Writing for the Web: review of Dan Furman’s Do the Web Write

Writing for and marketing your website

by Dan Furman
Self-counsel Press, 2008

User level – Beginner upwards

£12.32

Writing for the Web needs a different approach to writing for print.  Get started with this inspirational book, written in Dan Furman’s inimitable style.

Forget the rules you learned at school. Forget about writing for print media. Forget about semi-colons (think dashes).

This is not just about writing style. Its rationale is to increase your site’s ‘conversion rates’ (i.e. whether you’re successful in getting visitors to take the action you want them to take – buying something, asking for more information or commenting on a blog, for example). So, writing is a means to an end. Apart from writing conventions, this books covers aspects such as the order in which you structure information, the need to speak in the language of your visitors, understanding the purpose of your site, what visitors are looking for – and much more.

A relaxed, funny book and worth buying for the Oleo biscuit moment alone.