A Novice's Guide to Blog Writing
April 5th 2006 03:31
First, I'd like to say that I don't consider myself an 'expert' at blog writing. While I have written for a long time, I'm fairly new to the whole blog experience.
Keep in mind, then, that every guideline can be broken.
This post is just a guide to get you started in writing good-looking, easy-to-read blog posts. If your blog looks unpolished and difficult to decipher, the savvy visitor will hastily click the little 'X' in the corner.
Appearances
When you meet a girl/guy with incredible muscles/cleavage, you can't help but look at them. They've produced a nice-looking package, and it's a pleasure to gaze at them in desire.
No one, especially girls, wants to look at some sloppy guy, who hasn't shaved and has a hole in the crotch of his worn shorts. If you do, let me know, and I'll be over there in a split second. Zing!
The same way, your blog posts should be attractive to the first glance, with paragraphs that fall neatly on the page, and be accompanied by pictures.
Writing for a blog is not like writing an essay, or even writing for a magazine. Essays, it turns out, are boring, unless they're written by some zany character like David Eggers or Douglas Adams.
Blog posts should have short, casual paragraphs that promote an easy flow of reading. Writing long paragraphs in small font is not only hard to read, but makes me want to rip out one eyeball and use it to smash my remaining eyeball. I'm sorry if that's graphic, but it's an expression that I used just to stretch out the length of this paragraph. See? See? Your attention span is drifting, drifting... any second now it'll be gone. Wait for it. Wait, there! See, now your eyes are moving over the text, but not reading anything. You're thinking about that boy in your morning lecture. You're thinking about - hey! that's sick! Leave me alone!
Ideally, your blog post should be like cocaine. Easy to snort, fun for a while, but causing a horrible withdrawl that causes the reader to crawl back to you with paranoia and hallucinations.
Or, your blog post could be like heroin, sending your readers into a fantastical world of Xanadu, but compelling them to rob homes to feed their habit.
Notice that I linked to CultureGuide.com.au for that last paragraph. That's a trackback, shouting out some Respect for a fellow blogger.
Writing Content
Writing for a blog is not easy. It's tempting to be really formal and pretentious, but that's not going to make friends.
No, you don't make friends with salad.
Posts with chat-like words and leet-speak make me go insane in the membrane: 'OMG i 4got to bi my txtbook for PSYCH101 lol !!!!!1111'
This is not good. And it makes me angry. And when I get angry I break things. Like crackers. Many, many crackers. How tragic.
The nebulous area between formal English and casual conversation is hard to navigate. One might say that it's a talent, and some people just don't have it, but I believe that we can all work to becoming better writers.
Casual means: use contractions, use slang, crack jokes, swear if you need too, draw ridiculous conclusions.
Casual does NOT mean: using poor grammar, using poor spelling, using 'oral' words, neglecting punctuation.
Myself, I'm crazy about the comma. The comma is a beautiful invention. These little bastards make my life easier; they do a perfect job of separating sentences that have a linked idea.
A good example of blogs that have good writing is hucksblog and Waiterrant.
My guidelines don't hold all the time, though. If you're a 'hot' girl, you can use your funky personality to write like Xiaoxue. People read her, not because she's got polished writing, but because she's interesting and has something interesting to say.
Go out into the web. Read blogs. Read articles. Read, read, read, and then write, write, write. See how many commas I just used?
Traffic
People have often asked me how I managed to drive traffic to my blog. They ask me this like I should let them in on a conspiracy.
It's a secret.
OK, OK, I'll tell you, but only for thirty pieces of silver.
You can't just submit a post, dust off your hands, go out with your 'real-life' friends and pretend to be a blogger, hoping that your brilliant prose will attract thousands of people, allowing you to retire young and become a space tourist.
No, blogging is reciprocal.
Do you know what I do first thing in the morning, and then once again at night? I go on Placeclick and read nearly all the new posts.
Is your jaw hanging in disbelief? It's true. If you've got a good post, I'll click some ads and leave a comment. Check out Amy's SecretSydney blog... she's done an excellent job of writing a funny, interesting post.
I've rewarded her by linking to her. This makes her feel good, but also raises her Google and Technorati rank. Huzzah!
While I'm throwing around the Big Ups, here's a slick post by Sog, demonstrating some basic photography concepts.
What am I saying? This is a blogging community, so we should all be the first readers to our blogs, leaving comments and clicking ads.
If you're not leaving comments, then you're not reminding others to come to your site. If you're unwilling to leave comments, then you're not the right person for this job. Sorry, Jack.
What else do I do in the morning? I check all my favourite blogs with my RSS reader. If you don't know what RSS is, it's time.
I read all the new posts, and if I have something to say, I comment. Those people then come to my blogs and comment. It's social networking, as cheesy and predictable as that may seem, but that's what Placeclick is trying to do.
Conclusionary Remarks
Here's the place where I say some clever, revolutionary statements.
Unfortunately, I'm neither clever nor revolutionary.
I'm not sure what it'll take to make this blogging network popular. I am sure that people won't return unless the content is good.
Make the content good. Read the other content.
If you don't, I'll sit behind you in that Stats lecture and steal your pencilcase. Ha ha!
Um, that was an idle threat.
Remember, there's the potential to make decent money out of this, and if it's successful, you'll be turbocharged, writing about something you like, on your own time, and getting the dolla dolla bills, yo.
Keep in mind, then, that every guideline can be broken.
This post is just a guide to get you started in writing good-looking, easy-to-read blog posts. If your blog looks unpolished and difficult to decipher, the savvy visitor will hastily click the little 'X' in the corner.
Appearances
No one, especially girls, wants to look at some sloppy guy, who hasn't shaved and has a hole in the crotch of his worn shorts. If you do, let me know, and I'll be over there in a split second. Zing!
The same way, your blog posts should be attractive to the first glance, with paragraphs that fall neatly on the page, and be accompanied by pictures.
Writing for a blog is not like writing an essay, or even writing for a magazine. Essays, it turns out, are boring, unless they're written by some zany character like David Eggers or Douglas Adams.
Blog posts should have short, casual paragraphs that promote an easy flow of reading. Writing long paragraphs in small font is not only hard to read, but makes me want to rip out one eyeball and use it to smash my remaining eyeball. I'm sorry if that's graphic, but it's an expression that I used just to stretch out the length of this paragraph. See? See? Your attention span is drifting, drifting... any second now it'll be gone. Wait for it. Wait, there! See, now your eyes are moving over the text, but not reading anything. You're thinking about that boy in your morning lecture. You're thinking about - hey! that's sick! Leave me alone!
Ideally, your blog post should be like cocaine. Easy to snort, fun for a while, but causing a horrible withdrawl that causes the reader to crawl back to you with paranoia and hallucinations.
Or, your blog post could be like heroin, sending your readers into a fantastical world of Xanadu, but compelling them to rob homes to feed their habit.
Notice that I linked to CultureGuide.com.au for that last paragraph. That's a trackback, shouting out some Respect for a fellow blogger.
Writing Content
No, you don't make friends with salad.
Posts with chat-like words and leet-speak make me go insane in the membrane: 'OMG i 4got to bi my txtbook for PSYCH101 lol !!!!!1111'
This is not good. And it makes me angry. And when I get angry I break things. Like crackers. Many, many crackers. How tragic.
The nebulous area between formal English and casual conversation is hard to navigate. One might say that it's a talent, and some people just don't have it, but I believe that we can all work to becoming better writers.
Casual means: use contractions, use slang, crack jokes, swear if you need too, draw ridiculous conclusions.
Casual does NOT mean: using poor grammar, using poor spelling, using 'oral' words, neglecting punctuation.
Myself, I'm crazy about the comma. The comma is a beautiful invention. These little bastards make my life easier; they do a perfect job of separating sentences that have a linked idea.
A good example of blogs that have good writing is hucksblog and Waiterrant.
My guidelines don't hold all the time, though. If you're a 'hot' girl, you can use your funky personality to write like Xiaoxue. People read her, not because she's got polished writing, but because she's interesting and has something interesting to say.
Go out into the web. Read blogs. Read articles. Read, read, read, and then write, write, write. See how many commas I just used?
Traffic
It's a secret.
OK, OK, I'll tell you, but only for thirty pieces of silver.
You can't just submit a post, dust off your hands, go out with your 'real-life' friends and pretend to be a blogger, hoping that your brilliant prose will attract thousands of people, allowing you to retire young and become a space tourist.
No, blogging is reciprocal.
Do you know what I do first thing in the morning, and then once again at night? I go on Placeclick and read nearly all the new posts.
Is your jaw hanging in disbelief? It's true. If you've got a good post, I'll click some ads and leave a comment. Check out Amy's SecretSydney blog... she's done an excellent job of writing a funny, interesting post.
I've rewarded her by linking to her. This makes her feel good, but also raises her Google and Technorati rank. Huzzah!
While I'm throwing around the Big Ups, here's a slick post by Sog, demonstrating some basic photography concepts.
What am I saying? This is a blogging community, so we should all be the first readers to our blogs, leaving comments and clicking ads.
If you're not leaving comments, then you're not reminding others to come to your site. If you're unwilling to leave comments, then you're not the right person for this job. Sorry, Jack.
What else do I do in the morning? I check all my favourite blogs with my RSS reader. If you don't know what RSS is, it's time.
I read all the new posts, and if I have something to say, I comment. Those people then come to my blogs and comment. It's social networking, as cheesy and predictable as that may seem, but that's what Placeclick is trying to do.
Conclusionary Remarks
Here's the place where I say some clever, revolutionary statements.
Unfortunately, I'm neither clever nor revolutionary.
I'm not sure what it'll take to make this blogging network popular. I am sure that people won't return unless the content is good.
Make the content good. Read the other content.
If you don't, I'll sit behind you in that Stats lecture and steal your pencilcase. Ha ha!
Um, that was an idle threat.
Remember, there's the potential to make decent money out of this, and if it's successful, you'll be turbocharged, writing about something you like, on your own time, and getting the dolla dolla bills, yo.
"More money, more problems"
- The Notorious B.I.G
.- The Notorious B.I.G
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Comment by edward
Rocky's Running Diary
P.S. What RSS program do you use?
Comment by amy
Thankyou so much for your efforts there, much appreciated, although for a gen-Y I'm starting to think I'm technologically retarded. The wikipedia entry for RSS made about as much sense to me as an advanced Japanese molecular biology textbook.
Should I give up the blog game now, or can I just hide under a bushel of ignorance for a bit longer?
Comment by Cibbuano
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For RSS, I use Sage in Firefox. You can also use Outlook or Thunderbird, I think. IE7 should support it as well.
Amy, don't feel overwhelmed... just keep producing quality content and you'll learn the rest. It's not that technical, there's just a lot of acronyms. I don't get it all either - I just learned to 'make do'.
Comment by charles
FanFootball
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Comment by Loviatar