Benefits of Online Articles vs. Printed Articles
by Julie McElroy on March 5, 2010
Editor's Note: Written by AJ Wilcox. AJ is team lead of OrangeSoda.com’s SEO department. AJ has been in love with Internet marketing for close to 3 years and has done work for over 400 client websites.
Extolling the Virtues of Online
The process of writing content for online is very similar to writing for offline. That’s where the similarities end. After an article is written, the online medium becomes frictionless while offline feels like digging at solid concrete.
Easy to Share: When you get published in a physical work, sharing requires scanning, showing, or even handing over your personal copy of the work in order to share. Online, fans can simply send the link to a friend, and all can read and bookmark it for later reference.
Easy to Reference: When you cite references in the offline world, they appear as a footnote that one in 10,000 might reference; whereas, in the online world, you reference with a link. If you were being referenced, would you like that credit given where no one sees it, or a frictionless invitation to easily check out the source?
Easy to Track: Through the wonder and amazement of web analytics, all things are possible (well, almost). If the article exists on your website, or on another site where you can have access to the data, you can tell how many people viewed the article, how long they stayed, what geographic location, how many clicked links, and tons of other data. When your article is published in an offline medium, you will be told the estimated distribution and impressions based on where your article is located, and that’s about all.
Gives Rise to More Information: In the offline world, when a reader disagrees with a point you have made, there is no way to respond immediately. You will often see in the online world a writer will write a controversial piece, and commenters will give instant feedback and turn the one-way writing into a conversation. This can be especially helpful for readers to get both sides to an issue. Another big one that affects me directly is that search engines can use online articles to determine which keywords to send traffic for. When you have information directly relevant to a searcher in your article, the chances of keeping that visitor on your website (and having that user link to your article in the future, which helps readership and search rankings), are higher.
Easy to Publish: Publishing an article online is as easy as hitting the ‘Publish’ button; whereas, offline it goes through editors and printers. This may actually be the downside to instant publishing, because often it doesn’t pass through a peer review or sometimes even spell check before it goes live. An offline article would pass through a more stringent review in most cases. When your name goes on a print article, it innately means more than if your name appears on an article or blog post because it takes more resources to accomplish.
A Place for Both
Now that I’ve tooted the online horn sufficiently, I will say that offline articles should not disappear. Both types of articles are not mutually exclusive – if you write offline, you can still blog, and vice versa. Because the quality standards of print are so much higher on average, a blogger or writer in the online world should definitely still strive to be featured in print media.
There is also no reason for a print writer not to start a blog. Information has become so easily obtained and pervasive because of skilled writers, so you could sincerely say that writers have changed the world for the better.
This post is brought to you by
Julie McElroy
Julie writes for Inspired to Write where she offers tips, resources, and writing inspiration for writers and bloggers. She is also a freelance writer for various websites and blogs.
Julie has written 166 awesome articles on Inspired to Write.
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