"Fantabulous" advice about made-up words

From pseuddictionary to unword, the web is replete with sites dedicated to made-up words. TV personalities and sitcoms are famous for them, too. (Think Rachael Ray’s “fantabulous” and Archie Bunker’s “groinocologist.”) Made-up words have no doubt helped define pop culture for the better part of the last few decades.

Using made-up words is especially fun among family and friends. Our favorite is “musharoni pizza,” short for half mushroom, half pepperoni. It came about purely by accident, but it stuck and is now a standard at our house most Friday nights.

But take heed: made-up words have little to no place in your web copy. Words like “customerization,” and “dimensionalize” are not so much clever as cute and do little in the way of optimizing search or helping customers understand who you are and what you have to offer.

And, while you’re at it, be wary of overused words such as “solutions” and “optimized.” Best way to do that is to speak to the benefit of the customer … not to yourself or your company.

By JanO on 8/10/09, In writing, writing help, Tags advice, dialogue, great copy, hate to write, how to write, ideas, interactive, non writers, self-publishing, shortcuts, typing