How to write successfully for the Web?

Online readers love free information. They scour the Internet daily looking for specific information to solve their problems, help them be successful, live longer or get healthy.

Steps

Make your article scan ready. A study by Jakob Nielson, publicized as the guru of web page usability by the New York Times, revealed that only 16 percent of his test users actually read the copy they found online; 79 percent of them simply scanned it. Your impatient web readers will want important information to jump out at them. Some practical ways to make your text scannable:
- headings
- sub-headings
- bulleted lists
- numbered lists
- easy steps
- typeface variation
Keep it short. Get and keep the attention of web readers by delivering short messages. Start with the conclusion. Your readers may not make it to the end of your piece to get it. Web readers don't want to get bogged down in long blocks of text. So get to the point early and use the rest of your article to support that main point.
Make your title sizzle. Dull titles will not capture your readers' interest. It will make your article fade into the sea of other boring articles listed in article banks these days. You have to create a title that will reach out and grab your reader by the collar. Make it short. Create interest. Include the main benefit or solution in your title.
Talk to your target audience. Your information is not for everyone. Avoid generalities.
Add substance. Resist fluffing your articles. Include practical, valuable information in your copy. Lack of substance will block your road to profitable referrals. Do the research and/or draw from your knowledge and experience to illustrate.
Make it web professional. Create a more web professional look by using short sentences, then format your page to approximately 65 characters per line. Long stringed sentences that stream from side to side of the web page look visually unprofessional. Select a layout for your article from several short article formats that include the how-to, tips list, question-answer, problem-solutions and interview.
Don't spice the article with "optimized" keywords to flatter search engines -- this how-to is about how to write successfully for the web, not search engines, after all. Usually, the search engines will follow the links of real readers, who actually liked your content.

Tips

Long paragraphs are usually acceptable for print media; they are not for the web.
Keep the writing short, simple and on point. Jakob Nielsen recommends using half the word text online compared to print.
Use diagrams or photographs to help illustrate your points.
Avoid the use of technical jargon except where necessary. If you must use it, include links or definitions for uncommon words or industry terms.
Make sure that the color of the font contrasts with the background, and that the font color is much darker than the background color. For example, don't use a yellow font on a green background. Even if you make the letters big and bold, the readability of your text suffers.
Avoid making readers scroll across. People would much rather scroll down than scroll across, so make your text space adjustable to the reader's window size.

Warnings

Flashing text, marquees, animated gifs, rollover buttons and other effects serve to distract the reader from main text on the page. While they can be used in moderation, overuse of these features will irritate the user more than impress him/her.
Remember that you are writing for a reader who has no compulsion to go on reading the page.
BE NORMAL - It is better to avoid using Letters in upper case or all caps.
Write for the readers, search engines are bound to follow

Useful websites

http://www.helium.com, http://www.suite101.com

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