An Online Writers Resources Are Found in the YAHOO! Style Guide

Key Thought: Writing for anything online is different! This is why the Yahoo! Style Guide is so valuable, and perhaps this is why its subtitle emphasizes the following: Writing, editing and creating content for the digital world.

The differences start at the very front door; an articles headline. In print media, the headline is designed to catch your eye as you wander past a newsstand, or quickly flip through a newspaper's pages choosing where you will pause and invest your spare minutes. Such a headline may be barely relevant to the story, though if a reader stops at the article, it has been a success!

But in the digital world, the cleverest of clever headlines will never be seen! The extreme wit is wasted because an online article is only discovered when it is sought out deliberately through a search engine query. This requires an informative, accurate, relevant and, in a word, searchable headline to gather in the readers.

Proper headline writing is important, but I digress. That is only one vital issue an online writer must learn more about. The YAHOO! Style Guide is full of good ideas, insightful suggestions and information that will prepare any writer to be a successful online writer. Besides the 'Writing for the Web' section which contains 20 articles on that subject, the style guide provides five other main topics full of useful lessons.

The 'Resource' section is one that caught my attention as a personally usable find. Starting with Basic Web Page Coding, it goes on through Search Engine Optimization (get used to hearing about the vital SEO for online writing development), Research Tools, and the Web Editor's Toolbox. Each of these sub sections under the Resource tab are filled with particular lessons that are important to grasp and use as a writer for online publication. A thorough study will be found regarding special characters, how to seed copy, measuring your audience, and even some of the good old basics regarding grammar and usage.

I found an 'HTML and XHTML Quick Reference Guide' that I will be spending some time with, to expand my skills and become more versatile in my online writing. In the Special Topics arena I will be learning about measuring my 'readability' and even important facts about copyright law.

The YAHOO! Style Guide is already bookmarked in my Writing Helps file and soon I will acquire the paperback version to hold in my hands, and peruse at length. Certainly, I would recommend that anyone getting ready to write and profitably publish online, do the same!