Most of what I've written (and preached) about writing for ezines and newsletters applies to writing posts for your blog, but there are some important differences. Universals first:

Write with the reader in mind. Remember WIIFM? It's marketing jargon for What's In It For Me? That's what you should be keeping in mind. Your reader will read your post looking for what's in it for them.

Make it valuable and worthwhile. Don't waste people's time. If you don't have anything to say, no problem, plenty other people do. So share their articles, do an interview, review a book.

Proof-read for typos and glaring grammatical errors. You wouldn't go out of the house with dirty hair or missing a sock, so why would you publish spelling mistakes? Respect your readers by polishing up your stuff.

Keep it short and simple, sweetie. (KISS). Most people are scanners. You may have a lot to say and think it interesting, and it may be. But people are reading online and out of time. Get to the point quickly. Differences for Blogs

Here are some ways to post a blog that are a little different from writing an ezine article:

Keep it lively, make it snappy and snazzy. Even if you aren't a natural born writer, you can write for your blog. Just write like you're speaking to your friend…or to yourself!

Link often. This builds credibility and positions you as an expert in your field. People don't have time to know what others are doing, you should tell them.

Use keywords often. This will help you stay on purpose, and the search engines will love your blog. Your rankings will go up. This is one of the reasons we have you write out your purpose statements before beginning your blog. The clearer you are about your purpose, the more consistently you will deliver messages that are on target. And the more often your keywords show up, the better your search engine results.

Write clearly (short sentences, only one concept per sentence). No double speak, or more than one idea in one sentence- don't make your readers have to think about your meaning. Spoon feed them. Use commas and dashes liberally.

Write like you talk. It's okay to use common expressions from speech.

* Examples: o Go figure. o Don't even go there… o Now, I ask you… o Gotta love it…

Use a clear headline, and don't be afraid to make bold statements (but don't mislead people either). Make it snazzy.

* Example: Ex-Techno-Weenie Masters HTML Code

Make paragraphs short Example:

*

Sometimes you make a paragraph in a blog after every sentence. Other times, you make a paragraph after two sentences. *

In this case, one sentence is all you need in the paragraph because it is an especially long sentence and it fills up a lot of space; you would want to start a new paragraph after this sentence, even though all these ideas would be in the same paragraph in another type of article. *

It depends more on length of paragraph than the fact that there is another idea. The eye needs white space when reading online.

Write with emphasis. Use bolded or underlined words, or italics. Remember readers are scanners.

Get to the point quickly. Remember the journalist's rule of 5 W's in the first paragraph: who, what, why, when and where.

Goddie http://www.gibline.com/rockibase

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Internet Marketer, Pharmacist, Entrepreneur, Author, Counselor