Don’t Welcome Me to Your Website

Don’t Welcome Me to Your Website

B Y   T O M   T O R T O R I C I Here’s a “Bottom 10 List” of things that seemed like a good idea at the time … but may have ended up hurting your site’s effectiveness. So what can we do about these web worst practices? Read on. 1. Don’t ‘welcome’ me to your website.
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I Am a Designer And I Have Sinned

I Am a Designer And I Have Sinned

B Y   T O M   T O R T O R I C I It’s true. I look back with cringing regret at some of the things I did when first starting out as an advertising designer. Then, as you’ll see, I began seeing things from the audience’s point-of-view, rather than just from a...
The Hidden Potential of Frequently Asked Questions

The Hidden Potential of Frequently Asked Questions

B Y   T O M   T O R T O R I C I What queries do you hear most often from new and prospective buyers? Perhaps you already have a FAQ page on your website. Let’s take a closer look at how you can further leverage the Q&A approach to turn questioners into paying...
The Dirty Little Secret of the Web Design Industry

The Dirty Little Secret of the Web Design Industry

B Y   T O M   T O R T O R I C I Have you reinvented yourself lately? Over the course of my career, I’ve done the reinvention thing a number of times. Though I mostly do website writing now, I started out as a print designer, taking a train into New York City for night...
What Is Your Customer’s “Most Important Thing”?

What Is Your Customer’s “Most Important Thing”?

B Y   T O M   T O R T O R I C I    Did you know you have a super power? It’s your ability to make decisions that affect your own life. Sure, there are lots of things we can’t control. Yet every day, we find ourselves with the power, and the responsibility, to make all...
3 Common Web Design Practices that Really Don’t Make Sense

3 Common Web Design Practices that Really Don’t Make Sense

B Y   T O M   T O R T O R I C I Humans have a tendency to do things ‘the old way’ simply because it feels comfortable and familiar. In business website design, though, that dynamic may be making the process unnecessarily difficult for web clients, web designers, and...
What You Really Should Know About Web Images

What You Really Should Know About Web Images

B Y   T O M   T O R T O R I C I When your eyes land on a web page, what do they see? Well, two things: writing, and images. I’ve been a web writer for decades, speaking and writing about the topic for almost as long. So naturally in today’s post I’ll be talking about...
Then the Panel Discussion Went Off the Rails

Then the Panel Discussion Went Off the Rails

B Y   T O M   T O R T O R I C I Note from Tom: Like today’s Virtual Conferences, the ‘Imaginary Conference’ I’ve organized is Covid-safe. It all just plays out in my head, and even I don’t know what will happen . . .   Moderator  Hi, everybody; glad you could...
What Should I Blog About?

What Should I Blog About?

B Y   T O M   T O R T O R I C I Every time I glanced up from Twitter to sip my latte, I’d notice him. Sitting a few tables away at Starbucks, he was fidgeting with apparent stress about something. Now and then he’d lean forward to type something on the laptop in...
Take My Money: A History of Banking

Take My Money: A History of Banking

B Y   T O M   T O R T O R I C I A few posts ago, I introduced the idea of ‘Branded History.’ The example I shared was a historical account I had written about the origins and development of soap. It culminated in the story of my client’s detergent-making business,...