Goal of the day: 415 words. Written: 477.
Do we have a platform? Great! Time for content.
What are you going to put on your blog now? What good will you share with your audience? Will it be educational, enjoyable or personal?
Let's try to dig deeper.
Regardless of which content platform you chose (Facebook, WordPress, or something else...), the content on your blog will be basically the same.
Its forms are as follows:
- Text. Where you put letters and someone reads them. It seems to me that you understand how it works because you are reading these words right now…
- Illustrations. Where you draw - Create and share illustrations with illustration apps (of which there are more than you could possibly need).
- Videos. Where you film yourself or others, create animations and other moving video stuff.
- Audio. Where you record sounds, internet radio (podcast) shows, perform musical pieces and share them.
- Applications. Everything from programmed text correctors to meme generators or polls and tests.
As with consumer benefits (educates, entertains, engages), these methods of delivering content are best when mixed together. The more diverse you present your work, the happier and more diverse your audience will be.
Therefore, it is not for nothing that some of my most popular articles contain not only text, but also polls, illustrations specially created for the article, videos and voice recordings.
Let's try to delve deeper into each of these methods of conveying thoughts and feelings.
First: Text.
It's most powerful when it's written in jargon and language your users understand. For example, in my case it would be correct Lithuanian, including some Kaunian (dialectal) expressions. I don't write in English, I translate quotes, I try to write in a genderless way - so that the text is suitable for both women and men and looks personal to both.
It can be formatted - marked, tilted, circled, but it is best not to overdo it and use it only to attract attention.
It is important that you use larger headings for the sections, write in paragraphs of 3-5 lines and that your paragraphs have a rhythm - do not write all of them in only 3-5 lines, sometimes include short ones, sometimes longer ones.
In short, the essence of a good text is to write comprehensibly and rhythmically. Even if you're not writing poetry, visual rhythm is extremely important.
In addition, do not forget to use links to other web pages and sources in the text - you can do it.
Your texts themselves can be any length you want. There is no "best" length. You should realize this, because on your creative path there will definitely be naysayers explaining that no one reads long articles on the Internet or vice versa.
What length of text is good? Well, one who answers the topic in detail, usefully, funny and personally.
(Do you remember this trio? ;-))
Second: Illustrations.
As with the text, the ones you create yourself will work best. If you're going to just copy and share old spam, don't even expect attention.
Illustrations can be drawn by hand - with pencils on paper, as Valtininkas draws. You can create them with Photoshop and similar programs, as the authors of the Muscular Mind blog do. You can create them with apps like Buffer Pablo - you take an illustration and put text on top!
Well, of course, there are mountains of alternatives. I believe you know that.
It is important that the illustrations on your blog are the right size. At least 600px width is advisable these days. It is also important to target and optimize their weight. A good illustration will weigh less than 100kB. Bad will weigh more than 250kB.
How to optimize? Can use Photoshop's Save for web function or various optimizers on the web.
Pouring water,
Daniel