John McGarvey – web copywriter

Remember this? Well, here’s a quick heads-up for you: the IT Donut is now live. I’ve been working on this new small business advice website for a while now, and it’s nice to have it out the door.

We’re really pleased with how it’s turned out, but like all the best websites, that’s not to say it’s finished, of course.

If you browse it at the moment (and please do check the site out), you’ll see that the breadth of information is huge, but the depth is, well, still to come in some areas.

We’re working hard to put that right – and if you know a bit about IT, you might be able to help us and the small businesses that use the site. So get in touch and I’ll explain more.

Flicking through the careers page of The Guardian last weekend, I stumbled across an ad for a job with a company called Evitavonni.

“Hmmm,” I thought, “I’ve not heard of them before.” The name made me think that perhaps they were Italian, or maybe founded by someone called Evita. The look of the ad suggested some kind of design company.

Read it backwards

However, after studying the name a bit more, it hit me. Have you spotted it yet? The company is “innovative”, spelt backwards. Evitavonni. Innovative.

I’d love to know what process the company went through before coming up with that particular name. Because I’m struggling to see how backwards innovation can be a good thing.

A new trend in naming?

To me, writing a word backwards implies the opposite meaning. So by that token, Evitavonni suggests a business that’s old-fashioned, change-resistant and set it its ways. Doesn’t it?

Thing is, I don’t think they are. You certainly wouldn’t expect an uninnovative company to sell striking products like this expensive outdoor fireplace.

So, what gives? Why pick that particular name? Is backwards spelling a new trend in branding that’s yet to take off? (I can’t think of a single other company named in a similar way, though I’m happy to be corrected.)

Honestly, I’m stumped. But I do think if you’re going to pick a word and spell it backwards, you should at least choose one which will create a positive impression of your company.

Update: Since posting this, I’ve discovered there’s a good list of backwards brand names over at Fritinancy. I found it most interesting to learn that Trebor is the reverse of the company’s founder’s first name. Seems it’s not as uncommon as I thought.

Registration forms can have you tearing your hair out. They want every personal detail known to man, moan if you don’t enter them in exactly the right format – and throw up hopelessly vague errors if you get anything wrong.

There truly are some shockers out there. And that’s probably why the good ones stick in your head.

I stumbled upon one just the other day. The sign up form for WordPress.com really is a thing of beauty. It’s clear, straightforward, and only asks you to type in four bits of information.

What’s more, it includes this delightfully playful text that sums up just what we all really think about agreeing to terms and conditions:

“Legal flotsam: I have read and agree to the fascinating terms of service”

I wonder how they got that one past the legal team. Nice work, WordPress.

Regular readers (both of you) may recall that some time ago I hinted at a new project I’ve been working on. I’m pleased to report that the wraps are off: The IT Donut, a new website for small businesses, will be launching the week of 23 August.

The IT Donut will be the fourth in a family of websites. You might already have seen the Marketing, Law and Start-Up Donuts. Its aim will be to demystify every aspect of business technology.

Expect heaps of advice about choosing, using and generally not getting totally frustrated with IT in your business.

I’ve taken on the role of editor (the next few months are looking to be very busy), but thankfully there’s a whole team of great people from BHP Information Solutions working hard on the site too. And because you can’t substitute for first-hand knowledge and experience, we’re on the hunt for experts who know all about IT at the sharp end of business.

You see, when businesses use IT, there’s an ideal world, and there’s what actually happens. The two often differ quite considerably.

The IT Donut isn’t going to live in the plain sailing, smooth running and largely theoretical ideal world. It will acknowledge the situations and challenges businesses face every day with their IT.

Although the team behind the website is packed with experience (I’ve been writing about small businesses and IT for years now), we need people who’ve been there and done it to help us cover every area. These IT experts are the people who’ll really bring the site to life.

So if you know a bit about IT in business, I want to hear from you. You might be an expert in web hosting, networking or accounting software. Or you might be a business that’s experimented with cloud computing, open source software – or gained some other knowledge that you’d like to share.

Whatever your expertise, give me a shout. It’s your chance to be involved in one of the most exciting projects I’ve ever worked on – and to get some great PR while you’re at it.

It’s never been easier to find photos for your website. Pile-’em-high-sell-’em-cheap stock photography companies like iStockPhoto, Shutterstock and Fotolia allow you to purchase photos for as little as a pound or two.

These sites have drastically cut the cost of getting hold of images without worrying about copyright issues. I use them, so I should know. But there’s one big problem: when you pay so little, you don’t get any control over who else uses the photos.

Those images are sold again and again and again. Some of them are exceptionally popular – and that can spell embarrassment for your website.

I’ve trawled iStockPhoto – one of the biggest stock imagery sites – to bring you these five examples of stock photography that’s been rather, well, overexposed. If you’re looking for images to illustrate your website, steer well clear of these.

From web hosting to chief marketing officer

Plenty of websites seem to like the look of this lady. When she’s not urging you to “get more now” over at Midphase Hosting, she’s also putting in an appearance at Data102, a Colorado Springs hosting centre.

Then there’s marketing. She’s been standing in as a chief marketing officer for Brand Week – and been involved in this article about self branding. Busy lady.

A tired metaphor for growth

If you’re growing a business, here’s one visual metaphor you might want to steer clear of. It’s a very well-trodden path, you see. It might have been Clydesdale Ventures that first used this image. Or maybe it was Ian Brodie. Or Accelerate Media.

In hard copy, the books Recession Thriving and Trading Pain for Peace both have strikingly similar covers. Those green shoots of recovery are certainly spreading. Continue reading ‘Porn, pharmacies and phone sex. Who’s using the photos on your website?’

I had dinner in a Giraffe restaurant the other night. You know the places: friendly staff, reasonable food, good value – and plenty of two-for-one vouchers available online.

In fact, their whole website is pretty decent, and they understand how to use Twitter too.

Anyway, towards the end of the evening I did the usual um-and-er over dessert thing, until spotting the cheesecake on the menu. Had it just been “chocolate cheesecake”, I might have declined. But “milky double bubble chocolate cheesecake”? How could I say no?

That’s the power of good copywriting.

Some years ago I worked as a web editor for an IT firm. We used to run occasional competitions. One of the best parts of that job was phoning people up to tell them they’d won a prize – a PC or games console, say.

We always used to put quite a lot of thought into what to give away. We wanted things that would be eyecatching and useful too. We didn’t really want our competition winners to go sticking what they’d won straight up on eBay.

That job would be much easier today. There’s only one prize that anyone who’s anyone is giving away at the moment: Apple’s iPad.

I’ve come to this conclusion after noticing a spate of tweets, adverts, emails and websites, all promoting competitions to win the giant iPhone. And it really is quite astounding how many websites are giving this gadget away.

Unbeatable, Bitter Wallet, Pocket Lint, UK2,  Review Centre, T3 and Travolution. All these are UK-based sites, giving away a gadget which isn’t even officially available in the UK yet. When you widen it to US sites, it just gets silly.

Try Dummies.com, Zagg, SEOMOZ, Mashable, Symantec, Digg, PCMag and authorStream for starters. So many companies are giving the things away that there must be a danger of a shortage for ordinary buyers.

This got me thinking. Could the number of competitions offering a given item as a prize be indicative of the appeal of that prize? And if so, could companies use this statistic as some form of market research?

(Image courtesy of Apple.)

I like it when restaurants take the time to get their branding right. It implies a similar amount of effort has gone in to the food.

I had a meal in a Reading eaterie a couple of weeks ago. The bill turned up with this witty “with condiments” card, which perfectly fit the modern, relaxed feel of the place, and made me chuckle.

As it turned out the food was excellent, but if it hadn’t been, at least the clever copywriting would’ve gone some way to making up for it.

An experience this week has reminded me of one of the internet’s truisms: once you’ve put something online, you can’t control how it gets used.

Along with a few hundred other people, I went down to the BBC’s Broadcasting House last weekend to protest against the closure of BBC 6 Music.

While I was there, I snapped a bunch of photos and put them up on Flickr.

They’re not great shots, but nonetheless the Love 6 Music website wanted to use them. Fair enough, I thought. After all, I support what they’re trying to achieve. Some of my pictures duly appeared on the site.

The next day The Guardian covered the protest – and included some of my photos in a gallery, all credited to www.love6music.com. It turns out the people behind the campaign had spoken to The Guardian and allowed them to use the pictures.

Now, initially I was taken aback by this. I felt I’d given permission for the photos to be used on a non-profit campaigning website, not on a commercial newspaper’s site.

However, once I thought it through, I realised I’d been pretty vague – I’d given permission in an easily-misinterpreted tweet which didn’t really explain under what circumstances I’d be unhappy with the photos being used:

“Sure, be my guest [to use the photos]! They’re all Creative Commons anyway.”

I allow most of my photos on Flickr to be used for non-commercial purposes under a system called Creative Commons. However, I’ve never wanted commercial websites to use my pictures for free. It’s the same for my writing; if someone’s making money from my work in some way, I expect to get paid.

Anyway, in this case I decided to bend my principles a bit. It is pretty cool to have your pictures on a national newspaper’s website, and I care a lot about the survival of this particular radio station, so I emailed The Guardian and asked for a credit, which they duly added.

So, all’s well that ends well? Yes, in this case. But it goes to show just how hard it is to keep tabs on your digital content.

It doesn’t matter if it’s words, pictures, video or sound – someone can always grab it and use it the way they want. And even though technically you keep the copyright and can forbid people from using it, in practice it’s hard to even find out it’s happened.

That’s a pain where your professional work is concerned. But when it’s personal photos, musings or other stuff you absolutely have to keep control of, you’re better off not putting it online in the first place. That’s the only way to be 100% certain it’s not being used in ways that make you unhappy.

The specific lesson I learnt in this case is that when someone is nice enough to ask permission before taking your content, always make your answer specific. If you’re not happy for them to pass your stuff on for publication on other websites, tell them. Because if you don’t, you can’t really complain when your content starts popping up in unexpected places.

Here’s a poster I spotted stuck up in a station the other day. It’s an advert for an Oxfam fundraising event – a 100km, non-stop trek for charity. And I think the headline does the advert proud: “Blistering”.

It makes you want to know more, then as you read the rest of the text, the double meaning (is it about blistered feet, or the speedy pace of your trekking?) makes you smile.

And, of course, it grabs your attention. Or it would, if the dark green text on light green background, badly stuck up rippled paper and dodgy reflection on the glass didn’t render it all but unreadable from distance.

Honestly, what a waste of an excellent piece of copywriting. I get quite annoyed when I see good work treated this way.