You have created your blog, and now you are facing the computer’s screen, and asking yourself what to do, where to start, how, when. You have so many questions marks that we can hardly see your face. What can I say to you… been there, done that! Take a deep breath and read this post, you will see how fast all those clouds will vanish.
First of all you need to be really aware of what you want your blog to be, not only regarding the contents but also the way you will present it. You have a nice gift to deliver but now you need to take care of the wrapping, because it will make the whole difference, and you have so many options: the paper, the ribbons, the format of the package, to whom… Oh no! I almost can see all the question marks coming back. Take another deep breath. Let’s simplify it. The idea it’s to have fun not a migraine or a panic attack. By the way, if you are breading with the help of a paper bag, don’t waist it, use it to take some notes, you can also bookmark this page to make it handy.
There are few simple rules that you can follow so it is impossible to fail
- short (2 lines max)
- informative (people need to have at least a clue about the issue)
- creative, catchy
- follow the same rules of the title
- use 3 lines (max)
- be sure that you didn’t miss a « w »
- creative, catchy
- avoid the « news agency » style, by being too factual
- get most of your tags/keywords on your title elements
- short
- use more paragraphs
- index your text
- introduce headings in bold: to prevent huge blocks of text
- never justify your text
- put in bold everything you want to emerge
- don’t forget sobriety: mind the Christmas trees.
- If it’s a short article (<1200 characters, including spaces) you can enter a second multimedia support (photo, audio, video, Instagram, Tweetillustré, etc.) but only at the end of the article, so you don’t break the reading.
- For longer texts, insert a media 8-900 signs all around to boost the interest and bring a breath.
- Don’t forget to use:
- Instagram (photos or short videos of 15 seconds)
- Soundcloud (at the end of a meeting, use your smartphone to record 3 questions – max 2’30 sounds)
- Youtube – record short video to upload to Youtube or take directly with YouTube Capture
- ThingLink
- Google maps app and other graphics.
- research and validate every hyperlink
- hyperlinks must be opened in a new page to keep your article open
- do not put links indiscriminately
- instead of putting them on the text you can chose to put them in brackets or at the end of the article telling the reader what they refer
- you need to keep your readers connected with your text, if you open the window to much they can fly chasing one of those clues.
- to verify all the practical information and their links
- that you have fulfilled all the previous rules, namely that your ideas are presented logically
- to verify the spelling
- to analyze the balance of the layout
- to reverify everything again
Maybe you want to take a look:
a guide to never write a bad post again
several links to improve articles headlines
secrets of a killer blog post (infographics)