sjwiki home  > Author Guide

Writing Headlines Writing for the web Be Correct Proofing your work before publishing Anatomy of a post Common templates Skype product revision/release Interview/Q&A Product brief SJ Labs product review Caveat Skyper: Consumer Warning Pictures Citation, references, and giving credit Beats and Departments Using our publishing software Posting to Skype Journal Categories Tagging Promoting your post Your author page Your profile settings Being a Skype Journalist Skype Journal away from SkypeJournal.com Press credentials Glossary of correct spelling and usage

---

Writing

 

Headlines

• A headline may be the only part of your post that's read. So get the biggest news point into your headline.
• Strong words
• Active voice
• avoid the cryptic

 

Writing for the web

• People skim, so write for skimming using the inverted pyramid
• You can go long, but get the gist into the first paragraph
• If you can use a photo or screenshot or diagram or chart instead of words, do it.
• Shoot for readability by cutting your average word length, words per sentence, sentences per paragraph. A readability calculator.
• Simplify sentence structure.
• Active voice, please.

 

Be Correct

• Check your facts, especially:
  • People's names, including spelling
  • Place names
  • links (test them to be sure they work)
  • product names
  • Numbers (do they smell right? are they consistent? are they the correct order of magnitude?)
  • Dates
• Distinguish opinion from fact from speculation

 

Proofing your work before publishing

 

Anatomy of a post

 

Common templates

Skype product revision/release

Interview/Q&A

Product brief

SJ Labs product review

 

• Functionality: what is the primary function of the product?
  • Telephone handset, voice recorder, link Outlook/browsers for additional Skype functionality, etc.
  • What defines the target user and/or target market?
• Benchmarks: what are your benchmarks in reviewing the product?
  • ease of use, voice quality; independent telephone handset or simply computer peripheral, time to execute a feature, etc.
  • Tell the reader up to five criteria you will be looking at in doing the review.
• Package - what is included in the package: hardware items, software.
  • Does software need to be installed to make the product operational or is it simply auxiliary software (such as simply Skype itself).
  • Include a picture of any hardware product or a splash screen from the software if it is purely software.
  • Is the product Skype Certified?
• Installation: review the installation steps.
  • Most important to note is whether any required software is to be installed before or after attaching the hardware.
  • Is there a wizard to facilitate installation?
  • Are there any precautions the User must take to ensure a clean installation?
    • Uninstall old software
    • Order in which User controllable steps must be taken
    • Reset the Windows Audio Devices Properties?
• Operation: describe your experience using the product.
  • Does it somehow link into the Skype client or have its own client?
  • What user interface hardware, such as buttons and/or display screen on a handset, is available to facilitate use of Skype?
  • Add screen shots where appropriate (use Snag-It!)
• Product positioning: What are the key distinguishing features?
  • Target market (consumer or business, SME)?
  • Identify any known competitive products.
• Conclusion: How does it measure up against your benchmarks?
  • What are the Pros?
  • What are the Cons?
  • How well is the product suited for its positioning in the market.

Caveat Skyper: Consumer Warning

 

Pictures

 

Citation, references, and giving credit

 

When you mention:

• an adult by name, link to the closest thing to a "home page" that person has. This may be a blog, a company bio, or a profile on another site like LinkedIn or MySpace.
• a company by name, link to its home page the first time.
• a company's stock ticker symbol (e.g. eBay Inc. (NASDAQ:EBAY), link the ticker symbol to an investment page or to the company's investor relations page.

 

Beats and Departments

Looking for something to write about? See the list of Skype Journal Editorial Beats we would cover if we have 500 writers and photographers.

 

Using our publishing software

Posting to Skype Journal

• Configuring and using Performancing to write and post your article to Skype Journal (also here)
• Configuring and using Qumana to write and post your article to Skype Journal

 

Categories

 

The Primary Category field may only be one of the following: Life, Business, Technology, News, Welcome to Skypeland; this is the basis of our breaking out into big departments.

 

Every post must also be categorized using all five categories under "Every Post"; this helps keep us high in Google and other search engines.

 

Then pick as many other categories as match, helping people find and reuse the post again.

 

Tagging

 

Promoting your post

 

Your author page

 

Your profile settings

 

Being a Skype Journalist

Skype Journal away from SkypeJournal.com

 

Press credentials

 

Glossary of correct spelling and usage

 

term	description	notes
Niklas Zennström	co-founder and former chief executive officer of Skype Technologies, Ltd.	ö is made by &+ouml+; without the +
Skype	http://skype.com/ or (http://share.skype.com/in/27/67382 for referral revenue)
eBay	eBay, Inc.
Skypecasts	The service is "Skypecasts", capitalized. One group call is a skypecast. Several groups calls are skypecasts. Related words: skypecasted, skypecaster, skypecasting.