Writing for The Internet
Hunter Braine
Length:
When writing
for the internet you want to make your piece cover what you need to and not add
too much fluff as you would with print or other mediums. As far as “too long” or “too short” well that
is dependent on what your topic is and who you’re writing for.
Different
platforms can also dictate the length of a piece; social media and forums
should be much shorter than a blog or news article because of the audience and ‘norm’
of that platform.
Format:
The format
of web articles is an extremely important part of writing for the
internet. People who read articles are
more than likely looking for a specific point so making things easy to find is
vital to a quality piece. If your article
is hard to read or not organized properly it can frustrate readers and drive
people away from your work.
This is also
affected by various types of platforms such as social media, and formal
articles. When working with social
media, formatting in a traditional sense isn’t valid, instead it becomes about
how to get your point across as quickly as you can while still being effective.
Audience:
Finding a
target audience is essential for success.
To write or make content successfully on the internet, you need to find
a group of people who is interested in what you have to say but also trusts you
to produce content good enough to come back to.
Speaking to
your target audience in you post or article is crucial in doing this, using
their language, interacting with them, and covering what they are interested in
is the quickest way to build a strong loyal community.
SEO:
SEO stands
for Search Engine Optimization, this is something many beginners overlook
because mainly they don’t know it exists.
Practicing SEO will help your content stand out from the rest and force
your content to be higher on the search results page.
SEO involves
things like tags, keywords in the title or article itself, etc. Google and other search engines are run by an
algorithm which is ever changing and keeping up with the changes is crucial to
you success in building a brand online.
Language:
Using
certain language can also give you a big boost in grabbing a reader’s attention
and keeping it. Using action words or ‘active’
words in your writing is a great way to engage with your audience. Telling your reader what to do or what’s
happening in the world goes a long way.
Language
also means using the language of your community. “pwned” and “noob” for example are some basic
terms in the gaming universe that every writer in that field is required to
know.
Facts vs Opinions:
This is
something you’ll need to decide early on in your writing career. Are you a reporter or a gossiper? You need to figure out which one you will
want to become with your writing, if you want to be a reporter, research skills
and patience is the key to success and when you get the facts right, people
will respect your work. There are tons
of people especially on social media who hear a rumor and treat it as fact, and
while these people or sources may have a spike of temporary popularity and
traffic, it very quickly dies down when the information is proven false.
References:
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