Online Writing; Say What?
There is a difference between hard copy and online writing. The word might be "engage." Yes, all writers have to engage their readers, but the method and mindset are a bit different.
The most well written academic prose is skimmed, unless read to plagiarise or the information is particularly important to the reader.
If you wander over to popular sites; whether 'BadAss of the Week' or 'Daily Onion' you'll find they are written to sound like the guy sitting in the corner booth. It is a spoken language reduced to symbols.
The rules you learned at school don't hold up well in Cyberspace.
Basic
If you don't know the rules of Grammar you don't know how far you can go before slipping into incoherence. People from every nation in the world, trying to write English, attempting to read English; the farther one drifts from standard the less one will be read.
You can get away with misspelling, even wrong usage, but when a paragraph looks like a flung down collection of nouns and verbs, the reader isn't going to sort it out.
Although the rules in Cyberspace are a lot slacker than those in the Real World, the need for clarity isn't. If I don't know WTF you're saying, I'm gone.
You can get away with misspelling, even wrong usage, but when a paragraph looks like a flung down collection of nouns and verbs, the reader isn't going to sort it out.
Although the rules in Cyberspace are a lot slacker than those in the Real World, the need for clarity isn't. If I don't know WTF you're saying, I'm gone.
Pick a Topic
Either you're writing to write or you are writing to be read. If you want people to read what you write then you have to write what they want to read. What do people what to read?
A user of Triond got over Two Million Hits on an article announcing a popular actor was dead. The Actor wasn't.
Many readers left scathing comments, which didn't matter much to the writer since he was getting 1c for every six views.
Another, emulating the success, wrote an imaginary interview with another actor which wound up being used in Wikipedia.
The Moral is; Crap sells.
Many readers left scathing comments, which didn't matter much to the writer since he was getting 1c for every six views.
Another, emulating the success, wrote an imaginary interview with another actor which wound up being used in Wikipedia.
The Moral is; Crap sells.
Although you can try to make it sound clever, How-Tos are usually pretty boring to write. They are also really boring to read, save if you really need to know. Then you'll read every word, carefully.
Some of the least talented make hundreds of dollars a month writing 'How-Tos'.
It may be common sense, it maybe something you think everyone knows, but if you find a topic where your 'How To...' is the only one in its field you will get millions of hits from people all over the world.
Some of the least talented make hundreds of dollars a month writing 'How-Tos'.
It may be common sense, it maybe something you think everyone knows, but if you find a topic where your 'How To...' is the only one in its field you will get millions of hits from people all over the world.
Lists get read. People are always interested in a limited number of items. "The Ten Best..." "The Twenty Worst..."
These bytes of information don't ask much from the reader but prick interest. People want to know "Ten Famous People Who Died Weirdly" or "World's Most Deadly plants." It isn't hard to write a list, you can probably plagiarise one.
These bytes of information don't ask much from the reader but prick interest. People want to know "Ten Famous People Who Died Weirdly" or "World's Most Deadly plants." It isn't hard to write a list, you can probably plagiarise one.
Use Images. For some reason a page of pure text is an anathema in Cyberspace. Set off your work with pictures. I don't know if reading is a lost skill, if concentration is limited, but a few lines of text with an image shoved in works far better.
Learn to set off your work with eye candy.
Learn to set off your work with eye candy.
Title Text
Although I have said it before you have to select a title that will be picked up by a Google. I know it is boring, I know there are probably thousands of items with the same name, but that's how you get hits. Sure, you can Stumble, Digg, Reddit, etc. But on almost every chart of hits you will find Google in the #1 position. This is because Netizens, searching for information have entered a term or phrase in the little search box. Find the most popular phrase and slap that title on your work, you'll get hits.
If your stuff is badly written crap, the visitor will spend .01 seconds before going on to another site. However, you did get the hit.
You'll find many articles with double titles, it was saved as ; "How To Fix Roof", but the Title you see on the page; "Get another Bucket, Martha!"
If your stuff is badly written crap, the visitor will spend .01 seconds before going on to another site. However, you did get the hit.
You'll find many articles with double titles, it was saved as ; "How To Fix Roof", but the Title you see on the page; "Get another Bucket, Martha!"
What about what I Want?
Sure, you've written that novel, that biography, maybe you live in a country where the Press isn't free and you need to tell the world what is happening, (and the world doesn't care about your country right now so the News services aren't picking up). You can post that on a free website. You can even try to Network it You can put it on your Facebook page if you want. But don't expect much.
Write it for you, sure. Write it because you really want to write it. But when it comes to getting hits, to making a few pennies, you have to write what sells.
Write it for you, sure. Write it because you really want to write it. But when it comes to getting hits, to making a few pennies, you have to write what sells.