google-reader-1000I’m a junkie for the written word. As I moved to writing more online, I found that I was reading online more as well. In part that fact is due to the fact that I was just spending more time online in general. But reading online is more than just a side affect: it’s a necessity if you want to write for the web.

I read at least an hour’s worth of blog posts and websites everyday — often more. I pay attention to how other bloggers are making their points just as much as the point they’re trying to get across. I look at the techniques used by different types of sites and how news sites translate their articles from print to web. I want examples of what to do and what not to do.

Heck, I even read books and other materials meant for print publication on my monitor, just to see where I trip up in reading them — learning a bit more about what not to do.

If you want a shortcut for learning how to write online, reading online is definitely a start. Spend an hour every day pouring over website copy, blogs and every social networking profiles and you’ll start getting a really good idea of what works (and what will drive you absolutely insane if you see it one more time). You can make the process easier: set up Google Reader or another  RSS reader with a couple hundred feeds and just read whatever you come across. You might not read everything that comes through your RSS feeds, but it will put a wide variety of reading material right at your finger tips. And variety is the key: read about writing, read about economics, read about Joe Schmo’s crappy day at work.

I have no plans to stop my reading, either. I’m up to 648 feeds in my RSS reader and if I don’t get to at least browse through recent posts, I get pretty cranky. New ideas, new styles, new material — it helps me keep my writing fresh and improve on my weak points.