Game 29: #1 Seed Daily Writing Tips Versus #4 Seed Confident Writing

The Matchup

Top-seeded Daily Writing Tips has stayed strong throughout the competition, dominating with its daily focus and its team of writers. Confident Writing has been the surprise hit of the tournament with its positive approach, even taking down presumptive front-runner Copyblogger.

Best Headlines

Judging from the past 10 articles, DWT doesn’t have the flashiest headlines on the block, but they do tend to be clear and concise. Headlines such as Should You Use Footnotes or Endnotes? or A While vs Awhile tell you pretty much everything you need to know about the articles that follow. CW tends to write longer headlines that incorporate her latest theme or explain the topic at length. A headline like Chicago Pulse: Why The Windy City Was The Perfect Setting For SobCon08 tells you what you need to know, but it also feels a little long-winded.

DWT gets the ball and works it down court, scoring in the paint for two. DWT leads 2-0.

Best User Experience

Both sites have clean and attractive interfaces. The banners for both sites are both conservative and based on single lines of options. DWT concentrates on key options such as a list of popular articles, recent articles, a category list, subscription buttons and some links. CW has a couple more bells and whistles, but nothing dramatic. CW has subscription options, cornerstone posts (too few), recent comments, recent posts, recent readers, and a list of other places you can find author Joanna Young at. Overall, neither blog stands out in the user experience category.

Jump ball. The score remains 2-0 in favor of DWT.

Best Community Experience

The community at DWT is a picky one. They often write in to take issue with DWT’s explanation of a word’s usage or to point out any minor grammatical or typographical errors. Sometimes a nice discussion of the topic springs up, but nitpicking seems to be the order of the day. CW has a more positive, supportive community. That doesn’t mean all of their comments are substantive either. There are a whole lot of “I love this article” sort of comments that don’t really further the discussion. On the other hand, Joanna Young dos take the time to engage her readers, replying to most of her comments, while the crew at DWT tends to step back more. CW also gets about twice the number of comments as DWT.

CW works the ball down court and puts up a short jumper for two. The score is tied up at 2-2.

Best Branding

DWT has a unique style that is summed up by their name. Every day you get a writing tip. The majority of the tips are based on word usage, but they also branch out into resources, freelancing and other topics. CW also has its purpose — Confident Writing. The focus of this site is building up both a writer’s skills and self-image. DWT has a more professional image, while CW has a more personal and emotional appeal. Each develops this well. DWT has the advantage in traffic, with far more visitors, but the active community at Confident Writing indicates a more connected community. In the end, neither blog has a clear edge.

Jump Ball. The score remains tied at 2-2.

Best Archives

DWT’s archive page is quite simply a chronological list of every article that they’ve published. On the plus side, that means you can go directly from that page to any article on the site. The subjects are rarely time-sensitive, however, so a chronological list isn’t that helpful. DWT also keeps a popular posts list on each page. CW’s archive is really more of a “best of” style list. You can also search by theme, but that delivers full blog posts, not a list.

DWT gets the ball back and breaks for the bracket, putting in a layup for two. DWT takes the lead 4-2.

Best Post

3 Keys to Powerful Writing: Guest Post By Robert Hruzek

I haven’t really been that interested in Young’s recent articles about SobCon08, so I am going to go back to the same article I chose in the last round, a guest post by Robert Hruzek titled, 3 Keys to Powerful Writing. It’s a fun article about having a clear focus on your goals when you write. It measures these things in three categories, targets, boundaries and gravity. They aren’t the first things I would have thought of, but Hruzek makes it work.

Creative Writing 101

This is an excellent example of the way that DFW manages to cover new information using the tips format. The post is aimed at beginning creative writers, and gives them a bit of advice on how to get started writing, and on what other sites they can visit for more information. There is solid information there, and it should be quite helpful to beginners.

DWT makes it down the court for one more scoring opportunity, a light finger roll into the basket. The final score is 6-2 in favor of DWT.

Post Game Analysis

If I had to sum up what won the game for Daily Writing Tips, I would have to say focus. The headlines were more focused and the articles were more focused. Both sites have focus, but at this point, DWT is just a little sharper.

The Articles

So people can compare for themselves, here are the past 10 articles from each site:

Confident Writing

1. Chicago Pulse: Why The Windy City Was The Perfect Setting For SobCon08
2. The Song Of The Littlest Birds
3. Have A Little Faith In The Power Of Your Own Voice
4. Powerful Writing in 30 Words Or Less: My Contribution
5. Foozle And Fribble In Word Nerd Meet Up
6. Planning Ahead For Chicago
7. The Simple Power Of Words: Guest Post By Debbie Yost
8. Powerful Writing In 30 Words Or Less: Part III: Twitter Contributions
9. Show A Little Faith: Thunder Road And The Power Of Your Own Voice
10. 3 Keys to Powerful Writing: Guest Post By Robert Hruzek

Daily Writing Tips

1. Creative Writing 101
2. Should You Use Footnotes or Endnotes?
3. Womanly Words - Gyn
4. A While vs Awhile
5. Most Popular Articles April 2008
6. 50 Open Source Resources for Writers
7. Weird Words
8. Setting Your Freelance Writing Fees
9. Inquire vs Enquire
10. Andro- The Prefix That’s All Man