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- Blogosphere Trends + Improving Readability
Hello again, fellow bloggers! Last month, we talked about how to find and interpret your blog's readability score. If you weren't happy with what you found, don't worry: there are plenty of ways to improve readability and we'll look at a few today.
Some, such as using shorter sentences, may actually improve your readability score. Others, like font choice and adequate white space, won't impact your score but are every bit as important. As I said last month, it's not the score that matters, it's whether readers find your blog useful and engaging. This month's tips will help you connect with readers … even if you have no interest in your numerical score.
To give you some examples of these principles at work, we'll use blog posts about the past month's most-blogged-about stories (rankings provided, as always, by Regator. (They are, in order: Bin Laden, Memorial Day, Donald Trump, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lady Gaga, Oprah Winfrey, Cannes Film Festival, Rapture, Tornado, and Dominique Strauss-Kahn.) Here's how you can start improving your readability right away:
1. Use fewer links
Some studies have shown that links in text reduce comprehension, even if they're not clicked. The theory is that each time you are presented with a link, your brain pauses, ever so briefly, to assess the situation—to click or not to click? Those little decisions break your concentration and decrease comprehension.
The problem with eliminating all links is that linking can provide additional information, promote your old posts, support your opinion, and build community, among other things. So what to do?
Nicholas Carr suggests putting relevant links at the bottom of your posts rather than within it, which is a valid option. My advice would be to continue to use links but to do so sparingly, with the awareness that they do impact readability. Make sure each link you choose to use serves a purpose.
Examples: Compare CPJ's "After bin Laden, a warning to foreign journalists," which is less distracting because of its lack of links with the ACLU Blog of Rights post "The CIA Weighs In: Torture Did Not Help Find Bin Laden," which features links that provide context and additional information.2. Use clear language and avoid jargon
Avoiding jargon and using language that is as simple as possible will increase your potential audience. Even if your blog focuses on a niche that uses a lot of jargon or technical terms, such as business or the scientific community, consider whether saying the same thing in another way could help you expand your reach and readership.
Example: Storage Bits's "Memorial Day 2011: defending the 9th" breaks down the U.S. Constitution's ninth amendment into simple language and, in doing so, increases readability.3. Proofread carefully before you publish
Nothing decreases readability like typos or grammatical errors. Everyone makes mistakes (mentioning typos in a post always scares me because that's inevitably when something sneaks past you), but endeavor to make as few as possible because once you hit publish, your errors stick around on the internet.
Example: Bossip, which, it should be said, is a good blog that makes very few errors of this type, had a typo in its headline "Wait A Damn Mintue: Palin and Trump 'Palling Around' In NYC … Are They Joining Forces?" and though they corrected the error, dozens of sites had linked to the incorrect version before it could be fixed and those links live on in Google.4. Put thought into your font choice
The serif vs. sans-serif debate has been raging for as long as typography has been studied. (Alex Poole wrote a brilliant post based on his review of more than fifty studies.) Historically, serif fonts have been considered more readable in print but many argue that sans-serif fonts work best online.
Given the lack of a truly conclusive answer, I'm not going to advise you to definitively go with one over the other, but I will advise you to give it some thought. It not only impacts readability but also the general feel and aesthetic of your site. Consider not only serif vs. sans-serif but also line spacing, font size, and the aesthetics of specific fonts. Try timing yourself reading the same text in several different fonts with various spacing options and sizes to see which is fastest and easiest to read.
Example: There are countless font size/spacing/type combinations but start by comparing Gawker's "Schwarzenegger Son Didn’t Know the Truth Until This Week," which uses larger, airier serif fonts, with LAist's "Oops, He Did it Again: Schwarzenegger Not Being Investigated by Attorney General," which uses smaller, more tightly spaced sans serif fonts.5. Use active rather than passive voice
To remind the non grammar nerds among us: In sentences written in the active voice, the subject of the sentence is doing the action. For example: "Wombats write gardening blogs." In the passive version, "Gardening blogs are written by wombats" (please note that the accuracy of these sentences cannot be guaranteed), the target of the action becomes the subject. So why should you avoid passive voice? Because in most cases, it will tighten your writing and make your sentences clearer, thus improving readability.
A recent Northumbria University study found that less educated readers may struggle to understand passive sentences when compared to active sentences. That's not to say there isn't a time and a place for passive voice. It's useful when you either don't know or are trying to avoid stating who performed an action (e.g., "The bank was robbed").
Example: PSFK's "Lady Gaga And The Future Of Music Albums" uses active voice throughout the first paragraph but switches to passive for the second paragraph's first sentence because it would be difficult to accurately list all of the individuals involved in arranging Lady Gaga's products, events, deals, and appearances.6. Write to communicate, not to impress
I'm not advocating for the dumbing down of language, but I am encouraging you to use the words that do the best job of communicating your message, regardless of whether you know a longer, fancier way of saying something. Don't say "utilize" instead of "use" just to try to sound impressive. A writer's goal is to communicate effectively. We'd all do well to remind ourselves of that every so often.
Example: PopWatch's "Oprah gives her email out to everyone in the free world!" uses straightforward language without sounding as though they've attempted to dumb it down.7. Don't justify text
Text with a ragged right margin is generally considered to be more readable than fully justified text. It provides more consistent spacing between letters and words, increases white space, and allows the eye to keep its place more easily. Unless you have a strong opinion about using justified text for its aesthetic appeal, go with flush-left text with a ragged right margin for readability.
Example: Compare Film School Rejects's justified "Who Should Have Won Cannes 2011: The (Unbelievably Prestigious) FSR Awards" with 24 Frames's flush left "Cannes 2011: A spell of conflict, and then (some) resolution" to see how justification impacts readability.8. Use colors that are easily readable
For visual appeal, you may choose another palette, but for contrast and readability, black text on a white background is your best bet. If you're going to use colored backgrounds and text, be cautious. Color combinations from opposite ends of the color spectrum quickly fatigue the eyes causing color "vibrations", as do colors that don't provide enough contrast.
Keep in mind that certain combinations also make your site less accessible to your colorblind readers. There are a number of sites that show you how your site would look to colorblind visitors—it is estimated that as many as 10% of men are colorblind so it's not an insignificant concern.
Example: Though opposite, Good's black on white "'I Don’t Understand': How Rapture Believers Are Taking It" and Geekologie's white on black "That Nutjob: Rapture Happened ‘Spiritually’, Apocalypse Still Slated For October 21st" are both high-contrast and accessible.9. Use as many words as you need, and not one more
Example: Need to Know's "Twisted logic: What tornadoes don't have to do with global warming" is a good example of concise writing.
10. Keep sentences and paragraphs short
Reading from an illuminated screen is more taxing on the eyes than reading from a printed page and slows reading by as much as 30%. So avoid large blocks of text whenever possible, keep text scannable by using short sentences and subheadings, and allow for ample white space.
Example: The Two-Way's post "In Goodbye Note, Strauss-Kahn Denies Accusations" illustrates a number of the points we've talked about here by featuring high-contrast text with a ragged right margin, short paragraphs, ample white space, and a large serif font.Will you be making any changes to improve readability based on these tips? Tell us about it in the comments!
Kimberly Turner is a cofounder of Regator.com, Regator for iPhone and the brand-new Regator Breaking News service for journalists and bloggers. She is also an award-winning print journalist. You can find her on Twitter @kimber_regator.
Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
Blogosphere Trends + Improving Readability
Переслать - Writing to Attract, Retain and Engage
The written word is a powerful thing.
Used responsibly, it can educate people about the possibilities that they face, inspire them to improve their circumstances, and empower them to take the necessary actions.
Used irresponsibly, it can cheat and manipulate.
And used badly, it's just dull, boring, and pedantic.
Which do you want your writing to be?
I'm going to guess that we're on the same page about wanting our writing to be educational, inspiring and empowering—is that a fair assumption?
There are three main functions of good writing in the context of blogging and copywriting, and those are to attract a reader, to retain that reader, and most importantly, to engage that reader. Let's explore all three.
Writing to attract: make it sexy
The first thing that you need to do is grab someone's attention, and you do that by making your writing sexy. I don't mean sexy in the "appealing to sex" sense of the word (though that certainly works, as in the case of Stacey Herbert's 5 Things You Should Do To Lose Your Blogging Virginity Like a Slut or Demian Farnworth's Dirty Little Secret to Seducing Your Readers).
No, I mean sexy as in excitingly appealing; something that just grabs the reader's attention. You do this by appealing to a core human drive, which is one of the following:
- Drive to acquire: This is about wanting more money, more stuff, and more power. Some examples of content targeting this drive include 18 Months, 2 Blogs, Six Figures and The Skinny on Ways to Fatten Your Wallet Doing Business Online.
- Drive to bond: This is about the need to feel loved and to be connected. The Core of Self-Love and How To Refresh Your Passion For Your Online Business both appeal to the drive to bond, as do the examples about sex that I mentioned above.
- Drive to learn: This is about curiosity, and wanting to know how things work, and what happens next. A couple of examples of posts targeting this drive are Things You Can Learn about Marketing while Sunbathing and The Difference Between Engaged and Engaging.
- Drive to defend: This is about our need to feel safe, secure, and protected from risk and misfortune. Posts that target this drive include Business Failure or Strategic Relocation?: It's Your Call and What 48 Stitches Taught Me About Change.
- Drive to feel: This is about wanting exciting and fulfilling experiences. Posts targeting this drive include Live Each Day Like It Is Your Last and How To Live A Lottery Lifestyle, and sex can be found here as well.
You'll notice that the sexiest part of the post is the headline—because that is the part that draws people in. You'll also notice that it's possible to target several drives with the same headline!
Of course, the selection of which drive to target isn't random—it's a function of figuring out who your audience is, and then identifying what their most burning desires and drives are.
Writing to retain: make it useful and entertaining
Getting attention is great, but it's just the beginning. Once you've attracted readers to your content, you've got to retain it. There are two ways to do this: you can be useful, or you can be entertaining. Ideally, you should do both.
You make content useful with language, because language is basically the "packaging" that you use to deliver your ideas to the reader. Putting your ideas in a simple bulleted list is one way of doing the packaging, and imparting the information as a story is quite another. One way allows the reader to skim and skip over your content, whereas the other can get them to read, think about, and engage with your information.
Don't get me wrong—you've got to have useful information in there, too. If you've got nothing useful to offer—whether it's an insight, a strategy, a process, or a tool – then no matter how much you "dress it up", it still won't have much value. But assuming you do have some good information to share, it's often the packaging that makes it truly valuable to the reader.
Rather than speaking in generalities, here is the formula that I use to package my own information in guest posts (I try to start each section with a heading):
- Start with a hook. The first thing you need to do is grab the reader's attention. Start with a short sentence that will pique curiosity, and then build it into an opening that will make people want to keep reading. You can do this by telling a story (they keep reading to see how it ends), by painting a picture of an outcome (they keep reading to learn how you got there), or by being confrontational (they keep reading because they disagree). Keep your paragraphs short, and make sure to hook their attention before the
tag. - Pivot to the problem. First thing after the
tag, pivot from your hook, which might only be related to your post's core concept as an illustrative example, to the problem that lies at the heart of the matter. Explain the problem—what are the symptoms, and what are the outcomes? - Explain the cause. Next, explain the underlying logic behind the problem—what is causing it, and why do people do things that way? What are the mistaken assumptions that are leading that to happen?
- Share the solution. Having uncovered the mistaken assumptions, and core processes that are causing the problem, you can now share the solution. By now, people should be super-eager to read it!
- Call to action. Don't end the post without pivoting back to the reader, and their own situation. Ask a question about their experience as it relates to your post. Try to make it a question that is easy to answer—my first post on Copyblogger got tons of comments (208 at last count), mostly because I asked people about their favorite business books, and everyone has one to share!
No joke—I follow this formula 80% of the time when I write, and it works like a charm; my guest posts are consistently commented and shared, and I've had repeat appearances on many of the larger blogs that I post for (this is my fourth appearance on ProBlogger).
I want this to be super-concrete, so here are five examples of guest posts that I've written following this formula. If you really want to get a sense of how it works, try printing them out and then noting the sections:
- Desperate Housewives on Writing, Storytelling, and Selling on Big Girl Branding
- Steak or Peanut Butter—How to Land Authority Blogs on E-Junkie
- Write From The Heart: Does Authenticity Really Work? on Write Speak Sell
- The Viral Content Formula That Could Double Your Readership on Think Traffic
- How to Chain an Elephant: Breaking the Shackles We've Placed on Ourselves on Steve Scott's site.
Writing to engage: make it resonate
If you've attracted and retained an audience, then you're definitely on the right track. But let's face it: the real sign of a successful blog isn't just traffic—it's comments and subscribers. Both of these things require that your audience not just like what you're doing, but engage with it.
So how do you get people to engage?
This is where the science becomes more of an art, and sometimes the best art is created by breaking the rules. I was recently berated about a grammatical error by a commenter who argued that "grammatical accuracy is a prime need when we claim to be authentic writers".
I disagreed—the line in question, while technically grammatically incorrect, mirrored normal conversational speech patterns, and I don't think there would have been any confusion in the mind of my readers.
And that is my advice to you: to engage your readers, write as though you were talking.
Here's how to do it. When you sit down to write, imagine your target reader sitting across the table from you, in rapt attention. Then write exactly what you would say to them. Edit out the "ums" and "aahs", and make yourself just a little more eloquent than you might otherwise be, but other than that your writing should read like a conversation.
Since I'm a big fan of examples, let's start with some of my favorite authors: pick up books by Malcolm Gladwell, A.J. Jacobs, and Patrick Lencioni—these are authors whose writing carries you through, even if it's a whole book about reading the encyclopedia!
Read and enjoy their books, but pay attention to their styles.
Another great place to look for inspiration and lessons is the dialogue of your favorite TV shows. I particularly like the West Wing and Gilmore Girls for this – the dialogue is witty and clever, and does a great job of simplifying and communicating complex ideas. Watch the shows, pick your favorite characters, and try to imagine how they would explain whatever it is that you want to write about.
Attract, retain, and engage
Okay, I think that about covers it—we've talked about how to attract the attention of your audience, how to retain them as loyal readers, and how to engage them in a conversation that will grow your audience in size and profitability.
So, what do you think? What part of the attraction, retention, and engagement triad do you find most challenging? Do you have a favorite trick for doing them?
Danny Iny is an author, strategist, serial entrepreneur, and proud co-founder of Firepole Marketing, the definitive marketing training program for small businesses, entrepreneurs, and non-marketers. Visit his site today for a free cheat sheet about Why Guru Strategies for Blog Growth DON'T WORK… and What Does!, or follow him on Twitter @DannyIny.
Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
Writing to Attract, Retain and Engage
Переслать - How Having A Blogging Coach Changed My Life
This guest post is by Peter Sinclair of http://www.motivationalmemo.com.
I have been in business for well over 25 years. I in fact owned my first business at the age of 18. Though for many of those years I never, ever thought about the importance of having a mentor or a coach.
My dad was not a businessman. My granddad was not a businessman. So I simply had to learn everything from scratch in the wonderful University of Success, otherwise known as the Academy of Failure.
So it was a couple of years into owning a web design business that I thought about franchising. I suddenly realized that I needed up-skilling fast, and so I hired a business coach.
I hired him for twelve months. We had a sort of love/hate relationship. I hated the fact that he would ask me tough questions that only a coach could ever dare to ask—questions that I had for many years avoided asking myself. But I loved the results, because the very next year we doubled our income.
Copyright Rob Byron - Fotolia.com
But after seven years and three months of running that successful business, I decided that my passions lay elsewhere, and that I needed to explore them with a greater level of concentrated effort and focus.
So I sold my web design clients, and as of December last year I started on my exciting journey of turning an existing blog, that I had been writing just for the fun of it for a number of years, into a business—once and for all turning my passion into profit and becoming pre-eminent in my “personal development” niche.
I immediately started looking for a blogging coach online. I also listened to my colleagues who were familiar with people in the industry with that title.
Why did I look for a blogging coach?
Well if a coach had helped me transform my web design business, it made complete common sense to me that the same would happen in the blogging industry.
What is a blogging coach?
It's simply someone who has made a lot of money through blogging.
Generally they have courses that run concurrently with their main blog, and are designed to help other bloggers make money (no matter what niche you're in) by teaching the same principles that brought them their success.
My concept of a coach in any field is simple. Do what they say. Be what they are. And make what they make.
No matter how successful one has been in another field, he must become a student in the field of blogging if he wants to become a successful blogger.
Where can you find a blogging coach?
Google is a great place to start. I ended up finding three that caught my attention: Leo Babauta, Darren Rowse, and Yaro Starak.
Now each was commendable with what they had to offer. But as an Australian I decided I wanted to be trained by an Australian (no offence to the Americans—many of your countrymen have taught me a lot about internet marketing and real estate). Now I knew that Darren was probably more experienced than Yaro, but Yaro's writing style and video presentations really connected with me.
And what topped it when I was making my final decision, was an email I received from Yaro offering his course, which was normally anything up to $97 per month, for one payment of less than $300.
I snapped it up and found out that from that one email Yaro sold 100 subscriptions before New Year’s Day. That was a whopping $30,000 from one email. And that was just about what I had spent on a year's coaching when I owned my web design business.
How does blog coaching work?
Well it was vastly different to my coaching sessions for my web design business, where we had met weekly for an hour in a coffee shop for an entire year.
Once I paid my money, Yaro simply sent me an email by autoresponder containing my username and password, and I now had complete access to all the videos, audios, written PDF tutorials, and action sheets that made up the course. This course contained six training modules with four lessons per module.
In addition to that, I was invited to attend monthly Skype sessions where I, along with people from all around the world, could ask Yaro questions directly. I really enjoy these. Yaro can look at our individual blogs and give immediate feedback and suggestions to improve them.
What does my blogging coach do?
Well, he obviously put an online course together. The one I was taking had been created a couple of years before I ever saw it.
That’s enough to inspire a future blogger. Do the work once, do it well, and then put it on auto-kerchink-pilot.
But the great thing is that Yaro has responded personally to my emails whenever I needed some one-on-one advice.
What's changed as a result of having a blogging coach?
- After five months I have developed a substantial separate database in addition to my regular RSS feed from my main blog. I publish three articles a week on Monday Wednesday and Friday on my blog which frees me to do other writing, like this article, on other days for other blogs.
- I am now preparing to send out a survey containing five questions that will give me all the vital information that I need to create my new mentoring program. If all goes according to the plan that Yaro has presented to me, I will launch my paid program within a short period of time and start making monthly income.
- I have been published by many major blogs in my niche and was even picked up by The New York Times because of this. I am gaining pre-eminence in my niche little by little.
- I have opened an AWeber account and use it regularly to send out my weekly newsletter. Clickbank is soon to follow.
- I interview people in my industry and associated industries via Skype or email, and by being associated with people even more successful than myself I am gaining further pre-eminence.
- I have continued to develop relationships with other bloggers in my niche—and many of these will be my main affiliates once I launch my mentoring program. I am firmly convinced that I have laid strong foundations, built upon the experience of my blogging coach, that will ensure financial success through blogging.
- Every post that I write gets posted on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and my team and I are constantly testing and measuring other social media outlets in order to get the word out to an ever-increasing audience.
- I have always had a team around me in business. Even though I owned a web design company I still don't know how to create a website. So my main web designer has become my right-hand man for all things design and technical. But the cool thing is that although he is still my employee, we have entered into a joint venture with another blog project that he has created while he has been working on mine. Now that's cool. My plan for him is that he earns more money in the very near future from this blog than I currently pay him.
Oh and by the way, now that I am pursuing my passion through blogging, I'm having a ball. Life is fun. So in that sense alone, my blogging coach has changed my life. Thanks Yaro!
To become a leader, follow in the footsteps of another leader. Have you found this to be good advice in your blogging journey?
Peter G. James Sinclair is in the ‘heart to heart’ resuscitation business and inspires, motivates and equips others to be all that they've been created to become. Receive your free copy of his latest ebook Discovering The You In Unique at http://www.motivationalmemo.com and add him on Twitter @PeterGJSinclair today!
Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
How Having A Blogging Coach Changed My Life
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