Blog Writing Tips: Bad Habits to Drop in Order to Better Your Blog

It’s a common occurrence, here at Grammar Chic, for business owners and individuals alike to contact us for help with blog writing.  While it’s true that we manage a variety of different blogs on a daily, weekly and monthly basis, and I certainly don’t want to divert business, the fact is, blog writing is something that a person can do with relative ease if they are disciplined enough.  At the same time, it must be noted that, according to a statistic posted by Olivia Root on Business2Community, “Within a 24 hour period, two million blog posts are written.”

Yikes!

Root goes onto talk about some interesting rules that any blogger or online marketer needs to consider as they write their own material for use on the Internet, as this idea of “content marketing” means that there is a lot of generic or irrelevant information put out there at the same time.  While Google may reward a website or a blog that creates compelling content, there is still a lot of information to sift through.

Here are some simple rules that you must adhere to if you are thinking about managing and writing your own blog.

• Stop being a cliché. Do not use buzzwords if you aren’t going to provide specific guidelines.  This means writing an article and having a catchy headline do absolutely no good if you aren’t also providing specific advice.
• Have a title that represents what the post is about.  Oftentimes, writers can begin writing a blog post or an article with their headline already laid out; however, once they start writing, a new article emerges that has different content from what the headline originally promises.  While there still may be some helpful advice in the post, readers will feel misled.  Therefore, if you plan on writing about one subject, stick to it.  If you are unsure about whether or not you actually wrote about what you had originally planned, I suggest you find an editor who can critique your work.
• Use stock photos with a purpose.  Simply put, most Internet surfers are highly visual people and, as much as I like to talk about how writing is important, the same can be said regarding graphics.  In her article, Root notes that eye tracking studies have actually shown that “people ignore big, feel-good images that function purely as decoration.”  She also goes on to state that “people who looked at a webpage that featured a generic photo serving as pure filler, completely ignored the photo and focused solely on the text.”  I think the point of the matter is that visuals and text must be compelling in order to convince a reader to stick around.
• Write in a way to which readers can relate.  I’m not saying that you have to be overly simplistic, but if you use words or phrases that the average reader cannot comprehend you are not going to build your readership.  Just as readers will reject you for being boring, they will do the same if your vocabulary doesn’t fit your audience.

If you are thinking about managing and writing your own blog, follow these tips but also commit to a writing strategy.  If you are confused about how to do this don’t feel frustrated and certainly don’t give up.  Give Grammar Chic, Inc. a call today at 803-831-7444.