Years ago it cost far more to add an image to a document than text. Today it is almost the same cost for full colour images, as it is for text. Why then do we overburden our web sites with text?

It's time we came out of the dark ages!

Would you prefer to read a paragraph of text or get the same information from a single illustration?

Most people would choose the picture over words but repeatedly we see sites full of text and very few illustrations. I was looking at a travel site - that's one I would have thought should be mainly pictures - but it was limited to one small image to every half a page of text. Most people I know travel to see new places not to read about them!

People are information addicts - they want the facts as fast as possible. Given the choice they will opt to view a picture rather than read text.

How does that relate to Web 2.0 and what is Web 2.0 ?

Web 2.0 is all about a user driven internet experience.

The viewer dictates the material, rather than the web designer. It's a natural evolution for the internet.

In the past web designers have used gimmicks to attract traffic to their sites where they bombarded viewers with advertising and free offers in exchange for their email address and a few details. People are immune to it today. I know people who create new email accounts each week and give these out as contacts for sites that offer freebies.

As the search engine robots have got smarter (or more human), and people grew less gullible, these tricks (like meta tags and cloaked pages) have become less effective. It all comes down to the viewer - giving the viewer the sort of experience that makes them want to come back or recommend you to others.

A second factor also drives web 2.0. It started to become really obvious with The Sims. A game with no plot, no end or victory, very average graphics, characters who spoke in a language that no-one understood, greedy for resources, and in every way, not at all cutting edge.

Suddenly this game leapt to the top of all the sales charts.

Hackers found a way into the game engine and spread the word. Soon the game designers, quick to recognise a market, published software to modify the characters and the objects they interacted with; something that had never happened in a computer game before. An entire cyber community formed where people designed their own input and traded the modifications amongst other players. User input drove the Sims community; the ability to have effective input into their internet experience.

Web 2.0 is about a user driven internet.

Sites that accept the viewers input and attract users with similar interests, like blogs and forums will prevail. Sites will feature less advertising in favour of links. They will be rich in content that interests and holds the viewers attention. They will be full of graphics and be interactive with specific and relevant links to related sites. Rather than an end point to an internet search, they will act like a junction point that focuses the viewers search and directs them to a target.

As an example, we took art history (a subject that many people find boring) and made a Web 2 compliant site up. The pages are rich with pictures, peppered with links, interactive images and a lot more. Each page acts like a portal that links to highly relevant sites if you want to follow up and research the topic in more depth. To see it, click here or on the "art history" text link above or the image of the page below.

The days of "text only" web pages are numbered. To keep up with Web 2.0 you need good quality content - that means interesting copy, well written with good relevant graphics, links to glossaries, wikis, relevant sites, blogs and forums.

Mimenta.com and Mimentum.com will become one stop portals for both copy and graphics and information for Web 2.0 projects.

Through our digital portal site, Mimentum.com, we will be offering a range of digital products and services for sale at discounted prices, including:

web graphics - illustrations and photos that are ready optimised for visual clarity while using the smallest file size for the best loading speeds.

icons - specialised image files for operating system use to identify your folders on your desktop at a glance.

Auction Listing Templates - Our Web log; "Mimentum" already has some helpful advice to help you get the best results for your efforts. An entire section of the new Mimentum.com web site will be devoted to auctions, including how to photograph and process your photos for online auctions. We will have a range of auction templates available for purchase - the best way to make your listings stand out and show your bidders you are an experienced professional seller, not some fly-by-night newcomer.

Web sets - These are sets of web site components that are used to make a web site and include buttons for mouse over, headers, banners, frames, borders, backgrounds etc. These are for people who know how to use web page design software and would like some really cool, top level, professional looking graphics but don't have the spare days required to make them.

Web pages - These are full web pages, waiting for you to add the details and publish. These include special purpose pages too, like portal pages, interactive catalogues, galleries, link pages, dynamic books, matrices and database forms for web use (like shopping carts etc)

Web sites - Full web sites will also be available as either packs or if you want us to do the lot, as full services, including domain names and uploading.

Fact sheets, guides and e-books - These are all written in house - plain and simple for average people, not written by computer gurus but written by authors trained in communication rather than high level computing, so they are easy to follow and understand (and of course full of helpful pictures!).

Wallpapers - your workstation doesn't need to be drab and just to give you some idea of the scope of the material that we use, we have posted a collection of free wallpapers - some are our work, others are photos from friends. These are 1025 x 768 pixel sized images in JPG file format ready to use.

And yes you did read it right - these are completely free of charge, advertising, hidden links or anything - help yourself to any of the images on the wallpaper page.

1. Simply click the image above to open the collection, select the image you like and right click.
2. Choose "Save image as" to copy the full sized (1024 x 768 pixel) picture to your computer.
   
   

Web 2.0 places more emphasis on the content of a site and this refers to both the images as well as the text.

Quality, well written copy is hard to find and with Web 2.0 standards, sites need to be updated on a daily basis to appear "active". This places a lot of extra stress on webmasters.

It's not just a matter of typing what you want to say. Consider the order that you present your ideas. People scan material. You only have two lines to give them some idea what you are saying, before they move on to another block of text, page or whole new document. You need to understand the psychology behind good copy.

It's also the layout and spacing, so people get to digest your text in comfortable sized portions; not lose their place in a large block of text. They quickly become confused when they read the same line twice and will give up if this happens more than once.

Why not have your copy written by experienced copywriters?

We have over 20 years experience writing English copy for advertising, scripts, manuals, brochures and web sites. Being Australian, our English text reads equally well to European and American audiences alike for spelling and gramma.

Our flat rate fee is only $20 per A4 page – that’s a full page in 12 point type. If you are blogging, that can be up to 5 posts.

If you are interested, email us at mimenta@gmail.com with an outline of the sort of topics you would like to have copy written for.