Prerecorded Teleseminar:
Thoughts Regarding Offline Vs. Online Writing
NOTE: The following article is provided by Rocky Wilson who has been in the writing world for over 20 years while transitioning to online writing within the last 2. To contact Rocky directly for questions or assignments please eMail him at RWent2@Comcast.net or call Rocky Wilson at (509) 688-4924.
Probably the biggest difference between online writing and offline writing is that online writing, more often than not, is business oriented. While an offline letter to Aunt Maude or even a novel is written for the pleasure of the reader, most online pieces are written for a specific purpose, often to generate or promote sales of an item or event.
Translated, this means that most online writings, facing unbelievable competition from hundreds of thousands of individuals and companies who also use the Internet, must capture the interest of their audience, often within seconds, or have that audience forever click away to another article or website.
So, unlike Aunt Maude and the readers of your novel who likely will take the time to read to the end of your epistle, those who write for an online market, at least the good ones, will focus their energies not only on capturing their audience within the first few seconds after a viewer clicks on their content, but convey the maximum amount of vital information in the shortest amount of time.
For, in reality, those who scan the Internet most often want to gain as much information as possible in the least amount of time.
To help them toward that end, many Internet writers have come up with proven, results-oriented formulas. Unlike offline pieces where the writer has total leeway to add creativity and even passion to his writings, these formula-based online writings can become dry and redundant to the writer.
But, because so much online writing is both business AND performance oriented, the proof is in the pudding where, time and time again, sales volume has been increased by adhering to some basic ground rules in the written text.
1) Word count … it’s often good to shoot for a piece of about 300 words
2) Capture interest in title, first sentence …
3) Lists …To best communicate quickly, include lists of key points
4) No spelling, punctuation, or grammatical errors
Of course, there are countless other ways to give your article additional exposure on the Internet, such as employing the art of spinning to both article and title content, yet the true foundation of any successful online article is that it be well written and adhere to simple, proven guidelines.
Quite honestly, I find offline writing much more pleasurable than online writing. I am much more relaxed when typing a personal letter to Aunt Maude or writing a novel than writing for online purposes. But, I have no problem doing either. I just enjoy the privilege of writing, no matter my audience or by what means those writings are distributed.
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