Online Vs. Print: Understand How Online Writing Needs to Be Different to Succeed

There are hundreds of ways to earn a living writing online. Cash for writing? Sure. Easy. You can earn a nice little income writing for AssociatedContent, for example, to fulfill that goal.

But you have to understand that online writing is different than writing for print. Until you really get an idea of that simple fact, you'll be frustrated with the amount of money you earn online.

Difference One: Writing to be Found

When you have an article published in a magazine, you've got hundreds of potential readers already holding your writing in their hands. Subscribers receive that magazine on a monthly basis and will usually at least skim through it to find something of interest.

Online writing changes those rules entirely. You have a potential readership of millions. But the only way to reach those millions is to attract an audience.

When you write online, you'll need to remember the rule of keywords. Your headline should contain discoverable keywords. For example, if I wrote an article about using Photoshop to scan slides for a magazine, I could use a catchy little headline like, "Don't Lose Your Memories". That simply doesn't work for the Internet. Search engines don't have a clue what you're talking about from the headline, and won't rank you high enough for others to find you and give your article a chance. Instead, I would need to be more specific, "How to Use Photoshop to Scan Your Old Slides".

Keywords should also be peppered throughout your content, for the same reasons as above. You don't want to overdo it, but definitely repeat your idea with phrases and words that will be picked up by search engines.

Difference Two: Spelling and Grammar

Anyone who writes routinely for magazines will tell you that it's important to use proper grammar and really watch your spelling. But if you make a mistake that you don't catch, it's not the end of the world. That's what proofreaders are for.

Here in the digital world, we online writers don't have the luxury of proofreaders. We are our own editing staff. It's hard enough to catch a reader's eye, you don't want to turn them away with a ton of errors. Make more than a couple, and your credibility goes out the window.

Difference Three: The Goals

When you buy a magazine, you can expect to be entertained. You're kept informed of trends, and - most importantly - you're kept interested in the magazine. This is easy to understand. If you lose interest in the publication, you'll cancel your subscription or stop buying it off the stands. Then the magazine loses advertising revenue, and they're not happy.

When you write for the Internet, your sole purpose is to inform. Yes, you should try to be entertaining. Yes, you should give readers value for the time they're spending reading your writing. But it all comes down to the fact that the Internet is the place people turn most often for information.

Online article writing always comes back to information. Remember that distinction, and you'll have a lot more satisfied readers.

Difference Four: Attention Span

Even if your writing is exceptional, people have a much shorter attention span online than they do in print. It has to do with psychology and eye strain and a variety of other factors that we really don't have to understand - we just need to know that we've got to write well and in fewer words.

Your fantastic article on the care and keeping of a rare breed of lizard that worked beautifully in print at over 1,000 words won't work online. You need to trim it down, use shorter paragraphs, and aim for around 700 words.

Difference Five: Pleasing Who?

When we write for print publication, we have to study submission guidelines. We check out what the publication has printed before, and try to get a feel for what the editor wants.

That's key: an article for a magazine must please the editor. An article online must please your readers.

What this means is that you can write about more obscure topics (there aren't a lot of magazines that would go crazy for your article on rock collecting, for example) and as long as there's someone out there willing to read it, you have the potential to make a fan.

That doesn't mean you can ignore popular issues. Places like AssociatedContent need the visitors to keep paying all of their writers. If you're not writing something anyone will bother reading, you won't get paid for it ... or not well, anyway.

If nothing else, remember this: online writing is about a residual income. It comes in over time, slowly paying dividends to your wallet and your reputation. You aren't making a large sum upfront, the way you would with a magazine, but you earn a lot more over time in ways that magazines can't begin to cover.

An online article might earn you only a few dollars, but remember that it can keep earning those few dollars every month for years to come. Print can't touch that.