Writing Persuasive Content For The Internet
Starting in the 1990s, and especially now with the shift away from the more traditional types of advertising to Internet based marketing, there is a greater need to find qualified writers that can fill the ever increasing amount of content writer jobs available online.
These jobs were once filled by people who had a minimum of writing experience and the industry soon learned that the best website content writer was the one that had a professional command of the English language and a background that allowed them to produce persuasive interactive content on a regular basis. For this reason, the early trend toward cheap writers that came in large part from countries like India has reversed itself and the freelance web content writer who does the best in today’s market generally has a degree or background in journalism or some other related field.
To that end, there are certain things that need to be factored in if the modern website content writer is to be successful, and these are generally factors that tie in quite well with the tenets of journalism. The number one rule concerns itself with clarity. If you take a chunk of text out from the body of the work, does it make sense on its own? If there are two or three different ideas presented in a chuck of 100 words does the transition from one idea to the other flow smoothly?
It’s important to remember that when it comes to the size of the text in almost all website copy, the old writing adage ‘less is more’ comes into play. There are many statements such as ‘as you probably know’ that are better left off a website, blog or even web article. Brevity is the key here and as far as punctuation goes, frequent stops and starts are much better than longer sentences that make use of colons and other more literary marks.
The text should always be understandable right away to everyone, especially those with limited education and a different cultural background. It’s not the job of the website content writer to show off and treat web readers to their vocabulary and command of fancy grammar. That’s better left to the literary crowd and their specific audience.
Remember too that self editing is an important feature that can help bring your work into focus. No writer of any worth would think their copy is ready to go after the first draft
Robert Starr is a professional writer/editor with several published books and a degree in journalism. He’s brought 20 years of experience in the craft to his own on line writing/editing service. You can reach him at
robstarr