annej - 9:16 pm on Jun 8, 2010 (gmt 0)

My sites are primarily my writing. I've been at it for several years and it's paid off in inbound links including some from some universities and government sites.

I do think writing for the web is different.

I think it's a matter of merging good writers with good webmasters. Typically good writers tend to write way to much in paragraphs that are way too long. They want to tell all they know in their area of expertise.Most writers need to be partnered with someone can edit for the web.

Here are the guidelines I've built for my own writing.

1 - start with a short blurb that will grab the reader's interest. If there is something unusual about an article I mention that there. Compelling quotes are another possibility.

2 - I put short headers in bold before each subtopic so when people skim they can easily find the aspect of the topic that they are looking for.

3- Keep the paragraphs short. Long paragraphs look a lot longer on a web page than on paper.

4- Keep the lines short. People can read faster and easier if the lines aren't too long.

5- If the topic will go past around a thousand words break it into two subtopics and put them on two separate pages.

6 - As for the actual writing it needs to be compelling, well organized and concise.