As it is a requirement for all Apple developers to have a website and many of us also have our own studio sites, blogs, etc. I thought this post might come in handy for some of you.
The title is intended to be amusing only – I’m sure your website doesn’t suck 
Tip 1 – Every word counts.
Have you ever seen an “article” in which words are randomly capitalized? If not, I envy you but if so, you already know what I’m talking about.
Some people have this idea that if a word isn’t capitalized, it must not count. (At least that’s the best reason I can come up with for this strange behavior.)
For example, if I were someone who had this tendency, I might write a sentence like this;
I am a Much Better writer than you because I Like to capitalize things Creatively.
No one would actually write such a line, but I hope that illustrates the kind of thing I am referring to here.
You don’t have to capitalize a word for it to “count”. (Although in titles this rule obviously goes out the window a bit.)
It’s much nicer to read articles when they’re well written and not littered with mistakes like this, so if you’re someone who feels the need to capitalize random words this is certainly worth working on.
Tip 2 – Don’t be that guy (or girl).
You know that guy who knows everything about everything? Me either. However we’ve all met people who believe this to be the case.
When you have a website that contains a lot of written content it is normal to write about what you know, however if you find yourself behaving as though you are omnipotent it is time to take a step back and reflect.
As much as you may know about any given subject there is never a good reason to believe you know it all.
A good example of this is me and Techority – I wrote a simple rating function that worked wonderfully. Someone came along and posted a comment describing an even simpler rating function that worked just as well – had I been unable to listen to them due to my own pigheadedness I would have missed out on learning something new.
So, be the guy (or girl) who listens and who is open to new ideas and friendly discussion and debate; it will help people who visit your website interact with you in a much more positive way.
Tip 3 – Be direct, not rude.
There is a fine line between being direct and being rude. A good example is my recent post (over at Techority) regarding the awesome month that Corona has had.
Some people took it as rude because I said that Corona had come SO much further than other third party SDKs in this time. This was not rude. It was direct, uncoated and true.
Had I instead said; “Everyone other third party SDK is shit and anyone who uses any of them is an idiot!”, that would have been rude. (It also would have been incredibly unfair and greatly untrue. My belief that Corona is the best does not equate to me thinking that nothing else can be good, or even great, as well.)
It’s OK to be negative if you have something to be negative about and most rational people know when they’re being horrible – but it’s that fine line that you have to watch for. When you’re close to it it can be hard to make sure you fall on the right side.
If you can be direct (state the facts) without being rude (stating the facts then acting like a drama queen about said facts) then you’ll find even if you disagree with those who read your website content that you can still have a civilized discussion or agree to disagree.
It also means you’re unlikely to get comments you feel the need to censor – because those who comment will only be disagreeing with you, (something you can handle if you follow tip 2,) rather than disagreeing with you and calling you out on your attitude.
In closing;
It’s your website and what you do with it is entirely up to you. These tips are simply observations of common pitfalls and things I’ve sometimes dealt with in my own life. (Some of you may recall I was, long ago, a writer by trade. During this period I wrote for some big news sites, which meant dealing with all three tips every day.)
I suppose I’m a bit of an idealist thinking we might all write with proper punctuation, be open minded and polite and all get along even when we disagree – but this is my website and this is what I felt like writing about today
Have a great weekend, everyone!
Peach Pellen