Well, a couple of folks at IBM who wrote the book on how to write stellar online content set out to test just those questions.

Because editors are often seen as unnecessary, we at IBM conducted a study to demonstrate their value for some of our marketing pages. We took a sample of unedited pages with high traffic from across our various business units and ran them through Dave Harlan, the editing lead for the group that creates a lot of our marketing content. We then ran an A/B test, where we served the unedited versions to a random sample of users and the edited versions to the rest of the users. We then measured engagement (defined as clicks to desired links on the page) on those pages over the course of a month.

The results were astonishing. The mean difference in engagement was 30 percent across the set of pages. And the standard deviation was one percent–we got a 30 percent improvement on the desired call to action for the pages across the board. Now it was just one test and it needs to be replicated before we draw strong conclusions. Your mileage may vary depending on the quality of your editors (Dave is exceptional, by all accounts). But we can provisionally conclude that well-edited pages do 30 percent better than unedited pages.

30 percent is a fantastic number, and even a 5 or 10 percent increase would be worth it for most websites. Editing is a fantastic way for you to get at advantage landing customers, a promotion or a grant. Surprisingly few people are willing to pay $10, $15 or $30 to have their documents and websites edited, when

But ask any professional writer if they’d want their words in print without having an editor or copy editor double-check them, and 99 percent will vouch for the power of editors to make their writing clearer.

Photo: Cappellmeister

P.S. Get your edge today by getting The Universal Desk’s copyediting service to help you make your words as clear and powerful as they should be. You even get the first 500 words free, for a limited time. We can’t promise a 30 percent improvement (though it wouldn’t surprise us), but we do guarantee you will be satisfied, or we’ll send you your money back.

Need some advice how to market yourself or your company online and be part of the conversation on the net, but don’t have much time to spare?

The venerable Copyblogger has some appropriately pithy advice, from 60 of the net’s best. The advice was pulled together in an hour-long marketing conference, where each participant had a single minute to impart some fresh wisdom.

Here’s a selection:

#1. David Meerman Scott. “Stop talking about your products and services. People don’t care about products and services; they care about themselves.” -@dmscott

#2. Anne Holland. “Improve the buttons on your landing page. Can you make your button bigger?” -@anneholland55

#3. Mike Volpe. “We share lots of things that most companies would keep internal. By sharing both the good and the bad, you build digital influence.” -@mvolpe

#4. Michael Port. “Consistency. Consistency demonstrates commitment. You’re going to earn trust because you’re consistent.” -@michaelport

You can check out the 56 other nuggets on the Copyblogger post. Some are even worthy of becoming daily mantras.

I’ll take the liberty of adding one more here on behalf of The Universal Desk.

“Write cleanly, concisely and powerfully. Nothing ruins your message faster than a dumb spelling mistake, a glaring grammatical error or an un-focused post.” @UniversalDesk

There’s lots of tricks to preventing those errors, including re-reading your writing out loud before you post and having someone else read what you wrote before you put it on the web for all to see. Even better is having a professional editor or copyeditor help you hone your words — just as every professional writer does.

It’s less expensive than you think and pays handsome rewards. Try our copyediting for free, and see for yourself.

Photo: Mary Cunningham

That’s why knowing when to use complementary or complimentary (as well complement or compliment) is important. If you pick the wrong one, it’s highly likely that your reader will know what you mean — and 95% percent won’t even notice your mistake. But five percent will, and those are often the ones you most want to impress.

Here’s a short guide.

Complimentary has two meanings. The first one is something that is flattering. For example, His remarks about my essay were complimentary, and I got an A on the term paper. The second meaning is something that is free. For example, The hotel room includes complimentary use of the gym and pool. As a verb, compliment has a single meaning — to say something positive. I complimented his new shoes, since they were really cool.

Complementary is a bit simpler, since it only has a single meaning. It’s a fancy way of saying that two things pair well. Peanut butter and chocolate are complementary. That’s just saying that peanut butter and chocolate go well together. On the other hand, saying peanut butter and chocolate are complimentary means, you guessed it, that the ingredients are free.

You are more likely to use the verb form: complement. For example, They are a good team. Her enthusiasm complements his thoughtfulness. There you are saying that the two were a good pair because their different traits work well together. Or you might say, those shoes really complement your dress — the brown leather works really well with the detailing on the neckline.

It’s a small thing — just the difference between an “I” and an “E,” but it’s the kind of attention to detail that will set your writing apart. It’s also the kind of mistake our editors can help you avoid. If you haven’t tried us yet, we offer the first 500 words of editing free to new customers.

That editing is, you guessed it, complimentary, not complementary.

We catch misspellings, awkward sentences and
missing punctuations. So you shine.

Our rates are fair. Our speed is fast. Our edits are graceful.

We’ll handle your document in the strictest confidence and return it to you by e-mail by your deadline.

All you need to do is upload your document, tell us a bit about its purpose and we will take care of the rest.

Standard Two-Day Service
$6.99 per page

Express 24-hour Service
$9.99 per page

A standard page is 300 words. We have a 300 word minimum.