Techniques to Make Your Blog Scannable

If your site and its posts are not easily scannable, you run the risk of losing your reader to another blog.

1. Jot it Down

Similarly to Glen I tend to jot down a lot of ideas in my ‘Dream Notes’. I use a Moleskine notebook and Text Files on my desktop (it’s a little chaotic). In my notes I have hundreds of post ideas, half-finished thoughts, ideas for series of posts, possible case studies etc. A lot of it wouldn’t make sense to anyone else but it’s where many good ideas emerge from.

2. Review it

Periodically I get my musings and dream notes out to see what might emerge from them. Sometimes I directly take an idea and develop it from the notes I’ve taken (many of my list posts come almost directly from my dream notes which I’ve written down as a list of headings.)

3. Mashup

What I especially like about this chaotic little collection of ideas are the points of intersection between ideas. Often an idea by itself is weak; but when I combine it with something else I’ve dreamed up, it takes shape and becomes a much stronger and more useable idea (like the herbs and sauces that come together to make a great marinade).

4. First Draft

This is where I begin to write. Sometimes it flows naturally and other times this first draft can be a real grind and the ideas in my notes need some serious work and development. I like to write a first draft in a single sitting if I can as I find I lose a lot of momentum and often don’t come back to it if I leave it half finished.

5. Look at What Others have Written

I know some people like to do research and see what others have said on a topic before they begin to write – but generally I like to get all my own ideas and thoughts out first as I find I can be limited by what others have written. Often, we’ll come up with similar things, but quite often looking at what others have said reveals ideas I’d not considered before which I’ll incorporate (with acknowledgment). Once again – it’s in this process that the flavors of the idea that is marinating away become tastier.

6. Bounce it Around

In a similar way, on some posts I go out of my way to run my post (or at least the ideas behind it) by another blogger or two (or sometimes even my wife or a non-blogging friend). Over the last three years of blogging I’ve met some wonderful bloggers who I resonate with strongly and whose opinions I respect a lot. If I’m writing a major post I’ll quite often give them a look at my draft and ask for their opinions and ideas. It’s quite often out of doing this that new depth is added or that I’m given helpful suggestions that can make the post a real hit.

7. Write Final Draft

Out of the above process, I then write my final post. This can be as simple as tweaking the first draft or can at times mean major changes (and even a re-write). At times in this process I sometimes realize that what I’ve been working on is not a single post but a series of posts and I’ll shape it into numerous posts that flow together.

8. Post

This a moment which is often filled with a mixture of relief (if it’s a big post that I’ve been struggling with) and anticipation (if it’s a post that might get a reaction out of readers or that I’m particularly proud of). It’s also a moment when the marination process ends on one level but begins on another.

9. Feedback

When I’ve hit ‘publish’ in the past I would see it as an end point in the process of developing my ideas. However; over time I’ve come to see it as the idea entering into a new phase – one of collaboration with those who read it. This to me is where my marinated ideas really kick into gear as readers taste what I’ve come up with and then add to it by leaving comments or even taking up the topic on their own blog. This is where blogging comes into it’s own and goes beyond most other forms of communication that I’ve come across. It’s in the comments and posts that others add to the marinade that grow the idea, or  changes the idea and finds it’s true potential.

10. Update

Some blogging purists don’t like the idea of updating posts but I am coming to see that the updating or refining process is essential in many of my posts. My reasoning for this is that as proud as I might be of my posts – they are never ‘complete’ or ‘perfect’. As a result of the feedback process and my own continued experiences; the marinating continues in my mind and not updating the post with the new ideas I have would be doing a disservice to it. Updating can range from tweaks to extra paragraphs (I usually indicate any updates beyond a tweak with an ‘update’ heading) to even writing new posts that refer to the old one and take the ideas expressed in it in a new direction.

This pretty much sums up the workflow that I use on many of my posts (as I say it’s what I do on my longer non ‘newsy’ posts. I know it probably differs to what others do (and in fact over the years my own workflow has evolved as a result of circumstances). I’d love to hear about your own posting workflow.

Do you marinade your posts? How do you take ideas from the light bulb in your mind moment to the moment that you hit publish (and beyond)?

If you are in Nova Scotia and would like some insurance advice, please contact Corry Collins:

corry@maritimewealth.com

902-444-7000

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