10 Tips For Writing Better Posts
Posts are the heartbeat of a blog, without them, a blog can not exist. Your readers subscribe to your blog for a reason, to read something new everyday. As a blogger, it is your responsibility to provide your readers with the content they deserve, here are a few tips that will you out…
1. Q10 Rocks, Use It
Q10, a text editing program, has been one of the best freeware applications I have come across ever since I started blogging. Basically, Q10 is a minimalist text editing program with the usual spell check, find, replace, and other basic features text editing programs come with. The ultimate best thing about this program is the small ticking sound it produces whenever you type, kinda like a typewriter 
. I know it sounds weird, but you will instantly notice how much faster you can type when using this application, your thoughts will also flow much more freely 
2. Attention Grabbing Lines
If you don’t know how to decide whether your article’s title is attention grabbing or not, just think of it this way: If you were to read a comment someone had left on another website with the CommentLuv plugin enabled, would you click on their latest post based upon their title? Now just imagine your post’s title in the place of the their latest post’s title, would you bother clicking the link? 
3. Keep Your Content And Title Believable
Although you should write attention grabbing headlines, you also must remember to keep them believable at the same time. For example, if your post had a title like “How I Gained 5,775 Backlinks In 3 Days”, then you better say exactly how you did it, or risk being called a liar. The same goes for your content, before publishing your post, make sure that all the information your provided is real. If you are giving statistics, be sure to mention your sources at the end of the post to add credibility to your post and make it more believable.
4. People Don’t Like Fluff, Get Rid Of It
Fluff is anything that doesn’t make your article any better or worse, just fluffier. Fluff makes your posts longer, and longer doesn’t mean better, in fact, all it means is that you don’t know how to effectively communicate your message to your readers. Fluff makes your post appear unprofessional and can really take away from you and your blogs credibility. So next time you are about to push the “publish” button, ask yourself, is my article fluffy? 
Here is a small example of fluff just in case you don’t know what I mean:
“Hey guys, I’m sorry I couldn’t post yesterday, it was because we were at my uncles house whose neighbors were having a party and were serving salad, but since they weren’t offering steak, I wasn’t able to sleep that night. Anyhow, my uncle doesn’t have internet, so I couldn’t access my dashboard and post.”
5. Run A Spell Check Before Publishing Your Article
Why risk the chance of making yourself look like a fool when all you had to do was a press one button to make sure all your words were spelled correctly? I can understand grammatical errors if English isn’t your main language, but spelling words incorrectly is not acceptable in my opinion. If you are using Firefox, (you are, aren’t you?) I believe that it comes with a built in spell checker, any excuses now?
6. Stop Using The Same Words, A Thesaurus Is What You Need
One of the things I have been trying to do lately, is use a thesaurus to spice up the words in my articles. Since I don’t have a wide selection of words I can use, the basic ones usually end up being used in my posts, that is where the marvelous thesaurus comes into play. Substituting one word with a fancier synonym each couple of paragraphs is enough to make your articles look much more professional than they really are
7. Make Yourself As Clear And Understood As Possible
When you make yourself as clear and understood as possible, your readers will start to enjoy reading your content much more since they won’t have to spend half the time wondering what you are talking about!
8. The Bold, List, And Heading Tags Were Created For A Reason
The bold tag was created to grab attention, the list tag to organize, and the heading tag to show importance. Using these tags in your post will help your readers find the important content in a matter of seconds rather than having to read the full article just to find the juicy parts. As all other things in life, these tags should only be used when needed, and not just using for the sake of it.
9. A Small Introduction Always Helps
Instead of immediately presenting your readers with a list of information, a small introduction will help them understand what to expect before reading your post (to decide whether or not they would like to proceed ) If you are writing a list of tips (like this post), giving a real life example of how the tips have helped you out can make your post much more interesting and interactive. (I know I didn’t, but you should )
10. Unplug Your Computer From The Internet
This is the final and most obvious tip that can be applied, unplug your computer from the Internet. No matter how focused you try to be on writing your post, the Internet will always be much more powerful than you are. It’s not really limited to the Internet, but to anything that distracts you from writing. Unplugging the phone, turning of your mobile, disconnecting from the Internet, throwing your baby brother into the lake are some good places to start off. Just save anything that has to do with the Internet (eg. getting images for your post) till after you have finished writing your post, don’t jump from one thing to another
All in all, it takes a bit of focus, knowledge, and a little passion to improve your writing. What are some of the things you do that help make your writing better?
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24 Responses to “10 Tips For Writing Better Posts”
I love all your tips especially a couple though. I like how you said “People don’t like fluff, get rid of it”. In high school you had to write fluff just to fill up the pages and to impress your english teacher. Now its different, people want real and raw information which is right to the point.
I also love how you said to unplug your computer for the internet. The internet often is much more powerful than I am. The only good thing I get from procrastinating online is that I get some ideas for more posts I could write.
Great post and some great tips, will help me with writing my wealth blog a lot. Thankyou
@Ryan McLean, since I’m still a student, I know exactly what you mean by filling our pages with fluff to impress our English teacher
Been using Q10 even before I started my blog. The bad thing is its not ever going to be available for Mac.
Yep, I hated writing the 5 sentence first paragraph back in highschool!
Rajaie, I like the 6th point the most (Stop Using The Same Words, A Thesaurus Is What You Need). A very common problem with most of the bloggers (including me). I promise to use thesaurus from now onwards
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Excellent article
Agree with all d points… (I like dis — throwing your baby brother into the lake 
:D )
Currently I am using a Onscreen keyboard.. :/ so can’t express much… Stumbled!!
Interesting article and great tips especially on the use of Thesaurus to beautify your article, it’s something I have had much thought on.
Would you care to share what’s the best online thesaurus you have ever used?
Yan
I must get rid of this - 4. People Don’t Like Fluff, Get Rid Of It - lol. Great article!
nice post..i will make sure this be my guideline when writing article in future
i love the point 6..use thesaurus
this q10 app is so funny! typewriter sounds are really making you feel like you are a typewriter back in the 70’s
Good points. Another important point is to enjoy yourself and do something that you are enjoying, otherwise it will never come out right. Going to check out the Q10. Thanks for sharing.
I have to disagree with #10 :). I get a lot of information I use from different sources on the internet; I also need to be connected to go to thesaurus.com :P.
What a fabulous list. I especially like using catchy headlines. With readers attention spans so short, we don’t have much time to “catch them”.
Getting rid of the fluff is a great one too. When someone goes on and on and on, it’s like, alright, get to the point already.
Q10 sounds fascinating. I’ll have to check it out.
10 I think is imperative, I always do it because its a BIG distraction…
great article
agree with all pints
very good tips espesially #10 is really smart interest will always be big distraction no matter how you focus , usually i sign out all im messenger, emails close any opened browsers then i start writing
@G, ah well, I’m sure Mac lovers will find alternatives
@Susan, I still have three more years to go!
@Pratyush, I even forgot to use it sometimes
@Rockstar Sid, wow! An onscreen keyboard, must be pretty hard to write blog posts!
@Blog for Beginners, I find this to be the best: http://thesaurus.reference.com/
@ChiQ Montes, thanks!
@shinkawa, I’m glad it helped you out
@stratosg, that is the exact reason I fell in love with it
@moserw, you should always have fun blogging, or just don’t do it!
@JD - kidfingers.com, but I like to wait till after I finished writing my post so I am not distracted
@Barbara Swafford, seems that short and simple is the style nowadays
@Melvin, probably the biggest for me
@Siddharth, thanks
@Jim Iwg, MSN is usually the most distracting when your friends keep “buzzing” you
Rajaie,
I. like so many others, have been reading your blog, subscribed to it, and am learning quite a bit from your wisdom. I have read all of your comments above, and though #1 still has me a bit stymied, #5 has me a bit frightened - lol. As another relative “newbie” to the blogging world, my first post actually had to do with spellcheck - and the problems it can cause (or, in once case, solve!) I do not wish to toot my own horn on YOUR site, but perhaps you might want to go into my June Archives and read my very first blog: Lawyers, Guns and Bunnies- before you extol the vitues of “spellcheck” on its own.
AND THANK YOU FOR RECOMMENDING A THESAURAUS! No blogger should be without one!
Best to you,
Rita
I need to spell check
, I realise after the post is live…
I try to do some freestyle writing to get things going but my subconcious bubbles up and scares me…lol. I procrastinate and my mind wanders when I finally do sit down….getting rid of the internet is key too. I also started taking a new herbal supplement called Foculate that was basically designed for creative people. It’s basically herbal adirol. It’s a bunch of B vitamins to get blood rushing to your brain and then herbs to help your mood. Not sure if it’s a placebo or not but does give me focused energy to get me going. Might want to check it out at http://www.foculate.com. Other than that…unplug your phone and put your cell on vibrate too.
Cynthia - Or, you could just completely turn off your phone.
Great Article!
According to me one can become a perfect writer only when they write about current topics and present it in a different tips…useful guidelines.
What's Your Take?