Monday, August 6, 2012

Blog Posts Should be Easy to Read

Part of what makes a blog easy to read is the actual writing style.  You're writing a blog, not an essay.  In terms of actual content, you should aim for one main point per post.

But another facet to this is actually how your blog post looks.  Having large paragraphs with no breaks is visually daunting for most people for two reasons:

1) It makes your blog post look more intellectually intensive.  Like reading a textbook.  Sad as it is, people don't want this in a blog.  They want fast, easy and entertaining or they are going to move on to another site.

2)  Reading large paragraphs is actually more difficult on a computer screen.  It's not the same as a book.  Computer screens have what's called a "refresh rate."  This means that it's not a still image but rather a series of super fast images that are constantly changing.  Therefore, it makes it much easier for the eyes to lose track of where they were.

So make a point of going through your post before your publish.  If you notice large paragraphs of text, add some breaks.  It's such an easy fix and it makes a huge difference for your blog readers.