday. This is the oldest when-to-use-italics rule. It allows the reader to quickly grasp what is being referred to in the message.
2. The titles of poems; eg: As You Go Dancing by James Stewart is famous among the literati of the Arabian Gulf. This is another very traditional use of italics that enables quick reader-uptake.
3. Foreign words; eg: We turned left and found ourselves in a cul de sac. Another very traditional use of italics that makes for quicker reading.
4. The titles of books, newspapers, articles and stories occurring within a sentence without further explanation; eg: The Saturday edition of the Limerick Leader was always on the streets by Friday afternoon. However titles that appear within larger works are not italicized but are set off in quotation marks; eg: ‘An Irishman’s Diary’ in the Irish Times is sometimes interesting.
5. Latin phrases used to classify living things; eg: Many people wonder why mankind is referred to as homo sapiens. Another use of italics that has been around ab aeterno.
6. Where a word is used as an example rather than for its meaning; eg: The word Kennedy is a proper noun. This is neater than setting the noun within single quotes as in: The word ‘Kennedy’ is a proper noun.
7. For introducing new terms; eg: In Freudian psychology reference is made to the ego, the super-ego, and the id. This is a neat solution to highlighting words that will probably be explained later.
8. For the subjects of definitions; eg: An odd number is any number that cannot be divided by two. This is useful for the reader as, should he or she wish to refer back to the definition later, a word in italics among a sea of roman letters is easy to find.
9. For mathematical symbols: eg: The standard acceleration of gravity g is 9.81183 metres per second per second. The symbol does not need to be surrounded by commas or single quotes which would be required if it were set in roman type.
10. For emphasis; eg: Janice wasn’t the only girl at the party. The use of italics for emphasis is less intrusive than bold and more subtly suggestive.
11. To indicate a character’s internal reflections in stories; eg: This just does not seem right, Janice thought. However many writers prefer other ways of expressing inner thoughts.
12. Using a letter or number as a noun; eg: He was vexed because they had left out the d in his name. However many writers would prefer to put a letter or number used in this way between quotes: eg; He was vexed because they had left out the ‘d’ in his name.

That’s about it for the when-to-use italics rules. Except, what should you do if you need to use italics within italics?

If some word or phrase that should be italicised is already within a run of italics, the trick is to switch back to roman type for that word or phrase; eg: I’m in a really weird situation, Janice thought.

This italics-within-italics solution works best when italics are used to highlight internal reflections; eg: Why can’t we just look up Wikipedia for the answer? he wondered to himself.

Of course, you don’t have to follow these when-to-use-italics rules. However most of them are in current use because they do aid reader comprehension.

Indeed, most of us have an instinct as to when the use of italics is appropriate. Perhaps you can devise better rules of your own. If so, let me know.

About the Author: Paul D Kennedy

His sales presentation was actually very good and I imagine that he does a great job of new business development for his company. As I walked him out the door, he handed me his card and some cool branded notepads and I told him that I’d keep him in mind on future print jobs.

Upon sitting back down at my computer, I grabbed his card and typed in their website address. This is where things went down hill.

The Not-So-Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Now let me preface this by saying that I’m a marketing consultant/website developer by trade. So my critical eye for proper website design and usability is a bit more sensitive than the next guy. But wow, this company’s website was REALLY bad. Their design looked remedial, severely dated and unorganized. Their logo looked completely different than the logo on their business card and notepads. The content was poorly written. There were very few images of printing samples. And upon scanning their printing capabilities page, several of the services that the sales person had mentioned were nowhere to be found.

I threw his card in the circular file (the trash). I kept the notepads.

This situation serves as a good example of the vital role that a website plays in your company’s overall sales and marketing strategies. It is critical that your website convey a consistent brand image, perceived value and sales message for those soft-selling opportunities that happen when you’re not present.

A Quick Test for Your Website

1. Can a website visitor get a thorough understanding of your bread-and-butter product/service and reach your contact info page in two clicks or less?
2. Is your website design and content consistent with the quality of your company and its products/services?
3. If you looked at your website and sales materials/brochures side by side, are they conveying a consistent brand image?
4. If your salesperson were to read aloud your website’s content word-for-word during a sales call, would they close the sale?

I could go on, but hopefully you get the point. If you answered “NO” to any of the questions above, your website probably needs some work.

A Marketing Strategy Lesson

Back to the printing company with the horrid website. Let’s say they’ve come to their senses and hired me to revamp their website. In our initial meeting, I would do a quick audit to learn about the different strategies and tactics they use to develop new business. Next, I would find that they execute a nice mix of advertising, sales and local tradeshows, and since they are a printer, they have very nice brochures. They even do educational sessions on the latest printing techniques through their local Chamber of Commerce.

When I ask about their website, they say, “It’s a low priority and we’ve always worried about the cost.”

With so many opportunities to utilize the online tools to market your business and sell your wares, it’s a shame that so many companies view the web as their last priority. And some don’t even realize the amount of clients and dollars that are going to their competitors who have made an appropriate investment.

5 Ways to Get Your Website on the Same Page

1. Perceived Value – First impressions are everything. In the first few seconds of a site visit, your website’s design quality and content layout is subliminally communicating your company’s value to the visitor. If your site’s design quality is poor or unorganized, your company will be perceived as poor quality and unorganized, and thus, the visitor bounces.
   How to Get On the Same Page: Work with a professional website designer who can help you design your site’s look and feel to match (or exceed) the quality of your company, products and services.
2. Brand Consistency – Your company’s brand is what people think of you. And whether people notice a magazine ad, see your booth at a tradeshow or find your website, it’s vital that you present a clear and consistent sense of who you are at every customer touch point.
   How to Get On the Same Page: Everything you put in front of a customer needs to look and sound consistent. This means every ad, every brochure, your website, corporate identity elements, etc. An integrated campaign works wonders when designed professionally by a single designer or agency.
3. Message/Content Quality – I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…content is king. Keeping your website updated with fresh, high-quality, informative content positions you as an expert in your field. And people want to do business with experts.
   How to Get On the Same Page: Hiring a professional content developer/copywriter is a great way to ensure that your message is delivered in a high-quality fashion, and with a consistent voice. Have the copywriter sit down with your salespeople to discuss the most effective messaging to help convert your visitors into buyers.
4. Self Promotion: Be Your Own Cheerleader – If you’re not promoting your latest happenings (new product/service offerings, company news, upcoming educational sessions, tradeshows, etc.), no one else is going to. But don’t get caught with a site that is difficult or costly to update. Nothing screams “dinosaur” like seeing a news page where the last news item was from two years ago.
   How to Get On The Same Page: If your salespeople are out there telling customers about a new product or an upcoming educational session, your website should be doing the same. Frequent site updates tell customers that you are an active company that is on the move, as well as providing new content that serves as food for search engine spiders.
5. Track Your ROI – It baffles me that companies will spend thousands of dollars each year on marketing tactics that make tracking your return very difficult (a.k.a. advertising, direct mail, brochures, etc.), but they won’t spend a few thousand dollars to build a decent website with an analytics program that practically gives you a two-way mirror to watch your prospect’s browsing behavior.

How to Get On the Same Page: Website analytics, and even e-mail marketing, now offers great, inexpensive tools for customer research and ROI tracking that not only help you calculate ROI, but also help you hone your marketing strategies towards the content/messaging, products and services that bring home the bacon.

The Bottom Line

How many clients has that printing company lost over the years because of their poor, neglected website? Who knows? The bottom line is: they lost my business, and as a marketing consultant, the amount of stuff that my clients print alone could probably pay for a website in a matter of years.

About the Author: Brody Dorland

A website that is badly designed will be remembered for all the wrong reasons. If you want a website that is remembered for the right reasons, you are going to have to have a design that makes your website unique.

Your web design is the first thing that people notice when they arrive at your website. If you have an untidy website with bad graphics and terrible navigation, you are going to lose your readers and viewers right from the start. That is why web design is important in the process of creating a successful website. Whether it is a personal website or one that you intend to use for business purposes, it needs to be well designed and well maintained.

If you can grab the reader’s attention by graphics that are relevant and useful, text that is of a very high quality, colors and layouts that are easy on the eye, then you are half way there! Research has shown that more people buy from websites that are designed professionally and look trustworthy, rather than quickly made and with badly thought out designs.

So, you can see how important your web design really is now. There are many ways to improve your web design, both for free and by hiring someone else to do it for you. Which you choose will depend on your budget and your time frame. A busy web designer may not be able to fit you in for months.

How you layout your website is also very important. You may have lots of great content on your website that people would love to read, but what if they can’t find it? If you haven’t clearly and easily laid out your website in the web design process, your readers won’t be able to find any other pages. This could be disastrous if you are selling some kind of service or product.

All in all the web design aspect is only a small part of getting your website up and running, however, it is very important. When you are designing your website, remember to make it easy to navigate, concise and clear.

If you are not familiar with web design and all the aspects that go into creating a website, it may be worth your while looking for a professional web designer or a pre made template. Web designers come with different price tags all depending on where you get them from and what you need doing.

If you want a relatively simple design you will be looking at a fairly cheap price. If you are looking for a complex website with many features you can expect to pay a fair amount of money for it. A good designer will include you all throughout the process. You will be able to approve the website as many times as required.

Ready-made templates are great if you don’t have the budget for a professional designer and don’t have the time to learn how to create one from scratch. There are many free ones that you find on the Internet or ones that you can buy for a small amount of money.

About the Author: Daniel Millions

Twitter Power: How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time

A terrific read from one of the founding developers of Twitter.

Seth’s Blog: True believers (and the truth).

Having had a BlackBerry Pearl for the last couple of years I’m familiar with the operating system on the BlackBerry. I’ve grown used to being able to send and receive emails, sync my address book with my iMac, manage my calendar and generally organise my life on my phone. I still use a Day-Timer diary but its no more than an expensive note book now. Everything is on the phone.

So back to the Bold. Having done absolutely no research on this phone outside of confirming it was free, I am discovering new things all the time. And my smile just keeps getting broader.

Wi-Fi network connection

The biggest unexpected bonuses I discovered as soon as I started playing with the phone. Even Before i had slipped my SIM card in I was browsing web sites and collecting email thanks to the phones ability to connect to my office Wi – Fi  network. This alone is an incredible feature that just gets better and better as I use it. It means that while I am within range of my office network, any data calls like email or websites are delivered through my broadband and not via my phone data plan. It’s incredibly fast and I don’t pay the hefty data charges on the phone plan. Even better, it connects automatically! When I get back to the office the phone discovers the network and simply switches over!  I haven’t tested it yet but according to the manual it will also connect to open Wi-Fi hot spots while I’m out of the office. As if I need a reason to spend more time at McDonalds.

Improved Signal strength

For the first time ever, at least for the ten years I have been working from home, I have decent signal strength in my office. This has been the biggest surprise for me as I specifically asked the Optus rep if there would be an improvement on the Pearl and was told a resounding “no”. Signal on the Bold is always at full strength which means I no longer have to drop everything and dash outside to talk with clients and suppliers. A lot more professional and a lot less stressful.

Bigger, Bolder, Better

The Bold is significantly bigger than I expected and I have to stretch a bit to type one handed. I’ll probably switch to two hands for messaging but the full QWERTY keyboard is solid and easy to use and I don’t have to think about the Pearl’s SureType dictionary any more – again a stress saver.

The battery seems to be holding up OK even with the constant fiddling I’ve subjected it to over the last day or two. The screen is huge in comparison to the Pearl and very easy to read. I have pushed up the type size a bit to accommodate my failing eyesight but this still leaves plenty of room to allow messages to be easily read.

I haven’t tested out all the gadgets and applications yet so I’ll probably be posting about this phone again soon. The camera however does seem to take better pics but I don’t use it much anyway.

All in all I must say I’m blown away by this new toy. I haven’t compared it to the iPhone yet. I’ve got a couple of mate using those so it will be interesting to see how they measure up.

Originally posted at Dad is at home

The technology behind Bing is the Microsoft “decision” engine. In practice that means the engine interprets your search term and, along with the results, also offers a list of alternative searches that may help you find what you are looking for. For my search for “lunch in Sydney”, limiting results to sites only in Australia, Bing offered alternatives such as Christmas Lunch In Sydney, Sunday Lunch In Sydney, Cup Lunch In Sydney and Lunch In Sydney amongst others.

By categorising generic search terms, the decision engine attempts to improve the delivery of accurate results. Whether this will work in the long term is being enthusiastically debated. Will it be enough to knock Google to its knees? Probably not.

Google has earned its spot at the top with 10 years of development. Releasing increasingly complex algorithms to keep up with the rapidly evolving Internet, social media, the uptake of multimedia and leading the way in many technologies that are commonly taken for granted.

A usability study conducted in the USA by User Centric found that 42% of participants looked at the sponsored ads in Bing against only 25% with Google. This suggests that generic results will largely be ignored in Bing however the figure can probably be explained as participants being inquisitive. The study also showed that Bing had a great lead for “related searches” attracting 31% of testers against only 5% in Google, again probably curiosity. The bottom line, click through results on ads, was fairly even for both engines.

While it’s unlikely that Bing will overrun Google in the short term, Internet marketers are certainly going to be following developments closely.

Originaly postaed at showpage.com.au

With a web site you need to think of every page as being a front page. You don’t control which page a reader will access first and in terms of marketing you don’t want visitors to come through the front door. You want them to go directly to the page that has the information they want.

In my conversation the other day I used the analogy of a department store. Our local Myers store has, I think, four points of entry. Each door leads to a separate department within the store. The main door leads directly from the shopping mall to which it is adjoined. This is the primary access point for the entire store and leads directly to the cosmetics department, then to the ladies fashion and on to the underwear. This is great for my wife who principally uses this store for her business suits but I don’t much like walking amongst the knickers and bras. My eldest son would prefer to go directly to the sporting goods and my youngest possibly the toys – however I think he will be growing out of that soon.

The point is that as individuals we would prefer to use separate doors, closer to our particular areas of interest. There may not be a door directly next to the sporting goods but a brief browse through the home entertainment section never hurts certainly better than inhaling the cosmetics.

The same logic is applied to a web site. If your visitor has found you via a search engine using a particular search term like “weight training equipment” they will turn away pretty quickly if they are presented with ladies fashion when they click through.

By recognising this and establishing the appropriate meta data, you can provide a much easier site for your visitors and in the case of a retail store you would be one step closer to a sale.

Originally posted at Showpage

It’s one of the most important keys of any successful website, and yet it’s often ignored or patched together at the last minute and rushed off to the web designer to add to the site. Unfortunately, this can leave a lasting impression on that company’s target audience.

Look over your website’s front page copy – as this is where most of your visitors will ultimately end up. See if any of the following mistakes appear in your site. You may be surprised at what you learn!

Welcome to XYZ Company Website – This was the most common headline for sites established back in the mid 90′s, when just having a website showed that you were “ahead of the technology curve”. These days, customers can use the web to comparison shop and do research – much of this research is aimed at which company to do business with.

That said, your very first headline should be one that draws them in and perks up their interest in what you have to offer. A good example is the headline of this article. You were curious enough to click and find out what your website content says about you. Having “Welcome to Our Company” on your front page signifies that your company is “behind the times” and gives the visitor no information to go on about why they should buy from you.

My, I and We – It’s great that you want to tell customers what your company does. Unfortunately, they don’t really care. They want to know what you can do for them, instead. Rather than focusing on what you can do for them, tailor your website content to emphasize the benefits to the reader.

You can do this as simply as writing sentences that start with things such as “You will learn…”, or “You will find that…” and then ending them with a benefit to the customer, such as “how to improve your marriage in less than a week”, or “you have a brighter, whiter smile”

Your readers will almost automatically imagine themselves better off as a result of your product or service – and this kind of “written visualization” will help them see that your offer is the logical choice to get the desired result.

Lack of a Compelling Headline – This ties into point #1 – but a compelling, action-oriented headline gives your customer the impulse to read further. That doesn’t mean you should take your headline to the extreme and dress it up with bright red text, heaps of exclamation marks and CAPITAL LETTERS. Those are major copywriting “turn-offs” for a professional business and they show that you’re unenthusiastic or bored with the product.

You know your product is the best – so why not share that enthusiasm with your reader? What is it that you enjoy or admire about the product? What can it do for the customer? Say it up front in your headline. That’s what urges them to keep reading more.

Lots of Tech Specs – It’s great that your product is powered by an X250Q fusion engine and 220ZX turbines. Unless your end user is intimately familiar with those products and specs – they’ll simply leave…confused. And they probably won’t come back.

On the other hand, if you tell them that 1. They’ll never have to buy gasoline again and 2. They get the kind of hauling and drive power they need to move those heavy loads – NOW you’ve got their attention! When you write your website content, after everything you believe is a benefit to the consumer, ask yourself, “So what?” Eventually it will boil down to the core reason why the customer needs it – and that’s the gold you’re looking for!

When you keep these copywriting suggestions in mind, you not only help make your website content stronger and more compelling for your reader, but you also instantly improve your product or service’s credibility in their eyes. Give these tips a try and watch your conversions go up! All the best!

Article written by: Sherice Jacob