Bloggers Advice for Writing for the Internet

Any practitioner of the journalism field will tell you Bob Dylan was right when he sang, "The times they are a-changing." For journalists, this change is from print to Internet. Writing for the Internet, via blogging, online reporting, tweeting, and the like are forcing journalists to do more. "Today, it's not enough to just write for a newspaper," GoGreenTriad.com writer Morgan Josey Glover said to a reporter on Wednesday. It is also important to know how to edit audio, use social networking tools, and blog. Even people outside of the journalism world are turning to blogs to comment on the world around them.

Bethany Keeley a student at the University of Georgia writes a popular blog about the misuse of quotation marks called unecessaryquotes.com. Currently earning her Ph.D., Bethany said, "Blogging is my side job. My full job is being a scholar." While that may be true, Bethany's blog averages 4000 hits daily, and she has been interviewed by MSNBC, BBC4, and was covered in the article by the Associated Press, which was run in newspapers all over the country.

While Bethany herself is not a journalist, she still has sound advice for writing for the internet. "When you write for the internet being brief is important. Get to the point have your short joke or coverage about the thing," Bethany said.

Besides the brevity of internet writing, which is helpful for graduate students with little time on their hands, another great thing about internet writing is the ability to link. Linking allows for writers to show the reader exactly what they are talking about. Linking can also create cross-traffic between related sites. On Bethany's blog, she said that she links to other blogs with material that readers who like her blog will also find interesting. She mentioned linking to cakewrecks.com, a similarly themed website featuring funny pictures with snarky comments.

Morgan echoes Bethany's advice about writing for the internet, but from a more journalistic point of view. Morgan who has written for various newspapers with broad audiences, says that niche writing on the internet is totally different. First of all, she emphasizes the ability to post faster and without the various media gatekeepers. "As long as I'm accurate, I go ahead and put it out there," Morgan said.

Morgan also touched on the pro's of being able to link in her stories. "One of the purposes of a blog is to point people to other sources," Morgan said. On gogreentraid.com, there are many links to other green friendly websites and articles that their readers would find interesting.

All in all, while the times are changing, being prepared to write for the Internet will help you change with them.