Sacha Cohen

This is a incredibly important subject--can't wait to dive in!

Cheers,
Sacha

	Jason Lander

This was mostly a few people talking about their companies and their opinions on copy. I was really hoping for examples and useful information on how to write or display good copy. I didn't get that from this session.

	David Markowitz

agree w/Jason...not really any examples on how to improve my site's content copy; things I s/make sure I do.
highly relevant topic but didn't get much out of it

	Paul Ford

Hey there, Jason and David. Sorry you didn't get what you were looking for from the panel.

First, this is a HUGE subject. There's no one single definition of "copy" for the web. If you're doing direct marketing of products and services on the web, you may want to take your cues from direct mail--lots of copy and some pictures, with a strong pitch and a call to action. If you're doing that sort of thing it's worth it to re-read books like "The Elements of Style" and especially "Ogilvy on Advertising"--both of those are a little dated so don't take them as gospel but I like both of them because they are very clear and systematic in how they approach their subject.

If you're trying to manage a community or attempting to register existing users/owners/subscribers, you want to push hard to get their personal data--all roads need to lead to that signup form, and you'd better answer all the questions they have along the way. A good book here is Web Form Design, Luke Wroblewski (http://www.rosenfeldmedia.com/books/webforms/)--this is exactly what it says but it gets you really thinking about copy on the web and how to use it to get users to take action. Getting people to fill out a form is often THE most important thing--it leads to a sale or a registration--and copy is essential to that.

(Another good book because it focuses on deliverables, and on organizing your thoughts in modular ways, is Communicating Design: Developing Web Site Documentation for Design and Planning, by Dan Brown.)

What else...hmm...hard to type in this tiny comment box, but...avoid the combinatoric explosion of templates. Have ONE template and one column width if possible throughout the site for body copy. Don't display something in eleven pt. Helvetica on one page and twelve pt. Times on a different page; you'll suffer from heartbreak if you do. Figure out exactly how you will deal with things like footnotes and what sizes of images are acceptable and how they will look. Set an optimal article/item length as a guideline and determine how you will be using headlines. Set that IN STONE. Design and form have tremendous influence on what gets written and how. And as with design, so with voice. This sounds like design advice but it actually has a tremendous effect on WHAT gets written and how it gets written.

Again, I'm sorry you were disappointed in the panel but there's almost no way to approach it in fifty minutes with six panelists; for me the key to copy on the web is to be VERY responsive to your users and to get them to tell you if they don't understand something on the site; then rewrite it and ask them if it makes more sense--you'd be surprised how willing people are to work with you. Write something, get it online, and be willing to look at the stats and listen to complaints to see what works.

Cheers!

	Brian Einarsen

Liz Danzico should've continued her intro and made a full presentation instead. The discussion panel killed the subject.

	Liz Danzico

@Brian: Thanks for the feedback. We felt that, given the range of roles required for people who create and manage content, a panel discussion would be best. Bringing in expertise from panelists who range from editor to practitioner allowed us to cover topics that only one person couldn't have.

As Paul points out, content is a large enough topic that each of us could have covered an aspect of it in a full presentation. But the diversity should instead provide some starting points worthy of continued exploration.

	Chase Maggiano

Important topic, but panel action was slow to start, and over before the real meat of the discussion could even begin. Specific information on guide copy, user comments, navigation labels, dos and dont's, best and worst copy advice, were relatively absent from the discussion.

	Jodene Eikenberry

Agree that the panel format seemed to drag down the relevance of the conversation. With such great minds available to speak about content issues, I think some of you should go ahead and do a full presentation next time. I imagine hearing Liz or Alex or Jeffrey for a full hour would be more informative and meaningful for my hour.

	Vasken Sayre

There wasn't enough time to benefit from the experience of the entire panel. It seemed like the moderator dominated the discussion too much, rather than encouraging others to contribute equally. Would like to see this in another format.