12 Tips for Blogging

July is National Blog Posting month. Are you participating? If so, here are some tips on how to write your blog posts to get more viewers and readers.

1. Keep it as short as possible – People do not want to read an essay that’s four pages long. Remove any fine details if they don’t add to your story, or any excess “filler” words, but remember, be concise, not terse.
2. Give it a catchy title – A plain title like “A collection of poems” is not going to attract any attention. On the other hand, “Poem soup” is a much more original title. You get the idea.
3. You don’t have to be a professional – Most blog writers are not. They are just people who are interested in writing about their life. Don’t feel that just because you’re not a professional blogger or writer, you can’t give good advice or will be criticized for every blog post. Have confidence when you post.
4. Add graphics and media – Just one or two pictures can make your blog post a lot more interesting. It adds flavor to your story. Other forms of multimedia, like audio and video can help too. Even a picture story can be cool (see this blog post). But don’t overload on the content, since this can be distracting. (A note on videos: WordPress doesn’t support video unless you pay since those guys just want your money and rip you off. Don’t give WordPress your money, since you rarely will need video content. Pictures are good enough.)
5. Spelling and grammar count too. No one wants to read a blog post where every second word is spelled wrong or the grammar errors make it sound like a five-year-old’s language. Of course, your blog posts don’t have to be extravagantly formal, but conventions errors can be detracting.
6. Not too flashy – I’ve seen blogs that have really hurt my eyes. Their backgrounds were colored with striking contrasting colors such as hot pink and dark purple. If you’re going to plague your blog with five million colors, it’s not worth looking at or reading, so keep the design simple. Of course, don’t make it too simple; no one likes reading plain-text documents.
7. List it out – Lists make the blog post seem so much shorter than blocks and blocks of paragraphs. They also make the reader want to read your whole blog post.
8. Blogs don’t support excessive anger – If you’re angry, sure, you can write a blog post about that, but beware: don’t use ALL CAPS or TWENTY EXCLAMATION MARKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! since that gives others the impression that you’re an idiot. Also refrain from using excessive swear words because people will stop reading.
9. Excerpt it – Some people just don’t have the time to read your entire story. If so, just summarize it in a four-sentence paragraph, and then include a “read more” link so readers can read the rest of your story. Click here to learn more about excerpting.
10. It pays to know your HTML – You might think that HTML is only for geeks, but it’s quite simple to learn and will help you with writing blogs. The editor you are using now probably is a rich text editor. They have formatting problems from time to time, such as pictures being placed incorrectly. Editing the HTML source can diagnose the problems, and allow you to introduce unique features such as a radio box which cannot be done in Rich Text Editor.
11. Don’t forget hyperlinks – If you are mentioning another file or page, don’t forget to link to it. It helps your readers find the file or document you are mentioning instead of having to search up the document.
12. Be polite – Don’t use anyone else’s name unless they approve so or their name is already spread across the Internet (Like John McCain). Endangering other people’s identity is very rude, and in some cases, can get you in trouble. Don’t post lies or pictures about other people without their consent either.