When you’re writing for a website, the odds are pretty good that you’re writing to persuade. Maybe you’re writing copy meant to convince customers to line up with their credit cards. Maybe your publishing blog posts meant to win over new converts to your point of view. Either way, you’re trying to convince each and every reader of something.

My first piece of persuasive writing was an essay in middle school. I don’t even remember what I was trying to convince anyone of — it was an assignment in English class. But the sheer number of red marks on that essay after the teacher graded it stuck with me. I don’t think it was a particularly bad essay, as far as middle school goes, but I had no idea of how to get my argument across in a persuasive manner. I threw every fact I could find at the wall, hoping it would stick.

Readers don’t want every fact under the sun. They want the facts that are actually relevant to their own lives and they want them fast. It’s become matter of fact to say that shorter pieces do better online, but that’s more than a matter of content. Even within a short blog post or product description, it’s okay to limit the number of facts you squeeze into that short word count. In fact, it’s important to make sure that your piece isn’t stuffed to the gills with facts. Leave some breathing room and readers will thank you.

On top of dealing with too many facts, you’re probably dealing with some heavy-duty bias. Bias certainly isn’t a bad thing — every newspaper in the country has at least some bias, no matter what they saw — but it is something that must be handled carefully. The slant or spin you give a specific piece should be subtle. Heavy-handed bias is a fast way to lose readers; they’ll quickly come to conclusions that the writer is arrogant or argumentative, rather than informative and persuasive.

It is possible to be subtle even in overtly persuasive writing (like advertising copy). It can be as simple as demonstrating the value of your product — or opinion. Just like good fiction, good persuasive writing requires you to show, rather than tell, the value of your position.