The more I read, the more I acquire, the more certain I am that
I know nothing.
~ Voltaire
In September, I’m participating in the Sapphire Even Day Blogging
Challenge and the Two Pages-A-Day Writing Challenge.
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S
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ex, drama, heroes, villains,
sex, damsels in distress, damsels with guns, sex, aliens, sexy aliens.
Did I mentioned sex?
Now that I’ve got your attention…Kimberly’s prompt for today was to link to some our posts that didn’t get as much traffic or comments as we may have liked. And that made me wonder--
What is
it about some posts or articles that catch the eye or fire the imagination?
Most people will tell you that keywords are
king, especially in cyberspace. And that
may be true. But for me, it just smacks
of commercial manipulation. And let me
tell you, I truly hate advertising because the darn things actually work on me.
I almost bought an HTC smarty pants phone because of Robert Downey, Jr.
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Image
Credit: WebProNews
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Evil geniuses.
Crass commercialism and keywords aside, there is something to be said for a good “hook”
line. (Both Copyblogger and Problogger
have great articles on doing just that.
I highly recommend both sites for my writerly friends.) But keywords
have nothing to do with a good intro or hook line.
It’s all about creativity.
And when I went digging around my blog for
lonely and forgotten posts, I noticed I consistently broke some
basic rules about writing a blog post:
1. Creative Title2. Creative Hook Line3. Use of Images4. Short paragraphs5. Creative Subheadings (when needed)
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Image Credit: Pinterest
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When I don’t follow these five rules it’s no
wonder those posts don’t get much traffic. Even I
was bored and didn’t want to read them!
Tech Debate – Creative Title, and I used images and
subheadings, but I think it was too long.
I already broke the series down into 3 posts, but this post alone should
have been a two parter.
Distractions and Art – Hook line is
non-existent and at least one paragraph could have been split into two to make
it more readable. And the subheadings
are snoozers.
Garden Edges – Again, boring intro and subheader.
I’d show you a couple more, but I’m already bored! So I’ll try not cause any of my readers to die
of boredom in the future.
Oremus pro invicem,
~ Mikaela
If you’re
a blogger, what captures your readers?
6 comments:
I'm clicking over from Being A Wordsmith. I think we've all made these bloopers - especially in the beginning. I am still not good with subtitling. Love that t-shirt. See I scrolled and so that first and went back to read. So I guess I look at pictures first. I need to do that more often as well.
I need to print out the 5 rules and put them somewhere that I will see them EVERY DAY!
Mikaela, your posts always take me somewhere I wasn't expecting to go. Love it! Kate at The Lactating Catholic did the the same thing by mentioning sex first in her post. I need to try that. Smarty pants phone. Ha Ha! I'm a Problogger fan too. Thanks for sharing and linking up.
Kimberly - glad I can keep you guessing! ;D
Mo - you and me both!
Kenya - welcome to La Belle!
I just have to say that I'm the type of person who needs a certain amount of visual harmony to enjoy something. The book cover can make or break attracting a person to a book and likewise a blog's layout has the same function. In my humble opinion, it's even more important than how you break up your paragraphs or how many photos you insert. I have a friend who keeps criticizing my blog from a business standpoint -- saying "you have to have this information and that set up." and I'm like "NO. my blog is preeeetty." And I want to preserve that element over business. (Of course, if I knew HTML, I wouldn't have to choose).
I wanted to tell you that your blog has a beautiful layout. I love the little touches -- like the cursive first letter of the post. :)
Rafael
jrworiginal@gmail.com
www.myveryownbitch.com
The T-shirt blew me away. Being a human guy first and foremost, most of the time, I was looking at the chest, then it hit me! That is amazing thought process. Love it!
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