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
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, 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
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.”
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
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.)
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.
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