Shortly after I felt God calling me to make myself look more attractive, I ran across an article about making your blog more attractive and how people who write about "the truth" often feel that they don't need to do this. The theme was so close to what I had just felt God telling me that I thought perhaps this was from him, as well.
There's also this ill-defined feeling that I have that God maybe has plans for my blog, or something. But it's too vague of a feeling for me to expand upon.
So here is what I have in mind.
1. Make every post scannable.
It may seem counter-intuitive to try to attract people to your blog by making it easier for them to skip over parts of it, but that's the way it works. Some people will be interested in reading every detail and getting the whole picture; others just want the gist. Making it easy for those who just want the gist means you're not driving them away from your blog. How do you make posts more scannable?
In a word, white space.
And bolded emphasis of key statements. Numbered lists with bigger text size also help, if relevant.
2. Use more pictures.
Ok, so I can't for the life of me think of a picture that would be appropriate for this particular post. But as I write posts, I'm trying to think of photos that I might be able to take that would be relevant, and use those. Pictures are like eye candy for a blog post.
3. Post more regularly.
Apparently, I've read a lot of blog posts about how to write good blog posts. And one of the things they often mention is that if you don't want to lose readers, you can't go long periods of time without putting something up, as I have often done in the past. I prayed about what kind of schedule I should keep, and got a definite sense for "Tuesday and Friday". So that's what I'm aiming for. There might be more trivial posts or PicVid posts on other days, but I am going to try to put something or other up on those days, at least.
4. Share more important stuff.
The best writing is writing from the heart. I've noticed that when reading other blogs, the posts that I find most worth reading are the ones that tell what God is doing in the writer's life. So I'm going to try to focus especially on those kinds of posts.
5. Write better headlines.
Ok, so this one's just a maybe. I read a couple articles about what makes for a good headline, but I'm not sure I really absorbed it. You can give me feedback if you can think of more interesting headlines, though.
Yes, I can full heartedly agree on all points. That doesn't mean I am good at every point myself. :)
ReplyDeleteYour first point is the biggest observation I have seen from my favorite bloggers that I'm trying to work the most on. Even in this post I notice how effective it was for you to make your numbered points in a larger font... Mental note: I should do more of this. :)
This is a really good post. White space REALLY is our friend.
ReplyDeleteI used to post regularly. Kind of fell apart on that this winter. I should get back to it...sigh.
*sigh* This would have been a BETTER post if I hadn't been extremely distracted yesterday by a twitter discussion about abortion that I was participating in. Looking at it this morning, I see I left out several things that I had meant to put in:
ReplyDelete1. A link to the post that I reference in the first line.
2. I should also put in a link to the "someone else's" post that I mention in the first paragraph, but I can't find it anymore.
3. Mentioning something that could have been a whole 'nother bullet point: Leaving out extraneous stuff. My natural tendency is to put every related associate thought into a blog post, and I've felt God nudging me to just stick to the essence of the post. That's a big part of what was behind my vague feeling that God has plans for my blog.
4. Also might have put in something about how I played briefly with the idea of using Creative Commons pictures, but then decided it would be simpler just to stick to ones I can take myself. Maybe even relate it back to the revelation that I had while doing the photobook, that I like having pictures and want to take more, not less, of them.
Well, that's what comes from being too distracted to proofread, I guess. It's that whole "Someone on the internet is wrong" syndrome.
Oh, and Jagi, you only need to get back to posting regularly if you think that's what God's calling you to do. :)
Yeah, my wife was a regular Twit yesterday.
ReplyDelete