What do you think about the way writing on the Web is going what with all the shorthand, abbreviations, and symbols that have been introduced into the language? You know what I mean :) LOL. Do you think this kind of communication is necessary and appropriate? I suppose it is in most forms such as an email to a friend, chat rooms, bulletin boards or even a cute Web page, but what do you think about business memos and newsletters? If in my newsletter I used such things would you think me unprofessional and unsubscribe as soon as possible or would you think it was just in good fun and stay because of it?
My next question is; Do you think creative writing online is a dead and dying art form? Is it true that most people visit Web pages just to see the really cool graphics or JavaScripts that are there? Well maybe. Someone will only come to your site so many times if all you have there is cool graphics. If you really want them to come back again and again you will need some real content. This means learning how to write.
Because of all this I want to introduce to you what it means to have "real" content. If you ever took a high school or college course on creative writing then you probably have a head start on this. You may already know how to get going once you have an idea and how to keep it going. You still may have some problems coming up with ideas but this really isn't as hard as most people think it is and neither is writing about something you know about or at least think you know about. You must also take into consideration that writing for the Web is different than writing a book or an essay. Most of the same rules apply but some are very different.
Getting Ideas
The first thing you are probably wondering is "What should I write about?" The answer is a simple "Anything you know about." A lot of people just write about themselves and some go so far as to write their diaries online. Others write pages about their family. Then there are those who just simply pick some other subjects they feel strongly about and write about that.
Whatever you choose you must make sure that you will be able to update the content often. How often depends on how much time you want to put into it and how many visitors and page views you want to have. Some things that you can do are post a little something about current events in your life or something cute your kids did each day or each week and ask them to post updates on their lives or children on your bulletin board.
Similarly you can ask questions of your viewers of something you think they are interested in or passionate about and give an in depth analysis of your view on the subject. Then allow them to post a rebuttal on your bulletin board. A bulletin board is a great way to get people to come back to your site if for no other reason than to see if someone responded to their post.
If you want to write about a subject you are interested in make sure you have enough information that someone looking at it will think "This is the place I will always come for this information." You will want to have several different pages and some links to other pages on the same or similar subject. Write something about the subject once a week or more to keep the pages lively and worth coming to. If your site is about flowers then you may want to pick a different flower each week to write about or you may want to explain how to water flowers one week and how to feed them the next. Break your subjects down into one simple subject so you will never run out of things to write about.
