A couple of friends have a band, well, actually they have 2 bands, the first is a private party set-up where they play at weddings, corporate do’s and the likes, the other is a tribute to Annie Lennox. The first band are really good (not that the second one aren’t) and have really flexible lineups with male and female singers and if you really want to go OTT you can have a full brass section too. I’ve only seen them a couple of times because of the nature of the events they play at, it’s not usually open to the public. I mean, I’m sure you wouldn’t want the bands friends turning up if they were playing at your wedding. If you want to know a bit more about them see www.popofages.co.uk they have lists of the type of music they play and loads of info about the band themselves, what they have done before, some live and studio recordings, video and a blog, oh yes, that was the point of me writing today, to mention their blog…

I think it’s a great idea for a band to have a blog, everyone should have one, although I suppose I would say that being an advocate of blogging. But it’s a great way for them to engage with their audience on a less formal basis that they would on the website as a whole, more chat than fact. They mention the new Diva project and some of the recent gigs they have played (although I did tell them that it really needs to be kept up to date). When they are playing somewhere the general public are allowed to attend they can also post it up on there, they get such good feedback and recommendations from the people who have used them before that someone might just read it at the right time and pop along to see them again.

The other band they do is a tribute to Annie Lennox and is just the two of them, but her voice is very true to the Diva and Dave does look a lot like Dave Stewart too, so all in all a good act. It’s very new so is just getting known, but they have already had a few gigs, plenty of enquiries and even one for abroad already, so it’s certainly moving in the right direction. Alas they have no blog as yet but do use twitter to keep people up to date with upcoming concerts and the latest news.

We do seem to be following a bit of a pattern in the UK, following that of the US when it comes to many types of legal claims, not to mention the fact that all those no win no fee adverts which are all over the TV on weekday morning, tucked in with the loans adverts in between the housewives favourite Jeremy Kyle and some programme about finding old tat in the loft or garage and then selling it to some poor unsuspecting soul at the local auction.

Anyway, the point being that the US culture of making legal claims has well and truly spread to the UK and that’s not to mention the fact that we are even calling them injury lawyers now, surely in UK language they should be called an accident solicitor or something similar? But again I expect that’s partly down to those big legal firms who dominate the advertising on daytime TV.

So what do these companies do? Well in very broad terms if you have had an accident of any type, be it a trip or fall, car accident, a medical problem which could be attributed back to the NHS or private health care professional, you may have cause to make a claim and this is where a firm of no win no fee solicitors will be able to help you. Whilst they do essentially serve the same purpose, it’s worth noting that many of the large companies out there who offer this type of service aren’t actually a firm of solicitors, sure they have or at least have access to legal professionals, but the people you speak to on the phone are just administrative people and dealing with them means you may never actually speak to a solicitor yourself.

On the other hand there are quite a lot of smaller local firms of solicitors who do offer the same no win no fee service but you will get to speak to the solicitor and probably even go to their offices to meet them or they may even do home visits. Although it seems like a major thing for personal injury specialists to actually come to your house, it makes a lot of sense as, firstly you aren’t paying them if it’s a no win no fee situation, but also the reason they do this sometimes is because  the client may be incapacitated in some way.  If it’s a medical negligence type of case, the client could be laid up in bed so although they are entitled to compensation would never be able to get it without home visits by their solicitor.

This isn’t one of those things which people put on their website to say how they will or won’t use your information, I’m not quite sure if I should have one on here or not actually, probably not seeing as I don’t collect anyone’s information anyway, so just for the record, if I do, I will not sell it or give it to anyone. The only people who do give me their details are the spammers, who leave me a pointless comment on a post along with a link back to their website, they get deleted, but I wonder where I stand on the legal side of that if I were to gather up all those email addresses and give them all to someone else who will constantly market them, now there’s a funny thought.

I do have a friend who’s a lawyer, although he specializes in medical cases and getting compensation for his clients, so although he is a very well respected solicitor and he has won some very high profile cases, he almost certainly wouldn’t be in a position to offer advice on internet disclaimers. That would be a bit like going to a dinner party and realizing the person across the table from you is a nurse and then bothering them with your ailments all night, although I expect they are so used to it that they are experienced in fending people like that off.

I suppose I could find a legal statement on somebody elses website and adapt it for my own needs, or just ask my no win no fee solicitor friend if he knows someone who could write it for me, but no doubt that would come at a price.

Hmm, I appear to have done it again, started writing with something in mind, then digressed to the point that the entire post is about something else!

There are a few key things to bear in mind when writing for the web, this is a bit of a brain dump of ideas and I will add to it over time:

1. Keep it relevant.  This is something which I struggle with myself, but if the content is not relevant to the topic on the page, a visitor will probably lose interest and move on.

2. Grab Their Interest. Get to the point right at the start, most web readers just skim the content, so if you make a bold statement or put the conclusion at the start, you stand a better chance of keeping them on the page.

3. One Idea In Each Paragraph. This relates back to keeping it relevant and helps to segment the article into manageable chunks.

4. Use Lists. Like this post, there is a brief header then a description for each point, so readers can skim or read the whole post easily.

5. Keep Sentences Short. Again, concise is the key here

6. Add links to relevant pages within the body of the Text. They will stand out as they should be a different colour and will make it clear to the reader that clicking it will move them to a new page with related content.

As I said, this list will evolve, but this is what springs to mind right now.

OK, so this is the first post here, generally I will be writing about blogs and blogging, however I know from previous experience that I have an inclination to stray off the topic, so in all fairness, if you have just found my little corner of the web, you really can expect to find just about anything here.  I’ll be chatting about writing for the web, possibly touching on design aspects and certainly a little bit about SEO, as that’s what I’m most interested in right now.