Happy Wednesday!
As I sit here drinking my super pretty latte, I am scrolling through Twitter and Facebook looking for interesting blogs to read, and the question becomes, “What do I find to be an interesting blog?” What types of titles grab my attention, and more importantly, keep it. Is it the pretty pictures? Is it blogs with lists that I can easily scroll though? Is it things that I know that I probably won’t be doing anytime soon or is it things that I feel that I can actually go try for myself in the near future? Is it the living vicariously through someone else’s travels or reviews of trips that I could attain for my upcoming honeymoon?
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The most important part of an article is the content itself.
Relatable. I personally like things that I can relate to or are relevant in my life currently. For instance, I am currently engaged so I find myself looking through old posts from Meals and Miles about her wedding for ideas and suggestions, especially since she had a wedding in Florida! It’s nice when I read a blog that reads like a diary or someone’s best friend regularly telling stories of their travels, adventures, or experiences. It makes the writer more “real” and relatable in my opinion. I read blogs for fun; I don’t want to be lectured or feel like I’m taking a college course. It’s fun looking at life from another person’s point of view, after all.
Length. I read blogs as I am laying in bed with my computer or phone. I read them while waiting for the doctor in the waiting room. I read them at the coffee shop. No matter where I am, the article should be an appropriate length for the subject matter and succinct for the reader.
Tip: The blogging industry standard considers posts 250-700 words to be ideal– about the length of a magazine article. The exception to this is that if you are going to post less frequently, the posts can be a bit longer in order to get your point across or tell a story. The opposite is true as well– the more frequently a blogger posts, the shorter it can/should be.
If I am scrolling through something quickly, I like to be able to scan the article and if I am interested, read the full article in depth. It shouldn’t be a novel, which I am completely guilty of myself, though I tend to post once or twice a week versus three to four times a week.
Know Your Audience. Another key piece of advice that I’ve noticed is that the writer must understand their audience and target their posts towards that. As a blogger, I am still developing my tone and voice for this blog. For a long time, I just sat down and wrote whatever came to mind. I’m attempting to develop that more into a specific voice that my readers come to know and look forward to. As I mentioned before, I like blogs that read like someone’s diary. I want to feel like the writer is genuine and being transparent in their writing. I want to be privy to their thoughts and experiences. One of my favorite blogs that I recently stumbled upon is the Young Adventuress. I feel like she thinks similarly to me, and if I were to meet her in real life, we’d be friends. (Well, that’s what I would hope anyways 🙂 The world is wide, but the internet makes it smaller!
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Interesting. One of my favorite parts of reading blogs is the photography! Obviously because pictures are worth 1,000 words. The pictures give life to the story and only fuel my interest in the article the writer is illustrating. Photos should be interesting and unique. I also like when a blogger spends time learning basic photography techniques– It improves the photo quality and the reader experience. It also shows that the blogger actually took part in whatever their describing. I try to include 3-7 pictures per post depending on the subject matter.
Clear & Well Composed. Nothing is worse than a crappy, blurry picture. Being selective and choosing your best photos will make readers more interested in the article as a whole.
Large. Again, photos are key to a beautiful and interesting blog post. Something that I am working on is getting the pictures to be large enough but not overbearing to the rest of the post. The exception to this rule is to size the quality of the photo down to load faster on the reader’s browser– the goal would be good enough to load a clear photo, but not a file size so large that it will take too long.
Tip: WordPress has plugins that “smush” the size of files down without losing quality of the photo. I personally have WP Smush.
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Organized. I like posts that have a clear train of thought and aren’t going off in every direction. I attempt to write out a brief outline of the points I want to make and then write each of those sections. I am sure that I am guilty of convoluted posts, but it’s something that I am working to improve! It really helps both the format and readability if the post is 1) organized, 2) the title is descriptive and 3) the content is focused on the topic. Man, this sounds like school all over again–Sorry! Does anyone else remember standardized tests and the essay portion? Worst days of school ever.
Easily Scanned. I’m convinced that people don’t read anymore. Well… they do, but very selectively and quickly. I generally will click on a post, and scan the article’s titles and photos to see if it’s actually something that I want to spend my time reading. If it seems lame, then I just move onto something better since there is so much content on the internet. There’s also something to be said about the font chosen and the navigability of the site. I tend to leave sites if I don’t like their site layout/format or I hate their fonts or colors. Making it aesthetically pleasing for the reader makes them more willing to stay on the site and continue reading more of your posts. Bearfoot Theory is an excellent example of a site that is well designed with scannable blog posts.
Shareable Content. Slightly off-topic, but it’s nice when I can easily Pin or Share to Facebook from the individual posts. Or save to read later too. I like the whole package– content, photos, and format– to be there when sharing content from someone’s blog.
Overall, I think that good blogging practices come with practice and experience, which all come in good time.
What do you find interesting in a blog post? Do you have any advice for beginning bloggers?
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