From Denny: You know how it is, one day you wake up and decide to start blogging. How hard can it be to record your thoughts virtually and send it out into the air? Answer: easy.
So, why the tutorial? The hard part is to think of your writing from the perspective of the reader. Do you put yourself in their shoes? Most writers find it difficult to pull out of themselves and see themselves and their writing objectively. After all, writing is so very personal.
If you want to get read - and liked - and promote your blog to do well because of good content and no short term tricks like these SEO guys are always scheming - then there are a few guidelines to help make you become more successful.
Formatting your blog for easy reading
Mistake: too wide a format for the posting area.
Solution: Choose a template that has narrow columns. There is a reason why the old school newspapers chose to write in long skinny narrow columns on the page. Did you ever notice how much faster you could scan that page and gobble up the news quickly? And that's the very reason you don't go with a wide format for the posting area.
Too many times I run across academic blogs that stretch all the way across my monitor because there are not any sidebar columns. They have me reading like it's a tennis match - or a cat watching ping pong on TV. It isn't pleasant and it isn't long before I'm off and away from that site, never to bookmark it no matter how good the content. The author seemed unconcerned for their readers' time or comfort.
Exceptions to a wide format: Do you have a photography or art blog? Then choose a wide format to best showcase your photos or art. Do you like to embed wide videos or those hilarious political cartoons? I have wide formats on my blogs because of the political cartoons, the art and the photos. Cartoonists don't yet seem to offer smaller width embed codes. Besides, it might be difficult to read the text anyway if they did.
What to keep in mind to make a wide format posting area easy to read: I've been experimenting with this on all my blogs for the past two years I've been blogging and finally hit on a successful easy formula. For those of you who did not go to journalism school like I did, well, good blogging brought me back to the journalism basics: Keep It Simple.
Keep your sentences short
With a wide format it's best to keep your sentences short - or at least hyphenated like this to make your thought easier to absorb. Remember, your writing is also teaching. People are learning something new to them. Your job is to make it easy for them to absorb it quickly, hopefully with little frustration.
Keep your paragraphs brief
In a wide format post make sure to also keep your paragraphs short, only two to three sentences if possible. If you do find yourself with a run-on sentence, ask yourself if it is possible to shorten it to two or three sentences. Then ask yourself again if you can separate more of the paragraph into two thoughts or discussions. You will be surprised if you take the time how this "revisit process" works well for you.
Headline sections within the post
For a wide format post to be successful it also helps to include bolded headlines for each new subject you want to discuss. That way, the reader can easily find and revisit any information important to them.
Choose at least one sidebar column for your blog
The sidebar is invaluable for so many reasons. First of all, it breaks the posting area with a boundary. It's a place where you can announce a mountain of brief posts using html code. You can place feed codes to your various blogs or posts. You can embed a blogging community tag or widget to see all those happy faces of fellow bloggers who visit your blog. You can place visitors statistics widgets to see what countries people hail from when they visit and it will tally the count too.
Example of multi-column blog: Dennys: News Politics Comedy Science Arts & Food
Example of wide format blog with one sidebar column: Dennys Funny Quotes
Summary
Try out several templates until you feel comfortable writing with that form. Constantly revisit how you can streamline your writing and the visual look on your blog. Keep up the tiny details on your blog and it will always look appealing - to you and your readers. Write for your readers as much for yourself and people will return again and again to see what you have to say.
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*** Check out Holiday Recipes From Dennys Food and Recipes
Dennys Global Politics
The Social Poets - news, politics, political cartoon humor
The Soul Calendar - science, astronomy, psychology
Visual Insights - photos, art, music
Dennys Art Sanctuary
Beautiful Illustrated Quotations - spiritual quotes, philosophy
Best Spiritual Posts - my own best as well as links to other spiritual posts from all viewpoints
Poems From A Spiritual Heart - poetry
The Healing Waters - health news
Dennys People Watching - people in the news
Dennys Food and Recipes
Romancing The Chocolate - chocolate recipes and more food
Unusual 2 Tasty - different twists on favorite foods and international
Comfort Food From Louisiana - Cajun, seafood and more comfort food goodies
Dennys Funny Quotes - humor
Ouch Outrageous Obnoxious And Odd - more crazy humor
Dennys Guest Bloggers
Dennys Blog Feeds - see what's posting at all Denny's blogs at a glance
Dennys: News Politics Comedy Science Arts Food - an online newspaper
