How to Make A Blog Reader-Friendly

I don't think I can boast and say that I'm a great blogger. I don't pretend to assume that everyone reads my blog. Rather, I always assume that they don't before they tell me that they do. That always proves for some good laughs!

Anyways, I just thought that I'd share a few pointers on what I think makes a great blog. These are things that I try to keep in mind when blogging so that I can learn to become a better blogger.

1) Don't just write about what you did in a day.

There's almost nothing worse about reading someone's recount of the day. What they did, what they ate, what they wore, who they saw, where they went, what they said etc. If it's nothing out of the ordinary, it's probably best kept off the blog.

I know that sounds a little harsh but it's something I've learnt from my own experience.

If you look through my archives and read any of the posts I embarrassingly wrote for the first 8 months or so, you'll notice that 80-90% of them were just about what I did in my day or week. It's not something I'm very proud of but at least I have something to always look back on and think about how I've improved since then.

I also hate to say it but this is how most people's blogs start off. If it's just a dull, boring post about what they've done in a day, over the span of more than a year, I'd be very much inclined to discontinue reading that blog altogether.

If you do intend on blogging about your day just don't make it a recount.

2) Use paragraphs.

I've come to learn that people are almost incapable of reading large chunks of text. You don't like reading long paragraphs in your school/uni textbooks so please don't do it to your readers.

It makes them forget what you wrote 2 sentences ago or maybe lose interest in the post altogether. And that would be a real shame if you spend an hour or more to write up that particular post.

Even more so if you painstakingly added photos to it.

3) Add photos and/or videos.

Similar to the point above, photos and videos are good to break up big blocks of text. They provide something funny/pretty/interesting/cute/weird to go with the words in your blog post.

I've figured that most people respond better to visual aids than anything else. (Which probably explains why so many of us like to sit in front of the TV or computer for hours.)

That being said, I have to say that I still get slightly offended when people say that they don't read the text in my blog posts. They just look at the photos.

Sure the saying goes, "a picture is worth a thousand words" but shouldn't you appreciate all the hard work that's been put into writing up these posts? For every blog you read, every post; someone has sat in front of a computer and spent time putting their thoughts into cohesive sentences for you to read.

This all probably sounds very slack because it's almost like the do's and don'ts of blogging but like I said at beginning of this post - these are just things I've learnt from blogging. I understand that everyone's blogging style is different and if you want to write big chunks of text without paragraphs and photos/videos, I respect that.

To be honest, I think that you should just have fun with blogging. There's no point in doing it if you don't have fun doing it. Or don't enjoy it.

I know I whinge all the time about having to put in so much effort to blog but at the end of the day, I'm glad I've got this blog. It really has become a part of me!