This post is a guest post from Nikolas Tjhin, one of travelers behind Unearthing Asia — which, last week, was named Guardian.co.uk’s Travel Blog of the Month. Congratulations, Nik!

As is the case with almost everything else, the world wide web has changed the way travel works. Gone are the times when you had to call and book an appointment with a travel agency, relying solely on letters printed on a five-years old guide book, or on the advice of a stranger, your travel agent.

Now, you have plenty to choose from – a plethora of sites giving promotional prices, and even sites that simply aggregates the best deals from other sites. In terms of travel advice, there are the large communities from which you can ask and seek advice, and thousands of smaller blogs sharing their experiences.

For travel writers this means a whole new market to explore – more editors to pitch your ideas to, and more readers for you to share your experiences with! But unfortunately, you cannot simply copy and paste your printed copy and expect that to work for online publications. There are differences that must be addressed. Here’s my take on the major differences between online and print travel writing.

Short and Catchy

Pick up your favorite travel magazine and take a look at any random article. Chances are, you’ll find an article that’s about 800-1200 words long over a 2 page spread, with each paragraphs about 70-80 words long each. Online writing demands a shorter, simpler way to share your message.

The attention span of your average online reader is much shorter compared to that of a person browsing a magazine. The internet culture is that of multiple-tab browsing and multi-tasking as one surf the internet. As such, you need to break up your paragraphs shorter and spice them up with catchy subheadings to keep their interest.

List and Link Love

In the world of online writing, lists are very popular. It’s a simple and easy way to present information, and gives the reader a chance to browse through quickly. Not so much in a print publication, you’ll find perhaps just one or two list in your usual travel magazine.

Links on the other hand, is only applicable to online writing, a great way to share your sources to your readers, or to lead them to another related article that you feel may be of interest to them. In a way this is similar to how you share your sources by using references in a printed publication, but it lacks the smooth, immediate impact compared to linking online works.

A few examples of lists are:

• 7 Quick Sidetrips in Australia
• 10 Things To Do In Hong Kong
• 10 Road Trip Songs You Never Head Before
• 10 Travel Writing Markets

Instant Feedback

Another feature that online writing has is the ability for the readers to immediately share their thoughts and comment back on your article. This instant communication can be a great way to start a community of like-minded people, or to hear another perspective on your particular subject.

What this mean for us writers is that what we write, be it facts, figures, opinions and comments, are immediately digested and put on the spotlight by our readers. You need to be extra careful when citing others’ sources, and if you’re writing on a debate-able subject you can expect comments both for and against you, some thoughtful, some less so.

Compare that to a printed publication, where if you make a mistake nobody is there to point it out straight away. Readers can write back to the publication, but it’ll just be mentioned in the next issues of the publication. In an online trade, your readers have the power to call you out right away.

In a way, online writing does not simply stop at writing the article and publishing it. You are expected to participate and comment back on your readers who have given their own thoughts. You are also expected to immediately edit out whatever mistakes you have made.

As a final tip, keep a look out on other blogs and sites, and see how they are treating their writing content. The web is always continuously growing, and the signs are pointing to shorter and simpler way to share information with each other (points to Twitter). But who knows, perhaps in future the average attention span of the web generation will increase and 2000 words articles will be the norm. I’m guessing it won’t, but it’s the web, a lot of things can happen!