Ever had one of those days where the words just refuse to behave? Where it feels like every word you use is the wrong word? And you continuously rewrite the same sentences.
Worse Still! You finally finish the post believing it’s your best ever only to find no-one comments.
The unfortunate fact of blogging is writing good blog posts is more than just the words. Spend time observing probloggers and you’ll see they use various strategies to make each post count. If you want to use blogging for your personal learning you need to be effective at engaging and having conversations with readers.
So here’s my first 5 tips for better blog posts:
# 1 Use Short Paragraphs
I can’t count on all my fingers and toes the number of posts I’ve tried to read that are just one paragraph! One incredibly long paragraph. What The? And many of these were written by educators.
Posts with really long paragraphs are really hard to read making it less likely for your post to be read and/or your readers to miss the point of your post.
Very simple:
- Break your posts up with paragraphs
- The more paragraphs the better!
- Short paragraphs are better than long
- Make the first sentence of each paragraph make me want to read the rest of the paragraph!
Photo adapted from Flickr photo uploaded on December 14, 2006 by wiccked licensed under Creative Commons ShareAlike 2.0.
#2 Use Headings!
Use headings and where appropriate bullet points and number lists to break up the post into manageable bit size chunks.
WordPress, which Edublogs uses, provides Heading Styles. Use them! Which you use will depend on your theme.
Trial each heading style to select which visually looks the best:
- Write a test post
- Use each Heading Style
- Click on Save and Continue Editing
- Click Preview to see what each looks like in a post
Heading 3 works the best with my blog themes.
#3 Remember to Hyperlink
If you write about an article or another blogger’s post link to it! Why? Because your readers often want to check it out in more details.
When you link to someone else’s post it’s good practice to mention their name, link their name to their blog, and then link to the post you’re referring to (it’s also a good way of getting people to visit your site).
Photo from Flickr uploaded on February 13, 2006 by Rigmarole licensed under Creative Commons ShareAlike 2.0.
Here’s an example of hyperlinking (click on each to see why I used):
Larry Ferlazzo says Scribd is a great tool for English Language Learners (he’s voted it fourth best tool for 2007 for ELL). Why? Because he gets students upload their papers and illustrations, and Scribd immediately also converts it into audio so, in addition to seeing their story, they and others can hear it, too.
Check out this example Larry created for how Scribe can be used for Talking Stories (press the play on the Listen toolbar on the bottom right hand side below categories and tags).
Here’s how to add hyperlinks:
AVOID using underlining when writing posts because your readers expect all underlined text is hyperlinked.
#4 Always Comment Back To Readers On Your Own Posts!
If readers have made time to comment on your posts the very minimum you should do is respond back to your readers (ideally each reader) in the comments on your post. This is very important for building your blog’s community; it demonstrates that you value your readers and their input.
Commenting back also increases community interaction. Look at how Lee is interacting with her readers on “What Posts Stimulate Readers To Comment?” and while you are there make sure you leave your thoughts on what makes readers comment.
Photo from Flickr uploaded on March 26, 2008 by Morbit Photography licensed under Creative Commons ShareAlike 2.0.
PERSONAL RANT!
There are well known edubloggers who almost never respond or acknowledge their readers who take time to write comments or link to them. Sorry but I have to say this! Shame on you. Not good enough! Your readers are part of your personal learning community and you should be showing you value them.
Please don’t interpret my words to imply I’m saying all well known edubloggers are like this! There are ones that do and the ones that don’t comment back. You also get to see some incredible well known edubloggers who spend considerable time helping and mentoring others!
Photo adapted from Flickr uploaded on November 7, 2007 by Minds Move (Mountains) licensed under Creative Commons ShareAlike 2.0.
#5 Subscribe To Your Own Blog Feed!
Always, always, always subscribe to your own blog feed using your feed reader (e.g. Google Reader, Bloglines, NetVibes)!
Your blog has two main audiences:
- Those who read your post on your blog
- Those who read your post via a feed reader
Your blog posts have to look good, visually, for both audiences. Subscribing to your own blog feed means you’ll see your posts how they are seen by your subscribers. This allows you to troubleshoot issues with font sizes, image size/alignment and removal of content (e.g. embeds like SlideShare, Voicethreads and videos are often removed by feed readers).
You’ll never know about your blog feed issues unless you subscribe to your own blog (check out this example of what can happen when your blog feed goes astray and you don’t realise).
PERSONAL RANT! — Never ever, ever set your blog feed to partial feeds! With the number of posts I read do you honestly think I have time to click on READ MORE?
YOUR THOUGHTS
This post was in response to a request from Darren Draper and Robin Ellis to follow up on to provide blogging tips and etiquette for their Open PD session on using Edublogs.
It will be part of an ongoing series and since we each have a different definition of what makes a “good blog post” I would love you to share your thoughts.
So can you please tell us about:
- What are your 3 most important tips for writing better blog posts?
- What blog post recently has made you want to comment and what was it about this post that engaged you?
- Has a post recently inspired you to write your own post? What was it about the post that made you take action?
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Hi Sue,
If you follow this link it has a fantastic explanation as to what constitutes a run on sentence.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Run-on_sentence
I have a habit of putting these in to me writing as I tend to write “a stream of consciousness”. I am actually making an effort to compose my blog posts away from my blog in order to work on the mechanics. (Now I just need to do the same with my comments – LOL!)
You’ve inspired me to really take some risks and leave comments on the blogs I visit. Today I was really inspired by this post from Clay Burell
http://beyond-school.org/2008/04/27/muhammad-ali-a-d-student-in-an-f-school/
I left a comment and then later I left a second one as the “comment conversation” progressed. I learnt something else a bout commenting… sometimes people will disagree with you. You have to be prepared to accept that someone else may have an opinion that differs from yours. This doesn’t bother me as I like to debate, discuss, play “devil’s advocate” etc, but I can see that this could be intimidating for some and either prevent them from commenting in the first place, or put them off commenting ever again.
Learning so much from you Sue. Thanks for sharing.
Sue,
You are such a giving person! I’ve learned so much from your blog and recently from you personally. I can’t thank you enough for reaching out to me and helping to refine my blog writing skills. I’ve always been a good writer, but blog writing is different. Like anything else, there is a learning curve and I think I’m taking the corner rather quickly sometimes a little shaky, perhaps on 2 wheels. 🙂
As with the comments I’m receiving on my post, I also recognize the trend towards people wanting conversation and not a one-way broadcast. I feel the same way. When I visit a blog and am inspired to comment, it is because something has struck a chord or perhaps I just want to chime in with my 2 cents as one would with any conversation. I agree that when the blogger comments back, it takes the conversation to a whole new level.
I’m taking in all of your tips, Sue. Keep ’em coming! ~Lee
@Sarah sorry your post was held in moderation due to the number of limits I wrote my response back then approved which put it higher than my comment (damn!).
As you say “The other tip I would add is about writing for yourself and not worry about the audience which is tricky when you want to build an audience, so there can be a tension to that.” This is definitely a hard one and there needs to be a balance. I suppose as a blogger we each need to make our own decisions on this. As you point out your latest post is a classic example. Long (but I can’t talk) and ideally would have been better as separate posts for each person but you have different readers (those who want to read about midwifery and those who want to read web 2.0). If you broke it up into smaller posts than it becomes an issue for your web 2.0 readers – so you’ve probably made the best decision.
Michele’s post were excellent probably because they are contentious and I disagree since it gets back to the strategies we use. Was interesting to read Stephen Downes response on Online Daily.
Thanks everyone for your great input and sorry but this will be an incredibly long comment.
@bookjewel Etiquette is a really hard topic and I plan to continue this discussion because there are so many layers to it. As a new blogger, I agree the blogosphere does feel like a lonely place. You write posts and feels like no one notices. Then if you make effort to write comments and have no response that makes you feel your thoughts aren’t valued. Make sure you use a comment tracking tool to make your task easier.
@Larry Thanks for the feedback and the link. I really appreciate all the support and encouragement you give me. As you said we’ve emailed about commenting before. The responding back to comments on your blog are as much for other readers as for the reader who wrote the comment. The readers who don’t get the email don’t know you have responded. Your practise of sending an email as well is absolutely brilliant and is one of the best methods of truly showing you value your readers. In your blog dashboard go to Plugins > Subscribe to comments change to Activate. I’m sure under Options > Comments you are also meant to change a setting but perhaps James has made changes? That’s good advice for writing posts and that is how many of my post on my personal blog came about. My attitude was if I don’t know this I need to know it and so do my readers. I’d never stop to think about how the actual comments on a post can make you want to comment.
@Kirstin Glad you are enjoying our posts. Visuals are a whole facinating issue that I didn’t have time to write about in this post but watch out for it — probably will be a post on it’s own. Long posts definitely work better with headings. You use blogger which doesn’t give you heading styles so your best solution is to bold the heading only. Can you give me an example of a run on sentences cause I’m trying to visualise what you mean? Totally agree with font colour as I have commented this crime — best solution is to use colour minimally. I had to limit my tips to five because my posts are way tooooooo long but catchy title is definitely in my top ten! Anne’s post was brilliant and also one that I had to comment on — I think I may have also directed people to read her post. From a technical view point her opening quote with the image absolutely grabs your attention and every new blogger should check it out this post to see how well this strategy works. Agreed about the comments on the “big names” and as you say not all are like this.
@Harold I also agree the photo I shared on Twitter was better but I am one who tries not to stir up too much trouble. Been too busy isn’t a good enough excuse because we are all busy. Our time is just as valuable as theirs. Ultimately though by cutting yourself off from networking with others the person that suffers is yourself and your personal learning — they are the ones that are already losing. I’ll stop tweeting at a person who doesn’t respond just as I stop commenting on posts for the same reason. Excellent responses to my questions. Tip #2 about your message is a really hard one because people can interpret your message differently from how you interpret. Yes, clay’s post was funny and always writes well. Glad you like my thoughts.
@Kevin (dogtrax) Looks like confession time 🙂 . I’m not the fastest responder back at comments on my own blog. Not because I don’t care but because commenting on other people posts (especially new bloggers) takes a higher priority (but I’m sure that my community appreciates this). So I don’t promise to be prompt but I do promise to work hard to comment back. Watch some of the really effective bloggers and they are really fast with commenting back on their own posts which does engage their community and encourage more commenting.
@Elizabeth Excellent points with 3 of the 4 on my list of tips. Large sections of Italics drive me crazy! And possibly I do overuse bold. Ideally a blogger should use a mixture of short and long posts. Posts on this blog are too long but the reasons why are something I will discuss when I get to the tip on lenght. I’m probably the worst offender at grammar and spelling.
@Elona I hadn’t stopped to think about how authors have their work edited by lots of people; many of who are professional writers. Your right when we put it in this context we all need to chill a bit. Words paralyze me which is why I started my post off with that beginning because we all suffer from this. “If someone finds errors thats okay” – agreed and I’ve made the conscious decision to constantly remind myself of this. My moto as an edublogger is “I give myself permission to make mistakes, to get facts wrong, to occasionally screw up on advice because I’m an edublogger who is trying to learn and learning is about giving yourself permission to make mistakes”. Thanks for your second comment glad you enjoy our posts.
@Mathew Glad you liked the post and thanks for expanding on my ideas. I did want to talk about how people skim when they read but couldn’t because I had to keep an eye on the length of the post. Normally I take in titles, headings and the first sentence of every paragraph — these are what have to grab me. Using questions effectively is on my list of tips (looking like this is going to be a really long series).
@Lesley Aragh Kim’s post. Kim and I am just about to start a commenting competition (or war) not sure yet we are still clarifying the details. To encourage people to make the time to support others and comment. The whole use of images as I mentioned in response to Kristin really needs a post, or several posts, just to itself so I will follow up. Good points about what makes you respond — I think probably more people respond to the please give advice (when the post is well worded and the reader can connect with the topic) than any other type of post. What is your thoughts? I’ve also read that post on Google Notebooks so let me check Google Reader and see if I can find it. I am in a bad way it’s Michele Martin and Google Notebook: The Lazy Way to Blog — every edublogger should subscribe to Michele Martin’s blog 🙂 . Another good method is to annotate using Diigo and then pull it into a post similar to how Vicki Davis did with An example of annotated linking of your blogs comments.
@Silvia (Langwitches) You are excellent at using visuals on your blog and visuals are really important aspect of blogging. We all need to make time to support new edubloggers and mentor them. Thanks for writing the post and linking to me. Kim Cofino and I am planning a comment competition to highlight/emphasise the need to comment and increase people’s skills at doing this. Perhaps you are interested in joining with us to encourage people?
@Britt Regardless of age we all love our cluster map. I’ve added a Frappr visitor map to my about page of my personal blog to showcase the global audience.
@Cathy Some blogging platforms do include this feature and I’ve been meaning to talk to James about it. Perhaps you could help me by posting this comment in the forum so he considers it?
@Mr Madden Great mantra — “The mantra for my postings is: Be brief, be blunt, be gone!” I need to follow your mantra more often. Your Tip #1 is one of my tips that I ran out of room to write about. Oh no another confession – while I love The Edublogger the type of information I have to share often means I’m writing “at” my readers which as you say isn’t a great idea for a blogger. But it also gets back to the purpose of the blog. If you check my personal blog you will see the greater personal connection with readers because it’s less of this style.
@Jim Just checked your blog. Whatever you do don’t give up blogging you have it! Why? Because as soon as I read your posts you are making me laugh, you’re connecting with me due to your amazing humour. Forget about being articulate humour is far more important.
Hi Sue, I was thinking about this the other day and cannot add anything that you have not already said – all those tips you have articulated I have found to be invaluable.
The other tip I would add is about writing for yourself and not worry about the audience which is tricky when you want to build an audience, so there can be a tension to that. I wrote a very long, tedious post yesterday which I know will not interest anyone much but it has been in my head for years and I am really pleased I have got it down on ‘paper’.
http://tinyurl.com/5rbyy3
The posts I have recently responded to are those of Michele Martin in which she talks about homophily:
Why the Internet is making me stupid
http://tinyurl.com/583dd6
and
Understanding homophily on the web
http://tinyurl.com/4qd7n7
I commented on these posts because:
1. The post titles grabbed me
2. The content was informative – I had never heard of homophily before
3. The content was personally challenging and made me reflect on my behavior, beliefs and attitudes
4. It was contentious – there was a difference of opinions in the comments which made for very interesting reading.
My tips are to write, write, and write. I am not a very good writer. I have been tempted to quit more than once after reading the blogs of others but you need to keep writing to find your own voice and place.
I generally find I hit the submit button and send my comments when I find someone out there who shares the same points of view as mind. Sometimes I think I am the only teacher who sees thinks a certain way and am always pleasantly surprised there are others who think like I do.
And I don’t have an answer to your third post because my blog is for and by my classroom kids. There are way too many people out there who articulate much better than I.
Sue,
Sorry, didn’t have an immediate idea for my #3.
-Tim
Sue,
Great post. I have a couple of blogs that are designed to be commented upon by middle school students only (former and current). So I am always wary of going on and on and on and on. Kids are the best at letting you know that your blog is dull or lame.
I would agree that some blogs get lost in a forest of words–me along with them. The mantra for my postings is: Be brief, be blunt, be gone! This format helps to keep my postings cleaner and coherent–fingers crossed.
I am guilty, however, in not keeping up my own comment feedbacks. Who doesn’t like being recognized?
Answers to your inquiries:
1. Be clear in your writing, reread your post, and stick to the point.
2. Your post today has insprired me to leave a comment because I can connect personally with the ideas. Also, the fact that you are asking your readers for their own thoughts about the subject of your posting, rather than just writing “at” your readers.
3.
No answers yet–just processing all. But here is something I would like to see.
Most comments on blogs include the typical fields for your name, your web address, and your email address (which generally isn’t shared in the comment that gets posted.)
Each time I comment on Doug Johnson’s Blue Skunk Blog, when he comments back on is blog (as you highly recommend) I get an email too, with the same text that he wrote back in the comment to me. Doug ALWAYS does this, so much so in fact, that I once emailed him to ask him what the trick was to getting the commenters to receive an email when he comments back. Naively I believed that just as one can put a check in the box to receive further comments to a post via email, I was thinking his blogsoftware had a script that automatically emailed people who commented somehow. He politely responded that he is just so thankful that readers comment, he always takes the time to personally thank them (as well as publicly form his blog comment.) No real tricks, just good ol’ fashioned manners.
But I do think that’d be a nice script to include in the blogger platform. C’mon script writers, work on this.
Lesley made a great connection between your post and Kim’s. My only addition would be to use something like ClustrMaps to become aware that a global audience actually does check out your blog…which in turn motivates you to write better for your readership.
Very interesting post, Sue. Especially in the wake when so many new edubloggers are becoming discouraged, since they do not receive comments on their blogs.
I would add to your list of tips to include in your posts relevant visuals. I have just started to experiment with creating visuals of my ideas, processes, timelines, etc by using PowePoint 2007.
Your tips for new bloggers has inspired a post (coming soon) on my blog how we can encourage and help out new bloggers.
Thanks !
Silvia
Sue,
Earlier, I meant to say that I look forward to your posts because I always learn so much. I agree with Mathew, this post is awesome.
Great post and comments. First off this morning I read Kim Cofino’s post on Committing to Conversations: http://mscofino.edublogs.org/2008/04/27/commmitting-to-conversations/ followed by your post on improving your blog. Both resonated with me. In response to your questions:
1) I whole-heartedly agree with your comment about partial feeds, drives me crazy!
My own advice: I know that it takes time to find an engaging graphic to go with a post but it’s the great graphic that often draws me into the post or makes the point of the post more powerful.
2) The thing about your post and Kim’s that made me want to respond was that I made a personal connection with both. In some cases it’s a ‘been there, done that and here’s some advice” connection. In other’s it’s a “Wow, now I get it!” connection or a “this is something valuable that I’m going to try” connection.
Someone, and I truly wish I remembered who, blogged about how they use Google Notebook to save blogging ideas. It’s a great way to save posts you want to write about and jot down a few of your own comments as a reminder when you have time to come back and either respond to someone else’s post or write your own.
Awesome post. I want to add to what you said but you might have said it all.
Okay, I’ll add this. Big shocker…people frequently don’t read posts in their entirety. Big shocker. They skim, they skip lines, they just read the title. So be careful about misunderstandings that might arise if someone only superficially reads a post.
Also, ending with a question I’ve learned is a good way to encourage comments.
Sue,
One of the most important things I came to realize about writing my blog is that it doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to be me. Let me explain.
When I first started to blog, I was so concerned about making punctuation errors, grammar errors etc. My concern about the mechanics of writing was paralyzing me because I couldn’t think of the words because I was too worried about the other stuff. After all, readers are out there with their red pens ready to pounce- see my insecurity.
Then one day, I realized that the purpose of punctuation, spelling grammar was to help readers understand what I wrote so then If what I wrote was clear enough that readers could get my point, then that was good.
I also reminded myself that the work of authors who publish elsewhere, including my articles that were published elsewhere, is edited by many other pairs of eyes. My blog gets edited by me and spell check. That ‘s it.
Once I no longer obsessed about the mechanics of writing, it became a lot easier. If someone does find errors that’s OK. This is just a blog. World peace does not depend on my blog being perfect.
Your first two points apply to any type of technical writing, which includes a lot of blogging. I would add the following:
* using bulleted or numbered lists, as you did with your main points
* keeping posts relatively short
* not overusing bold or italics
* carefully checking spelling and grammar
Sue
These are great points, and it reminds me that sometimes I forget to comment back to folks who have left comments on my blog, which makes it a very unbalanced blog conversation.
I need to be more diligent about that.
Thanks for the reminders and hints.
Kevin
Sue – I really liked the linked Twitter link picture better, I have noticed that some out in blogosphere world don’t answer back…maybe too busy, maybe too “whatever” that’s okay. It kind of gets under my craw at times, but most of the time I just ignore it.
But maybe if those that don’t deign to reply to the “common” folk just simply were blocked by those same people who used to follow them, they wouldn’t have as many followers who wouldn’t be there to tweet their requests for info, help, talking, etc. they might get the message.
I am just a small fish in this large twitterverse, but I do believe that blocking some who don’t respond to me, will begin happening. If enough people do that maybe some of those who don’t respond will get the message?
In response to your questions:
1. Is the blog post important to you personally, if you don’t have a connection to what you are writing why write it?
2. Double check what you are attempting to tell others. What is your message.
3. Remember that what you write can and will be held against you if negative.
Clay Burell’s post on the Tweet Clouds, it was fun and informative. I usually read Clay because he is a bit irreverant, uses common sense and answers back.
Same as above
Sue you are great and I really enjoy your comments in the blogosphere and twitterverse. 🙂 Harold
Hi Sue,
I have picked up some more great tips from reading your post. I’ve been trying to work on using short paragraphs for a while now as I agree with you that long paragraphs can be off putting. I know I need to include visuals more often. I hadn’t thought of adding headings. I shall certainly try this with my next post if it seems appropriate.
I wasn’t sure if I could think of 3 tips for better blog writing, but here goes;
– Try to avoid run on sentences. (I’m guilty of this and I am trying to fix it, so this is for me as much as anyone else).
– Think about font and background colour choices. Certain combinations are hard on the eyes and may put off your potential readers.
-Give your posts a title that catches the readers attention. When going through my Google & Flock Readers, it is often a certain title that will catch my eye and encourage me to read further.
This blog post “10 reasons for commenting on blogs” – Anne Mirtschin at http://murcha.wordpress.com/2008/04/03/the-value-of-comments-online/
most recently made me want to comment. Part of the reason was because she was talking about the power of comments on student blogs. This touched a chord with me as my classroom blog is password protected/invite only so I find it difficult to get this kind of powerful feedback for my class. (Please visit the post to see my full thoughts/comments). The motivation to comment here – a topic I connected with and one that I felt passionate about.
I also agree that it can be quite discouraging to leave a comment for some of the “big” names in educational blogging and get no response at all. Can make you feel a bit insignificant. having said that, I have found most of those I follow and comment on are fantastic and are really supportive and encouraging.
Sue,
As usual, Sue, this is an excellent helpful post.
I know we’ve communicated in the past about the importance of responding to comments left on your blog by others. I always send a direct email in response because I think a lot of people miss checking the box that lets them be notified of subsequent comments (and I know I should also leave the comment I send via email there, too). Is there any way for a blogger to have that checked automatically so people have to delete the check in order to receive notifications?
I don’t think I have three more important tips, since you covered so many good ones already. I might have one more, though, that’s a little “counter-intuitive.” I always try to focus on writing posts that are helpful to me (either finding resources for projects I’m doing, helping me think through a problem or issue I’m grappling with, etc.), and not lead with trying to think of posts helpful to others. By doing that, I think that people find my posts more helpful. When I lead with trying to write what I think other people want, I think the posts tend to be less useful to them and to me.
One post that made me want to comment on it was Dangerously Irrelevant when Scott had a contest for slogans for our public schools. In fact, it wasn’t even his post that made me want to comment, it was the comments themselves. The negativity of the submissions (though several were pretty funny) bothered me. So, I think a good post can also generate good comments that, in turn, generate more comments.
Larry
@Larry Ferlazzo, Not to offend you Larry, but not more than ONE PARAGRAPH! Noone likes more than one paragraph!
Great post! I am relatively new to blogging and have been wondering about some of the etiquette. I have only just started commenting on different blogs recently. I know how great if feels when people take the time to write something…otherwise the blogosphere can be quite a lonely place!
Thanks for the comments on how to blog because I have NO IDEA and feel completely LOST in this new world of e writing.
I’ve entered cyberspace and you and bookjewel are the first people I’ve made contact with and your posts have been informative on how to start writing, and given me the confidence to post my first comment!
@kooryn1 The online world can feel really strange and frightening. Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment and glad my posts are making you feel more comfortable.
Thanks for the encouragement Sue.
@bookjewel,
I am glad to be here, mostly interested in teachers who are In Class Support Special Education. What has your experience been in this role?…good, bad, or ugly?
Thanks.