You have decided that you are going to start blogging and unlike others who fall off the bandwagon pretty fast, you promise yourself that you will do it till kingdom come, so help you God!
You get no objection from me. So good on you mate! I cheer you on because I understand where that determination to succeed in blogging is coming from. I will in fact go you one better and share tips on how to package your content.
In the same way you leave an impression when you spruce yourself up to meet someone for the first time, your blog also leaves an impression on your readers from the get go. This first impression is what will determine whether they will come back, or whether they will click away never to look back.
To leave a lasting impression, to get readers coming back over and over again, try the following while creating content for your blog:
1. Make it interesting:
The average reader’s attention span is very fickle. If in the first 15 seconds you have not given them a reason to keep reading your post, they will be gone. Lesson; it is not enough to keep posting fresh content daily. It needs to be interesting. Whether you are writing about a technology trend or a fashion fad, make it interesting. Write it in such a way that you don’t just grab your reader’s attention. Strive to keep it as well.
2. Make it easy to read:
Please leave the difficult words in the dictionary where they belong. Have you heard how PLO Lumumba speaks? Yes? Then you have in him the perfect example of what language never to use for your blog audience. No blog reader visits your blog armed with a dictionary for reference. Also, be kind to your readers and write in short paragraphs. An endless paragraph from up there to down here is exhausting to read. Please, give your readers a (paragraph) break.
3. Break it down:
Do you want your readers to grasp what you are going on about? Of course you do. For this to happen, I give you the three magic words: Break It Down. Use bullet points, or numbers to outline important points that you want to stand out. This way, readers will catch the important points at a glance without having to peer through the article to pick them out one by one.
4. Check for grammar and typos:
Run your spell check. Step away from your keyboard for a while because when you come back, you will look at your post with a fresh pair of eyes. This will help you pick out small mistakes that you might have missed, which have the potential of watering down your otherwise spectacular article.
5. Make it all look good:
If you are not using a good theme for your website, if you are not categorizing your posts and they are all over the place, if you are not tagging them, or editing them thoroughly before posting them, then forget that designer suit my friend – you are not looking good online.