Blogging Tips: How to write better posts

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Posted in » Articles, Blogging Tips - by Ades on January 20th, 2009

Writing blog posts comes naturally to some people, but some struggle to write and convey their message effectively. Following some of the tips below, can improve your blog posts’ quality.

Get to the point, will you?

It’s very important that you get to the point in the first few sentences of your blog post. If you cannot do that (perhaps the topic is too broad) then at least give an abstract of what you will be talking first. This is to get the attention of the reader from the beginning, and to give them the idea on what the blog post will be all about.

So, don’t write few paragraphs building a base for your punchline in your post. Leaving the most important part of the post to the end is a bad idea. Unless you are some politician or celebrity, you want to grow your blog’s readership and reach, and by beating around the bush in your blog posts, you will only hinder your blog’s growth. Because new readers generally don’t read posts that they don’t know what it is talking about, and they don’t have the time to to figure out what it’s talking about by reading few paragraphs.

Use simple words

If your blog is about helping others or teaching them, or sharing your experiences so that they can benefit from it. Then you have to use simple words that everyone can understand. For example, if you have these two different words with a similar meaning to describe a man “sagacious” and “wise“. You should choose “wise man“.

You know what I am talking about right? Again, you don’t have to unnecessarily degrade your speech with primitive words. This is not meant by “using simple words”. It depends on your audience as well. But all else equal, you have to pick words that won’t confuse your readers or won’t make them think what the word means. Try your best to make your sentences flow smooth.

Format and structure your posts

If you are writing long posts (pillar articles) make sure that you structure your posts to make them easier to read. As described in the first point, have an intro part and then have other parts under their own sub-heading. Using headings will make it easier to scan your posts.

Formatting is important as well, whenever necessary

  • use
  • bullet
  • points

It’s much better to scan bullet points, than say reading them all in one sentence separated by comma. Pointing out important parts of your blog post by bolding or highlighting does facilitate easy reading too. Increasing the space between the text lines using CSS can improve your article’s readability (here is a simple tutorial).

Picture says a thousand words

Most of the time it’s easier to describe things if you show a picture, a screenshot, an illustration or a diagram etc. Sometimes complex things can be described by one diagram or a screenshot. Therefore, whenever possible, incorporate visual materials in your blog posts.

Don’t write more than it needs to be written

If you can describe something in few sentences and done with it, then do that! Don’t go around trying to write a novel just to make your post longer. It’s better to have a concise, straight to the point blog post rather than a long but meaningless one.

This is related to the first point but it’s not the same. Here we are talking about the length of the blog post, but in point one we are talking about the importance of getting right to the point in the first paragraph no matter how long your blog post is.

Write descriptive headlines

Better headlines have more than one advantage, they will entice the user to read more of your article, and they will drive more traffic to your blog from search engines.

Here is how you can write better headlines: link and link.

Tip: Usually I write headlines for my readers and not for SEO, I use the post slug for SEO purposes.

Your opinion counts

Finally, as I always stress, it’s your opinion that is the most important thing in blogging. Your opinion (plus your personality) is your “brand” in the blogosphere. Your opinion is the thing that differentiates you from other bloggers. Therefore, don’t just be an invisible reporter who cuts-and-pastes other news reports online. Because if you want to be successful, you need to have that “about me” page on your blog (yes with the photo) and you need to start spreading your opinion and ideas in your blog posts.

Just look at successful blogs in the blogosphere, behind every successful blog there is a person. And most of the time, the blog is successful because of the author exclusively - his personality, his opinions, his ideas..etc.

Conclusion

I hope you found the tips useful. If there is anything you want to add, please do so in the comments section, so that others can benefit from it.

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51 Responses to “Blogging Tips: How to write better posts”

  1. By Gini on Jan 20, 2009

    All great tips. Thanks for the post

  2. By Atniz on Jan 20, 2009

    Great advice given. I always tired reading long post without any point form but if the article is good or the topic is good, I don’t mind reading it trough. Of course, in point form, things will get easier.

  3. By Netwala on Jan 20, 2009

    Got some more addition to my knowledge and blogging. Very helpful post.

    Cheers!

  4. By Mikko on Jan 20, 2009

    Nice one.

    Your opinion (plus your personality) is your “brand” in the blogosphere.

    Super agree on that ^ point.

  5. By Rice Blogger on Jan 21, 2009

    nice tips…simple and straight forward

  6. By titan on Jan 26, 2009

    make a good and easy to understand. Thats the good post for our readers.

  7. By Web Design on Jan 29, 2009

    Nice Post. Thanks For Providing the Nice Tips About The Effective and Successful Blogging

  8. By xaer8 on Apr 29, 2009

    I believe in some other way, words cannot explain much. The use of images may support the words more. And about the structure and format of the post, actually i’ve almost never use them. I just write what come across my mind. Thanks for reminding. They really open my eyes.

  9. By Laptop Reviews on May 24, 2009

    That was very simple the way you have put it. New writers like me often get confused and this will be a big lift. Thumbs Up!

  10. By Another Blogger on Jun 11, 2009

    Thanks for this post. I try to follow all item. Now I’m trying to start to add picture for every post.

  11. By Tvents on Jun 25, 2009

    I have saved these tips to make me remember how to be a good blogger. I still have to learn more about it. I thank you very much for this useful information.

  12. By eyeman on Jun 25, 2009

    i believe all people can do that. The problem is that blogger attitude. He want to do better post or not? If that person want, he must learn.

  13. By Ah Hong on Jul 1, 2009

    Previously when I blog, I just blog whenever sentences appear in my mind :)

    Agree, we need to have more structure writing with more point :)

  14. By akazuma on Jul 2, 2009

    thats really a good post. I should learn and focus with my own post. Might be i can attract new readers next time.

  15. By Peluang usaha on Jul 2, 2009

    Thanks for your blogging tips, very refreshing.

  16. By Belajar Seo on Jul 12, 2009

    Useful tips, Thanks for sharing this great article! That is very interesting Smile I love reading and I am always searching for informative information like this.

  17. By About blogger on Aug 8, 2009

    thanks i will obviously try all those steps that you have postes thanks alot

  18. By Hacking Blogger on Aug 28, 2009

    Great will try those steps always

  19. By Karaoke hire on Sep 7, 2009

    You have made some appropriate points to write a better post. I will try to follow that.

  20. By Lowongan Pekerjaan on Sep 13, 2009

    These is great tips Ades, thank you..

  21. By lz @ Ideas For Self Employment on Sep 16, 2009

    I think you have said it all. Just to add, when writing blog posts, provide valuable content.

  22. By Building Your List Blog on Sep 24, 2009

    Well said Ades. Yeah i do agree, get to the point topic is the very important to write a post. I am well impress in your ideas. Those are the best tips to be followed. Keep up the good work.

  23. By eyeman on Sep 28, 2009

    Usually, i will done something first like research, fine review, read comment and info about any niche or topic i want to post. I guess, your also have good point.

  24. By moonheart on Oct 2, 2009

    I always try to follow the point when I write one new post on my blog. It is always better not to write for search engine, but write for human. People write the blog, so if they like the post they will come back to our blog. It not means that we do not have to care about on page optimization.

  25. By Legitimate work at home jobs on Oct 12, 2009

    Nice article. Well most of experienced blogger say that always try to write your own opinion. I also agree with it, we should try to write our own opinion which help us for grow our blog readership.

  26. By San Diego DJ on Oct 20, 2009

    I’d have to disagree with the vocabulary part. I prefer intelligent clients, so I purposely use higher ‘caliber’ words to get better quality clientele. But that’s the nature of my blog, and I guess for most writers your statement is accurate.

  27. By english on Oct 21, 2009

    Helpful tips. As for the picture, we should keep in mind that it should not be too large in size. I personally feel that gif format would be more suitable than jpeg & the size should not exceed 100 kb, better if you can keep it below 50 kb.

  28. By abranetwork on Oct 24, 2009

    yup. I agree with you. You really know how to make effective post.

  29. By Legitimate work at home jobs on Oct 25, 2009

    Writing is good post show the proficiency of the blog owner. Our reader always hope from us some nice post. So if I can give them some nice information then might be they will happy and will visit our blog again.

  30. By tplst on Nov 18, 2009

    i belive this opinion. Because its very simple. i will be try.

  31. By avaya ip office on Nov 18, 2009

    Controversial articles help as well (they spur lots of discussion as well as people passionate about the certain subjects)
    -Jack

  32. By fences on Nov 24, 2009

    Thanks for taking the time to put this post together. I really enjoyed reading it. I work pictures into every post I do and it makes all the difference to my readers. Not as easy to do with the topic of seo, but very important for my topic of fences.

  33. By Gold on Nov 24, 2009

    Some great points. I try to incorporate pictures in all my blog posts and my analytics show it makes a big difference. People, for whatever reason, don’t like to come to a page and see a block full of text - mixing it up with pictures, bulletpoints, etc, seems to me to “dumb it down” a bit, but it also works, so I can’t argue with that!

  34. By 2D 3D Animation India on Nov 26, 2009

    another excellent post, i am loving it. i was missing images and simple words in my blog now i will try to use them properly.. thanks.

  35. By clickonpost on Dec 5, 2009

    Yeah… very nice and ofcourse i will try some of them :)

  36. By cash back credit cards on Dec 5, 2009

    The way social media is every changing I think the new changes are videos and pictures. Through imagines are a great communication that people always enjoy and seems to attract.

  37. By Lee Ka Hoong on Dec 8, 2009

    I agree with you that structuring a blog post is very important, if you make your reader easy to read your blog post, they will definitely come back and read again.

    The size font plays an important role too, whenever I visit a blog and read on the content, if the font size and type of font comfort my eyes, definitely I will give another visit again.

    Cheers,
    Lee

  38. By mini laptop on Dec 8, 2009

    In my opinion writing short, crisp and informative article is the key. Some say that write long posts. Who is going to read an essay when they can get information in other blogs in a crisp manner. So keep crisp and to the point.

  39. By Pinoy on Dec 12, 2009

    Great tips in terms of writing as well as having some tips and ideas on what to blog or write.

  40. By DoFollow Blog List on Dec 23, 2009

    My suggestion would be to learn the most common spelling errors on the internet and learn those.

    I don’t really care is you spell lose loose but you’re supposed to be a professional right?

  41. By Tampa Real Estate on Dec 23, 2009

    Helpful tips for effective blog posting. I want to increase visitors to my post and i’ll use these tips.

  42. By ferforje on Jan 1, 2010

    great bloggers great ideas.thx alot.

  43. By Photos Comment on Jan 3, 2010

    Great Tips Ades , i will consider this tips when i am gonna post anything on my blog :)

  44. By Nanuni Kokoritu on Jan 6, 2010

    Wow!
    Relly good information of how to write great posts. For a beggineer its a must read post.
    Congrats!

  45. By Ruben | OurBlogLog on Jan 6, 2010

    Its funny that these are commin mistakes most beginner bloggers make , yet very affective if fixed. thanks for the tip Ades

  46. By Ruben | OurBlogLog on Jan 6, 2010

    I agree it is always important to be personally involved in every article ever posted on your own blog.

  47. By vektör on Jan 20, 2010

    very nice and ofcourse i will try some of them

  48. By Rent textbooks on Jan 22, 2010

    use simple words, that is understated sometimes people try so hard especially in technology to impress people that they offend just confuse and overwhelm them.

  49. By Muxx on Feb 10, 2010

    I’ve tried to cut back on how much I write and the words I use throughout my posts.

    I write about DJing and I get caught up on the technical sides, then I realize that I’m talking to a lot of people that have no idea what parts I’m talking about.

    I try to use the technical terms but also back it up with general chatter type English.

    People are there to read, skim and pull out bits of the post, they aren’t going to read all of it so it’s best to grab their attention without making them skip over it due to a very high level vocabulary.

  50. By ohmerah on Feb 13, 2010

    em..cool. Thanks for your advice.

  51. By Leadership skills on Feb 22, 2010

    “Write descriptive headlines” this is must point for all blog post, headline creates interest into the viewers mind. If headline is not good and not related to subject the viewer will go away from the blog. And headline should be related to topic. This will help blog to be more popular.


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