In today’s Alertbox, Jakob Nielsen explains that well written websites make more money than poorly written websites.  This should come as no surprise to you, I hope.  If content is king, shouldn’t good content be received more favorably than bad content? 

Jakob Nielsen is a usability consultant and runs a site called useit.com.  His views are often controversial and he is known for preaching simplicity in web design.  His newsletter, called Alertbox (“Current Issues in Web Usability), is widely read by information technology professionals.  Nielsen provides good insight into the practice of web design, although he doesn’t like graphics and often raises somewhat prickly points in web design.

His latest post encourages writers to use the active voice and says that it “more directly represents the action. As a result, readers don’t have to jump through as many cognitive hoops when trying to understand what’s going on”.  In relation to making money from the active voice, Nielsen states that users use an “F-pattern” while scanning websites and if a writer is active then the reader is more receptive to the content.  Now that your readers are more receptive to your content, your earning potential is increased as a direct result of your writing style.

I agree with Nielsen.  An article written in the passive voice is much more positive and encouraging.  As Internet Marketers, there is a lot to be learned when it comes to writing articles.  There are many poorly written websites polluting the Internet, and I feel that in due time those sites will make their way to the bottom of the web’s gene pool.