And Your Point Is?
Wednesday, August 8th, 2007 at 7:00 am
People browsing the Internet are inevitably paying for that pleasure. Be it directly from their pocket at an Internet cafe or a monthly subscription for the home computer.
If they’re not paying, their firewall-oblivious boss is. By virtue of this fact, the school of thought is unless it’s flashy, interactive, entertaining content; the chances are decent that people won’t stick around for too long on a given blog to read it.
Blogs at their most bare are words… only words. Apart from the possibility of a feedback link, potential interaction is very minimal.
However, despite the old adage being that a picture tells a thousand words, it’s the words that deliver the detail. So to that, bloggers owe a debt of thanks.
So then, how to blog better…
it’s most probably not going to hold a reader’s attention if the crux of the entry isn’t foretold in at most the first two paragraphs
No matter how much blood, sweat and tears you pour into your blog, it’s most probably not going to hold a reader’s attention if the crux of the entry isn’t foretold in at most the first two paragraphs.
As an online news writer has to ’spill the beans’ as soon as possible – answering who, what, where, when, why and how in the opening lines - so a blogger must grab his or her audience’s interest from the get-go.
The ‘rules’ for blogging are not as hard and fast as that of news reporting, but many of the principles apply.
True, blogs are a means of online journaling. People love to waffle in journals as if they’re writing to themselves. That’s all well and good but do keep that blether to no more than 300-or so words. Unless it’s your adoring partner or charitable mother who hang onto every last word you write, the reader will without a doubt be tempted to ‘click out’ before your story is told.
Joe_Soap_07 does not know your best friend’s name or the surname of your uncle in the next city. Again, unless it’s your mummy, daddy or any other understanding person in your life reading your epiphany, explain the who’s who and what’s what of the context.
Example:
Incorrect - Pamela Panderson tried to get a boob job but Geoff Pond was not capable of such measures so he called on his superior Ryan Darter.
Correct - My former girlfriend, Pamela Panderson, tried to get a boob job but her doctor, Geoff Pond, was not capable of such measures so he called on his superior, Ryan Darter.
The media can be a sad, discouraging medium. Don’t add to it with more depression and mysery. Script that which is joyous, humorous and smile-inducing.
Text lingo - keep it to cellphone communication and instant messaging. BRBs, LOLs, LMKs and all those other little horrid ‘abbreviations’ must not exist in blogging. Take the time to type it out, show the reader you care enough to not leave them wondering what on earth ROLF stands for.
Give your work a reread once you’ve completed it, thee old once-over. Do it. You owe it to yourself and all the aspirant spelling-bee contestants out there.
Other than all the above, keep in mind as much as your blog is for you; it is also for those you advertise it to (your readers). Nobody likes not being able to laugh at an inside-joke.
* Update (8 August 2007) - NxE has a new article about writing good blog leads.
Ilham Says:
February 22nd, 2008 at 11:20 pm
This was a great post and something I have been tending to figure out. Just how to not only attract but keep the reader from first letter to last period. Thanks for the great post Jonhenry.