5 Tips for Print-to-Digital Writers
Print writing is becoming extinct and digital writing is growing faster than ever. If you’re thinking of making the print-to-digital writer transition, then post is for you. It’s easy to think that writing for print and online media is the same. However, you would be making a big mistake. There are many differences that print writers interested in moving their work online should know about.
Here are some of the most prominent tips on moving your work online.
Hooks
A print reader makes a larger commitment than an online reader. Here is how: you have to make time to purchase a magazine and then make a commitment in money by buying it. However, when you read something online, you make no commitments. You have just googled something, there is a vast source of information vying for your attention and all you have to do is click.
This is a big difference which means that when it comes to online content, you have to be one of those information sources fighting for attention. While in print you can slowly elaborate your topic, in online writing you have to jump to the juicy, meaty parts of your articles right away. Something in your post has to hook the readers fast so that they don’t bounce and you lose attention.
Study some online publications like blogs or popular websites and compare that writing with what you did in print media. You will see that in print media you have the time for a large exposition which draws the reader in slowly while in online content, you don’t.
Length matters
Length of your content online and in print is certainly one of the biggest differences between print and online media and it all goes back to the lack of attention of digital readers. While we might spend hours in front of our desktop or mobile screens, we never read any articles in their entirety.
Instead, we scan through them to gather the most valuable information from subtitles and shorter paragraphs—only if something truly grabs our attention, we start reading everything and sometimes not even then.
There is nothing that you can do about it—it’s just the nature of digital media and online readers. But this means that you can’t rely on length. Readers like longer articles—but only if they are somewhere around 1000 words long. In print, on the other hand, you can write much longer pieces and they will still be read.
SEO
“SEO is an obvious difference. There is none in print media and it’s all about SEO in online content writing. If you want to move on to online content writing, you first need to learn the basics of SEO before finding a job in online content creation,”says Poppy Williams, a copywriter with Writemyx.
This is what most website owners are looking for while only some prefer to do it on their own. You probably already know some things about SEO and what you should do to make your article easier to find online but there is a lot of information about it online that you should read before you start.
Just adding keywords simply isn’t enough anymore.
Tone of voice
The tone of voice is another major difference between writing for digital and print publications. While in print publications you are mostly required to be formal and present raw information without adding any of your personality, online readers prefer casual tone and a lot of writers personality and personal experiences.
However, these two have a common trait which is that in both you have to focus on your audience to get the most out of our tone and style.
The style
There are many style differences between writing for print and for online publications. Starting from the top, you need to understand that headlines don`t work the same. While in print you have some room to be creative and write indirect, witty headlines, in online media you have to create powerful, straightforward headlines. Internet users want information fast.
Next, your entire piece should be concise and clear—no room for flowery prose. You need to use active language and action verbs. This creates clarity – you can use Origin Writings and 1Day2write for better understanding of what clear copy online means.
Conclusion
While print media still matters and offers valuable information to readers worldwide, online media is certainly more populated. If you have decided to take the leap into writing for the internet, check what you will have to change before starting. Hopefully, these tips will help.
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