Today we’re going to talk about your text. The content is the most important part of a blog right? Those words you slave over day after day. If you write with one big block of words, people will move on. Blog writing is different than article writing or book writing. Long paragraphs are out. Keeping things fresh is in.
Here are some easy tips to make your blog text more readable.
1. Use headings.
Make sure you take advantage of the predefined font headings in WordPress. Use them to create subtitles. If you can’t find your headings, it might be because you haven’t opened up your second toolbar in the edit screen. Hit the toggle toolbar button and your headings will appear.
2. Find a word or phrase and capitalize it.
3. Use the quote button.
This is one of my favorite WordPress buttons. When you have a piece of your post that you love, highlight it and hit the quotes button at the top. Depending on your theme, it’ll preformat the text to stand out differently.
4. Create Tweetable links.
Do you know you can engage with blog readers more when you create easy tweets right from your blog post? <Tweet This>
This is a great way to incorporate Twitter into your blogging and gain more followers. If you have helpful information or incredibly funny quotes, create a tweet this button so when people press it, it sends a tweet out automatically!
How did I do this?
- Open up a new tab and go to this website – Click to Tweet
- Highlight the quote you want to use, copy it, and paste it into the box on the Click to Tweet site. DON’T GENERATE THE LINK YET!
- Now copy your blog post URL and paste it in the box next to your quote. If your URL is too long, use a link shortening service (hootsuite does it for free – or WP.com automatically creates shortlinks for you – you’ll see it under the permalink at the top of the post screen).
- If you have any room left, you can add your Twitter handle.
- Now hit Generate Link. The link will appear (though it’s a bit hard to read. It’s white).
- Go back to your blog post and type <tweet this> right after the quote. Highlight the words and create a hyperlink using the link you just generated.
Voila!
You can also use the Coschedule Click to Tweet Plugin or a straight Twitter widget button.
Here are a few more tips….
5. Write 2 or 3 sentence paragraphs.
6. Separate out a funny sentence.
7. Use lists and bullets where you can.
8. Caption your images.
Using all these techniques, you keep your reader focused on what you have to say.