Nothing goes futilely

July 17, 2005 @ 12:00 am · Filed under Blogging

Yesterday i wrote about Common Mistakes In Newly Created Forums which turned out to become a pretty popular post, and is still driving me traffic from different sources.

Yes, the topic itself is popular, but i don’t think that’s the main reason this blogs’ traffic is doubled of Infinity Graphics traffic (which is 2 months older than this one).

The key is the time and the effort i put in that post, i spent 3 hours writing that post.
Don’t misunderstand me, i’m not saying that i spent 3 hours sitting in front of the screen, writing…no, i mean that i invested three hours thinking about the clauses mentioned there, about how to phrase the article, and how not to make it look too “loaded”.

Of course, the main topic was minimizing the mistakes in forums, but bloggers have got to understand the mentality of todays’ average reader..

Read my “commandments” when aiming for the best results, the guide to the top quality post

Focus- Concentration is a key factor when writing, being zeroed and calm before writing is very important, especially when writing long worthy posts, i often find myself going off topic when i’m not focused, make sure that you’re ready to avoid going off topic, and to avoid wasting time on external things such as E-mail check, music and noise (which can distract), other programs running on your PC etc etc..

Going off topic will confuse the readers and give an amateurish feeling to the post, try to concentrate as much as possible.

Feel Comfortable- I often find myself unconcentrated, thinking of other things while writing, sometimes because my room is a mess, or because i have some things to take care off, and it makes it so hard to concentrate which may lead to somewhat hurried/fuzzy post.

Before posting, clean up your room, bring a cool cup of water to drink while writing (beilive me, it’s good ) and calm down.

Take your time- Don’t rush with publishing your post, before writing plan the basic parts of the post (foreword,main message,finalization) and what will each one of those will contain, after that, roll and type, take a little 5 seconds thinking brake between each paragraph before starting another, this way your post will also sound sequential as much as possible.

take your time to pharse your post to make it as rich (of content) as possible, the time you’ll put on this post will probably pay off.

Know what you’re talking about- Do your readers a favour, don’t write about something you know nothing about, it’ll probably raise alot of questions about your writing reliability, and will make you look amature. and when looking for worthy posts, do not start writing in hope that good points will come up in your head, spontaneous attitude is required and suggested sometimes, but it’s always better to plan .

Use Simple & Clear Language- This clause may seem obvious and unnecessary, but as a graphic designer, i sometimes prefer not to use complicated words for the average reader so he won’t find difficulities understanding my post, I also notice alot of pretty advanced bloggers that use terms and acronyms that i’m not familiar with.

Try to be as simple and as clear as possible, this isn’t ain’t your neighborhood, dude

Invest in the esthetical field- Yes, a worthy post is meant to be read, and not colored or rated by its’ look, but the readers mentality nowadays will probably tell that the better and the more neat the post will look, the more chance the reader will continue with reading it.

Maximize the understanding- To get the reader “into the post” you’ll need to let him understand it as much as possible, and there are alot of ways to do that, linking for reffered sites/articles is a great way, using graphical effects such as emphasize, incline, and underline can also help the reader understand the meaning behind certain parts better.

And Finally, Add a personal touch and feeling- No, i’m not talking about telling jokes while writing as a reading brake or something like this, but each one of us has his own style, and that is reflected in out writing aswell, don’t be shy to sound humorous, don’t hesitate on expressing feelings when it’s suitable and you feel the need to, after all…it’s your blog .