by Frances Laing

Created on: February 15, 2009

Let's start with the obvious things. Reading on the computer screen has been proven to be more tiring than reading from paper so clarity is what you are aiming for. Make it easy for your readers.

1. Keep your sentences fairly short.

2. Paragraphs should be fairly short too. Four or five sentences is usually enough.

3. Make good use of a spell check facility. It's tempting to press that submit button and have done with it, but you may need to slow down in your writing process. I've made this mistake many times and it's easily done. If you are your own editor you often tend to overlook something. Develop your own checking procedures.

4. Watch your paragraph breaks and your formatting. Make good use of your 'preview' button. It can be really annoying for readers if text is wrapped clumsily around a picture so that it is difficult to read.

5. Put some thought into the title of your piece. Generally it shouldn't be longer than 140 characters. Don't forget to work your key words in somehow, whilst making the title attractive and interesting.

6. Wise up on 'search engine optimisation'. Take careful note of any guidelines you are given to include key words - and how often you are advised to include them. They will be important when choosing your title as well. Try to mention them early on in your piece, but don't go overboard with repetition - that's a total turn off for your readers.

7. Make use of effective web copy writing techniques. Writing like this in a list of ten points is said to be effective. But don't do it all the time - variety is important!

8. Stick to the word count you are given. Or the word limit you have set for yourself. They say that 400 words is the ideal length for a blog post. This is because a computer user is generally able to view a piece this length easily without scrolling down the page.

9. Be aware of how colours and type face affect the user experience. Black writing on a green background may be very difficult and tiring for some people to read, especially those who are visually challenged. Get some advice on this one from disability awareness organisations and you will increase your readership.

10. Write interesting, informative and creative stuff! Writing on the Internet is different from writing for a magazine or newspaper but if you're boring - no one will want to know anyway! Focus on writing helpful pieces that readers will keep coming back to.

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