opinios

So you've got yourself a blog, and you're pretty proud of it. The layout is simple but original, the colours subtle but effective, and having ironed out all of the technical glitches in your blogging tool of choice, you now have a rewarding window on the web through which to express yourself to the world. You even have some catchy images and a photo gallery and are just waiting for that hit counter to fly off the handle.

There's only one problem: you're rambling.

Quality Over Quantity

This is the problem with a lot of blogs - considerable thought is given to the layout, and not enough to the content. As a result the blog becomes a disjointed array of random links, unsubstantiated opinions and ideas that haven't really been fleshed out. Consequently most visitors to the site are roped in by the visuals, but after delving in discover that there's not much to chew on and soon leave, disinterested and dissatisfied.

Why not try giving a bit of thought to your post before you publish it?

The "External Publisher" Test

That wasn't meant to be condescending. Just that we view work that we publish ourself differently from work we submit to other people.

Consider the approach you would take to each post if it were instead being posted on someone else's site. Or in a newspaper or magazine. You would certainly make more effort to clean it up: you would look more critically at it, take a bit more time to analyse whether the points you are trying to make are clear, if you have any at all. You would massage it until its structure is robust and it flows logically. You know, an introduction, body and conclusion.

Stuff that is obvious and that we all know, but for some reason throw out the window when it comes to our own site.

We don't go the extra mile because we don't have to. We are both author and editor, but we forget about being the latter because we are enjoying being the former so much. We love the instantaneousness of self-publishing, but end up sacrificing quality for quantity with a blood rush to the head.

Luckily, there are a few ways to improve the quality of the posts on your blog without straining your brain too hard.

1. PRETEND YOU ARE WRITING FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Or Wired Magazine. Or A List Apart. Or whatever periodical, journal, newspaper or online 'zine you hold in high esteem. Remove the idea from your head that your site is not as good as the site you draw inspiration from, or that if you did write something that was considered worthy of publication somewhere more reputable, that your site is not worthy of publishing it. Make it worthy by writing more articles of the same quality. Take your site more seriously and make it a place people come to read articles of similar quality.

2. PRE-WRITE IN DRAFT MODE

Most blogging software like Movable Type or blosxom have a way to compose something in draft mode. This allows you to preview your post before releasing it to the world. Use it! Not just as a quick preview seconds before publishing; jot down your ideas as they come to you, but develop them later when you have dwelled on them a bit. Your series of drafts is an invaluable collection of potential material to develop into quality articles later on, over time.

3. CARRY A NOTEBOOK AND PEN WITH YOU, EVERYWHERE

Even better than draft mode is resorting to the old-school approach of writing down your ideas in a small notebook, one of those tiny ones that you can carry everywhere and are still lighter than the lightest PDA. The page of a notebook is uncluttered and empty, without distractions like email or web browsers in the background, and can be filled at any moment - on the train, while sitting on a park bench, or in bed at night when you sit bolt upright, struck with a brainwave. There is something very gratifying about actually writing things down away from the presence of a computer that often aids in clarity of thought.

A friend of mine describes the difference between writing freehand and typing as "like playing live compared to recording in a studio". The ideas when playing live can flow a lot more freely when you don't have the temptation of the backspace key. Type it up later.

4. LEAVE YOUR READERS HANGING

Take the step of pre-writing even a step further again, by only publishing your latest post when the one after it is finished. By doing this, you are in the position of giving your readers a taste of what is to follow. A bit like the back page of a magazine that describes in brief the contents of the next issue.

My wife used this technique effectively on her travel blog, 35 Degrees, when we took a trip to Kyushu, Japan. In over a week we covered four different cities. And when we got back, she wrote about all of them while it was still fresh in her mind (well, she had taken lots of notes in her notebook during the trip, so she just had to type them up and make a few changes).

And then she published them over a series of four days. One at a time. At the bottom of each post was the teaser: "Tomorrow - Miyajima", or "Tomorrow - Hiroshima".

The traffic increase that week forced us to upgrade the plan we were hosting her site on, as the excess bandwidth charges were getting too high. By dragging it out and giving the audience a hint of what was to come, she gave them a reason to come back.

And they did.

Conclusion

I'm not trying to discourage a complete refrain from spontaneity on the web. Of course there are occasions when you are excited about something and just have to share it with everyone. A personal blog is a wonderful medium for capturing that excitement. And there will always be online journals that exist purely as an outlet for the author to vent, real time. These types of sites don't consider the reader's experience because they don't care what their readers think. This is fine, and occasional posts like this can certainly convey passion and make for good reading.

Occasional posts.

However, if you want to give your readers something of real substance, consistent reasons to keep coming back to your site, and something to one day reminisce about by saying, "I remember that one post when you wrote about..." then you will definitely need to give that post some thought before you type.