During my Twitter hiatus, I've been reading more blogs. Not only am I catching up on my reading, as well as spending a great deal more time OFFline, I am learning what to do and not do in my own blogs.
Narrow columns: If I want my readers to retain information, the narrower the column the better. The best retention is found reading 4-5 words across. This is the reason most newspapers and magazines have several columns on a page.
Short paragraphs. If it's more than seven (7) sentences, my readers' eyes will glaze over. I want to target humans, not zombies.
Keep it short, unless sharing a story. Even a story should be less than five (5) printed pages. It's not a book. My readers have better things to do in their life, including finding their own voice and creating beautiful memories with loved ones. :D
Use humor, where I can. Some of the best blogs I read have a sense of humor in them. A smile shared is a blessing.
Use images. For one, they help keep the columns narrow. It's also a great way for people to find your blog. Most of my traffic is from google images.
Credit images. This is a new trend, likely in response to fights for copyright law. While I've respected requests not to use some images, I've never noted where I found the rest (usually other people's blogs :P). Credit given with the image as a caption, however, leads to confused reading in RSS feeds sent by email. The best of both worlds is credits at the bottom of the post. Unfortunately, I've an extensive collection of "unknowns."
Readability. Many people read on devices other than my laptop with a Firefox browser. The less complicated the font formatting the better. White text may look cool on a dark color background, but appears blank when sent as an RSS feed. I'd wonder at all the white space in the email. :P And some of the older bloggers like myself find micro-fonts hard to read, but the oober-giant fonts intimidating.
ALL-CAPS. In two words: please don't.
Don't Preach. I will admit, I can be guilty of this too. There is a line between sharing what we learn and observe, and telling others how to live their lives by our measures. I find consistently preachy blogs a turnoff, even when I agree with what they are saying. Blogevangelists can rub me the wrong way; it's certainly not what I want my blog to be.
Let's see how well I follow these guidelines I've established before sunrise on this morning. And for those readers who follow regularly, you have an unlimited pass for an "I told you so!" when I break any of these. :D
Share a smile
So it lasts a while
~ESA
*** All images from the internet: unknown source.
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