Writing for the Web - blog style tips.

Some basic tips to improve the readability of your blog entries.

Ali Watters
Post Count: 3873

Msg: #1 680 days ago, January 22nd 2008

Writing for the web is a little different than for any other medium; other entertainment is a click or twitch away, staring at a screen is just harder than paper and scrolling is an active rather than passive task.

Tip 1 - use white space

It's much easier to read text online when the paragraphs are short and there is plenty of white space - so use those carriage returns. Examples: the BBC news website has a blank line after every sentence in it's articles. Edmund Hillary Article

A double blank line can be used to indicate where a conventional paragraph would have ended.

Tip 2 - use headings, italics, bolds and other formatting

It was easy to find this second tip right? I used bold to format the heading. The eye moves through the text and uses white space and text variations as anchor points. This becomes crucial when scrolling where unless it's done carefully positions in the text can be lost.

Bold and italics can be used to add emphasis on a particular word or phrase.

Tip 3 - use Capital Letters and punctuation - and try to get your grammar right

You're writing for a varied and vast audience, your blog entries maybe read by professionals - some bloggers have obtained work on the strength of their journals. In my case during the course of writing my blogs over the last five years - I've improved my grammar and punctuation in order to stop my Dad from sending a list of corrections - do your best and try to improve where you can. (Please don't send all the mistakes in my blogs to me after this pompous forum post though! I know there are mistakes)

Tip 4 - use complete words m8!

Unlike SMS messaging there is no character limit on the number of words or letters in a blog entry.

Tip 5 - spelling - and spell checks

I'll apologise in advance for the idiosyncrasies of the English language - it's not consistent, it's not phonetic, it's full of confusing sub-rules - "i before e except after c where the sound you want is eee" - what idiot would design a language with this kind of thing? - that's the problem the language was not designed - it evolved along with it's people and culture.

I'll apologise a second time - travelblog.org doesn't yet include a spell-checker. It's been on the To Do List for so long. I hope to rectify this soon.

Your options are (currently)
• write a blog entry in a word processor - spell-check, copy and paste;
• use Firefox and install the dictionary plugin - (Internet Explorer is sooo bad - this is something that should have been added 8 years ago)
• just make a best effort and put in a disclaimer.

Tip 6 - and this is controversial - write shorter blog entries - but more of them

There will be some debate on this - I've read some 8,000 word blog entries and they have been amazing - I've also got a little way in to some and found that I'm lost. There is no entry limit and no photo limit - you can write as much or as little as you want and include as much or as little as you want.

Blog entries of 1,000 to 3,000 words with about 40 photos seem to hit that sweet spot. If your blog is going to get significantly longer than this - two blog entries?

Feed back, discussions and additional tips as ever are welcome - hope this helps!

[Edited: 15:52 - Ali ]

Stuart

Stuart Morgan Hurlbut
Post Count: 116

Msg: #2 680 days ago, January 22nd 2008

Ali, I would add that I've taken to using online word processors such as google docs (http://docs.google.com). It can be used from any Internet cafe, no matter how terrible the computers! All you do then is copy and paste from google docs to travelblog.

TeamTurner

Michael & Kelley Turner
Post Count: 237

Msg: #3 680 days ago, January 22nd 2008

I know this doesn't necessarily have to do with the writing of a blog entry, but it does have to do with marketing/ensuring that your blog gets read. I would take some time to arrange your photos so that your best four are the first for in the entry. That way, when people see your shortened entry, they will be interested and wish to look at more of your entry. I have found some bloggers have great pictures but will, in some cases, hide them 25 pictures into the entry. Always put your best first so that people will know to look further.

Ali

Ali Watters
Post Count: 3873

Msg: #4 679 days ago, January 23rd 2008

Good point Mike - in that regard - 10 Tips for increasing visitors to your blog

Danielson

Bob and Vicki
Post Count: 19

Msg: #5 678 days ago, January 24th 2008

Ali, I really appreciate the blog site you offer, and while I haven't traveled nearly as much as you, it does allow me to keep in touch with family and friends, without having to write to them as a group. I also appreciate the ease in using this site~~both for me, and for the readers.

Having said that, though, I have trouble doing the formatting codes. I have tried to put them on, and I want to put them on, and I can't put them on. I don't knw what the codes mean behind the headings, bold text, etc. What do I not understand?????

Vicki

Ali

Ali Watters
Post Count: 3873

Msg: #6 678 days ago, January 24th 2008

On pretty much every page where there is a form for entering text - look to the right there is a list of the codes that travelblog uses to format...

It's a kind of psuedo html - simplified html - that wont break webpages and excuses the site from supporting the all the html codes that could interfere or break the pages that you see.

The basic structure is: [a code]your text[/a code] - with the text between the tags receiving the formatting.

The simplest are:

Bold: [b]text[/b]
Italic: [i]text[/i]
Heading: [h2]heading[/h2]

Also [quote] is commonly used.

These tips are just a set of suggestions not a list of rules - so if it's easier to ignore formatting - because of time - then just go for the white space one ;)

ilchicag

Liz
Post Count: 52

Msg: #7 677 days ago, January 24th 2008

Good post and topic. I'll suggest something more about the writing aspect of travel blogs.

I actually picked up Lonely Planet's book on travel writing a while back and I'm slowly progressing through it. One thing mentioned in the book, which I've found does entice me to read certain blog entries and people's entries, is when the entry is more story-like with details and anecdotes instead of resembling a diary entry; eg- I did this, then this, then this. They emphasize that good travel writing doesn't necessarily have to go in sequential order. Especially good blogs seem to be able to tie in many aspects of travelling but still have some element of emotion behind them. Granted, I'm sure people use this site for various reasons, but those interesting in improving their writing might want to pick the book or a similar one up.

:)

system

TravelBlog System User
Post Count: 926

Msg: #8 53 days ago, October 10th 2009

1 posts moved to this new topic: Just wrote my first entry

liliram

liliram
Post Count: 387

Msg: #9 52 days ago, October 11th 2009

Ali, these are very good tips. I have always been so conscious about my spelling, crossing my t's and dotting my i's, placing commas and periods to end my "ramblings". I can pick up a lot more tips here..........Thanks.

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