Reading great writing online is not like reading a book, newspaper, magazine, or little sister's diary. It is like hearing the author speak directly to you, but instead, it's being read on some website or blog.
Now if only we could persuade textbook writers to write in such an interesting, direct manner, I might study a little more!
My favorite and most visited blog: The Superficial has to be mentioned as the best online writing I have seen. When I need my daily fix of celebrity news, the site is the first place I go. The Superficial is written with the hilarious satire of an experienced blogger and is seventh on the list of websites Google provides when typing in "celebrity gossip."This is the key point of Brian Clark's How to Create Compelling Content That Ranks Well in Search Engines. It is found as exactly what its content provides. It also helps that the website grows increasingly popular every year! The Superficial is one of the only blogs that, despite now having advertisers, does not hold back about its view of celebrities and their ridiculous antics. The writing appeals to a range of visitors, and as Deanna Zandt, author of speech and converted blog: How You Will Change the World With Social Networking mentions is one of the key factors of online content, the writer sounds as though he is speaking directly to me. He is being "social" and "human," and he is "developing a relationship with (me)." Over time, he successfully achieves ambient awareness.
The Onion is my second favorite website, and a great example of good online content. The former newspaper made a smooth transition to online media and the site shows that. The layout is simple: a bar across the top of the page with whatever type of "news" you would like to see, and their top stories in the center of the page. They appeal to a variety of audiences; anyone who would like a quick laugh, and their advertisements are not obnoxiously crowding the page.
I have not stumbled across too many truly terrible blogs. So of course, being in the internet age, I Googled "Terrible Blogs" Hello, terribleblogs.com! Through this magical site I browsed and found ballerking.com. Just the name was enough to in real life smh, but this was the perfect terrible blog. The writing is ridiculous, considering it sounds like a 13 year old wanna be gangster giving advice to male peers. The posts are organized in large paragraph or list groups, and the advise itself contains typo's, incorrect grammar (even for the internet), and no pictures, graphics, links, or overall changes in scenery if you will.
Another example of a poorly designed web page is that of my very own employer Coffee Shop. It is an extremely famous restaurant in Union Square and with our constant revenue and celebrity clientele, one would think our website would be spectacular. However, sadly, it is hard to navigate, contains far too much flash, is hard to read (with some words literally cut off at the bottom of the page), and boldly shouts music at you upon visiting. Hopefully when I graduate and have some experience in web design I can offer to change it but for now, I will have to continue dealing with customers angrily calling and telling me that the hours are wrong on the website. "I know ma'am, I am so sorry! It will be fixed soon."
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