I often see new copywriters, when they complete their training, begin by writing for the Internet. A mistake I see, however, is they fail to keep in mind the key differences between writing for the Internet and writing for print. We will cover some of these differences here, and I promise if you keep these "golden rules" in mind as you write for the Internet, you will achieve much success.
There are three crucial differences between traditional publishing and writing for the Internet:
Audience
Format
Lifespan
It is important to consider each key difference while 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.
First of all, your audience is somewhat guaranteed in a traditional publication. Most people, once they have bought a magazine or newspaper are likely to at least give each page a cursory read before setting the item aside. Not so online. When writing for the Internet you must always keep in mind your reader can leave as easily as a click of the mouse. People don't have a lot of time to waste so you must remain on target and highly focused at all times. As the writer, if you do not appear to be delivering good content the reader will simply go elsewhere... fast. Please do not take this to mean you must cater to the lowest common denominator; you don't. Your audience is not stupid. But you do need to know your targeted audience and how to deliver for their wants and desires.
Format
Something else to think about when writing on the Internet is to consider the "skimmers"; readers who breeze through your copy without reading the whole thing. So what you have to do is be very clear in your writing. For example, headlines that pack a punch, carefully worded subheadings, and introductions and conclusions that are solid and full of good content.
Trying to mimic traditional magazine articles or offline printed documents is a common mistake that I see in new writers. Actually there are some big differences. Because a reader will read the Internet differently from 'physical pages', like say in a book, writing for the Internet requires some different techniques. The entry point is one of the most important. Did you know that a search engine might send readers to a point somewhere in the middle or end of your document? Now, if you wrote concise and accurate content, readers could very well go back to the beginning of your article to read it properly. There is a way to avoid this altogether though, that will keep the 'skimmers' skimming. Try breaking longer pieces of text into a few stand-alone sections that fit together as a whole document or even separate documents if looked at in the same manner. (This article, broken into individual stand-alone segments, serves as an example.)
Lifespan
Last, but certainly not least, an important difference you must consider when writing for the Internet is what is called "lifespan". On the surface, due to the rapid nature of the Internet, it appears that electronic documents have a limited lifespan. But actually the opposite it true. Whereas a printed publication may only have a lifespan of a week, a month, or worse yet, a day, one thing most publications are doing now is archiving online. The beauty of the Internet is that archives may last for years, if not indefinitely. So as a writer you want to write fresh and current content, try to resist being too topical or you may date your material. Remember, potentially your readers may be accessing your words well into the future.
Keep these three key points -- audience, format, and lifespan -- in mind when writing for the Internet and I promise you will achieve greater writing success.
There are three crucial differences between traditional publishing and writing for the Internet:
Audience
Format
Lifespan
It is important to consider each key difference while 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.
First of all, your audience is somewhat guaranteed in a traditional publication. Most people, once they have bought a magazine or newspaper are likely to at least give each page a cursory read before setting the item aside. Not so online. When writing for the Internet you must always keep in mind your reader can leave as easily as a click of the mouse. People don't have a lot of time to waste so you must remain on target and highly focused at all times. As the writer, if you do not appear to be delivering good content the reader will simply go elsewhere... fast. Please do not take this to mean you must cater to the lowest common denominator; you don't. Your audience is not stupid. But you do need to know your targeted audience and how to deliver for their wants and desires.
Format
Something else to think about when writing on the Internet is to consider the "skimmers"; readers who breeze through your copy without reading the whole thing. So what you have to do is be very clear in your writing. For example, headlines that pack a punch, carefully worded subheadings, and introductions and conclusions that are solid and full of good content.
Trying to mimic traditional magazine articles or offline printed documents is a common mistake that I see in new writers. Actually there are some big differences. Because a reader will read the Internet differently from 'physical pages', like say in a book, writing for the Internet requires some different techniques. The entry point is one of the most important. Did you know that a search engine might send readers to a point somewhere in the middle or end of your document? Now, if you wrote concise and accurate content, readers could very well go back to the beginning of your article to read it properly. There is a way to avoid this altogether though, that will keep the 'skimmers' skimming. Try breaking longer pieces of text into a few stand-alone sections that fit together as a whole document or even separate documents if looked at in the same manner. (This article, broken into individual stand-alone segments, serves as an example.)
Lifespan
Last, but certainly not least, an important difference you must consider when writing for the Internet is what is called "lifespan". On the surface, due to the rapid nature of the Internet, it appears that electronic documents have a limited lifespan. But actually the opposite it true. Whereas a printed publication may only have a lifespan of a week, a month, or worse yet, a day, one thing most publications are doing now is archiving online. The beauty of the Internet is that archives may last for years, if not indefinitely. So as a writer you want to write fresh and current content, try to resist being too topical or you may date your material. Remember, potentially your readers may be accessing your words well into the future.
Keep these three key points -- audience, format, and lifespan -- in mind when writing for the Internet and I promise you will achieve greater writing success.
About the Author:
Anthony James Goolsby (Jim) is a freelance copywriter and creator of the Ultimate Web Copy Academy. Discover how to write successful copy that gets results, go to his site and get your free report, "Is Sales Copy Dead? Internet Copywriting Basics."
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