Is Nielsen God?
There are terrific resources out there: Jakob Nielsen, the author of Designing Web Usability and the useit.com web site is one, Jared Spool of User Interface Engineering is another. However, you need to know when and why to violate the rules. It's less Science and more Art now, but the metrics are catching up. The value of the web medium is that you can immediately apply the lessons you learn from mistakes.

Be Active
Active voice and the simple declarative sentence rule the web. (We argue they rule marketing but that's another fight.) Dive home the message in verbs rather than say it weakly in adverbs. Style flourishes even under these standards. Your voice can be unique as well as clear and succinct.

Don't Waste Text
(Darn, we just did (Oops, we did it again))
Writing for the web is a unique marketing challenge. One must be brief and yet comprehensive. People want information, but they don't want to waste time.

The key is to be as concise as poetry, which means writing a lot and then cutting, cutting, cutting (except for emphasis). It takes more time to write fewer words.

Say It in the Headlines
People scan web pages, so the headlines should cite your key messages. Visitors may not read any further. Also, subheads help to visually break up the page .

Give Direction
Use clear calls to action on every page to guide visitors through the sales cycle. You can be indirect: "KTD Communications uses experience design to drive your visitors to take action." Alternatively, you can be direct: "Contact us today for a site evaluation."

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