Tips for Online Writing

In searching for products to feature on OldMaidCatLady.com, I'm always poking around online. Various trails lead me to relevant posts in blogs all over the world. Those can be fodder for more than just my retail site!

A good example is one that popped up this week. Although the blogger was said to live in California, he did not appear to be a native English speaker. And his post made me think of several things to keep in mind when writing for the web, be it blog posts, website copy or articles:

• Have a point. Yes, we all get random thoughts, but don't just use stream of consciousness writing online. What you put online is not only going to be out there forever, it's going to reflect on you and your brand. Make sure it says something good.
• Stay focused. Try to write about one main point, and make that point small enough that you can hold your readers' interest throughout. People don't spend a lot of time reading long articles online. You only have a couple of minutes of their time. If you have a lot to say about a subject, make it into a series of articles or blog posts.
  
• Know your audience. If you're writing a blog, you probably have followers. If you're writing an article, it'll likely be read by people who have something in common. Those are the people you're talking to. Keep them in mind as you're writing. Don't use jargon they wouldn't understand or assume they have knowledge they don't.
  
• Break up the text into bite-sized pieces. Have you ever taken too big of a bite of food and wondered how you were going to chew it all? Readers feel the same way when they see a huge block of text. Use short paragraphs and bullet points to break up your article into smaller pieces, each centered around one thought.
• Be logical. If you studied logic in school, you know that a valid argument has a logical flow. It presents evidence, then draws a conclusion based on that evidence. Make sure your writing follows a similar pattern.
• Use proper grammar and spelling. That should be obvious, right? Not from some of the stuff I've read online! While you can use an informal, conversational voice that doesn't always include complete sentences in the classic sense, you should still pay attention to sentence structure and make sure you've spelled all your words correctly.

Writing for the web is different than writing for print or broadcast. If you're a writer, you should already know that. While there are many additional components of good online writing, if you follow these basics, you'll be on the road to a successful job.