The Web Content Writer – How To Write For The Internet
Posted: Wednesday, December 01, 2010
by Greg Scott
Greg Scott Writes
If you want to become a web content writer, there are a few things that might surprise you about writing for the internet. It's a whole different world from the papers you wrote in college! It's much easier than writing for print, but there are some things you have to know in order to become successful at this. Here are some of the basics.
The language we use when writing for the internet is direct and informal. Use contractions like "isn't" and "it'll," and keep everything at a pretty basic level. You should write your content like you're talking to a friend. The reason is that everybody surfs the internet; if you write over their heads, they'll skip your page and go to another one. Writing in a conversational tone is easier than formal writing, but you've got to be careful sometimes you may find yourself slipping back into that textbook tone!
Short And Sweet
As a general rule, you want your paragraphs and sentences to be small. Sentences should be short because of the fact that most web surfers are ordinary folks looking for information; it shouldn't have long, difficult sentences. You should keep your paragraphs short because it's just tough to read giant blocks of text on a computer screen. You've got to think of your readers' eyes.
It's All About Action
Most of the stuff we write for the internet is "how to" oriented. This is because it's the "how to" stuff that people are usually looking for. There aren't many people who want to read a discourse on the history of underwater basket weaving. What they're looking for is key information that will help them DO something, and they don't have time to sift through lots of heavy text to find it. Most online writing focuses on taking action, and how to solve problems.
Sprinkled With Keywords
Finally, and this is probably the weirdest thing, most online writing is full of "keywords." These are specific terms that people are looking for when they use a search engine like Google or Yahoo. Internet marketers target these specific keywords so that their sites will rank high in the search engines. This is called "search engine optimization" or SEO. You'll need to learn how to work these key words and phrases into your writing so that the search engines will pick them up.
Making a successful living as a web content writer is a great way to work for yourself. It's not hard to learn, but you've just got to get the basics down first. Then, you can ghost write your way into a full-time living writing online!
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