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September 10, 2004
Blogging 101 - Be Brief
By QBlog in Blogging 101
Explanation
Today I'm launching a new series called "Blogging 101." The primary purpose of this series is to share my blogging knowledge and experience with the Quixtar BLOG audience. I realize that many of you have no interest in the specifics of blogging but I hope that you'll at least try to follow along and expand your understanding of what it means "to blog."
For those interested in blogging, I hope you find this series helpful and informative. I've been blogging for over two years and have learned a great deal about how to utilize this powerful publishing tool to effectively communicate. I also believe that this series will help me become a better blogger. Some say that the best way to learn is to teach. I want to put that to the test. I'll be doing that every Friday beginning with today's Lesson One.
Lesson One - Be Brief
Now that I've dispensed with introductions, let's jump into "Lesson One." Bloggers should be brief whenever possible. As Mark Bernstein says, "Write tight. Omit unnecessary words."
Don't be afraid to edit. While blogs are necessarily informal, a good blogger will remove extraneous words to keep his writing as short as possible. See if you can condense that ten word sentence into five. In blogging, less is often more.
Another way to be brief is to avoid rambling. If you have more than one or two points to make in a blog post, consider breaking it up into several posts. I've often written a lengthy post and later broke it into two or three separate and distinct posts.
What If I Can't Be Brief?
I understand that all posts can't be brief. If after editing and condensing your post, you find that it's still really long, try categorizing the post by subjects or themes. Use sub-heads to notify the reader about the content of each "section." See what I've done in this post? Using sub-heads breaks the post up and allows readers to scan it for compelling content.
On the information superhighway (which will be part of a later "avoiding cliche's" lesson) blogs are like billboards. If a billboard is too wordy, it loses its effectiveness. So too with blogs.
Be Brief - Summary
Here's my personal blogging rule of thumb.
Edit my post. When done editing, edit again. After that, edit some more. And finally, right before publishing, edit one last time.So, in keeping with the spirit of this "lesson," I'm done. Tune in next Friday when I discuss "floating vs. fixed width" blogs.
Comments
I had nobody in mind. However, if the shoe fits... or something. ;o)
Roger,
I was wondering the same thing.
Qblog,
Thanks for adding this feature. Will this be indexed somewhere for future reference?
Thanks QBlog, it helps.
Thanks Qblog. I just started my blog last week and am still learning the basics. Visit it sometime at www.sinkinginquixand.blogspot.com
Sorry QBlog, but my blog entries of the last two days are huge by your standards. {grin}
Roger,
I think we all understand. It's hard to be brief when there's so much to say.
There is an inherent flaw in bloging i.e. old posts keep going down and new ones stay on top. A person starts a blog, and at some point initial posts have covered most of what s/he wanna say. But those posts are buried in archive now.
A regular web site, may position content based on importance basis, not just in chronological order.
A bloging market saturation or what :O)
Great post Qblog.....
I hope you weren't referring to me in the "be brief" section.
I tend to make lengthy posts when I am deep in details.
Posted by: Roger, Husband of a TOD Brainwashee | September 10, 2004 1:16 PM