Writing for the Internet: The 3 Golden Keys
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
Any writer must consider their audience. But audience consideration is even more important when writing for the Internet. The basics won’t change (like identifying who your primary target audience will be, for example), but there are some huge differences in other areas.
First, in traditional publications your audience is somewhat a given. Once they have actually picked up or purchased a newspaper or magazine they are likely to at least give it a few pages before setting it aside. However, remember when writing for the Internet your audience can move on from your words with one click of the mouse. You need to be highly focused and on target all the time. You can’t take much time for introductions, slow buildup or indirect discussions. If you, the writer, do not seem to be delivering the goods then the reader will simply move on and fast. This does not mean you need to cater to the lowest denominator ” please do not treat your readers as stupid ” but it does mean that you need to know your audience well and how to respond to that audience’s needs and desires.
Format
Another important point when writing for the Internet is that many online readers are what I call skimmers. They scan your copy quickly before committing themselves to reading the entire thing. It is important to write clearly and concisely. Use punchy headlines and subheadings, as well as solid introductions and conclusions, as these are key points for skimmers.
An error that new writers might make, is trying to make their articles look like text in a magazine article or a book. However, writing on the Internet has big differences. A reader will actually read the Internet differently from ‘physical pages’, so different techniques are needed. ‘Point of entry’ is one of the most important. A search engine can send a reader to the middle or even the end of your document. If you have written accurate and concise content however, a reader and yes, even the ‘skimmers’ could likely go back to the beginning of your article to read it entirely. There is a way to skip this step though, and that is by splitting up your text into several stand-alone pieces that will fit together as a complete article, or separate documents if looked at the same way. (A good example of this? Did you see how I broke this article into individual stand-alone segments?)
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 in mind the 3 Golden Keys. By concentrating on audience, format, and lifespan when writing for the Internet, you will achieve great success.
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