Writing for the Web

Getting paid (or not) for webwriting

I have Google Alerts out for "webwriting" and "writing for the web," and the articles they bring me are really pretty discouraging.

One common theme is "make big money writing freelance for websites." This is supposed to be especially attractive for "wahms," which I gather means "work at home moms." If the money is so big, why are people writing "make big money" articles instead of making big money writing real articles for websites?

Dianne Jacob, on her blog Will Write for Food, strikes a more realistic note: Is Lower Pay for Web Writing Defensible? And of course it isn't. Yet some websites still think they can offer "exposure" that aspiring writers will be grateful to take instead of money.

In the last five or six years I've written almost exclusively for websites, except for a book now and then, and it's been enjoyable; but it hasn't made me much money. In fact, if I had to depend on webwriting to pay for the groceries, I'd be out of the business tonight.

I don't even run ads on my blogs, except for my own books. And I would cringe to see my sites displaying those stupid "get rid of belly fat" ads that currently infest the web.

So I'm not writing for money, still less for "exposure." I'm writing for influence. On subjects like writing fiction, and mastering standard English, and covering the influenza pandemic, I know I reach sizable audiences who share my interests. If I can make life a little easier for an apprentice novelist, or tell a public-health expert something she's glad to know about, then the writing is worth it.

In the process I'm also educating myself about how to write for this medium, which is too new to have traditions. As my webwriting improves, my influence should increase also.

And if I actually make some real money from webwriting as a result, that will be very nice. But I'm not counting on it.

UK: Web Editor, 3 month contract, c.£150 per day

Via Futureheads Blog: Web Editor, 3 month contract, c.£150 per day (ref j176). Excerpt:

We are looking for web editors with significant experience of working on major consumer websites and large-scale web launch or relaunch projects. This is a great opportunity to contribute to the launch of a major new website for a well known organisation in the third sector and to help rewrite their content to work with a new brand and web strategy. 

Working with content contributors from around the organisation, the Editor will rewrite and edit content in accordance with new brand guidelines, ensuring that the site’s user experience is optimised at all times with the needs and motivations of the organisation’s users in mind at all times. 

You’ll be able to demonstrate how you’ve created a cohesive content presence across a range of digital touch points including sites, emails, marketing communications and presence on external sites.

Online headlines should entice readers

Via The Editor's Desk, the blog of Andy Bechtel at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at UNC-Chapel Hill: Guest post: Online headlines should entice readers. The guest is Daniel Bethea, a journalism student. Excerpt:

The headline is typically the first thing that a person reads, but a recent study shows just how important online headline writing is. The study found that 44 percent of Google News readers only read the headlines and did not actually follow the link to the publications’ Web sites. 

What does this tell us about headline writing for the Web? First, online headlines should be more informative than a typical print edition headline. Names should be included. The print edition may say “mayor,” but the online headline should say the mayor’s name. Figures can also enhance a Web headline. Instead of writing “millions,” write the actual number.

I'll think about these precepts when I'm posting items on The Hook, the politics blog of The Tyee. But I'd hesitate to make the heads really long—our headlines are big and bold, and three or four lines of headline text, no matter how informative, would be hard to read.

Reader reluctance to click through to the full story is a continuing problem for web writers and editors. I try to overcome it with an intriguing lede, and sometimes I guess I succeed...if only because the item gets a lot of comments.

But I also see on my blog H5N1 that the average length of a visit to the site is under 2 minutes, though I post numerous items every day and some of them are pretty long. Even at the height of the swine flu pandemic, visit length was no more than 2 minutes. Some of my flu-blogging colleagues write long, complex posts and get much more traffic than I do—but visit length isn't any longer than it is for me.

So clearly many web readers are content with the spritz of information they get from the headline alone.

Arizona job

Via AZjobz.com: Web Content Writer. Excerpt:

Phoenix based corporation it’s seeking a Web Content Writer who has a strong understanding of SEO to help support the Internet Marketing and Writing Department.

If your editorial skills can't spot the error in that excerpt, don't bother to apply.

Webwriting jobs

I'm starting a new feature: Posting webwriting and web editing jobs as I become aware of them. If a job looks totally awful, of course I won't waste your time with it. But maybe you're just the vampirophile person to respond to this: Twilight News » Help Wanted!

We don't know the people who change our lives

Via BBC News: Steve Jobs and Sir Tim Berners-Lee baffle the Brits. Excerpt:

Leading technology figures may have an image problem in the UK, according to a survey. 

In a poll of 1000 British people, 20% had never heard of Apple chief executive Steve Jobs and a further 10% thought he worked for a trade union. 

Fifteen percent believed that web creator Sir Tim Berners-Lee was either head of MI5 or an Arctic explorer. 

Microsoft boss Bill Gates was the most well-known but 5% of the group thought he was a comedian or a famous thief.

This ignorance of the people who most directly affect our lives has troubled me for a long time, because I share it. I must have used a mouse for a decade before I knew about its inventor, Douglas Englebart. Nor did I know much about the graphical user interface until I'd used one for several years. 

The integrated circuit, which made modern computers possible, is unknown to the vast majority of its users. And who knows about Expensive Typewriter, the first word processor, which could run a Selectric typewriter for $100,000 in the early 1960s? That's a mere $712,000 in today's dollars.

Google versus China

Via the Official Google Blog, a momentous statement: A new approach to China. After describing how human-rights advocates in China are having their Gmail accounts accessed, Google goes on:

We have taken the unusual step of sharing information about these attacks with a broad audience not just because of the security and human rights implications of what we have unearthed, but also because this information goes to the heart of a much bigger global debate about freedom of speech. 

In the last two decades, China's economic reform programs and its citizens' entrepreneurial flair have lifted hundreds of millions of Chinese people out of poverty. Indeed, this great nation is at the heart of much economic progress and development in the world today. 

We launched Google.cn in January 2006 in the belief that the benefits of increased access to information for people in China and a more open Internet outweighed our discomfort in agreeing to censor some results. At the time we made clear that "we will carefully monitor conditions in China, including new laws and other restrictions on our services. If we determine that we are unable to achieve the objectives outlined we will not hesitate to reconsider our approach to China." 

These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered--combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web--have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. 

We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. 

We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.

James Fallows has some thoughtful discussion of this measure. The Guardian in the UK also has a good report with responses from interested parties.

Haiti: Communicating online

The New York Times has published Gleaning Information From Haiti Online, a vivid account of how people in Haiti are communicating after the earthquake via the web. Earlier this evening, I looked for an online news source from Haiti and couldn't find a thing.