The Beautiful Post

Oct 30, 2007

Photography: Spirit in a material world by fabbio

One question I’ve been considering lately is: what is the best way to present content, regardless of topic? Is there a general set of principles that can be used to make any post better?

In this post, I want to explain some of the conclusions I’ve come to. It will outline several ways we can make our content beautiful, regardless of what we’re writing about.

Cutting to the chase

I disagree with those who say that people want to scan, not read, online. In my experience, web users are savvy selective scanners. They’re very good at skipping over waffling words that have little value to them, and focusing utterly on the useful stuff.

In my experience, the essential elements of any post can be placed into two categories:

Words that persuade visitors to read the article.
Words visitors want to read.

Everything else can be cut out, and in this pursuit, liberal use of the Backspace key is a necessary evil.

Words that persuade

A first-paragraph worthy of full marks is one that entices visitors to keep reading, and alludes to the rewards of doing so. If I were a more artful writer I’d do this in a more intriguing way, but I’m not. I settle for the “tell them what you’re going to tell them” approach.

The way I see it, you’re much more likely to walk down a strange road if you know there’s something fantastic at its end: a bucket of money, a table full of food, or whatever suits your fancy.

An unmarked road might have something amazing at its end, but if you never know, you probably won’t walk down it. There are a lot of other roads out there, with more certain benefits achieved by following them, after all.

The purpose of an introduction is to get potential readers to keep reading. Anything that doesn’t perform that function should be deleted, or else it will muddy the strength of your overall persuasive line.

Words visitors want to read

Once you’ve quickly given visitors a reason to read, jump straight into presenting them with value. If your article provides advice, get started with it. If your article is about resources, share them. If your article is an entertaining story, start telling it. You should never feel perturbed about launching into what you’ve promised, quickly and efficiently.

One again, Backspace is your friend. If you’re unsure about whether readers will be interested in a paragraph, go with your instincts: uncertainty probably means that you’re right. Why? Because we always want to convince ourselves that what we write has value. That’s the thing preventing us from being certain, when we really should be.

Adding a second layer

On this point, I’m still trying to develop the habit, but I strongly believe that the benefits of weaving links into what you write can’t be overstated. I simply don’t do this enough.

There are a number of concrete benefits to this practice:

You’re acknowledging that your work exists within a context.
You’re providing readers with the tools to deepen their knowledge.
You’re connecting with other writers.
You’re adding more weight to your words.

Doing this, most importantly, allows you to add a second layer of value to what you write. You present readers with the words on the surface, and behind them, carefully selected links and points of reference. It can only increase the impact of your content.

Think logic and aesthetics

Sub-headings make your post easier to read and easier to follow by sign-posting your logic and the progression of your ideas.

Increasing the readability of your articles is another simple way to encourage readers to invest time in what you’ve written.

Images do take a little time to find but give you the opportunity to set the mood and atmosphere of your article. I love the term ‘eye candy’ because it’s incredibly appropriate: interesting visuals are instant gratification for the eyes and make reading a more pleasurable experience.

Your response might be: I agree, but where are the good images? Most importantly, how can I use them without getting sued?

I’ve written an answer to this question at PureBlogging.

My final suggestion is to use interesting formatting, and to invest time in gathering the skills necessary to do so. Bullet-points, numbered lists, box quotes, extracts, typographical tricks and so on will help make your articles much more enjoyable to read.

I’ve put forward Coding Horror as a fantastic example of this previously and I’ll do so again here. Most of the time Jeff Atwood writes on topics I have no knowledge of, but I’d still suggest every blogger or webmaster subscribe for a masterclass in creating visually interesting posts like this one.

Sign it with your signature

A number of bloggers do this literally, and it’s quite a neat visual effect, but it’s not what I’m talking about here.

Ideally, your articles should be signature content. I’ve written on this before, and I’ll sum up the essence of my advice with a short excerpt from that article:

The internet is so vast that chances are at least one other person is writing on the topics you cover. By signing content with your own signature — your thought process, your experiences, your stories — you’re ensuring readers can only come to you and you alone for the content you provide.

Signature content need not contain personal information. Rather, it’s about your experiences. Weaving your own experiences into what you write will allow readers to appreciate and care for the author, not just the information you provide.

Aside: Starting in less than 24 hours I’ll be writing a weekly column on content creation at ProBlogger. I know many of you are already subscribed but, for those who aren’t, you can do so here.

I’m excited and, I’ll be honest, a little nervous about how I’ll be received, but I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.

Skelliewag features daily discussions on content creation, great ideas you can use, and design tips. Join the community by subscribing!

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26 Comments, Comment or Ping

SB

Congratulations, Skellie!

I must admit to feeling a bit smug for predicting, early on, that you were going to be a big voice in the blogosphere. You’ve barely begun, and already you’ve fulfilled my prophecy!

Yay!

Oct 30th, 2007
Girl Meets WoW

Congratulations on the ProBlogger gig. Although my niche is a bit off the beaten track from most of your and Darren’s readers, I’ve really appreciated all of your suggestions during my first month of serious blogging. I’m looking forward to more Skelliwag wisdom in my ProBlogger feeds!

Oct 30th, 2007
Alex Kay

I had never seen Coding Horror before, it does look very neat. And I actually also like your links here, Skellie, the bolding makes them easy distinguishable. So congratulations on the ProBlogger feature, and keep writing amazing articles. Way to go!

Oct 30th, 2007
Tammy

Skellie,

I totally agree with your assessment that “…web users are savvy selective scanners. They’re very good at skipping over waffling words that have little value to them, and focusing utterly on the useful stuff.”

That’s how I think of my daily news and blog reading time. Nicely said!

Oct 30th, 2007
skellie

@ SB: I’ve always been very flattered by your prediction. Still, I don’t think I’m home and hosed. There’s always more work to do :).

@ Girlmeetswow: Cheers — I do hope you like the posts there.

@ Alex: Glad you noticed the links — I did make an effort with this one :).

@ Tammy: It’s not that we don’t want to read everything… It’s just impossible to do so ;). I’m a selective scanner myself.

Oct 30th, 2007
Fred @ Newest on the Net

Skellie,

Congratulations on writing at Problogger. That is awesome news.

How do you add captions to you images? I would like to be able to do this.

Oct 30th, 2007
Easton Ellsworth

That’s amazing and wonderful news, Skellie! Darren Rowse is a good man and a top-rate blogger to work with. Enjoy your new ProBlogger gig!

And excellent post here.

Oct 30th, 2007
Michael from Pro Blog Design

Congratulations on the ProBlogger column. That’s fantastic, but not in the least bit surprising!

I agree with what you’ve said here, but only to a certain extent. I agree that not all people are pure scanners, and at the same time, not all people read everything.

It depends a lot on whether or not the reader knows the site (I know this blog, so I’m happy to read word-for-word, but that’s not true on all blogs), and on their state of mind (If I have 15 unread items in my feed reader, I can read slowly, but if I have 100, I’m going to read a lot faster).

Shortening out posts, and formatting like you suggested is a sort of best-of-both approach I think. Readers in either mindset will appreciate it if you take that effort.

And thanks for the link. Your point about linking out definitely applies to me as well. I’ve gotten lazy with my linking. I used to be good at it, but it’s been a while since I last purposefully hunted for links for an article.

Oct 30th, 2007
Patrick

I’m so excited for you, Skellie! You have become one of the hottest commodities on the internet…..

Oct 30th, 2007
Elliott Cross

Skellie,

First, congratulations on your working with Darren @ Problogger! That is awesome and I can’t wait to read your articles!

Secondly, I agree that people do tend to scan articles. One issue I need to work on and I see it around the blogosphere is the wordiness of an article. If the length of an article can be cut down to the critical points, then I think the scanning will subside.

Less fluff, and more to the point, at least for me, always works and saves time. I tend to visit around 100 or so other blogs or sites each day, so I do scan a lot, unless the article is generally shorter.

Oct 30th, 2007
Ivy

I was referred here by Darren’s post, and completely fell in love with your blog. You’re a beautiful writer, and love the pictures on your blog. Am looking forward to reading more of your work, both here and at Problogger’s!

Oct 30th, 2007
David at free Christian Resources

Congratulations on the ProBlogger guest post position. I’m a big fan of Darren and impressed that you’ve got on board with him - well done.

I agree with your comments. I only scan to see if I want to actually read the post. If I do then I will read it in detail.

Oct 30th, 2007
skellie

@ Fred: If you mean the yellow box with text that appears when you mouse-over an image, that’s achieved by adding title=”The caption you want” inside your image tags. If you’re referring to the text below, I simply add a linebreak after the image and write in small italics. I hope that answers your question

@ Easton: I couldn’t agree more. Having met Darren in person I can safely say that he’s exactly how he portrays himself on the blog: a kind person who gets a lot out of helping people.

@ Michael: I agree — if you have a certain level of trust in a blogger you like then you’re probably going to read every word. I actually really like it when commenters pick out specific details from an article. It means they aren’t just scanning the bolded text, and that’s rewarding for any blogger, I think.

@ Patrick: Oh, I don’t know about that yet, but I’m happy to hear it

@ Elliott: I don’t personally have a problem with length, but I agree with you, most long articles are long because they contain waffle that could be cut out. I don’t mind a long article if it’s all value, though. My articles are a bit long, sometimes

@ Ivy: Welcome! I look forward to seeing you around more often

@ David: I’m the same. When I’m scanning through my feeds it’s amazing how much a headline will determine whether I stop to scan the article or skip over it. I often don’t even get to the scanning point, sadly.

Oct 31st, 2007
Valeria Maltoni

Skellie:

You could easily claim a beautiful blog as well Congratulations on your new gig at ProBlogger and thank you for your support — I do notice.

So that’s the one point I would add to yours: noticing how others respond to your material, following their success and celebrating it with them is all part of letting your readers in the conversation.

Oct 31st, 2007
Bente Lilja Bye

Skellie, I picked your site up while scanning for getting an overview of the trends on websites as a basis for my own site development. Your site was the first I RSSed because of

1. Beautiful clean readable design.
2. Interesting high quality content.

As I have followed your development I spend more time reading your posts. You are to the point and I feel it is worth my while spending time on reading even longer posts.

Thanks for your generosity and good luck with the further development. I am sure you will succeed and I am sure I will continue reading you.

Oct 31st, 2007
Kat

Skellie,
I found your blog through your Problogger post and I’m very excited about reading through your archives…

As I was looking around I notived that your About and Contact pages are returning 404 errors. Just thought you might like to know.

Kat

Oct 31st, 2007
pearl

Hey Skellie

Many congrats for writing gig @ problogger! Im really glad for you and am looking forward to your voice on there.. my bests!

great post as usual, and all good points… I like the last one the most, as any good writing should leave a mark in the reader’s mind, as obviously you do well on here

Oct 31st, 2007
kher Cheng Guan

congratulations skellie. i agree with many of your reders, you are or rather already have a very distinctive voice to be reckoned with in the blogosphere.

Oct 31st, 2007
Tibi Puiu

Excellent writeup Skellie, as always for a matter of fact. I find images and the debuting paragraph to be the most important factors that entice readers to keep reading a particular post. Congrats on your upcoming Problogger guest blogging, that’s a awesome achievement. Great work.

Oct 31st, 2007
Ford Harding

Skellie:

This is a compelling piece, crediting blog readers with enough intelligence and good taste to spend a little time on a post when it is relevant and readable. You mean they aren’t all zombies scanning posts for key words? What a revolutionary idea! Keep up the good work.

Ford Harding

Nov 14th, 2007
Jeanne Dininni

Skellie,

You’ve made some excellent points, here. Fantastic post!

Thanks!
Jeanne

Nov 25th, 2007