New Content Strategy Template - Editorial Style Guide

As promised a couple of weeks ago (OK, it was actually a couple of months ago) I just uploaded a new Editorial Style Guide template as another purchase bonus for The Web Content Strategist's Bible.

An editorial style guide is a must have for every Web content project. You just can't avoid making, and documenting, decisions about word usage if you want to have any kind of consistency in your content. Even when I am the only person writing content, I forget what I've decided and have to spend time going back through what I've written to see how I used certain terms. Plus, you must get sign-off from the client.

The first three editorial decisions that I ask the client about are always:

1. What do we call this thing we are working on? A website, Web site, or Website?
2. How do we refer to this particular website? At UPS we have a constant argument about UPS.com vs. ups.com.
3. Do we, or don't we use the serial comma.
   

I know these issues sound a bit word geeky, but if you decide these and a hundred other things upfront in an editorial style guide, you can avoid having the answer these questions fifty times a day. And trust me, people will have strong opinions about these issues.