Hints for Writing Better Blog Posts

If you're writing a new blog post you should ask and answer some basic questions ... who, what, when, where, how, and why? These are questions that journalists ask themselves when researching a story. 

These questions can also apply to making a better blog post. 

However, one of the problems with this is that you can get mired on one question and go down a 'rabbit hole'. You think of so many things you want to write in response to answering one of the questions that you lose yourself for hours before moving on to the next question.

Following a 'stream of consciousness' on one question can lead to a very long post and actually turn off your followers: everyone has limited time and if they see your post is extremely long they'll ignore the post, won't leave a comment (and, it's the comments you want), and move on to other people that they follow.

Another hint for better posts is to be cheerful about what you write. No one likes a lot of negativity. You don't want your posts to be a 'downer'.

 You may be thinking that you do want to criticize someone sometimes. For example, something that a politician says or does that really bothers you. So, you may not get past the first question of 'who'. 

Another hint is to write out your post long hand (double- or triple-spaced) and edit it on paper. It could save you a lot of time and energy with needed editing.

Last hint: always carefully spell-check your post before publishing it!