Content, Content, Content...More on Blogging

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This is Part 4 of a 4 Part series on blogging. For Parts 1, 2, and 3, scroll down to end of article.


Razzle dazzle and promotion won’t do a thing for you unless your blog content is of a high caliber. Sure, folks may stop by your blog, but will they return? The words you choose and what you’re saying are the most important parts of all.

Introduce your subject with a sentence that is sure to grab the reader. “It was a cold and windy night.” probably won’t do it but “After the tree crashed through the roof of the house, the lights went out.” is likely to spark an interest. Whoa! What happened? Did people make it out safely? Read on to find out.

Be clear, crisp, and concise. While a novel can use lots of descriptive, flowery language, that’s not the case with blogs. You’ll be telling the tale with fewer words.

Words! No reason to impress us with your vast vocabulary. Remember your audience is. They’ll either not know those fancy words, which may cause them to stop reading or, for the ones that do understand them, it will slow down their read. In both cases, they may bail out on you.

Your audience; who are they? Do they enjoy sports, fashion, or collecting Madame Alexander dolls? Are they rocket scientists or job seeking professionals? Retired and enjoying a more leisurely lifestyle or moving into second careers that follow their creative passions? Remember, you are writing for the people who share your interests, and relaying your knowledge, expertise, and helpfulness with them.

Short, sharp, simple. Always remember that your readers probably have very little time to spend on your blog. Okay to write incomplete sentences. They need to grasp what you’re telling them quickly. Get the point across.

Paragraphs should be limited to no more than seven or eight lines. More than that becomes overwhelming to the reader; eyes get weary at the sight of it. If there’s a point that requires more words to get across, break it into two paragraphs.

Add some DRAMA. One sentence instead of a paragraph draws considerable attention to a specific point.

Visuals. Do include an illustration, photo, diagram, chart, graph, cartoon, or short video. If you’re writing about a great band, a photo of the band or an album cover works. For a recipe include a photo of the dish when it’s fresh out of the oven so that the reader can almost taste it. Visuals can be placed above or below a paragraph near the relevant text for maximum impact.

Write in your own voice. Write it like you’re telling the story to someone. Would you use a word like “ubiquitous” in your everyday speaking? Tell them it “existed all over the place” or “was everywhere” instead.

After you’ve written a first draft, take a word count. So you’ve got 680 words and you planned on 500? Cut back.  Some of that will be easy; if you’re like me, you may tend to be rather wordy the first go-round. If you get it down to 550, close enough. Don’t get too hung up on the length; if it take 700 words to get the point across, so be it.

Writing should be an enjoyable experience. If you’re not “feeling it” that day, stop. Find your favorite time of the day to write and the right atmosphere. Music in the background or silence? Early morning after you’ve let the dog out and had that first cuppa or after the kids are tucked in and the house is quiet? Or maybe you need complete chaos for inspiration?

As with anything, practice makes perfect. Let’s take that expression loosely; the more often you write, the more comfortable and easy it will become. Over time you’ll write faster as you learn to let that creativity flow more naturally.

Remember when you learned to ride a bike? The training wheels came off, and if you were me, you screamed down the driveway and slammed into the garage! Good news: That’s not likely to happen here. Instead, ideas and words will pour from you more often and more easily. Sounds wonderful no? Don’t be shy; get those creative juices going! 


Previous posts on blogging:
Let's get started
Words words words
Promoting your blog

Words, Words, Words! Blogging, Part Two

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For part one, click here.

How much? We’re not talking about an enovel here. Rule of thumb: Assume most people with an interest in your blog are going to allow no more than three minutes to read what you have to say; some will spend as little as a minute. So make it light, breezy and interesting enough to keep them reading to the end.

Keep it around 500 words.  Now, don’t force it to be that; if it’s 400 to 600, that’s okay. As your readership grows, it’s tempting to cram more words into one blog post. Don’t.  Split your subject into two parts instead; you’ll have readers coming back to hear the rest of the story plus you’re adding another touch point. Helpful hint: Don’t plan on a two-parter, then write part one and quit for the day; part two may never happen then. By the time you get around to it, the subject may not be so interesting anymore, so no blog post. Trust me, I know!

Just spit it out. If you haven’t had a lot of experience in the writing arena, write it like you are talking to someone in conversation. Tell the story. Record it first if you have too, then play back and type it up (or use software to do that for you!). You’ll sound natural and come across as true to your readers (because you ARE). You can always tweak it a little for a bit of polish just before posting.

Paragraphs should be no longer than eight lines. Why, you ask? Anything longer than that causes a loss of interest; it's a lot to absorb, a bit overwhelming, and may result in your readers bailing. 

Keep in mind that what you publish will be in a public forum and can be searched. Will what you’re saying prevent you from getting that important job interview? Could it get you fired from your job? Or is it going to portray you as the shining, intelligent person that you are?

As you grow your content and write more, you may find that you are running into time constraints. After all, you’ve been spending time promoting that blog too, no? (that’s another subject we’ll conquer on another day.) Why not get some assistance? Ask people you know that are also subject matter experts in your area to write for your blog. Are they thinking about starting their own blogs?

Let them test the waters by guest starring on yours. One less post you need to write for the week. Ah…relief!

DO write in Word rather than directly in the blog, for several reasons, including these:
•    Easily check word count
•    Easy check spelling and grammar
•    In more recent versions of Word, there’s a built in Thesaurus
•    It’s nice to have a backup of what you’ve written.

And of course, read through what you’ve written. I’m notorious for typing “the” when I mean “they” and “there” instead of “their”; your “quirks” may differ from mine. It’s easy to overlook them yourself, after all, YOU are proofing YOU! Better yet, pass along your draft to another pair of eyes; NOT for the purpose of changing, rearranging or rewriting but just to catch those little blips.  The result: A more professional post that is (most likely) error free, thus ensuring a more enjoyable read for your readers.

Before posting, it’s a good idea to wipe out all that coding “behind the scenes” in Word before actually posting in your blog. Fortunately, it’s an easy step. Using Notepad, copy your text in. Then copy what’s in Notepad to your blog. Formatting SHOULD come out okay, but sometimes there’s a little adjusting, for example, adding space between paragraphs.

Add the title and a related picture. Pictures tell the story too and draw interest to your post. If you must use something from a page on the internet, acknowledging where it came from is a good idea.

Of course, you can add several photos to your post, placing them near the relevant copy. I like to keep it simple with one. My preference is at the top, on the right side, but whatever you are comfortable with works.

Remember, anything gets easier with practice. That goes for the writing and the process of posting as well.



Stay tuned for Part 3...

Can Blogs Become Habit Forming? An Experiment. Part 1.

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Recently read an article that had some great ideas on how to be a better blogger. Of course, I forgot to bookmark it. And you know how you never recall everything you read. Luckily, one of the ideas discussed in the article stuck in my head. The author noted that in a mere thirty days, one can improve their writing skills by writing 1,000 words a day. When all is said and done, look back at what you’ve written after a month and marvel at your own self improvement.

Sounds simple enough, right? Okay, I’ll bite.

So, on August 12, I began. Started out writing two articles with pretty darn snappy titles: “Corned Beef Hashtag*” and “Pardon me, YOUR’E Grammar is Showing*” (yes, I know this is the incorrect use of your/you’re here; it’s on purpose). The writing didn’t commence until late in the day; a pesky little thing called procrastination continued to wreak havoc with my good intentions. Pounded out about 500 words in about 30 minutes. Yes! Certainly deserved a break after all that. Snack time! Stood up. Walked away. Came back a short time later. 259 more words tumbled out.

Then I took a look at both articles. The grammar piece was downright horrible. It was almost boiling in tone, nearly telling people to go out and purchase Grammar for Dummies (if there IS such a thing). If there’s a tasteful way to approach the subject of horrendous misuses of grammar with out being preachy, then perhaps that article will someday come to light. But not without a complete redo.

Now, the other entry related to hashtags has some potential. The writing there was much more informative. And, it appears to be a subject that deserves to be explained and poked fun at a bit too. After all, how many times have you seen hashtags on Facebook postings? You do know that there is no such animal on Facebook?

Okay, so maybe half of what I wrote on the first 1,000 words day is usable. Will I be able to say that what I write is of higher quality, has the level of meaning and touches of humor that I strive to inject into each and every offering, and is interesting enough to be read by the masses at the end of this thirty day experiment? Sure hope so.

And now for the bad news. Day two. And how many words were written? Zero. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Oops. Well, they do say it takes thirty days to develop a habit, right? But wait; it’s supposed to be continuous, no? Can I have a mulligan? Thank you. So now, officially, August 14 becomes day one. A new beginning!

For the record, the new day one = 1,037 words. And, according to my rules, it’s okay to go over.

* The author reserves the right to the use of “Corned Beef Hashtag” and “Pardon me, YOU’RE Grammar is Showing”. Those WILL be completed and posted here on this blog. Soon.