An Introduction to Writing Blog posts Matt Phillpott Social Scholar seminar 29 October 2014 http://blogs.sas.ac.uk/category/the-social-scholar/

1. Social Scholar
Writing Blog posts
Matt Phillpott
(School of Advanced Study)
Matt.phillpott@sas.ac.uk
October 2014
www.sas.ac.uk

2. Outline
• What makes for a good blog post?
• Constructing a blog post – length, tone,
sub-headings, multimedia, footnotes
• Structuring a blog post
www.sas.ac.uk

3. What makes for a good blog post?
• Compelling and engaging content
• Consistently good content over a long period of time,
published regularly
• Each blog/blogger should have their own style and
way of doing things
• There is no right and wrong way
…however, there are things that you can do to better
reach your audience.
www.sas.ac.uk

4. What makes for a good blog post?
- Things to consider
11.. CChhoooossee aa TTooppiicc
Take time to define a topic and consider the limitations of length/detail for
the blog post
22.. CCrraaffttiinngg aa TTiittllee
The title draws readers in. It needs to be catchy, descriptive, but not too long
33.. TThhee OOppeenniinngg LLiinnee
First impressions matter. The first line hooks the reader
44.. WWhhaatt iiss tthhee ppooiinntt??
A blog post needs to have a point or reason to exist. What
is the content of the post
about?
www.sas.ac.uk

5. What makes for a good blog post?
- Things to consider
11.. CChhoooossee aa TTooppiicc
Take time to define a topic and consider the limitations of length/detail for
the blog post
22.. CCrraaffttiinngg aa TTiittllee
The title draws readers in. It needs to be catchy, descriptive, but not too long
33.. TThhee OOppeenniinngg LLiinnee
First impressions matter. The first line hooks the reader
44.. WWhhaatt iiss tthhee ppooiinntt??
A blog post needs to have a point or reason to exist. What
is the content of the post
about?
www.sas.ac.uk

6. What makes for a good blog post?
- Things to consider
11.. CChhoooossee aa TTooppiicc
Take time to define a topic and consider the limitations of length/detail for
the blog post
22.. CCrraaffttiinngg aa TTiittllee
The title draws readers in. It needs to be catchy, descriptive, but not too long
33.. TThhee OOppeenniinngg LLiinnee
First impressions matter. The first line hooks the reader
44.. WWhhaatt iiss tthhee ppooiinntt??
A blog post needs to have a point or reason to exist. What
is the content of the post
about?
www.sas.ac.uk

7. What makes for a good blog post?
- Things to consider
11.. CChhoooossee aa TTooppiicc
Take time to define a topic and consider the limitations of length/detail for
the blog post
22.. CCrraaffttiinngg aa TTiittllee
The title draws readers in. It needs to be catchy, descriptive, but not too long
33.. TThhee OOppeenniinngg LLiinnee
First impressions matter. The first line hooks the reader
44.. WWhhaatt iiss tthhee ppooiinntt??
A blog post needs to have a point or reason to exist. What
is the content of the post
about?
www.sas.ac.uk

8. What makes for a good blog post?
- Things to consider
11.. CChhoooossee aa TTooppiicc
Take time to define a topic and consider the limitations of length/detail for
the blog post
22.. CCrraaffttiinngg aa TTiittllee
The title draws readers in. It needs to be catchy, descriptive, but not too long
33.. TThhee OOppeenniinngg LLiinnee
First impressions matter. The first line hooks the reader
44.. WWhhaatt iiss tthhee ppooiinntt??
A blog post needs to have a point or reason to exist. What
is the content of the post
about?
www.sas.ac.uk

9. What makes for a good blog post?
- Things to consider
55.. CCaallll ttoo AAccttiioonn
A good post ends by asking the reader to do something. This might be a link to related
Content, a request to ‘follow us’ on Twitter or Facebook, or something else.
66.. QQuuaalliittyy ccoonnttrrooll
Check for errors – try to avoid spelling and grammar mistakes.
33.. TTiimmiinngg ooff ppuubblliiccaattiioonn
Consider when it is best to publish the post. This includes
which day of the week and the
time of the day. When are your readers most likely to pick
up on the post?
44.. PPrroommoottee tthhee PPoosstt
Talk about the post on other social media etc.
www.sas.ac.uk

10. Blog post length
• On average visitors to blogs spend about 90 seconds on a page. That’s long
enough for 500 words, perhaps 1000 if skim reading.
• Search Engine Optimization – roughly 250-1000 word long articles are
considered average length and are thus better picked up by search engines
“The length of a post depends on what it is you are talking about and how
Many words are therefore needed”
• However, some successful blogs are much longer:
- BBC Journalist Adam Curtis writes full-blown
articles on his blog (roughly 5,000 words with
images and videos)
- Andrew Prescott (Professor of Digital Humanities)
on his Digital Riffs blog writes between 1,000-2,000
words
www.sas.ac.uk

11. Making a blog post scannable!
LLiissttss –– bullet points are quicker to read and can express ideas more succinctly
FFoorrmmaattttiinngg –– Use bold, CAPITALS, italics, and underlining to emphasise points. Don’t
go overboard as you run the risk of frustrating your reader. Also consider changing font
size, colour and style to draw your readers eyes to your main points.
HHeeaaddiinnggss aanndd SSuubb HHeeaaddiinnggss –– Large, Bold words that
act as visual cues of what is happening in the content are
effective ways of drawing readers further into articles.
PPiiccttuurreess –– Readers are drawn to pictures. Place them at
key points and where possible make them part of the
narrative OR embed a video.
QQuuootteess –– add in quotes in a different font/bold/colour to
break up text and draw people into the narrative
www.sas.ac.uk

12. Making a blog post scannable!
LLiissttss –– bullet points are quicker to read and can express ideas more succinctly
FFoorrmmaattttiinngg –– Use bold, CAPITALS, italics, and underlining to emphasise points. Don’t
go overboard as you run the risk of frustrating your reader. Also consider changing font
size, colour and style to draw your readers eyes to your main points.
HHeeaaddiinnggss aanndd SSuubb HHeeaaddiinnggss –– Large, Bold words that
act as visual cues of what is happening in the content are
effective ways of drawing readers further into articles.
PPiiccttuurreess –– Readers are drawn to pictures. Place them at
key points and where possible make them part of the
narrative OR embed a video.
QQuuootteess –– add in quotes in a different font/bold/colour to
break up text and draw people into the narrative
www.sas.ac.uk

13. Making a blog post scannable!
LLiissttss –– bullet points are quicker to read and can express ideas more succinctly
FFoorrmmaattttiinngg –– Use bold, CAPITALS, italics, and underlining to emphasise points. Don’t
go overboard as you run the risk of frustrating your reader. Also consider changing font
size, colour and style to draw your readers eyes to your main points.
HHeeaaddiinnggss aanndd SSuubb HHeeaaddiinnggss –– Large, Bold words that
act as visual cues of what is happening in the content are
effective ways of drawing readers further into articles.
PPiiccttuurreess –– Readers are drawn to pictures. Place them at
key points and where possible make them part of the
narrative OR embed a video.
QQuuootteess –– add in quotes in a different font/bold/colour to
break up text and draw people into the narrative
www.sas.ac.uk

14. Making a blog post scannable!
LLiissttss –– bullet points are quicker to read and can express ideas more succinctly
FFoorrmmaattttiinngg –– Use bold, CAPITALS, italics, and underlining to emphasise points. Don’t
go overboard as you run the risk of frustrating your reader. Also consider changing font
size, colour and style to draw your readers eyes to your main points.
HHeeaaddiinnggss aanndd SSuubb HHeeaaddiinnggss –– Large, Bold words that
act as visual cues of what is happening in the content are
effective ways of drawing readers further into articles.
PPiiccttuurreess –– Readers are drawn to pictures. Place them at
key points and where possible make them part of the
narrative OR embed a video.
QQuuootteess –– add in quotes in a different font/bold/colour to
break up text and draw people into the narrative
www.sas.ac.uk

15. Making a blog post scannable!
LLiissttss –– bullet points are quicker to read and can express ideas more succinctly
FFoorrmmaattttiinngg –– Use bold, CAPITALS, italics, and underlining to emphasise points. Don’t
go overboard as you run the risk of frustrating your reader. Also consider changing font
size, colour and style to draw your readers eyes to your main points.
HHeeaaddiinnggss aanndd SSuubb HHeeaaddiinnggss –– Large, Bold words that
act as visual cues of what is happening in the content are
effective ways of drawing readers further into articles.
PPiiccttuurreess –– Readers are drawn to pictures. Place them at
key points and where possible make them part of the
narrative OR embed a video.
QQuuootteess –– add in quotes in a different font/bold/colour to
break up text and draw people into the narrative
www.sas.ac.uk

16. Writing a Blog post: The inverted pyramid method
www.sas.ac.uk

17. Images/videos/audio
EEXXAAMMPPLLEE
Adam Curtis is a reporter/journalist but his blog posts are long, not short. However,
They are popular because of what he is saying but also how he structures the post.
Curtis is a master of documentary as blog post.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis
www.sas.ac.uk

18. Thank you for listening!
Matt Phillpott
Matt.phillpott@sas.ac.uk
www.sas.ac.uk