I can talk for hours on the subject, but if asked for the most effective ways to get online readers to read what you write, I would offer these strategies as the most important, which are backed up by eye-track studies as being an effective way to get your message across to online readers:
- Write compelling but clear headlines: Don’t get cute. Online and in print, the headline is almost always the first thing readers look at. Make sure it is clear and gives a good idea of what the post is about, while still leaving the reader wanting more.
- Write in the active voice: Effective online writing is all about getting to the point, and on a line-by-line basis, the most effective way to do that is to use the active voice, which naturally lends a sense of urgency to your writing. The easiest way to do that is to start each sentence with the subject, immediately follow that with a strong, active verb, and then follow that with the direct object. Avoid adverbs: they’re a telling sign that you chose the wrong verb.
- Online writing is visual: Long, dense paragraphs turn off online readers. Create white space in your copy by keeping paragraphs short and using bulleted lists when appropriate. Use bold text to accent key information and use block or pull quotes to draw readers into the copy.
- One main idea per sentence: Keep sentences on point. Avoid multiple clauses and phrases, and lots of information stops and commas. Make sure each sentence has one idea, and not much more than that.
- No sentence without a fact: Every line you write needs to move the story forward. If a sentence doesn’t have a fact, cut it.
Read full article via readwriteweb.com
This is a bibliography of writing books I recommend in my seminars. You may order most of these b...
Judy Gombita spotted this list of Great Literary Taunts: “A modest little person, with muc...
One of the most debated questions in all of journalism is how to handle direct quotations. Journa...
Dick Weiss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch does some neat stuff on writing in his Weiss on Writin...
Writing good is a big deal these days. A bigger deal then math, according to my friends and I, bu...
Thanks to the onslaught of technology and our need to constantly rush through everything, our gra...
Be Brief One of the worst mistakes email copywriters make is trying to shove the entire story i...
Here are six rules of thumb that will help you write a sales message that actually helps you mov...
The value of this Business Plan process is the thinking that it forces you to do about your busin...
Web writing is all about emotional impact. We’ve already said web writing is a direct selling env...
The most important words on your web site are not the ones you wrote. Here’s my thinking on this ...
Here’s a universal principle that frames the experience of writing for the web: “Form ever follow...
If this is indeed the year of reading more and writing better, we’ve been right on course with Da...
Are you a deluded writer? Stop! Before you answer that question, let me tell you about Brian Wan...
I won’t lie to you. The verb “to lie,” meaning “to recline,” is not the easiest verb in the Engl...
Or would you rather just email me? A couple of readers have asked me about making “email” a verb....
Refined Wisdom: Here’s what I think about making verbs into nouns. Usually, there are so many b...
Let’s rein in reign! Have you noticed how often you see these two words confused? Here’s a senten...
This is a bibliography of writing books I recommend in my seminars: ...
Remember when Robert Novak (surprise, surprise) became upset with something James Carville said, ...
