Guide lines for creative writing

Author: Matt Preston Become a contributor

1) Use headlines to separate content

People love to read your advice and experiences. They often find articles on our site from Google and other search engines. People are looking for information relating to their search keywords and if they find your article you want to make sure they get that information easily. Headlines are a great way of letting people scan your content and jump to the section they’re most interested in.

It also helps break up your content into easily digestible bite-size chunks. If people can’t find what they’re looking for quickly they’ll give up and look elsewhere, make sure your article has decent headlines to help them enjoy your writing and not feel it’s a chore to read. We recommend using H3 when you’re editing your content on our site. Just highlight the title and select H3 from the formatting drop down. Simple!

2. Liven up your text with images

Whatever the subject matter, there’s nothing more boring than a page full of text. If you visit a site without any colour you’ll soon find your concentration disappears and the thought of reading an entire page of text is a massive turn off! All you need is some colour in your life! Find a few images that represent parts of your content. If you have photos of the destinations in your article then great! If you need charts or graphics to represent travel advice or observations then make use of online tools to produce them.

Images not only add real world examples of your article they also keep people interested for much longer. Like headlines they break up the page nicely and give people chunks of useful information in both text and image form. You can upload your own images to our site and use medium sized versions in your article. We like to keep all our images right aligned so just select the alignment when you’re inserting the image.

3. Keep it short and snappy

Your blogs should be all about getting the message across. It’s great to give detail but too much can often overload a visitors feeble mind and turn their brain to moosh. Remember visitors to blogs are after answers to their questions! Where to go? What to do? Make sure your content gives them answers easily. You can elaborate on those answers if you wish but keep your content short and snappy. 500 words is usually enough to get your answers to those with questions. This isn’t a strict limit but remember if it takes longer than 2 minutes for people to find their answers, they’re outta here!

4. Spell check

It so easy to misspell a word when you’re pouring out ideas into a blog at a million miles an hour. It’s also one of the most obvious errors you’ll find in any persons blog. We’re surprised how many spelling mistakes we see on other people’s blog sites when it’s something every computer can easily fix. Don’t let your content fail you just because of a few spelling mistakes.

5. Make sure it makes sense!

It sounds so obvious but re-read your content before you publish. It’s so easy to pour out ideas as they come to you, but once you’ve finished, read what you’ve written and check your sentences make sense. There’s usually at least one sentence that will need re-wording. You can also check that the information in your article flows nicely. Break your content into paragraphs and, if you can, let a friend read before you post to make sure it makes sense to others. We edit all articles before we publish them on our site so don’t worry, we will always read your article and let you know if there are any problems.

Blogging is available to anybody with the inclination to write about their experiences and share their opinions. It’s one of the most accessible tools we all have at our fingertips! We love to help our contributors share their skills and help them reach a wider audience. With these simple guidelines you can let thousands of visitors enjoy your content and share you with their friends. Don’t let your content let you down.

More ways to improve your writing and your blog

If you’re looking for ways to improve your blog and make the most of your writing, check out our eBook called “How to create a successful website with WordPress“. There’s lots of tips, real world advice and techniques on being successful online. You can download a sample too.

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