People don't always consciously realize it, but they read on screens differently from the way they read on paper. When you pick up a printed book, you read linearly from start to end, word-by-word. On the other hand, content on the screen is read in bits and pieces and almost never in order.
The typical reader starts by scanning the page to find the content that's relevant to their needs. Large paragraphs aren't easily scanned, so the focus is on elements that stick out from the rest of the text. These things will become a big part of your blogging toolkit:
Once they've determined whether the content is interesting enough to warrant spending their time on, they might start from the top and read straight through, but often they'll find the part that answers their immediate questions and only hang around as long as it takes to get what they came for.
Your aim is to get the reader to stick around longer, come back more often, and become a loyal reader of your blog. To help the reader enjoy your site and give them more of a reason to keep coming back, you need to change the way you write and format content.
When a reader scans the page, they are trying to obtain context and locate information. However, elements that are easily scanned aren't always elements that give plenty of context! For instance, thanks to the bad practices employed by traditional press such as tabloids, there's often a focus on making headlines clever or scandalizing, as opposed to descriptive. This sort of practice seems intuitive to many beginning bloggers, but it won't help your readers at all.
Use headlines that describe the content for the reader and for search engines. If you can make it clever at the same time, by all means go ahead! Images should represent the content as accurately as possible, especially if you're using several images in a piece; as great as images are for creating visual interest, they should also indicate a change of focus in the content.
Pull quotes done properly are very useful. Find the strongest tip or piece of information in a part and turn it into a large, feature quote so that it draws the reader in to read the rest of it. Boring or meaningless pull quotes will lead the reader to the conclusion that there's nothing useful in the article as a whole.
Link sparingly. I recommend no more than three links in a paragraph. It's hard to get readers to scan a paragraph, and the more links you include, the less they'll draw the reader's eye to a particular sentence. Italics and bolding can draw attention to key points. Only use them when there's a really important principle to be conveyed, as they can make a paragraph look quite messy when overused. Keep scannable content in mind and apply these principles to new content. Also bear in mind that there's nothing stopping you from going through older posts and making them easier to read!
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Note: This article was sent to us by: Kenneth Wilson at 02172011
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