Recent Blog Entries
Readers like to skim articles
Written by Tyme White on October 4, 2006
- Open your browser.
- Put your site URL in the address bar. Click go.
- When your site opens up, look at it.
- See your entries? Do you have long paragraphs? If you do…
Break up the content.
Most readers will not read it all the way through. Very similar to how some people shrink away from 700 page books. If you write long paragraphs, take a look at them. Are you putting multiple points in the same paragraph? Are you repeating yourself? Are you rambling?
As an example, look at news articles. The article itself might be long, but the paragraphs are usually short. Makes it easier to skim.
One method I’ve had success with on Ping Six is putting mini-titles at the beginning of a new topic. Not all blogs can do this but with my niche (business, blogging strategies, etc.) it makes it easier for the reader to have an idea of what I’m talking about if they are browsing the page.
If you have dust bunnies blowing at your site from lack of interaction, that might be why. People aren’t actually reading your entries.
October 4th, 2006 at 1:54 pm
I just wrote about this.
October 4th, 2006 at 2:00 pm
So true. I think it’s also important to have at least a few entries on your frontpage. If you don’t get the reader’s attention with your first entry there is a chance some other entry might catch his/her eye. Easily scanable website is the key to get the attention.
October 4th, 2006 at 2:05 pm
Yes, ours are similar but yours is saying be concise with your writings. I’m saying don’t have long paragraphs. I realize to thoroughly cover a topic the article itself might be long. How the text is presented makes a difference on the reader absorbing the words – whether skimming or reading.
So people before you tell me “I have to write long articles!” that’s not my point. Do you have to write long paragraphs?
October 4th, 2006 at 2:08 pm
Definitely. Also, in addition to breaking text up into paragraphs, I try to chop off unnecessary blocks of text. I have a problem with writing a lot (when I actually write). Almost every single post that gets published on My Mean Girl is about 60-70% of what I originally had to begin with. It seems like I spend more time deleting and re-wording stuff than actually writing it.
Nobody liked Titanic because it was 3 hours long.
…But my blog is not like Titanic. It’s just… shut up.
October 4th, 2006 at 2:10 pm
Well I was definitely late to that discussion!
October 4th, 2006 at 2:15 pm
Rambling is a turn-off.
October 4th, 2006 at 9:53 pm
Your right, but at the same time, single lined paragraph won’t look nice too
October 5th, 2006 at 5:35 am
“Your right, but at the same time, single lined paragraph won’t look nice too”
Single line paragraphs make reading quite difficult, doubly so if the design in use maximises white-space (the online equivalent of double spacing).
I’ve found a combination of tight paragraphs (3-4 sentences) plus judicious use of bold help break up longer posts and serve the dual function of giving a short synopsis of the entry for those who like to ‘skim read’.
October 5th, 2006 at 10:27 am
By default, most blogs barrage visitors with content. A dozen recent entries is often a great deal of text. For those who wish to retain the freedom to deeply explore a subject without worrying too much about scaring off the casual reader, try streamlining your homepage.
To use my own site as an example–I write a lot of stuff that I doubt most visitors would be interested in, but this is not reason enough to write nothing at all. Instead, I have trimmed my homepage down to three entries of my choosing. This is known as an “opt-in front page” to some. To offset the fact that most of my content is “buried” one layer beyond the homepage, I have chosen three categories and listed the three most recent entries in each at the very top of the homepage. I think this is a good trade-off, rewarding those who wish to dig deeper, but keeping it relatively simple for people who are just passing through.
October 5th, 2006 at 11:17 am
Breaking up crappy entries doesn’t mean they’re really that much better. I hope people take this all with a pinch of salt.
I think people who are already good writers already know how to organize their thoughts well enough to write this way. Those who are writing long-winded entries probably aren’t the highest quality bloggers anyway.