How to make your blog copy sparkle. If there’s one thing that keeps me coming back to a blog, it’s good copy. It’s also my favorite part of running my blog so I figured I would kick-start my new blogging workshop series with one of the meatier topics.
Whether you’re a ‘seasoned blogger’ looking to amp up your blog this year or you’re considering starting a blog as one of your New Year resolutions, here’s a few little notes on making the most of your copy to make your blog sparkle.
What Do You Like?
When you’re lacking inspiration or find yourself in a slump, copy wise, it’s good to figure out what you like. I think 2014 was the year where the blogosphere seriously stepped up and it left us blogging crowd with a saturation of content, a desire to squeeze in more of more, and little time for much else.
So why not take an evening or two to discover reading blogs, articles and books again? Figure out the types of writing style that you like reading or writing and nail it. Perhaps you like lists – why not write your outfit post in quick-fire to-do list format? Or you love fairytales? Make your discovery of your dream boots into a Dorothy shoes fable. The important thing is to write something that you would love to read.
Take Your Time
I noticed myself rushing blog posts towards the end of last year because I had so much to say and not enough time to say it. I’d set myself deadlines for no reason and end up publishing half-finished posts, only to regret it later. If you struggle with the actual writing of a post, don’t be afraid to simply take your time. Consider making a page of notes surrounding what you want to say and writing at your own pace. This helps you to keep focused and you won’t forget any important points. It’s easy to get caught up in the new trend of pushing out a new post at X time every single day, but if you find yourself worrying – just go at your own pace.
Purpose Porpoise
(OK so this subheading was purely written so I could actually use ‘porpoise’ on Daisybutter for the first and last time.)
Stay on track. I’ve written 7/8ths of SO many posts only to scrap them or leave them in my Drafts Dungeon forevermore because the post serves next to no purpose. One of my personal pet peeves is a post that says the same thing in different thesaurus-fied words about 20 times over. Also unnecessary questions at the end of all posts. ‘Do you also wear shoes?’ Yeah, I think I do. Sometimes I wear slippers to shake it up. Think about where you’re going with a post – the community is completely saturated with content so consider where you’re going with those all important average 300 words or less.
Word of the Day
I’ve been blogging for 5 years now and I’ve racked up over 1000 posts so to keep my copy sparkling new while I also churn out well over 15,000 words a day at work, I like to do a little challenge with myself. Whether used at work or on my blog or social media, I like to add a new word to my vocabulary. It keeps my mind ticking and learning, as well as subtly bringing something new to my blog.
Polishing It
Polishing your copy is the last step of a writing blog post. Give it a thorough read through in the ‘Preview’ mode. Could you add in an anecdote somewhere? Use a new word/your Word of the Day? Maybe you could change a segment of your post to a list format or add line breaks to change up the flow? Have you started all two/five/four-hundred paragraphs with the same word? Did you structure your sentences in the same way and perhaps you could switch that up?
Sometimes I like to break all the rules.
And use one sentence as a paragraph. Or start my sentences with connectives and aggravate a small selection of people. Sometimes I make things that shouldn’t be nouns into nouns and sometimes I just say whatever’s in my mind, leading to Shabna commenting on posts that I write in a wonderful way when really she means I’m crazy.
It’s these finer details that take your blog copy from ‘just lovely to read’ to ‘sparkly and fun to read with a smidgen of quirk and smattering of personality’.
Part one of four in my 2015 Blogging with Daisybee series, in which you can turnt’up on the blog copy front. No homework or puppy-involvement excuses required. You don’t even need an expensive Kate Spade notebook or fifty candles lit for inspiration. You’re welcome.