"Welcome to my totolly professionel porn sight!"
The sentence above is wrong in so many ways. It contains three misspelled words, the phrase is ridiculous and about three hundred thousand web pages already open with the phrase: Welcome to my...
In the age of the spell checker I am amazed by the amount of textual sloppiness there is on the adult Internet. I try not to let it get to me. I am too weak grammatically to be any kind of literary critic. I’m no Edwin Newman. I’m not Noah Webster. I wouldn’t know a passive voice from a present tense. However, misspelled words piss me off.
Naturally, my anal outlook towards typographical error stems from my upbringing. My Dad wrote for a newspaper and one of our favorite family activities involved pointing out and laughing at all the misquotes, misidentifications and incorrectly spelled print contained in our small town paper. Later, when my Father ran his own newspaper my Mother proofread each edition. She ended up her life proofreading copy for large telephone book publisher. Words bought us food and provided our house. Words were our religion.
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"I'm no Edwin Newman. I'm not Noah Webster. I wouldn't know a passive voice from a present tense. However, misspelled words piss me off." |
That’s why each time I see the word 'loser' spelled as 'looser', I cringe. I worry about the future of the word 'loser'. I see it spelled 'looser' so often I fear the wrong way will become the norm. I take each 'looser' personally as if a friend has been insulted. I’m not kidding. I’m just that retentive.
Granted, online adult entertainment is a primarily visual medium. Perhaps 75 to 95 percent of the content that fills an adult site is imagery. It’s hard enough for us to lay out templates, size picture files, test load time and browser compatibility. Who has time to triple-check the correctness of their copy? Misspelled words don’t matter as long as the pictures and the video clips load, right?
My inner spelling bee champion screams, "Yes"! My outer reasonable self says, "Not always".
Typos have a function when it comes to site copy. The popular amateur porn genre is based on sites that look and read as if they’re of humble origins. Adult pros that push foreign content to their surfers will often create 'hostesses' that have little command of their audience's language. Webmasters do it to effect an illusion of innocence and vulnerability.
The 'hostess' of an Asian free site will post broken English in order to sell to a groin-growing stereotype. Other amateur ventures like MILF pages have a more realistic tone if the occasional word is spelled incorrectly. MILF sites promote the mythology of young guys who bed married women then post their proof on the Internet. An MILF site or gallery wouldn’t seem sincere if the text were written in the Queen’s English.
Bad spelling works on pages that are supposed to be crude. Typos have their place in the adult Internet but a typo should ALWAYS be intentional. If you want to spell words wrong, spell them wrong on purpose. Write whatever text you like. You can even make up new words like a porn Dr Suess. Just make sure every line of copy is deliberately and logically applied with marketing in mind.
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If you have text on your web calculated to relay professionalism, then typographical errors are your nemesis. Misspellings in a site’s terms of service or sponsor program descriptions will not convey authority or instill confidence in readers.
The glossy paysite loses it’s shine if the tour page flies buttons that read "CONTINEU" "MEBMERS" and "JOIN". Paragraphs of Disclaimer copy are a laugh riot after the fifth or sixth time one encounters disclaimer spelled "disclamer". If you want to sound like a big shot, you have to write like big shot. The occasional word spelled wrong is fine in every day communication but is never acceptable when one is presenting their professionalism.
I do not write this article to judge. As I explained, my writing is undisciplined and grammatically deficient. Hell, since I have to proofread my own copy, there might be a typo or two on this very page. I pound out these characters and group them into sentences with the hope you understand my point. The words on your adult site are just as important as the pictures. Every single element on your web is important. Use your words wisely and make your mistakes deliberate.
Fortunately the busy webmaster can save time and improve productivity by hiring a professional adult copy writing/proofreading service. If you have a little money and a need, one of these fine companies will fix your typos to spec and polish your advertising text to a fine shine:
Sin Text
(http://www.sin-text.com)
Run by Raven this adult textual service provider will proofread, write ad copy and even create exclusive erotica for fair prices.
Sinful Words
(http://www.sinfulwords.com)
Another adult service that will examine your web thoroughly, edit mistakes and punch up the words on your page.
Adult Site Translation
(http://www.adult-site-translation.com)
If you plan to market to the world, you'll need to be able to do so effectively. These folks will translate your adult sites into several different languages.