John McGarvey – web copywriter

I have a bit of a thing for train journeys. Back in 2006 I travelled from Moscow to Vladivostok on the Trans-Siberian railway. The journey takes around a week if you do it non-stop, but I spent about a month covering the 10,000-or-so kilometres. Although the romance of the rails might be all but dead in the UK, it certainly lives on in Russia.

It was one of the best journeys I can imagine. I shared a compartment (and vodka) with a bunch of Russian wrestlers, made friends with a cider-drinking man called Vladimir who helped me buy a new camera, then discovered the greatest lake in the world before arriving in Vladivostok, a wonderful city perched on the edge of the Pacific.

However, despite having some amazing stuff to see, the Russian government seems to have next to no interest in promoting the country as a tourist destination. The visa application alone is enough to put most people off, so it’s good that Google Russia has stepped up with its amazing online tour of the railway.

What they basically seem to have done is to stick a camera out the window for the entire journey, chopped the film down into manageable chunks, then wired the whole thing up to a map with highlights marked. It means you can jump between points on the journey, get additional information, and generally experience the bits of the trip you’re most interested in, from your desktop.

Now this is never going to be as good as doing it for real (trust me on this one), but the lack of flashy graphics and tourist board-supplied hype does make it a great way to get a taste for one of the greatest train journeys in the world. Go take a look for yourself.

(There are also a bunch of photos from my trip on Flickr, but be warned – I never got round to typing in descriptions of each photo!)

Here are a few interesting links I’ve spotted (and, er, created myself) lately in the worlds of writing, online marketing and creative type stuff:

• Over at True Business, Nick Saalfeld has taken a close look at the red hot competition between price comparison sites. He’s written a good breakdown of the branding efforts of the companies in this market, but do be wary of playing the Go Compare advert he’s put up. The tune will stick in your head for hours.
• I’ve mentioned the myth of the fold before, but thanks to @paulahillier for tweeting this visual explanation of how important the fold is (or, more accurately, isn’t) in web design. Bookmark it for the next time someone insists everything must be squished into the very top of their site.
• Finally, excuse the self promotion, but here’s a quick heads up on a couple of things I’ve done lately. First off, I’m really pleased with my plain-English copywriting contract. Grab a copy and use it however you like – maybe you can adapt it for your business. Secondly, I’ve written a similarly simple answer to the question: what is cloud computing?

Spotted anything you think I might be interested in? Let me know in the comments.

If you run your own business and have been looking for advice online lately, you might have stumbled upon one of the Donut websites. There are three of them at the moment, providing marketing advice, help starting a business and legal assistance.

All the content on these sites is written and reviewed by experts so you can be sure you’re getting tip-top advice to run your company. Having said that, I’d better declare a vested interest: there’s another Donut in the pipeline and I’m hard at work on it at the moment.

While you’re waiting for that to emerge, how about dipping in to the existing sites now? Appropriate places to start might be these tips on working with a copywriter and how to write web copy that gets the job done.

There’s a good interview with Google’s Mark Pilgrim over on The Setup. The really interesting stuff (for me) starts about a third of the way in, but the whole interview is worth a quick read. My favourite quote:

Writing doesn’t actually take that long. It’s the long stretches of procrastinating that take up most of your time.

It would be funny if it also wasn’t a bit too true. Talking of which, I really must get on.

(Hat tip to the always-impressive 43 Folders.)

In what’s rapidly becoming a semi-regular feature, here are a few interesting snippets I’ve spotted online in the last couple of  weeks:

• Over at Men With Pens they’ve taken a good, hard look at how to deal with clients that suck. Let’s be honest, most freelancers have run into at least one or two of those. There’s no magic bullet, but these tips can help a lot.
• Here’s one that’s relevant if you’ve ever worked longer hours on the basis you’ll automatically be more productive. Sorry to break it to you, but as this great article from Lost Garden explains, it doesn’t work like that. It’s worth grabbing the whole presentation there too.
• I love Moo because their website just works, their products are gorgeous and they understand the freelance life. Their advent calendar is a case in point: every day till Christmas they’ll be linking to a great creative or marketing resource.

I have this idea that the quality of an ebook can be judged by the hyperbole used to market it. The more excessively shouty and lurid the sales blurb, the less valuable the advice itself is likely to be.

You’ve probably seen the worst offenders. Over-excitable, garish web pages employ capital letters, bright colours and phrases like “THE BOOK THE PROFESSIONALS DON’T WANT YOU TO HAVE!!!!!!”  Making unfeasible promises about unimaginable wealth, they only say one thing to me: run away.

Once you’ve seen a few of these it’s easy to tar every ebook with the same brush. Easy, yes. Unfair? Definitely.

One ebook worth reading

I say this because over at Bad Language, old pal Matthew Stibbe has released a comprehensive ebook to help make you a better business writer.

There’s no guarantee of lifelong wealth and a conspicuous lack of garish promotional graphics on Matthew’s site, yet this excellent guide offers some of the best business writing advice I’ve seen.

Grounded firmly in the real world, the book is packed with practical information to help you write better. It explains how the principles of good journalism are just as important to business writing. It’s all about telling an interesting story and geting under the skin of your audience.

Structured as a 30-day course, (but almost as useful read as and when you get the chance), Matthew’s book is free, well-written, and useful regardless of whether you write a bit, write a lot, or just work with writers.

Rather than listen to me bang on about it here, just go and take a look.

It’s been a bit of a strange week. Having arrived back from holiday on Sunday, I feel like I’ve been playing catchup for the past few days.

No matter – I’ve still managed to spot a few things you might find interesting. One or two of these might date back a month or so – I just noticed them late ’cause I’ve been away:

• Design agency CX Partners has taken issue with the view that you need to get all your important content above the fold on a web page. In a convincing blog post they explain how people really handle scrolling and what you can do to encourage them to explore your pages further.
• I posted about an error message myself recently, and at Perishable Press there’s some good advice about how to make your site’s “page not found” message more useful and friendly. It gets technical in the middle, but make sure you scroll to the great examples near the end.
• Are you giving National Novel Writing Month a go this year? Me neither, but it’s inspired Merlin Mann to dispense some no-nonsense advice about how to start writing- and keep at it. (I appreciate the irony in linking to a blog post which advises not reading too many blog posts, but he makes some good points.)
• I’ll leave you with a handy guide to using apostrophes (found via Sonja Jefferson on Twitter). If you’re a professional writer you shouldn’t need it, but it might be handy next time someone asks you a grammar question. Bored? Check out the source code on that page as well.

This week I’ve mostly been reading about usability, excessive flying and events for writers that are happening vaguely near me. Here goes…

• If you’re anything like me, you probably feel odd consulting an online dictionary instead of an old skool printed one. Well, Slate has a good piece about the symbiotic relationship between search engines and online dictionaries – and how easily it could be unbalanced.
• Are you in Brighton or Oxford? I’ve spotted new events for writers in these creative cities. WriteClub is an informal gathering where Brighton writers can meet each other. And Ben Werdmuller organised the first Oxford Writers’ Group last week. I think the next one’s penciled in for 19 October, but check Ben’s site for more information.
• Usability consultant David Hamill has written a really good article about, er, usability. He uses some easy to follow, practical examples to explain what usability is about and why it matters. Go on, have a read. (I found this piece via Helen Baker on Twitter.)
• Finally, a chap called Brendan Ross is spending a month flying from place to place in the States. He’s bought an unlimited pass with the airline jetBlue, aims to never leave airline property and is writing about the experience for Wired magazine. It’s an entertaining read, if not particularly aimed at us writers.

Here’s a new regular feature for you. I read lots of other blogs and websites (you should see my Google Reader – it’s stuffed fuller than a busy Ryanair flight). So now I’m going to share the best bits with you.

I won’t restrict it to sites solely by or about other writers. I’ll include anything that looks interesting, as long as it seems vaguely relevant. I read a fair few tech blogs and do a lot of small business writing, so expect a bit of a bias in those general directions too.

Right, here goes…

• Michael Stelzner has put together his 2009/10 list of top ten blogs for writers. As with most lists of this sort, it seems pretty subjective (and it’s rather US-biased), but I reckon most of the sites on there are worth a read. Good place to start if your reading habits need a bit of a shake up.
• Microsoft has launched what I can only describe as an interesting marketing push for the new version of Windows. Seriously, watch this video, then see if you can work it out. If you do decide to hold a party (you’ll see what I mean), please invite me.
• I really rate Fritinancy, Nancy Friedman’s blog about naming, writing and other related gubbins. She’s done a great round up of sites that dissect Dan Brown’s latest book. They’re highly critical, but perhaps that’s just because everyone’s jealous of his enormous success. I am.
• Creative Review spotted a surprisingly honest set of ads from Dixons on the Tube. Nice copy – and I admire their straightforwardness, but my recent experience of buying a new laptop suggests there are much better value retailers out there. Which sort of undermines their point.

Finally, listen up London start-ups: TechHub, which aims to create a physical space for new tech companies in the city, is coming. In the meantime, if you’re looking for a less-formal place to get some work done, I recommend Londonist’s free Wi-Fi map.