Good blogging is a creative craft combining elements of themed writing with graphic design principles using a variety of media. For some basic guidelines, read on:
Clear - Blog writing should be well-organized, easy to read and understandable.
Crafted - Blog writing should be treated as though anybody could see it -- for exactly that reason. Careful editing for spelling, sentence structure, consistency and clarity are essential for any public blog.
Concise - Good writing in general is spare, simple and direct. This is arguably even more true for online writing. Try using brief paragraphs with line breaks in-between.
Credible - Personal opinions can have considerable merit, especially when based on personal knowledge and experience. Otherwise, reason, research and resources should be employed to support personal views.
Creative - Blogs are an excellent medium for personal creativity. The themes you choose to feature, the kinds of other media you include, the writing style you employ and the design of your blog are just some of the creative arenas for you to explore and master.
Contrast - Visual appeal and readability are enhanced by using contrasting fonts, colors and elements. Selecting the wrong font color may be all it takes to keep someone from reading otherwise brilliant writing. Note the text in this blog is black on white.
Clean - Blogs can become cluttered with visually distracting images and features. Keep your blogs visually tidy. Besides looking better, they are more useful for others whom you'd like to visit your blog.
Credit - Good ideas and images deserve and/or require proper credit - even your own.
Captions - Unless it is absolutely obvious, images should have some kind of caption to help make conceptual connections more clear.
Context - Images and information should relate obviously to the topic at hand.
Connected - Including quality links and having others link to your blog makes it more powerful and useful for others.
C.R.A.P. - Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, Proximity are classic design concepts that apply to both the digital and hard-copy world.
Confidentiality - Carefully consider what kind personal information is appropriate to include in your blog. Blog profile settings offer a wide variety of features to help you best decide who and what others should know about a blog's author.
Comments - Consider how you want others to interact with your blog. From zero comments to an open forum, comments sections add richness as well as liabilities for bloggers. I recommend using moderated comments that are only displayed with your approval.
Crafted - Blog writing should be treated as though anybody could see it -- for exactly that reason. Careful editing for spelling, sentence structure, consistency and clarity are essential for any public blog.
Concise - Good writing in general is spare, simple and direct. This is arguably even more true for online writing. Try using brief paragraphs with line breaks in-between.
Credible - Personal opinions can have considerable merit, especially when based on personal knowledge and experience. Otherwise, reason, research and resources should be employed to support personal views.
Creative - Blogs are an excellent medium for personal creativity. The themes you choose to feature, the kinds of other media you include, the writing style you employ and the design of your blog are just some of the creative arenas for you to explore and master.
Contrast - Visual appeal and readability are enhanced by using contrasting fonts, colors and elements. Selecting the wrong font color may be all it takes to keep someone from reading otherwise brilliant writing. Note the text in this blog is black on white.
Clean - Blogs can become cluttered with visually distracting images and features. Keep your blogs visually tidy. Besides looking better, they are more useful for others whom you'd like to visit your blog.
Credit - Good ideas and images deserve and/or require proper credit - even your own.
Captions - Unless it is absolutely obvious, images should have some kind of caption to help make conceptual connections more clear.
Context - Images and information should relate obviously to the topic at hand.
Connected - Including quality links and having others link to your blog makes it more powerful and useful for others.
C.R.A.P. - Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, Proximity are classic design concepts that apply to both the digital and hard-copy world.
Confidentiality - Carefully consider what kind personal information is appropriate to include in your blog. Blog profile settings offer a wide variety of features to help you best decide who and what others should know about a blog's author.
Comments - Consider how you want others to interact with your blog. From zero comments to an open forum, comments sections add richness as well as liabilities for bloggers. I recommend using moderated comments that are only displayed with your approval.
