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Resources Marketing Tips Writing for the Internet: The 3 Golden Keys
Resources Marketing Tips Writing for the Internet: The 3 Golden Keys
| Writing for the Internet: The 3 Golden Keys |
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Many copywriters are excited about trying their hand at writing for the Internet. It is important, however, to realize there are key distinctions between the offline print audience and writing for the Internet. Keep these three ideas in mind and you will achieve success with your Internet writing.
Many copywriters are excited about trying their hand at writing for the Internet. It is important, however, to realize there are key distinctions between the offline print audience and writing for the Internet. Keep these three ideas in mind and you will achieve success with your Internet writing. Writing for the Internet is different from traditional publishing in three crucial ways: Audience Format Lifespan You must take each of these differences into consideration when writing for the Internet. Audience While audience is always a key consideration for any writer, audience consideration is a primary factor when writing for the Internet. While the basic considerations of audience (who do you expect to be your primary reading audience?) remain the same there are some important differences. The first consideration is that in an offline publication, such as a newspaper or magazine, it is almost a given that you have a captive audience. Once a person has spent the money, they are most likely at least going to give the entire publication a quick once-over before tossing it aside. You have no such luxury on the Internet. The only thing keeping your reader from moving on is one click of the mouse. You must not waste time. Stay focused and stay on target. This does not mean, however, that as a writer you must go after the 'lowest common denominator'. Please do not consider your audience stupid. What it does mean is you need to know your audience inside out and know exactly how to deliver what they want and need. Format A second point to consider when writing for the Internet is the fact that some online readers simply skim and don't read every word. Quickly scanning your copy, they will only commit to reading the entire thing if you catch their attention. Therefore you must be concise and clear in your writing. Punchy headlines, accurate subheadings, and solid introductions and conclusions are important to use with "skimmers." A big mistake I see in new writers is trying to look like an offline magazine article or mimic traditional print documents. There are many major differences. Writing for the Internet, by nature of the way the reader looks at a screen as opposed to physical print, requires some different strategies. One of the most important is the entry point. A search engine may deliver readers to some point in the middle or end of your document. If you have written coherent and cohesive content, then those readers may well move back to the beginning to read properly. In response to this, and the scanning readers mentioned earlier, it is best to break longer pieces into several stand-alone sections that can work together as a whole, or even as separate documents if approached in that manner. (A good example of this is how I broke this article into individual stand-alone segments.) Lifespan Finally, an important difference between traditional publications and writing for the Internet is lifespan. While the apparent lifespan of many electronic documents appears to be short-lived, this is simply not true. In fact, I would argue the exact opposite is more the reality. Newspaper and magazine articles in print are only current for a day, week or the month of their publication, but then are archived on the Internet where they may frequently reside for years. So while it is important as a writer to be fresh and current, also keep in mind that your reader may access your words at some undetermined point in the future. (In other words, try not to be too topical. You may severely date your article in the process.) By keeping these three "golden keys" in mind when writing for the Internet -- audience, format, and lifespan -- you will find success. About the Author: Anthony James Goolsby (Jim) is a freelance copywriter/consultant and founder of the Ultimate Web Copy Academy. Discover how you can write effective copy that sells, go to his site and get your no-cost e-book, "Is Sales Copy Dead? Internet Copywriting Basics." |
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