Writing Effective Blog Posts
Have you ever dissected my blog posts to see how I do them? Not that there’s one right way and tons of wrong ways, and not that I know everything. ( Brian Clark and Darren Rowse know everything!) But I do have a way that I tend to write blog posts, and if you’re interested, I’ll break it down for you, if only to demonstrate the thinking behind what I’m doing.
First Moves
My first steps are to think up a topic, translate that into a good title, and then find a suitable Creative Commons photo on Flickr. That’s right off the bat, and that’s what gets things going. I think a solid title from the topic is my first start, because I’m trying to tempt you to read through on your reader of choice. The picture? I forget where, but someone nice told me a picture with a post draws our attention, and I agree.
My Lead Paragraph
My first paragraph is written conversationally and from my point of view. I often tell a really short story about something relating to the topic. Why? Because I’m trying to engage YOU right away. If I can ask a question that gets you thinking about yourself, that’s even better.
Structure
Note that I use the “strong” tag to separate segments throughout the post. There are a few reasons to do that:
- It gives your eyes a way to skim.
- It breaks up the post.
- It rolls into an easy summary.
I also use bullets when appropriate. Same reason. It gives your eyes something to do.
You might also note that I try to keep my paragraph length short. There are two reasons. One is that it looks less daunting that way. Two, I’m a fan of the book THE SHIPPING NEWS, and that brevity stuck with me. Sometimes, I have to write a long post, but I try to stay somewhat brief within the post.
Lead With the Best Stuff
Other hints I have for getting people to appreciate your posts is that I put the best stuff up front, in case you don’t have enough time. Further, I definitely follow the old, “say what you’re going to say, say it, tell them what you just said” method. Only, I try not to be clunky with it.
End With a Question
This isn’t a gimmick, but it works really well. I ask the community (you!) what YOU think, because often times, you’ll add something way better than what I started with. It’s also a great reason to swing by and check out the actual page, instead of just sticking in the reader IF the topic is worth it to you.
Does It Work?
My blog traffic is increasing slowly over time. It gets big spikes here and there from reaching the front page of this or that news aggregator site, or from being linked by great blogs like Lifehacker or Problogger, but overall, the community is growing organically, and I like it.
So tell me, does it work for YOU? You come by here all the time. What do you think? And what would you tell people that I’ve missed here?
Photo credit, ccarlstead
If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to receive future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
Thanks for the tips. I follow a couple of what you mention but I am really unstructured at times. I think this will help, don’t you?
Chris - thank you for sharing your process. It’s helpful to know how one of the best and certainly most dilligent bloggers gets it done day in and day out.
Two quick points to make if I could:
- Shipping News is one of my favorite books of all time. It was tough getting through the first 50 pages but after that, it was amazing.
- One other thing you do well but didn’t call out is your regular “shout outs” to other bloggers and community peeps. Everyone likes to be recognized once in a while and when they are, a deeper connection with that person is created.
Thanks again!
@astrout
Great post Chris.
I attended a seminar on writing specifically for the web and everything you say is dead on by their accounts, I could have saved myself some coin if i just waited to read your thoughts on this.
The best improvement i made in my style is frankly one of the first ones you talked about put the important stuff up front. Great post.
Kudos Chris .. nice stuff.
1. Having a picture just makes sense. We are hardwired (most of us) so that our eyes veer straight toward it.
2. Love the final question. Does it work? It’s such a simple but so important question for the nature of this post, and of blogging really in general.
I’m glad to hear your community is increasing organically. Hey! I guess that makes me part of that :).
This is very similar to how I write posts, except I usually search for a photo after I’ve written the post. Do you contact the person whose photo you’ve used? the subheads and bullets stuff is something I think most beginning bloggers struggle to understand. Most web readers want to skim, they won’t read your long in-depth paragraphs. But if you give them a way to skim your post, it’s much more likely they will read the majority of the words
For the flavor of stuff you write, your approach and structure work well.
It’s interesting to hear you describe your personal creative process: Blog = Idea + (Title + Picture) + (ala carte components). I’m always curious to hear how that works for other writers.
Since your blog has evolved into a How-To resource, your style and structure deliver consistent content from which your reader can easily pull the most pertinent action items for their personal self improvement.
I like that you don’t outline the takeaways in the way of a summary. It adds to the ala carte feel of your work, although when translated to book form, the How-To editorial minds may push you in that direction.
Chris,
Thank you for sharing. I’m always looking for good tips to help me improve my blogging skills and these tips will surely be helpful. I’ll definitely be referring back to this often.
Thanks.
Ed Stafford - @pixel8r
Hi Chris,
I’m a new blogger and I found your post to be very helpful and informative. I enjoyed your use of the actual blog post to demonstrate your points.
I have found that my own thought process is the same way. My ideas typically come while I am running on the treadmill or in the shower. I don’t actually title, categorize, or tag my post until right before I publish it. I’ve found that my original idea might start out one way and the final post is something totally different.
Thanks for sharing your process with us. It’s definitely cool to see another perspective!
Julie
Hi Chris
Thanks for the thoughtful and informative article, and it’s certainly good advice to bear in mind when I’m blogging my thoughts on politics and the like.
However, I think this approach is best for Blogs like yours or any with mostly factual and advisory content.
I often find that for me, the whole post can spring from a sentence that pops into my head (normally one that makes me giggle) - and the post, and its structure, then tend to be built around that.
It’s not what you’d call a scientific method - and it certainly wouldn’t work for everyone - but for creative writing, I find it a good approach.
Keep up the good work, I’ll keep reading!
Regards
Dungeekin
I’m a former newspaper and national mag editor. My suggestions: Write everyday. Write about what matters or interests you. Good writing comes from good rewriting. Read “The Elements of Style” (which I gave to everyone of my editors). It’s available online at http://www.bartleby.com/141
Read it - often.
One thing I am trying to implement in my blog (t’InterWebs) is an ‘Executive Summary’ that is a maximum of 255 characters. If someone adds it to del.icio.us then they can cut ‘n’ paste into the summary box and then add tags they think will be useful!
At the moment it’s a work in progress ;)
I think it’s interesting that you select the photo before you flesh out the post. I often rework or revise my posts after I pick the photo, esp. when I find something really interesting like the little-boy-samurai photo that I used last week. But just as often, something comes organically out of the writing that drives me to look for a particular kind of image.
I also have giant lightboxes that I’ve created on istockphoto and a nice chunky “favorites” file on Flickr, so sometimes I can “go shopping” through stuff I’ve already browsed and get something perfect.
My mental map for writing a post is very similar to yours, but I hadn’t been really conscious of it. Thanks for shining a light . . .
One last step I do is to look at the first sentence and a half and ask myself: if I saw only that, would I click through? That worked particularly well for me last week with a trackback to a Seth Godin post.
I love these concepts and agree wholeheardedly - I’e found a tool that helps me get images too called Zementa (though I had to make sure YOU hadn’t recommended it in the first place ;)) - its a nice plugin for my browser that pulls up both blog posts and a gallery, based on what I’m writing. I’m still testing it, but I’ll try and get the review on my blog as soon as I can. :)
Really exciting to see what folks had to say. Will you share YOUR writing methods with us on your blog? Post a link.
I think I’m one of the few people who doesn’t really take blogging (I mean to say, MY blogging) seriously. Your tips are all fantastic and I’m sure very helpful, especially for people who are targeting and specific. I think a lot of people will definitely benefit from your advice.
My approach is more like Dungeekin’s…something strikes me funny, makes me angry, hurts me - it somehow develops itself into a post.
I’ve gotten emails that say that people like it because it’s in a conversational tone and they can hear me saying the same thing.
Sometimes blogging isn’t about “good writing”. Sometimes it’s just about heart and soul. :)
I follow that same process, But sometimes I feel like I’m stuck in that same kind of rut. Do you think that sticking to a pattern gives readers something to expect or do you think it bores them?
Chris,
Thanks for the additional ideas. Several of these I do already (leading paragraph, picture, intriguing title, and ending with a question, bullets, and lists), but the one I only do now and then (strong paragraph tags) will start to become a daily integration.
Lisa
That’s a really useful post. I’m nowhere near thinking it would be a good idea to share my approach, unless you were just looking for a laugh. I did attempt to model my last post around your tips and I think it helped quite a bit.
I have a couple of follow on questions that weren’t addressed here. You may already be planning on tackling these topics, but how do you do the research once you’ve got the basic idea and structure out of the way? Also, how do you pick or decide how to split up a topic? The whole issue of one long rambling post vs. five specific ones vs. a series of 100 is something that I’m trying to put some logic to. It really seems tricky at times to get the right balance.
Ah…nice post Chris. I like the process you go through to pick a topic, and then figure out the best marketing approach (picture, title, best stuff first). I think the picture aspect is a good tip. My own posts tend to be long form with text. A picture would be good. One of my most popular posts has a picture of a baby with peanut butter smeared all over him (relates to the Yahoo Peanut Butter Manifesto, BTW).
Also - good tip from Sonia Simone above above about making the first sentence of the post impactful.
How about a little more thought on short posts versus long form posts?
Finally, I just published my own thoughts as a fairly new blogger, The First 20 Blog Posts Are the Easiest: http://tinyurl.com/ynkzgh
Chris…
Instead of using (Strong/Bold) as your section separator, use the built-in Heading-3 and Heading-4 formats.
If you don’t like how yours look, change them in the style sheet.
It makes your entire post more semantic, and easier to follow.
This is a great breakdown of the process for me.
I never really thought about it too much, blogging is a lot more conversational than writing an essay. So the best posts for me are the ones that communicate effectively as a conversation and not just as an essay or article.
Nice post Chris, I like your style and I think it works well for you.
Thanks for recognizing that there is more than one way to go about it. Depending on the topic, I sometimes like to build up to my best stuff, rather than hit them with it first — with good writing style, it can be effective.
I also only look for images after my first paragraph since it usually gives a good overview of where the rest of the post is going to go.
Thanks for sharing your methodology!
Nicely done. I’ve been writing those stupid ineffective blog posts for years. I should switch to this kind.
Missy Caulk comments on your blog and you know Dan Steinberg? Wow, that’s pretty cool.
I get to play blogospherical geography here because it’s on topic.
When I entered high school over two decades ago the most common assignment I recall from English class was writing essays.
Being lazy and math/science oriented, I calculated that the essay had to have 5 paragraphs minimum, 5 sentences per paragraph minimum, and I wasn’t allowed to use certain words like ‘like’ (anti-crutch mandates). i.e. 25 sentences.
Seriously. I approached it like some kind of word problem in math class. I was and still am fascinated by bare minimums.
I’m going to try your approach with my next full thought blog entry! :)
Thanks for writing this article Chris
It is simple to point and can be implemented in no time.
I often wonder to write on my wall at facebook (something new for me within the last month)I usually write what is going on. I like the end it with a question I actually did that last week. I wanted peoples feedback, now I will do more often,
Thanks so much
Lisa
“Illumination Divine Inspiration from my heart to your heart” paintings that heal, words that inspire a timeless treasure for all walk of life
I never thought about the question idea, but it sounds like a great idea because it is more inviting to responses.
[...] Writing Effective Blog Posts | chrisbrogan.com Good tips for everyone (tags: blogging posts howTo tips chrisbrogan) [...]
I have recently started blogging, and your tips are useful. My paragraphs are too long, and I think the entries themselves are too long.
Very nice and useful tips, Chris! And it remembers me of something that I learned both in Communication classes and in a screenwriting course that I took.
It was good to be reminded of this. I’ll try to pay more attention to my posts structure from now on. :)
Best,
Leo
Chris, great process. I’m always thinking of what cool photos I can put in my posts.
An influential article for me was Ryan Caldwell’s “5 Simple Points to Avoid the Dreaded Text Desert”
What I like about your approach is to place the controversy/challenge/opinion up front to engage.
Thanks, Chris.
I’ve decided to give your approach a try, and the image addition certainly seems to add something.
As has segmenting with strong.
I foresee lots of playing about with div and float in the future… - and I gave as hout to you on my latest posting - but it looks like the trackback didn’t follow through
[...] Writing Effective Blog Posts Now that you’ve watched Darren Rowse’s video from our pick above and have your topic to write about, check out this short post on the techniques social media-master Chris Brogan uses to craft his daily posts. [...]
Chris, is there any reason you say the strong tag for sub headings rather than subheading (Hx) tags?
I know they’d look the same either way so its not a big deal, but semantic mark up might help a wee bit for things like search engines, folks using assistive technology etc.
Why, thank you “dissertation writing services”! And to you too, “grom2″!
Without your valuable contributions, there would be less spam in the world!
You have a solid talent for writing. Chris I will visit your site again and look for more of your work. Keep! up the good motivating.
Chris, just found this post of yours and I plan to put it into action this week in my blog. Thank you!
Nice tips Chris, I try to keep mine personal too at the beginning or interject my thoughts on a comment I made. The call to action is great too.