In the comments section this past week, astute fellow bloggers like Steven Sawyer, Cliff Richardson and Dave Knickerbocker brought up some excellent blog tips. The gist of their comments was important enough to add an epilogue to this weeklong blogging series. This undervalued, and misused, aspect of blogging can murder the benefits of great content and active networking.

I had to learn the hard way on this:

Blog Tip: Format for Goldfish

Aesthetics matter. Especially for internet readers. Almost all blog perusers scan before they engage. If you intimidate them with daunting thesis post length or gargantuan paragraphs you will lose them forever. This is a blog not an academic journal. 

A loose guideline I have is to keep most every post between 400-600 words. I try to keep every paragraph 3-5 sentences long at the most. We have the collective cultural ADD of goldfish nowadays, so we better believe our readership reflects that.

Isolate important sentences as a summary to previous paragraphs.

Some charge this style is too Rob Bell-esque in that it uses formatting and terse prose form to engage the reader instead of using extended logical argumentation.

So what?!

Rob Bell didn’t invent this writing technique, and we may lament about his theological blunders, but there is no doubt about his effectiveness as a communicator. We can write for the strict English professor or we can write for the college kid addicted to porn and Call of Duty.

Which one do you think is actually reading your blog?

Blog Tip: Simplicity Is The Way

Simplicity is a must. You want your crown jewel to be your message, not the cyber awards you’ve won, the links on your sidebar, or the fact you’re selling books/shirts/toe rings/etc. Some people insist on creating their own themes and web design, and for the most part my advice on that is:

Don’t do it.

Use someone else’s expert work on the technical side. Otherwise, your blog will probably look campy and give viewers a seizure like a Japanese cartoon. First time visitors should notice your work, not the fact that there is a generic tropical ocean scene in the back ground.

Break up posts with pertinent headings (H2) so readers are clear about your message. Bold and italics are fine tools if not overused. An image or two can focus content, but don’t get all diarrhea with posters and inspirational messages you found on Facebook. You’re more creative and unique than that.

Clarity of message should be the priority, and the aesthetic of your blog should contribute to that end.

Hope that helps. I sincerely hope you find the platform your talented writing voice deserves.

Peace and grace,

Bryan Daniels

Trust: This would never be my wife.

Let’s pretend you took my advice yesterday and started a blog. Being only barely above par with weblog technicalities, I’d have to refer you to someone else on the code end of blog design. But I can give you a tip or three on the most important aspect of blogging: Content.

If content is king then networking is the queen that takes him places. But if you don’t feel confident in your core message and writing voice you won’t feel confident sharing your work with others.

No one wants to strain their last brain cell while being subject to the harrowing glow of a blank screen. So what to write about? I’ll answer that question with three questions:

Blog Writing Tip #1: What do you daydream about?

Where does your mind go when it’s not constrained by school, work, or dirty laundry? What’s the default mode of your thought patterns? God, family, baseball, food, MMA, travel, guns, reggae music? I’m not saying all topics are equal, but everyone has preferences they’re passionate about.

You have a unique niche that is probably shared with millions of internet perusers.

And that’s what the world needs: People who are sharing their passion. Some may suggest you go with what you know. But I say go with what you love. Sharing your textbook knowledge won’t sustain you or attract others, sharing your passion will.

You will learn as you write and write as you learn, anyways.

Blog writing Tip #2: What’s happened to you?

I’ve shared this before but it can’t be stressed enough. People know where to find academic resources they trust. They’re not at a personal blog to just learn about a topic, they want to learn about a person. Unfortunately, neighbors rarely share an evening cigar on the back porch anymore; instead, they read your blog over their morning coffee.

Reading your blog is the way folks meet you for coffee.

Give personal anecdotes. If you have a blog with an apologetic thrust share personal testimonies and stories about your apologetic endeavors. Show how you’ve failed in the past or how funny cultural misunderstandings have left you dumbfounded.

In the past month I’ve written about my chicken pox, blood brother, back hair and almost getting murdered by a hot tub.

Draw from your personal history. You have a reservoir of interesting stories to tell.

Just be real. Or as my hipster friends say, be authentic. Share you.

Blog Writing Tip #3: What’s in the news?

If your favorite daydream or personal history is a dead-end for now, hit up Google News. I guarantee there is a fascinating current event, weird crime, stupid scandal, or political debate that you have a personal opinion about.

Something in the news will get your creative blood pressure pumping.

You don’t have to be belligerent about heated topics. You can give a careful nuanced social commentary that adds balance to the global conversation. And that’s what blogging is at its best: A conversation. Soap box’d monologues may come easy for O’Reilly, but the wages of spin is blog death for you.

I’d be careful here. Ranting about the Kardashians comes natural to me, but that doesn’t mean I should waste my time blogging about it. It also would garner a decent amount of “hits” and “shares” by the reading public.

But as my boy, Martin Luther, said, “It’s not right or safe to let your conscience down.”

Fellow bloggers: What are some other important blog writing tips for the rookie blogger?

Bryan Daniels

The Universal Blog sign for Gangstas like us

It’s hard

If you want a challenge, try finding a coherent writing voice. I am unorganized by nature, and gathering my thoughts to express a logical argument or non belligerent piece of journaling is counter intuitive. My car looks like a teacher’s lounge and coach’s locker room exploded in it. My closet (to my wife’s chagrin) doesn’t look much better.

If a cluttered desk intimates a cluttered mind, then I have a hoarding cat lady with a nutella addiction living in my head.

Blogging helps me focus. Sometimes I’m not sure what I believe about a topic until I endeavor to plot my thoughts and write it down.

It’s hard, yet necessary, as a human with God-given reasoning faculties to sharpen our communication skills. Blogging is one anvil that helps do this.

It’s humbling

Sometimes a personal, more vulnerable, piece is written for the public’s peering eye. Sometimes it’s so close to home it’s like slicing a wrist open and bleeding all over the keyboard. Sometimes the reading public is totally unaffected by this.

That’s humbling. Stats pages, in themselves, can be humbling.

The most thoughtful heart-rending posts garner nary a drizzle. The most trite off the cuff pieces go viral. Ok not really viral, but comparatively shared much more than serious pieces.

In blogging your work is submitted before a great cloud of witnesses, or in some cases “critics”, and that is a constructive thing. Community input keeps you humble and open to others in the world. And we really are writing for the world: Otherwise we wouldn’t be sharing our thoughts with the world-wide web (aka Da Internetz).

It helps

People really are aching to be encouraged, spoken into, and valued by others. A word of gracious affirmation is not the autopilot of our hearts and mouths. Life has a way of punching folks square in the soul. What we write can be the healing balm that alleviates those wounds.

You have a unique God-given voice no one in the world has. You have a circle of entrusted folk around you who would never listen to me, but will give an interested ear to you. Saturate those souls with grace filled words that spurn, engage and fascinate them on this journey.

God ensures that those who bless will in return be blessed. You don’t have to be the next Spurgeon or Twain, just a soul who cares about fellow souls and words.

There’s three reasons you should start a blog (or continue writing one if you’ve already started).

My fellow blogging readership: What’s some other reasons for starting a blog you can offer for prospective bloggers?