SmallFishBigMoney Online

Busted…It’s true, I’ve been busted, for using excessive amounts of text formatting in my posts! This mostly includes bold, italics and underlined text. I have been informed a few times that some posts of mine are difficult to read and absorb as a result. Lately, I have been trying to reduce the amount of times I use text formatting, and when I do use it, I ensure it is contextually relevant; and is of great importance to the reader. In addition to this, I have been trying to make use of lists in order to employ a sequential flow of the post.

1. Real Life Example: When You Read Publications…How Do They Look?

I was asking myself why some people were somewhat confused or annoyed at the use of text formatting on some of my previous posts. Then it dawned on me that, put simply, they had reason to be! When reading a book, a newspaper or any other printed publication, I am lucky if I can find more than a couple of words in bold throughout an entire article. Here I was, using bold, italics, underline etc…on practically every second sentence. I realized that things needed to change, so I checked out some popular blogs and came up with the following points. Coincidentally, I also learned that using real-life examples or relating personally to the post helps to make the post original, personal and shows your character and personality, that which many readers enjoy.

2. Use Formatted Text Sparingly: Only Highlight Significant Points

On some websites I did not find any sign of text formatting, yet they still managed to yield significant comment numbers, pull fantastic RSS subscriber readerships etc…So, I learned that it’s not so much about the formatting of the post, it’s really more about the content and how much value it provides. My good friend Jim from TheNetFool was one of the first people to be slightly confused about the excessive bold-ing of my posts; and I thank him for pointing it out to me. Only use text-formatting for extremely important keywords, phrases or quotes which help to embody your posts’ message.

3. Use Block-Quotes To Style Your Post And Denote Importance

Block-quotes, I discovered, were a great way of directing the reader to the important sections of a post, but it should also be used sparingly to denote actual quotes and significant parts of the text. I also identified that I was making use of block quotes a bit too often in my posts, so another aim to improve my post-formatting was to use block-quotes sparingly; and only to emphasize actual excerpts of text or focal points of the post.

4. Use A Numbered List And Bullet Points To Help Skim-Readers

After stumbling upon a few articles about human eye behaviour and reading some posts about social media users, it reaffirmed my preconceptions that very few of them actually read the entire post. Therefore, using numbered lists and bullet points are highly encouraged for maximum engagement and heightened reading duration; in addition to this I learned that you have approximately 3 seconds before a user decides to stay or leave. So, I needed to make use of lists, bullet points and images earlier in order to grab more readers.

5. Use Titles For Link Hovers To Help With Contextual Relevance

Using titles for link hovers helps with contextual relevance. It has also proven to be very good for search engine purposes, this is because it helps the spiders to crawl your site and make more sense of where the links are pointing to and how relevant they actually are (more relevance may mean you attain better rank). So, I embarked on a mission to find a theme that makes use of many tool-tips (the small yellow box when you hover over a link or an image), this meant that my site was optimized for better search engine relevance and this also helps your readers.

6. Use Images To Draw Attention To Sections Of Your Post

This one was sort of second nature to me, I already knew that a large percentage of the world’s population is visually oriented, so using more images to draw attention to post sections was a no-brainer. I did, however, discover that the type of pictures you used impacted on the reader, funny, clever, arty or happy images may provoke reader response, alternatively, plain, boring, urban and moody images may send visitors packing. I had to make use of images with a positive message to engage readers and get them interacting more.

7. Ensure Consistency Within A Post, It Relaxes Readers

From personal experience, I realized that posts had to be consistent. I had encountered a couple that were all over the place. From multiple perspectives, it was a badly formatted post, incomplete ideas, excessive waffle, too many images (with no apparent structure or flow) and a heap of other issues…The human brain enjoys creativity and ‘mash-ups’ but it also enjoys logic, flow, consistency and relevance. So, keep ideas brief but also allow for user response or additions.

8. How Do You Style Your Blog Posts…Noticed Any Trends?

Since October 2007, I have discovered that many of the above are quintessential to generating a fantastic blog post that encourages reader response and participation.  Oh and, asking questions at the end of, throughout or anywhere in a post is a great way to get more participation in the comments area and beyond. Have you got the combination right? Do your readers go crazy in the comments section? Or maybe, you’ve had difficulty getting reader response. So, what are your ideas about posts that generate buzz?

Related posts:

1. What Elements Make For A Delicious Blog Post?
2. Improve Your Blog Post Structure Today
3. A 3 Point Plan For Writing Blog Posts That Flow
4. The Benefits Of Brief, Succinct And Useful Blog Posts
5. 10 Top Tips for A Better Blog

Tags: blockquotes, blogging, bullet points, consistency, image mood, link hover, numbered list, post formatting, skim reading