14 Nov 10 Writing for Web – Things to Keep in Mind

Writing for the Internet is different from writing for any other media, as there are far more distraction here than you can see anywhere else. There are so many things vying for your audience’s limited amount of attention that the attention is too thinly distributed among all the tempting elements.

Your copy or content has to perform in this chaotic world. Wouldn’t it be too much to ask your content to do without providing it the weapon necessary to cut through the clutter? Those weapons are scannability, keywords, and short paragraphs. You need to keep following things in mind when writing for the web:

Keep the paragraph short. You are not creating a literary piece, so there is no need to make the paragraphs long. 3 to 4 sentences long paragraphs are enough.
Divide your articles using headings and subheadings.
Use important items as bullet points.
Use keywords in H1, H2, H3, and other heading tags.
Use primary keyword as early in the title as you can.
Use important keywords in the first 50 words, or at least in first 100 words.
Use headings and subheadings to communicate key ideas.
Use standard font in the blog or article you post on your website, so that most of the people can read the items.
You can also insert images and tables in an article or blog post to make the article scannable.
Keep the sentences shorter.
Do not confuse your readers by addressing too many issues in a small article. Keep it simple.

Your article or blog post should be constructed in such a way that your audience gets the central idea in the first 30 seconds. This is the amount of time one has for any online item. The visitors may stay longer if you succeed in retaining the audiences’ attention within this time limit.

Tags: Amount Of Time, Audience, Audiences, Bullet Points, Central Idea, Chaotic World, Clutter, Distraction, H2 H3, Heading Tags, Headings And Subheadings, Many Things, Paragraph, Sentences, Short Paragraphs, Small Article, Time Limit, Time One, Weapons, Writing For The Web

Filed in Writing with 0 Comments

01 Sep 10 How to Take Frequent Breaks Without Losing on Article Quality

In the last article, we talked why it is important for a write to finish one article in one sitting. I supplied quite a handful of reasons to support my claim. While writing that piece, at the back of my mind I had this feeling that there are times when a writer cannot just sit and write. He is bound to get distracted. What to do in such situations? And then I came with something that will help all of us leave our half-finished articles to attend other matters at hand. Let’s see how we can do that.

Prepare a structure for the article

Before you begin writing, you should create a structure of the article. When you undertake this exercise what you are basically doing is creating a skeleton which you will later fill with flesh, blood, and muscles. The structure of an article provides it a basic framework that will later be developed in a full grown article.

Divided the contents in subheadings

Once you know how your final article will look like, you need to divide your articles into sections and sub-sections using headings and subheadings for better readability. To break an article into sections and subsections apply the rule of thumb given below. The rule of thumb is: always put the important ideas into headings of an article, so that people know what individual paragraphs will talk about, and what the article, as a whole, is about.

Write down main points

Now it is time to add some flesh to the structure you have created so far. Under each headings and subheadings, write 2 or 3 bullet points that summarize the central idea of each paragraph, and which add up to make the complete paragraph.

That is it. You are done. Now only the filling up step is left, which could be done anytime, even after one or more breaks.

As said, the final step in the process is to write content beneath headings and subheadings using the main points (bullet points) that you have listed. By following this guide, you will be able to write good quality articles even when you take frequent breaks.

Tags: Back Of My Mind, Bound, Break, Bullet Points, Central Idea, Exercise, Flesh Blood, Frequent Breaks, Handful, Headings And Subheadings, Muscles, Paragraph, Paragraphs, People, Readability, Rule Of Thumb, Skeleton