I am rather new to this genre called the blog but in the past few days I’ve been able to figure out a few stylistic conventions of blogging, which, no doubt, have some roots in necessity. If anyone knows more, I’d be very interested to know what you figured out through experience.
Here’s what I found:
The first few lines: Since people scroll through millions of blogs, if you want your stuff to be looked at, those first few lines have to be eye-catching. Although the opening of a short story is similar to a blog in that it has to be eye-catching too, the blog is different in that it has to tell the reader what it’s really about within those first few words. Simply eye-catching lines which aim for a reversal of expectation later may not be that appropriate.
The main photo: A picture may draw attention but a very long picture is irritating because the reader has to scroll a lot to reach the bottom of it and gives the impression of non-seriousness as you’re searching through blogs. Anyone disagrees?
Chunking of information through text: Very long paragraphs that may be appropriate in print feel very tedious to read and I feel like leaving out the middle of long paragraphs. Bulleted sections or small sections with subheadings feel much easier to read.
Chunking of information through pictures: Perhaps I’m old-fashioned, but captions help me a lot. Also, all pictures and no words make me feel lost. Alternating text and pictures is most helpful.
Background colour: Unless the font is huge, white print on a black background is killing for the eyes. I know lots of people will disagree with me judging by the number of such blogs.
Content: Funny blogs seem to have most hits. Or blogs about mundane stuff. But you’ve got to follow your heart regarding subject matter I guess.
Language style: There are all sorts of styles out there but don’t conversational styles read better in blogs?
Organizing the content: I wonder if more experienced bloggers have ideas here. I have to read through many more blogs before I can make any generalizations. I wonder if the blog genre itself defies any structure.
Will surely figure out the nuances as I go along.
bottledworder 
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You’re so cool! I don’t suppose I’ve read through something like
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thank you for your helpful xtremtipsadvice
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Sometimes I come across a post full of recommeded links without much explanation or context. This makes the source post feel empty. I get confused where to go next. I don’t want to load pages unless I know what they are about, as it breaks the flow. I’d suggest avoiding statements like “So and so has some good ideas HERE”. Instead give some context about why links have been selected, who wrote them, what they are about, why they resonate, and give the link a meaningful name.
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good observations 🙂
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I found someone who had a large following, but had a confusing page. I am not sure how she became popular, because I could not find what I wanted to.
Then again, maybe by hiding your content you force others to dig through and that accounts for the high visit total. Method to the madness maybe?
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You have to already be really famous for that strategy to succeed!
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I guess. I think I will always want my content to be easily accessible. Then again, I will never have to worry about that.
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Thank Readers Cafe!
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Like the article. Interesting to find an article about ‘How to write a blog’ on wordpress. Like the overall look of your blog as well.
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