A friend of mine recently retired. She was an English comp professor at a local university. She thought she might write a book in her retirement, and decided to find an author’s group or two to join. When she accessed a couple of these sites, she began to read the blogs that were posted. Then, she discovered that a lot of struggling authors actually paid their bills by writing blog posts on a freelance basis. From the posts she had read already, she figured this was an easy way to make some extra money and began to look for gigs in the industry. She submitted post after post that continued to be rejected. Finally, I explained to her that blog posts were unique “creatures,” requiring a very different writing style and skill set than she had practiced all her life. Ultimately, she realized that she would have to take a course in content marketing if she intended to do this blog-writing thing. We all laughed about the English professor returning to school to take a writing course, but, given the rising trend in both free and fee-based online coursework, she was able to quickly find a course, totally immerse herself in it, and in no time she was writing successful posts.
The Purpose of a Blog
The goal of a blog is to have published content that others want to read and share. In fact, if content isn’t shared, there is no reason to have a blog at all. Posts are shared when they are written for the reader not the person doing the writing. And there are certain writing skills that all bloggers must have is content is to catch on. Even if you are not an English teacher or professor, you may still struggle with the unique style of blog post writing for a host of other reasons. If you are, here is a list of 10 writing skills that you will need – some you may have mastered quite well; others you may need to develop some more.
1. Simplify
This was the biggest issue my friend had. She was so used to complex sentences, long paragraphs, and scholarly style, she did not know how to simplify her content. One of her course assignments was to read The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. Everyone who wants to write blog posts should re-read this book. It is the perfect example of simple clear writing with great messages.
2. Purpose
Every post must have a purpose. Of course, the ultimate purpose is to engage the reader and make that reader want to share the content. But, getting to the ultimate goal means that there has to be a clear purpose. You must decide if you are going to educate you reader with a “how to” post, or an answer to a question, or a solution to a problem. You might want to entertain your reader with some humorous story that relates to the company, product, or service. You might want to inspire the reader to become involved in a charity you are supporting. If you are familiar with academic writing, then you understand that every essay or paper has to have a thesis. The purpose of a post is its thesis.
3. Headlines
The importance of a headline cannot be emphasized enough. Just ask any journalist who writes news articles or editorials. Engagement of the reader begins with that title, and it has to be catchy and intriguing. Large numbers of visitors to a blog will scan down for those headlines. If nothing sparks an interest, they scan down to the end and then leave. No post is read, and no post is shared – epic fail.
4. Storytelling
This is a great way to engage readers in the beginning or for an entire post. Whether you tell a story about a customer who found a unique use for a company’s product, a person who found inspiration from watching a baby turtle make its trek to the ocean or a risk-taker who started a business and made it a success, people will read stories. This post began with a story and hopefully you were interested enough to read it.
5. Reading Level
This relates a bit to #1 but it deserves individual treatment. Think of a 7th grader. What is his/her vocabulary level? What is the reading level of his textbooks? If you can’t remember from your own youth, go to the library and find a middle school text book and take a look. Do you have a relative with a middle school kid? See if you can read samples of his writing. And you can always use one of those free tools that will give you a reading level. Just paste you post in and let it tell you. You are looking for age 12-13 reading level.
6. Grammar
You are not writing an academic paper here. But that does not mean you can ignore grammar and mechanics. If you are famous for fragments and run-ons, you have to fix that; if you use the wrong forms of verbs, you have to fix that. There may be some people who read your posts who have a strong command of English usage and who will turned off by bad writing, spelling, and punctuation. There are editing tools and services to use – find a free one and let it fix your errors.
7. Format
If you have read enough other blog posts, you probably understand the format “rules.” Like an essay, a post must have an introduction, a body section, and a conclusion. All similarities end there. The body of a blog post is divided up into sections with bold sub-titles. And within those sections, paragraphs are really short. Lists are great, and they should be numbered or bulleted. This lets the reader scan through you post and decide if any of those sub-headings is of interest. If so, s/he may only read parts of your post, and that’s okay. If the parts that are read result in sharing the post – your goal has been met.
8. Tone
Above all else, a blog post has to be casual and informal. While you don’t want to overdo it, current slang is fine; serious cursing (the really bad words) and offensive terminology (racial slurs, insults, etc.) is not okay. As you write a post, use a tone that you would if writing a letter to a good friend or relative.
9. Visuals
One of the things you have to get over is the attitude that a visual is not writing. In the blogosphere, it is. And content with great visuals gets shared far more than those without. Cool images, photos, infographics, interactive stuff like polls and surveys, and videos all make content “catchy.” And generally, you should use color for these, unless something like a black and white photo is being used for a specific effect.
10. Content Curation
Some do not consider this a writing skill, but it is. When you find great content somewhere else, you may want to use it. Obviously, you are not going to plagiarize. But, you can think of ways to make it even better and you re-write it with that in mind. Or you may find content in text form that you can use to create an infographic, a slide presentation, or present to your reader in the form of a poll, survey or quiz. These are popular and, if done well, are likely to be shared.
Blog writing is a unique form. And, like any form of writing, it takes lots of practice. It takes creativity too, as you create headlines, tell stories, and solve reader problems. If you love to write, you can master the skill set. Use these 10 tips as your start point.
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