Text Types and Different Styles of Writing: The Complete Guide

example of narrative writing style

Why Use a Structure?

For example, being asked to write a 10,000-word report is an intimidating prospect. However, you can use a framework to decide that you will need 500 words in an introduction, 2,000 to explain the methods you used, 2,500 to set out your results, and so on. Writing a 500-word introduction is a much less daunting task than writing a 10,000-word report.

Developing a Structure

For example, if you are writing a business document, or something at work, your employer may already have a template for that document. If you are a student, there may be a required structure for each kind of written assignment.

However, don’t panic, because there are many examples of structures for different forms of writing available on the web and within study guides. You really do not need to reinvent the wheel.

Start by searching for a suitable example using your keywords (for example, ‘factual news article’, or ‘business report’). You can then compare outline structures, and decide which one you think will work.

A Process for Structure Development

Academic writing generally takes this form. You start with background and previous research, then describe your methods, results, and conclusions, setting this into the context of previous research. Finally, you put forward proposals for future research.

Business writing often takes this form, because executives tend to want to read the conclusions or recommendations first. If they don’t understand or support these, then they want more information about how the ideas were developed. They usually know the background, so that is often included in an appendix, rather than the main text.

Some Tips for Deciding Your Structure:

It is a good idea to start by thinking about your conclusion or recommendations, and decide whether you want those upfront, or at the end. This depends chiefly on your readers’ need.

Consider whether you need to include any background, and if so, how much. To decide this, again consider your reader. You can then decide if you want to include the background early on (because your audience needs this information), or if it can be included as an appendix for anyone who wants to read it later.

This will probably give you enough clues to decide on a chronological or non-chronological structures. Beyond that, you will need to be flexible to decide what is most appropriate for your purposes.

When you are developing a suitable structure, remember that it is not set in stone. You do not have to use it rigidly. Even within an organisational outline, there will be some flexibility.

You will probably have realised by now that perhaps the most important consideration is your audience. There is more about this process of understanding your readers’ needs in our page on Know Your Audience.

Once you have decided whether you are using a chronological or non-chronological structure, set out some possible headings and sub-headings for your document. These should allow you to set out all the necessary information, in a logical order.

Using Your Structure

You will often be able to use the titles of the main sections in your structure as headings and subheadings within the text. These help the reader to navigate through the piece.

One of the most useful aspects of a structure is that you do not need to write your document in the final order. Instead, you can move about the document, writing different sections to follow your train of thought.

In academic writing, it is common to start with the methods, because this is often the easiest section. The introduction or background may be written early, but will often need much more work once you have developed your conclusions.

Whatever structure you choose to use, you should constantly check that you are adhering to it. If you find that your structure does not work, then revisit it to see whether another structure might be more appropriate.

You should also check the flow of your text as you write. Paragraphs and sections should flow logically from one to the next. Conclude one subject area before introducing another. Hopping from one topic to another with no clear structure confuses the reader and demonstrates a lack of clarity.

Examples of Structures for Written Work

Two examples of common structures for writing different types of communication are provided below. Remember that these are simply examples, and many variations on these frameworks exist.

A Written Report

A Press Release

Journalists receive numerous press releases every day. The key aim is therefore to capture their interest quickly and show them that you have a good story for them, which will repay their attention.

Paragraph 1 Lead Sentence: Summarise the story – who, what, where, when and why. All key information needs to be in this paragraph. It needs to keep the reader’s interest and follow on from the headline.

Paragraph 2: Include more details to flesh out the story that you outlined in the first paragraph

Paragraph 3: Quotes from someone relevant to the story. Each quote should make one point. If you wish to include more than one point here, use quotes from different people.

Paragraph 4: Any additional relevant information

Contact Information

Note for Editors (background information; whether you can offer interviews or additional pictures; any additional relevant information)

A final thought

DOWNLOAD OUR 52 DIGITAL WRITING JOURNAL TASKS

text types,writing genres | Fun writing tasks | Text Types and Different Styles of Writing: The Complete Guide | literacyideas.com

Our FUN TEN MINUTE DAILY WRITING TASKS will teach your students the fundamentals of creative writing across all text types. These 52 excellent INDEPENDENT TASKS are perfect for DISTANCE LEARNING.

These EDITABLE Journals are purpose-built for DIGITAL DEVICES on platforms such as Google Classroom, SeeSaw and Office 365. Alternately you can print them out and use them as a traditional writing activity.

Types of text structures

While writing style is about the writer, the text structure is about what the writer is writing. Text structure means how information is presented. If the information that I want to convey to you is “apples are red and sweet”, I can convey that directly by saying so.

But if I want to take a different approach, I’d say “while oranges give you a stingy sourness and then the sweetness kicks in, apples are much more consistent in sweetness”. Same information can be provided in multiple ways and the text structure and the writing styles are very closely related.

As you can see, these are the different methods with which you can present information. The structure of the literature can be based on these three methods or a composite of the three.

In contrast/compare, you present information in a comparative manner, sort of like a “this vs that” scenario. If I wrote this artice in a comparative way, listing the contrasting difference between the four, the structure would have been of this group.

In a cause and effect scenario, the presentation of information given on the basis of the need of it. Why is something written in a narrative tone? Why in some cases, the expository tone is preferred over descriptive? All the answers to these questions are presented in cause and effect structure. Do remember that this structure does not ask questions, rather it raises the questions in the readers’ minds.

The last one here on the list is the question and answer model which is just to present information is a question and answer basis. What is the best method to write a news article that needs to be compact and to the point? Expository. The reason for that is… This is how the information is presented.

So this was all about different writing styles and text structures and their characteristics. We hope that the article was helpful in solving your query. Read more articles related to writing to understand the art better:

Source:

https://www.skillsyouneed.com/write/structure.html
https://literacyideas.com/different-text-types/
https://wordsverse.com/2020/09/writing-styles/

{ Add a Comment }

How To Write Website Content: Top 20 Do’s And Don’ts

Golden Rules for writing content

How to write content for a website

How to Write Website Content

Search

Categories

If you’re in the process of creating a website, one of your top priorities is to write attractive and compelling content for your site. If this is the first time (or second or third – it takes a while to learn the skill of quality content writing!) you might be a bit unsure of what you should and should not be writing. Successful website content appeals to both your internet viewers and search engines, but catering to both can be intimidating.

Don’t panic! We’ve compiled the top 20 do’s and don’ts to show you how to write website content that enhances the appearance, readability, and SEO effectiveness of your new site. Follow these tips when you’re composing and compiling your website content and you’ll be able to reap the rewards of quality content writing when your new site is live!

How Do I Start Content Writing?

Learn the Basics

  • Research: To determine the most effective keywords to include in your content, you’ll want to perform a few different types of research. Consider factors like buyer personas and search intent so you can develop effective strategies for connecting with your potential customers. Then, you can perform keyword research—using tools like DemandJump . It’s also worth digging into your leading competitors’ website content for ideas.
  • Planning: Planning out a content strategy is an effective way to ensure you’re publishing meaningful content. At DemandJump, we leverage the power of pillar-based marketing (PBM) to develop networks of high-quality, interconnected content. If PBM is a new topic for you, you can read more about it here .
  • Content creation: Finally, it’s time to write. The following tips are intended to help you develop high-quality content that will get you to page one of Google and other search engine rankings.

Practice, Practice, Practice

The more you write, the better you’ll get at it. This is true for most things, but it especially holds true for writing. Try not to edit yourself as you’re writing. Set a timer and just write! You may be surprised at what you can create, and then edit it afterward.

Read Good content!

In order to know how to write good content, it’s important to read good content. Explore your competition’s websites and check out what they have going on. Look at industry experts to see what they are writing about.

Check social media for hashtags about the subjects you want to write about. There are lots of ways to find good content for your industry. Plus, the more you read what’s out there, the better you’ll become at recognizing—and creating—good website content examples.

Leverage the Right Tools

It’s tempting to just google “website content template” and use the first resource that pops up. Unfortunately, a generic template probably won’t give you the results you’re looking for.

That’s why we developed DemandJump , a content marketing tool that can help you write content that ranks fast. You can generate one-click outlines on any topic or question that includes the exact keywords to get your content in front of the right audience.

Not only that, but you can get a prioritized list of content to create and, once your content is published, see what is working and what isn’t. This is just one of the tools available to help you with content marketing, and there are plenty of paid and free tools out there for you to explore.

Try It Free

4. If All Else Fails. Hire a Professional

Don’t have the time or expertise to master all the writing for the web best practices? That’s where the experts come in! There are many content marketing firms that specialize in writing content for companies and businesses.

Incorporate multimedia

An easy-to-read chart or graph can also do a better job of explaining a complex topic than text alone. If you’re not a graphic designer by trade, there are lots of ways to use visuals on your website and some great services out there to help you make graphics yourself, like Canva and Piktochart.

The great thing about a website is that it’s easy to direct readers from one page to another. Help readers find more great content by hyperlinking certain words or phrases to other relevant resources, especially those on your own website. This will help keep people engaged with your content and moving through your site.

For example, say this sentence appeared on your cooking website: Ratatouille is a low-fat dish that consists of seasonal ingredients like eggplant, squash, and tomatoes. You could hyperlink “low-fat dish” to a page with other blog posts on healthy eating.

Building these internal links within your own site also helps your SEO, but keep in mind that links should always be relevant and helpful. Visually, if you overload your text with links, people won’t know what to click on. Google recommends keeping the amount of hyperlinks on a page to a “reasonable number.”

Leave them wanting more

Good websites end each page with a strong call-to-action (or CTA for short). Is there a person a reader should contact for more information? An interesting video they should watch? How about a related blog post they can read or a report they can download? This strategy helps direct readers to other areas of your website and encourages them to promote your content to their friends and family.

Keep these calls-to-action succinct, and start them with action verbs like “Download,” “Share,” “Join,” “Sign Up,” “Learn More” or “Watch.” And of course, make sure to include a link that actually allows readers to fulfill the action you’re asking them to take.

Writing, in general, is hard work—writing content for your website, even more so. But remember, you don’t need to write perfect texts first time around! Once your content is live, you can do monthly website checks to monitor and optimize its performance. With these tips, you’re prepared to create effective content that resonates with even the most flighty and time-pressed of internet readers.

Source:

https://thriveagency.com/news/how-to-write-website-content/
https://www.demandjump.com/blog/how-to-write-content-for-a-website-4-simple-steps-from-the-pros
https://www.jimdo.com/blog/11-golden-rules-of-writing-website-content/

{ Add a Comment }

How to Resign From a Job Professionally

Unemployment paperwork

Write a resignation letter

If you are particularly sorry to be leaving, you may want to add an extra sentence or two thanking your boss for the opportunities you have been given and expressing your regret.

If you are resigning because you are unhappy with your job or as a result of unsatisfactory working conditions or circumstances in the workplace, think carefully about the benefits of airing your reasons for leaving.

You might feel differently after you have more time to cool off. Ultimately, you will regret anything you relay in the heat of the moment, so do not go into detail in your resignation letter. Instead, simply state your intention to resign. Keep it simple and to the point. There is no need to elaborate or commit bitterness to paper.

If you can, try to leave on a positive note. To do this, focus on the positive experiences you’ve had with the company. Chances are you met some great people, learned new skills, picked up valuable experience and had the opportunity to make a positive difference in your position with the company.

Should you leave your job before you get another one?

Every situation is unique and personal, so there isn’t really a right or wrong answer. It’s always a safer decision to leave a job with another one lined up due to the risks of leaving spontaneously. That being said, if you’re financially prepared to take some time off, it can be a good idea to step back to focus on your next move.

It’s highly likely you’ll need to share a reason for your resignation. Your boss will probably want to know why you’re resigning and your future employer will be interested in what motivated you to look elsewhere. You should always be tactful when speaking about your decision to leave your current position. Doing so will help you remain on good terms with your soon-to-be previous employer.

“I’m changing career paths”
“I’ve been given a better opportunity elsewhere”
“My job has altered due to organizational changes”
“I’m navigating family circumstances”
“I’m experiencing health issues”

“I think I may be fired”
“I’m bored at work”
“I don’t get along with my co-workers”
“I don’t like your boss”
“The job is too hard”
“I haven’t been given a promotion”
“Friends/family have told me to quit”

What to Do Before You Quit

Laid-off businesswoman commuter riding bus with box of belongings

Before you submit your resignation to your boss, make sure you are prepared to leave. However, you don’t want to give any indication that you’re moving on, like taking your photos off your desk or pictures off the wall. Quietly clear out your desk and clean up your computer.

Be sure to save any files you want to Google Drive, or elsewhere online, or email copies to yourself. You may not have access to your computer once you turn in your resignation, so have copies of everything you need before you tell your boss that you’re quitting.

Source:

https://www.hays.com.au/career-advice/job-hunting/resign-without-burning-bridges
https://vidcruiter.com/resources/how-to-resign-from-a-job/
https://www.thebalancecareers.com/best-tips-to-resign-from-your-job-gracefully-2061667

{ Add a Comment }

700 job description templates

job description examples

700+ job description templates

Better job descriptions attract better candidates. Optimized for job board approval and SEO, our 700+ job description templates boost exposure, provide inspiration and speed up hiring. Rich in the right kind of content, they also lead to more qualified applicants.

Accounting
Finance
Administrative
  • House Manager job description
  • Non-Profit Executive Director job description
  • Physicist job description
  • Program Specialist job description
  • Project Management Officer job description
  • Credential Specialist job description
  • Community Liason job description
  • Operations Associate job description
  • Documentation Specialist job description
  • Church Administrator job description
  • Operating Assistant job description
  • Escrow Assistant job description
  • Department Manager job description
  • Key Holder job description
  • Crew Member job description
  • City Carrier Assistant job description
  • Census Enumerator job description
  • Archivist job description
  • County Clerk job description
  • Statistician job description
  • Nurse Manager job description
  • Intake Specialist Job Description
  • Scheduling Coordinator Job Description
  • Program Assistant Job Description
  • Chief Medical Officer Job Description
  • Copy Editor Job Description
  • Fundraiser Job Description
  • Assistant Project Manager job description
  • Procurement Specialist job description
  • Management Analyst job description
  • Unit Secretary job description
  • Service Writer job description
  • Payroll Administrator job description
  • City Clerk job description
  • Mail Processor job description
  • Research Assistant job description
  • Medical Scribe job description
  • Direct Support Professional job description
  • Chief of Staff job description
  • Operations Supervisor job description
  • Senior Vice President job description
  • Management Trainee job description
  • Shift supervisor job description
  • Shift Leader job description
  • Head of Operations job description
  • Program Administrator job description
  • General Manager job description
  • Translator job description
  • Project Administrator job description
  • Document Controller job description
  • Administrative Coordinator job description
  • Strategic Planner job description
  • Mail Clerk job description
  • Staff Assistant job description
  • Typist job description
  • Contract Administrator job description
  • Senior Executive Assistant job description
  • Virtual Assistant job description
  • Administrative officer job description
  • Administrator job description
  • Team Leader job description
  • Senior Administrative Assistant job description
  • Front Office Manager job description
  • Executive Administrative Assistant job description
  • Business Manager job description
  • Assistant Manager job description
  • Program Manager job description
  • Program Coordinator job description
  • Secretary job description
  • Executive Secretary job description
  • Administration Manager job description
  • Program Director job description
  • File Clerk job description
  • Office Coordinator job description
  • Data Entry Clerk job description
  • Office Administrator job description
  • Office Clerk job description
  • Office Assistant job description
  • Executive Assistant job description
  • Project Coordinator job description
  • Consultant job description
  • Business Consultant job description
  • Branch Manager job description
  • Operations Manager job description
  • Personal Assistant job description
  • District Manager job description
  • Supervisor job description
  • Data Entry Operator job description
  • Director of Operations job description
  • CEO job description
  • Executive Director job description
  • Managing Director job description
  • Assistant Director job description
  • Chief Administrative Officer job description
  • COO job description
  • Administrative Assistant job description
  • Office Manager job description
IT and Development
  • UX Researcher job description
  • Site Reliability Engineer job description
  • Computer Science job description
  • Cloud Architect job description
  • Cloud Engineer job description
  • Quality Analyst job description
  • Application Engineer job description
  • Video Game Designer job description
  • Product Engineer Job Description
  • Engineering Technician job description
  • Computer Engineer job description
  • Medical Coder job description
  • Cyber Security Specialist job description
  • Director of Engineering job description
  • Full Stack Developer job description
  • Scrum Master job description
  • IT Operations Manager job description
  • Business Operations Manager job description
  • Natural Language Processing Engineer job description
  • Machine Learning Engineer job description
  • Lead Data Scientist job description
  • Senior System Administrator job description
  • Senior Python Developer job description
  • Python Developer job description
  • Senior Ruby Developer job description
  • Senior .NET Developer job description
  • Senior Java Developer job description
  • Java Software Engineer job description
  • BI Consultant job description
  • Product Owner job description
  • DevOps Engineer job description
  • Senior Web Developer job description
  • BI (Business Intelligence) Developer job description
  • Technical Architect job description
  • Senior Network Engineer job description
  • Senior Software Engineer job description
  • Computer Security Specialist job description
  • .Net Developer job description
  • System Administrator job description
  • Software Developer job description
  • Healthcare Data Analyst job description
  • Analytics Manager job description
  • Webmaster job description
  • QA Tester job description
  • Data Scientist job description
  • Data Architect job description
  • IT Analyst job description
  • CTO (Chief Technology Officer) job description
  • Senior Product Manager job description
  • System Analyst job description
  • Web Programmer job description
  • Mobile Developer job description
  • Back-end Developer job description
  • Database Developer job description
  • Front-end Developer job description
  • Network Administrator job description
  • Embedded Software Engineer job description
  • Software Architect job description
  • IT Coordinator job description
  • Application Developer job description
  • Data Manager job description
  • Chief Information Officer – CIO job description
  • IT Consultant job description
  • Programmer job description
  • IT Director job description
  • Software Engineer job description
  • Business Analyst job description
  • Database Administrator (DBA) job description
  • Telecommunications Specialist job description
  • IT Manager job description
  • Game Developer job description
  • PHP Developer job description
  • Computer Technician job description
  • System Security Engineer job description
  • Software Security Engineer job description
  • Web Developer job description
  • Android Developer job description
  • Data Analyst job description
  • IT Technician job description
  • Network Technician job description
  • Network Engineer job description
  • Technical Writer job description
  • Java Developer job description
  • QA Engineer job description
  • Ruby on Rails Developer job description
  • iOS Developer job description
  • Product Manager job description
  • Systems Engineer job description
  • Project Manager job description

How To Write A Job Description

Great job descriptions are thorough yet concise. They use specific terms and keep a professional tone. It’s ok to be a little quirky, but don’t overdo it. If you don’t take the job description seriously, top candidates will move on to other opportunities.

Job Title

Make the job title clear and concise. People will be searching terms they know, so don’t stray from the standard industry language of common job titles. Be sure to include specific terms, like the programs required for the role. The title Lead Front End AngularJS Engineer is much more descriptive than Developer and will attract more qualified candidates.

Company Mission

Most companies have a lengthy mission statement with core values and a culture code. Slim that down to about two to four sentences. For candidates looking at multiple companies and open roles, the missions start to sound the same, and they can read about the company’s full profile on the website if they decide to pursue the position.

Role Summary

Job Function

Must-Have Skills

Nice-to-Have Skills

If there are any other qualities that are nice to have, include those here. Don’t feel like you have to include this section, but it may help candidates know what to include in the application or interview to stand out.

Compensation

61% of job seekers consider compensation information to be the most important part of a job description. Many companies still refuse to provide this information in job descriptions, but it’s time to get over your discomfort.

Time

It’s best to be upfront about the time frame you need employees to work. Flexible work hours are more common for full time employees, time zones may play a role, and certain industries and markets work around different schedules.

Location

Candidates will consider commute time or relocation efforts in their employment decision, so help them determine fit before they embark on the application process. Embedding a Google Map onto your website is really quite simple and can be done with this guide.

Working Conditions

Call To Action

Make sure it is blatantly obvious where a candidate is supposed to apply. Do not make it complicated or frustrating to apply because that’s just going to reduce your applicant pool for the wrong reasons.

Disclaimer Statements

Most companies include an equal opportunity employer statement and that the employee may be required to perform additional job functions beyond the description. Do your research because disclaimers can help companies prevent messy lawsuits.

Resources:

https://resources.workable.com/job-descriptions/
https://builtin.com/job-descriptions
https://recruitee.com/articles/job-description-examples
https://www.wright.edu/human-resources/policies-and-resources/writing-an-effective-job-description
https://www.educba.com/job-description-and-job-specification/

{ Add a Comment }

How to Start Freelancing in 9 Steps 2022

More practice won

How to Start Freelancing (And Get Your FIRST Client!) [Updated May 2022]

The SPI community has been asking about the world of freelancing a lot lately, so I thought I’d share some recent thoughts on freelancing to guide you in how to get started freelancing (and get your first client).

In that post, I explain that freelancing is one of the two quickest ways to generate online income (the other is affiliate marketing). Freelancing allows you to quickly get paid for a task that can actually help solve problems for people.

And when you’re first starting out, freelancing is the number one way to get started online. It’s not passive income, which is an important thing to understand. Freelancing is definitely not passive; it’s super active. If you don’t do the work, you’re not going to get paid. But if you are dedicated and put in the effort, freelancing is a great way to get your foot in the door of an industry or niche you’re interested in. It’s, quite simply, a great way to get started in business.

After all, think about this: You just need one client. One client to make a little money. One client to get the ball rolling. One client to make a difference. And then, as you’ll hear me talk more about later in this post, you can take what you learn working with clients, and turn it into something more passive—with tools, or even a team! But first, let’s figure out how to get that first client.

Choose which skills you’ll start freelancing with

Start freelancing with skills from previous jobs

If those roles required creativity or use of a specific software, it’s even more likely that someone would be willing to pay YOU rather than take the time to learn that skill themselves.

Start freelancing with skills outside your job description

Start freelancing using your hobbies and self-taught skills

Narrow down your list of skills

When it comes to freelancing, having competition is a GOOD thing. If there aren’t other freelancers already getting paid for the work you’ve decided you want to do, chances are there isn’t much money to be made there.

If no one is earning a quality income using your preferred skill, check out the second, or the third, and so on until you’ve found a skill that people are being paid real money for and that you’re excited to start a freelance business around.

Package your skills into a service offering

Turn your service into a solution

Positioning your solution to your target client

It may not pay off immediately, and if it doesn’t then you should help them understand how long it will take for them to see that return on their investment — either by increasing revenue or decreasing costs.

Example Solution

So a solution our freelancer could provide is social media management. If they offered to grow my social media presence by posting content for me each month, that’s a compelling solution leveraging their skills.

How will you price your services when you start freelancing?

Value-based pricing fee: Similar to a fixed project fee, but based on the value of the work to the client, not the amount of work done by the service provider. This has the highest potential upside, but is the hardest to sell to the client.

Let’s return to our previous example of a marketer providing social media management for content creators. That service is probably an ongoing project and so either hourly or a monthly retainer is appropriate.

Competing on price is a race to the bottom and will burn you out if you make a name as being the “cheapest” option. Instead, find a number on the middle or high end of market rates for similar services that makes you excited to do the project.

Pricing Pro Tips

Pull it all together with your client formula

There’s a bonus to this: by creating this formula, you also create the perfect Elevator Speech for your freelance business with the phrase “I help [person x] solve [problem y].”

Example

10 Steps to Start a Freelance Business While Working Full-Time in 2022

Before you start your freelance business, you need to get very clear on why you want to start freelancing in the first place. Once you have your bigger picture goals in mind, how you utilize your limited amount of time will greatly determine your level of success with freelancing.

How to Start Freelancing Business - Goals

Let’s say your bigger picture goal is to become a fully self-employed freelancer. You’ll set your own hours, decide who you want to work with, and call all the shots in your business. Now, how do you get there?

You know that you’ll need to get your freelance income up to a sustainable, healthy level that allows you to eventually quit your day job without stress about where your next paycheck is going to come from. Because I’ve quit my day job too early in the past with the phone case business I started (and ended up moving in with my parents for a few months), my personal rule is that I now must reach a side income of at least 75% of what my salaried job pays me, before even considering quitting to pursue my side business – full-time.

Starting with your freelance income target, based on your living expenses, risk tolerance, and realistic expectations on how long your savings can sustain you, now you can back into a rough idea of how many clients you’ll need (and what you’ll have to charge them), before making it to the point where you’ll be able to leave your day job to freelance full-time.

For me personally, a major goal of freelancing was to unlock more time for myself to just be. To live life. To pursue things like hiking with more of my free time—and as a result of doing that, I now have a hiking blog called Hike with Ryan. I’ve been writing about topics like my favorite Yosemite trails, the most thoughtful gifts for hikers, reviews of the best hiking boots, the right time of year to visit Yosemite and more.

Get the Complete Road Map

While this guide covered many of the crucial steps to launching your freelance career, there are obviously many more aspects to running a successful business. And that’s where our library of free business courses comes in. You’ll find financial advice, copywriting tips, negotiating strategies, and many other resources that will help you reach your goals faster.

Grant Olsen is a writer specializing in small business loans, leadership skills, and growth strategies. He is a contributing writer for KSL 5 TV, where his articles have generated more than 6 million page views, and has been featured on FitSmallBusiness.com and ModernHealthcare.com. Grant is also the author of the book "Rhino Trouble." He has a B.A. in English from Brigham Young University.

Related Posts

Starting a Software Company: 5 Lessons I Wish I Had Known

How MaryRuth Ghiyam Built a Wellness Empire — Exclusive

6 Ways to Evaluate Online Business Courses Before You Buy

How to Get Sponsored: From 0 to $50,000 in 4 Weeks

How Reid Hoffman Became a Silicon Valley Icon

How to Manage Customer Relationships with Inkbox’s Tyler Handley — Exclusive

How to Find a Manufacturer to Bring Your Product Vision to Life

How to Find Your Niche, According to an Expert Business Designer

Toni Ko on Exiting to L’Oréal for $500 Million and Starting Over — Exclusive

Resources:

https://www.smartpassiveincome.com/blog/how-to-start-freelancing/
https://freelancing.school/how-to-start-freelancing/
https://www.ryrob.com/why-freelance-while-working-full-time-and-how-to-do-it/
https://foundr.com/articles/building-a-business/how-to-start-freelancing

{ Add a Comment }

Email coding

Coding emails in pure HTML and CSS isn’t for the faint of heart! Don’t get discouraged, though. At the end of this tutorial, we’ll show you how you can use MJML to make your life much easier when coding for email. For now, let’s continue our deep dive into HTML and start creating your email content.

Email Coding 101: How to Use HTML, CSS, and MJML

Cookie-cutter email marketing is easy. The downside, however, is that doing things the easy way means a lot of other people are doing it that way too. You’re here because you want to do more with email coding. You have ideas. You want to take things further. You’re ready to learn some code and try out real email development

This article will provide everything you need to know about using HTML, CSS, and an email-specific coding language called Mailjet Markup Language (MJML). Use this to create one-of-a-kind emails without bothering with drag-and-drop templates that limit your creativity. It’s written for both experienced web developers and less technical email senders who might not know how to code.

HTML and CSS may be the best-known way to code, but MJML is made for coding emails. As you’ll see in this guide, there are major differences between web and email development. That’s because each email client supports different subsets of HTML and CSS properties. Since MJML was created especially for email, you can skip over these challenges without compromising full control over your email.

Building an effective HTML email template

If you’ve been building websites for long enough to remember the glory days of GeoCities and Angelfire, you probably built your first websites using tables for layouts. Building an HTML email today will take you back to those heady times, although with rather less use of the


tag.

Go ahead and stick a bookmark in this section, because you’ll want to come back to it every time you start building a new email template. We’ll cover the tips and tricks that make it possible to attain good results for as many of your—or your clients’—readers as possible.

The only client that still needs HTML tables is Outlook for Windows Desktop, so until that is deprecated, you’ll need to understand how email clients render tables, even if it is just to fallback to table layouts for Outlook.

Identify your audience’s viewing habits.

The first step in building a successful HTML email is to know how it will be read. If the subscribers are all going to be reading your email on their company Outlook email, for example, this might point you toward using plaintext.

In most cases there’ll be a mix of email clients in use, but there are a few ways to find out. Campaign Monitor publishes some overall statistics for email client usage that give a broad overview, albeit with some limitations. Or you can take a look at Litmus’ Email Market Share site.

What you’re looking for in these reports is your lowest common denominator. If there’s 30% using Lotus Notes 7, for example, you’ll need to make sure you specifically test in that client before sending. A particular version of an email client might be relevant—Outlook 2003 will cause you far fewer headaches than Outlook 2007, and in some cases, your list might only use one version.

If you’ve never sent to this list before, you might just have to test in every client you can find, and make some educated guesses about the kind of audience with which you’re dealing. Are they likely to be using mobile phones to read email, or locked-down corporate servers? Maybe they’re all individuals using Outlook.com and Yahoo addresses, which are at least easy to test in. Whatever you know about your audience, make yourself some notes about what email clients you want to check most every time you send.

It’s worth remembering that over the past few years the number of recipients reading email on their mobile devices has grown to 50% of the time. In some markets, more than 70% of emails are read on mobile. Making sure your emails are responsive will give a better client experience, especially as mobile email consumption only continues to rise.

Lean on tables—and not just for data.

Gmail, Outlook, Lotus Notes, and no doubt many more all have big issues with floated elements, and are even wildly unreliable with margins and padding. You’ll want to set up some structural HTML tables to make sure you end up with an email that at least holds together well.

1. Set widths in each cell rather than on the table.

Email clients are unreliable when it comes to deducing the correct width of a cell, so it’s safest to explicitly set one. Pixel widths are the most reliable, as using percentages can give you some wacky results, especially when using nested tables.

To set your cell padding, either set it once on the whole table with the cellpadding parameter, or use CSS to set padding in individual cells. Mixing the two is likely to cause problems, and is best avoided.

2. Nest tables for consistent spacing.

Even when margins and padding are supported by most email clients, results will be inconsistent. If the spacing is critical to you, try nesting tables inside your main table instead. It’s old school, but it’s tried-and-true.

3. Set a background color on a container table.

Some email clients will ignore a background on the tag, or one that’s set in your style sheet. Having a wrapping table around all your content and setting a bgcolor attribute on it will work around this issue.

4. Whitespace matters.

Theoretically, whitespace in HTML files should be ignored. But in practice it can cause all sorts of rendering quirks—especially if you have whitespace between table cells. Make a habit of removing any spaces between the closing tag of one cell and the opening tag of the next to avoid unsightly gaps and layout problems.

Use inline CSS.

This is where the C for cascading in CSS comes in handy. Applying a style in line gives it priority over styles further away (such as webmail client styles), and also works around the email clients that strip out CSS from the head or external CSS files.

Currently, the only major email client that strips all other types of CSS, embedded tags in the head or body, and externally linked stylesheets is the Gmail app with non-Gmail addresses (commonly referred to as GANGA).

Generate A Full-Page Email Preview

If you need a full-page preview of your HTML Email, Emailpreview.io might be just what you need. You can copy/paste HTML, or import an EML file that you’ve just received, and the tool outputs a fully rendered image of your email. You can choose the device width as well. A helpful little tool to keep nearby.

Most marketing emails include trackers in HTML email, so they can track how often, when and where customers open emails. MailTrackerBlocker acts pretty much as an ad-blocker for browsers, but works with email clients. The tool labels who is tracking customers and removes tracking pixels before they can be displayed, so you can still load all remote content and keep your behavior private. Currently only available for Apple Mail on macOS 10.11 – 11.x (shoutout to Jeremy Keith!).

Sources:

https://www.emailonacid.com/blog/article/email-development/email-coding-101/
https://www.campaignmonitor.com/dev-resources/guides/coding-html-emails/
https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2021/04/complete-guide-html-email-templates-tools/
Email coding

When using paragraph and heading tags (p, h1, h2, etc.) you must specify your top and bottom margin settings, otherwise each email client will apply their own wildly different default margins to these elements. You also need to make sure your top and bottom margins are set to zero if you don’t want any at all, in which case you would set your heading to margin:0; . If you only want a bottom margin, you should still set the top margin to zero, e.g. margin:0 0 10px 0; .

Trusted by 000’s of agencies all over the world

They provided a first class service from start to finish, and their expert knowledge and creative input were a priceless to our project. The end result was an outstanding site, rock solid coding and a super-intuitive user experience that exceeded expectations.

We’ve used Gooey countless times, for a range of small – large projects. We are always confident leaving any kind of project in Gooey’s capable hands, knowing the work will be of high quality, coupled with an outstanding delivery/service.

Working with Gooey is a no-brainer for us. They provide the flexibility to scale our development capacity when we need to, without the headache of managing multiple freelancers. The communication throughout each project and quality of work is brilliant. They are a great team that we can rely on when we need them – highly recommended!

They’re always in touch throughout the development phase, offering advice we would not have previously considered. The whole process takes very little time and the regular communication gives us peace of mind that our jobs are always delivered on time and to budget.

We have collaborated with Gooey on a number of projects over the last 5 years and we have always been pleased with their professionalism and the quality of your work. Looking forward to working together on future projects.

Over the past 3+ years, we have always been impressed with Gooey’s capability and level of professionalism, particularly in relation to complex requirements within a brief, which are handled with recommendations and guidance to find a suitable resolution.

What we do

The HTML Email Template We’re Building

Here’s the HTML email we’ll be building, feel free to fork the pen and use it yourself. Bear in mind that when we’re viewing this template through a web browser we’re much less likely to run into problems than with email clients.

Now, as we discussed in the previous tutorial, you’ll need to begin your HTML email template with an HTML doctype, and the correct language for your subscribers. In this case we are going to use the HTML5 doctype, set our language to English with , and also include the XML and Microsoft Office namespaces (the xmlns bits). We are going to need these a few lines down, as I’ll explain.

Underneath the tag you’ll see some code between

© 2023 v+j success team - BlogKori Theme Developed by Tamal Anwar