Writing In & For Digital Environments

As I am getting closer and closer to having a blog of my own, I must keep in mind what people want to read in a blog and what keeps web users engaged.

With the help of Brian Carroll, I have come up with a four qualities to give an idea of what makes a quality blog.: Interactive, quirky, thoughtful design, and consistent.

1: Interactive: Brian Carroll emphasizes that an interactive blog is much more attractive than one with nothing but blocks of text. Embedded videos, free mp3 downloads, big eye-catching links to relevant content, and GIFs are what pique the interest of your everyday web user, not text alone. For example, “What Should We Call Me” is a Tumblr blog that generated thousands of followers with Gifs as its only content. Scrolling through blogs like Buzzfeed will provide a perfect example of interactivity. With a clear and attractive menu of yellow buttons that say “LOL” “OMG” and “cute”, users know exactly what content they can access when they click.

2: Quirky: While the adjective “quirky” can be confusing, I believe it sums up a lot of the concepts the book defines as “good blog” criteria. People love quirky things. Personally, I am more drawn to blogs about something unique and interesting than a generic gossip site. Jezebel is a perfect example of the quirky appeal. The author combines humor, personal stories, and relatable realness that makes it quirky. Also, Zooey Deschanel’s blog, Hello Giggles, is possibly the epitome of quirky. Even if the blog wasn’t run by a celebrity, Hello Giggles can stand on its own because of its unique content and broad appeal. Its quirkiness comes from the combining of DIY craft projects with recipes and fashion and beauty advice. Hearing it all from a relatable and endearing voice is a combination that keeps readers coming back for more.

3: Design: In agreement with Brian Carroll, dominant headlines will immediately draw a web user in. Looking at blogs such as Buzzfeed, Betches Love This, and Gawker, the headline is a staple into grabbing the attention of a reader. As a blog surfer myself, I can attest that if the title doesn’t grab my attention, I will be less inclined to read the content. General layout should be easy to navigate with lots of content to explore. On Tumblr blogs, the endless scrolling of pictures makes it so easy for a viewer to stay on the page for hours with new content appearing without even needing to click.

4: Consistent: Consistence is key. People want to see more of what makes a blog stand out. Keeping a blog up to date with relevant, exciting content is imperative in keeping the attention of viewers.

Nowadays, there are a lot of blog sites, each of which have there own unique attributes and style. Blogging has become a new way of voicing personal opinions, as well as providing people with up to date news of their interest. They can vary from topics focusing on political aspects, current news, celebrity life style to a random person posting about there daily lives.  Anyone can write a blog, after all how many of us had Xanga back in the day? It has the same concepts. However, there is a big difference between professionally written blogs and the little Xanga posts everyone used to write.

The most important aspect of blogging is the writer. The writer has to be able to capture the interest of the reader. More people will want to follow and stay up to date with the writers profile if the reading is interesting. “Humans of New York” is a perfect example of this, the way the authors just meets these random people in the city and posts about their life stories perfectly draw readers in. The idea behind this is very prosaic, however, this idea is also what made the site so successful.

It is also necessary to have a strong set of vocabulary, grammatical skills and to steer away from wording that’s too difficult to understand. Its unlikely that many people would follow a blogger who writes in Shakespearean to get his point across with anything. After all when you see,

“Wherefore out thou”

Compared to

“Where you at?”

Which would you rather read? Sean Michael Morris described that digital writing in a way should be “alive”; that writing should inspires action from how we perceive the wording. The best way for this to be done is by making the wording easy to understand.

Writers should be relatable to the reader, and Brian Carroll pointed out the importance of this relationship. My favorite writer is probably Paul Hudson and he writes for the site elitedaily.com. I have been following him for a while, and Paul focuses a lot on articles providing life lessons to better your self and live an exciting life. All of his articles aren’t only general statements, but his articles also give the reader insight into his own life experiences. All of which can provide the reader with a sense of empathy. Paul also posts articles about his life and the incredible stuff he has done. In the end you really do feel like he isn’t just another writer but that you know the guy.

Lastly, it’s important that every blog has a good layout. When people are touring new blog sites they want something flashy with pictures and not just a white background. The layout should interest the person exploring, so much that they want to tour the site even more. However, no layout should be that complex. The layout needs to be appealing to the reader’s eye, but the layout cannot be covered with a lot of ads and or be too difficult to navigate through.

I have always believed there should be an insignia that represents the site. People are drawn by images. This concept is a good way of brand naming a site without having to associate the site with the name. This is a similar concept to that of apple products, Twitter, Facebook, even back when MySpace was still popular. We never really saw the names spelled out instead we usually just saw the insignia associated by the brand. In my opinion I see an insignia as a strong way to gain familiarity.

These are just some of the ideas I plan to incorporate into my own blogs in the future.

It’s 10:30 pm and I’m almost done with my work for the night. Should I go to bed early or scroll through some of my favorite blogs? It’s a dilemma I often face and unfortunately for my sleep schedule, I almost always go for catching up on blogs. I’ve been keen on blogging since high school. After some persuasion from friends I created a Tumblr account and fell in love with documenting my life and interests. Still today, Tumblr and its myriad of blogs and quality of photography fascinates me. Through my experience with Tumblr, I learned what I value most in a blog. There are many factors to be considered, from writing style to use of graphics. No two blogs are exactly alike and it’s important to consider what can prove a blog successful.

I cozy into bed and type in a url and hit enter. As the website loads, right off the bat graphics and layout are what determine how long I will stay on a site. As discussed in Writing for Digital Media, websites have to catch a reader’s attention in a max of three seconds. Internet users have short attention spans. We want information and entertainment and we want it now. For my personal blog, I would spend hours combing through themes on Tumblr trying to find the perfect fit. I draw most of my inspiration from the blogs Humans of New York and Fashion Toast. Humans of New York is a photojournalist blog that shares the stories of average New Yorkers. Fashion Toast is the personal blog of a prominent fashion mogul. Both of these blogs have not only captured my attention because of their vibrant content but they also use cohesive layouts. Their information is displayed in a clear yet also visually appealing way. They employ great techniques of user-friendly ingenuity that will keep me a reader for many years to come.

Another unique feature of a blog that makes them so popular today is their ability to be different. A blog is something that you want to read for fun. It is rare (but awesome) that you would get assigned to read a blog in an academic setting. This gives blogs and bloggers the ability to be creative and develop a distinct style and voice to draw in readers. I had never seen “The Bloggess” until we read it in class. I think this blog is a perfect example of honing a distinct style. The Bloggess is fun to read, easy to maneuver and has a unique, sassy and award winning style. Along with voice, content is vital to a blogs success. It’s the meat and potatoes and what keeps people coming back. Nowadays you can find a blog on pretty much any topic in the world.  (A whole blog dedicated to gravestones, who knew?)  As a blogger the world is your multimodal oyster. Because you have so much freedom, it’s important to keep a few things in mind in related to content. First, shorter is always sweeter. Long, droning paragraphs can really weigh a blog down. Second, update at a regular frequency. Readers want to know when to expect and have new content to discover. On my own blog, I use the queue feature to ensure my posts are on a schedule. And lastly, blogs are a personal expression of your interests and a place for you to explore your self as a documenter.

Be passionate. Be creative. Be a reader. Be a writer. Be a blogger.

Searching one word into Google can result in millions of websites, so it is up to the reader to distinguish which site is worth his or her time. It only takes a flash of the screen for the reader to determine if the site is viable, credible, and most importantly worth staying one. Within those few seconds the reader is judging the site by its appearance. Then if the site is worth staying on the reader will determine if it is worth getting involved in. A blog must have appealing aesthetics and it must be interactive in order to build and maintain an audience.

It is vital that the blog site be visually appealing because that is what will make the reader stay on the site, rather then clicking away to the other million sites that Google offered. The first thing noticed about a site is the layout. If a website is cluttered with loud headings or flashing advertisements or overlapping pictures, it can deter a reader from staying on the site. A simplified layout will not overwhelmed the reader and instead the reader will be able to navigate the site quickly to understand the theme and tone of the blog. For example, thegroundworkproject blog uses a white background with a bold black title for a non-intimidating layout. Easy navigation is not only aesthetically pleasing but also important for the reader. No one is going to waste their time digging through a site when they can just close it and within a few seconds find another site on the same topic. The Edible Geography blog provides a site archive so that information read last week or last year can be recovered within seconds. The layout of the site is like the first sentence of an essay. Just as a “good first sentence prompts [the reader] to perk up [his or her] ears”, a good site layout encourages the reader to continue scrolling through the site (Morris). A strong title, intriguing pictures, and clear headlines draws the reader in, urging them to explore what the blog has to offer. In the world of Twitter’s 140 character limit, a page full of long paragraphs and continuous text is overwhelming. A text is much more appealing when the paragraphs are short and when the text is broken up with pictures. The appearance of a site is the first impression it has on the reader and in order to hook the reader it must be engaging without being overwhelming.

The aesthetics of a site draws the reader in but the interactive aspect of a site is what keeps the reader on the site. A good blog is never static but instead it is always updating and changing through “the encouragement and critique of the community” (Rorabaugh). When something is posted on the Internet, the whole world has access to it and there is the possibility for “immense collaboration” (Morris). A “Contact Us” link is successful in connecting across the world and it also breaks the wall between publisher and reader, permitting two-way communicate. This makes the reader feel like his or her input is valued and that he or she can be an active participant in a digital community. Comments offer another form of involvement, which sparks a discussion and further exploration of the topic in question. A good blog will also offer other forms of further exploration such as links to other articles or other websites. The words or ideas from a blog are not meant to be static but instead they are meant “to be shared, moved, and manipulated” (Morris). A blog should have the option to share information from the site to Facebook, twiiter, tumblr, and other social network sites. This not only broadens the blog’s audience but also invites others to interact with the site. A blog should always be changing and growing by the involvement of the audience.

The Internet is full of blogs on everything from celebrity gossip to documenting gravestone, but not every blog is good. A good blog will hook the reader and reel him or her into an active digital community.

Today just about anyone can write for an online community. But as we have discussed in class, not all writing posted on the Internet is good writing. Additionally, there are a number of important elements beyond just writing that distinguishes bad blogs from excellent ones.

In my opinion, one of the most important of these elements is design. Visual presentation is one of the first things I notice when I visit a blog. Also, as we learned from “Writing for Digital Media” design elements can greatly impact a blog or website’s credibility (25). For example, if the first thing I see on a blog is a thought provoking image or an interesting, visually appealing title it is very likely that I’ll spend some time exploring the site. However, if the blog is written in an unclear font, or it has too many advertisements distracting me from the blogs content then I am likely going to discredit the website and look for a different one. A great example of a visually appealing blog is a blog we viewed in class called: “Humans of New York”. When you visit this website there is a clear title across the top, large images, and clean lines. It is apparent right away that images are the focus of this blog. There is a menu bar across the top of the page, which makes the site easy to navigate and there is a Facebook link in the top right corner that makes the page easy to share.

Another important element (which relates to design) is what Carroll refers to as “scan-ability”. Carroll writes that one study showed that about 79% of Web users merely scan a new page they download (31).  A blog can achieve this “scan-ability” through: highlighted key words, hypertext links, typeface variation, use of color, subheadings, bulleted lists, paragraphs with one idea each, and by having information displayed in an inverted pyramid style (31).  I think that these features are key to an excellent blog because great blogs are ones that are easily viewed, and read. An excellent blog should be able to catch the attention of readers. I think creating lists, using bold colors, highlighting keywords, and writing interesting, short captions forces readers, or in this case “scanners” to stop and view what a blog is offering. I think lengthy paragraphs, unclear titles, small fonts, etc. prevent readers from being able to easily understand what a blog’s purpose is, and I think this makes it less likely to be read and enjoyed. As Carroll writes, blogs should be able to download properly, present itself, and engage the viewer in approximately three seconds (31).

Furthermore, I think that an excellent blog is one that has a unique voice. I often seek out blogs because I want to read something more informal, fun, and unique than for example, something I would read in a textbook for class. Carroll writes about this point and states that: “Blogs represent an important step for journalism outlets in generating more audience by offering more expression by individual voices. The ‘everyday person’ voice of many blogs encourages identification versus the dispassionate, clinical voice of traditional media” (27). A good example of this is a blog we discussed in class, “The Bloggess”. I think that this blog’s appeal comes largely from the creative voice of the blogs author. When you read things such as “I apologize for the lack of python fights.  I just wanted to see if you were paying attention” you as a reader know you are getting a unique perspective. It almost feels like you are engaging in a casual conversation with the author. To use Rosenwasser and Stephen’s words in “Writing Analytically” the writing in “The Bloggess” is very exploratory (17). Her writing is funny, and clever, it keeps you guessing, and it is far from your typical five-paragraph essay.

Liz Bruno

The internet hosts a surge of personal blogs and websites on virtually any topic one can imagine of. Getting published on the cyber platform nowadays is possible for anyone who wishes to do so. The trend in creating blogs may have begun on a more casual side of the spectrum. It has however, gradually evolved into a highly competitive and refined form of media that people can turn to for instant news and updates. What this means to a serious blogger or a web designer is that with so many competition around, one has to produce  high quality work in order to get any recognition. The characteristics of a good website varies from one style to another but there are certain traits that are shared by all popular websites.

A good website not lonely caters to the aesthetic tastes of an audience, but also to its intellectual demands. A well laid out website with an easily accessible network of interconnected links makes surfing easier while well presented text and multimedia is essential for quality content.  Accessibility of information is a commonly shared trait of highly viewed websites. One cannot expect flooding traffic into their website if the content is not driven towards a particular niche. It is important to specialize content, at least in the initial stages of the website, in order to exhibit the strengths of your website and of yourself as an author. Building a good website requires viewers to realize that you, as an author, work on presenting a well-defined genre that you are knowledgeable about. One cannot simply be writing all over the place.

It would be safe to assume that you would not keep going back to a restaurant where the services are inconsistent and service hours completely random and unspecified. Likewise, if a website is seldom updated and that too at the whim of the author, regular visitors to the website will be few, if any. When writing an article for a website, or otherwise, the processes of writing and thought generation should complement each other. One should not come in the way of another. Peter Rorabaugh of Hybrid Pedagogy refers to writing as an organic process that ‘develops in non-linear clusters’ and the ‘compositions move through particular stages with a goal in mind, but the process takes precedence over the product.’ And this corresponds to the idea of free writing – writing continuously without stopping to check any mistakes – presented by author David Rossenwasser in his book “Writing Analyically”. Allowing yourself to write whatever comes to your mind without a filter often lets you come up with new ideas and connections that might not have occurred otherwise.

Sean Michael Morris emphasizes on the importance of the opening sentence to capture the intrigue of the readers. Apart from that it also allows the reader to preconceive the contents of a piece and then decide for themselves if they want to continue reading or not. Rossenwasser identifies brevity, communication, organization, credibility, transparency, accountability, readability and scan-ability as some of the principles of good writing, as well as that of a good blog or a website. Since blogs allow room for more personal input than other traditional media like the newspaper, passion and knowledgeable opinion if articulated well can have a strong impact on the audience. It is always a good idea, especially if you plan on creating a large following for your website, to keep your writing simple. Simplicity allows one to convey a message to larger audiences with less chances of confusion, and thus to get your point across.

People don’t like to read. People like pictures. People like to share.

This past summer I worked as a marketing intern for a non-profit organization and I learned a thing or two about the way people respond to Internet writing. While testing different methods for Facebook and Twitter posts, I came up with three rules for social media:

1. People don’t like to read: Keep posts as short as possible while still including all the relevant information and make sure you link to where they can get more information.
2. People like pictures: Whenever possible include an eye-catching picture that matches what you’re posting about.
3. People like to share: Whenever possible ask a question that allows users to share their experiences, opinions, and thoughts.

Though this experience was focused on social media, I think a lot of the principles that I learned carry over to writing for a blog.

People Don’t Like to Read

As Rachel McAlpine stated, people using the Internet are “monsters of impatience.” Though I think this undervalues readers’ intelligence in some ways, it is certainly true that while on the Internet, readers have less patience than when they are reading print.

To combat this impatience, it is important to make your posts engaging and to the point without, devaluing or dumbing down your content. It is not even necessarily required that your posts be short, but that they be easy to read. Some things you can try include:

• Using headers, sub-headers, and lists for related information
• Including a title and short summary on the homepage rather than displaying the entire post
• Including a top navigation bar with well-organized categories so that users can easily find information

Blogs that do this well:

• Grist—I really love their simple top bar navigation and homepage articles that include a title, photo, and summary with a link to read more.
• In Pursuit of Happiness—I particularly love this blog’s top navigation because it uses photos and words to show simple, clear categories.
• Buzzfeed—I love that they have a secondary navigation that has photos that link to top stories.

People Like Pictures

“A picture is worth 1,000 words” is certainly a cliché, but an image really can help you draw readers’ attention and illustrate your point more effectively. Imagine you were writing a post where you were describing some place or event. Describing that place or event might take some time, but a picture can show with exactness what you would otherwise leave to your readers’ imaginations.

Another concept that stems from the idea that “people like pictures,” is that readers prefer looking at a well designed, attractive website. Some simple ideas to make your website more attractive include:

• Place your title or icon in the top left corner where readers’ eyes are drawn first (according to a study by the Poynter Institute).
• Use clear, good quality photos to compliment your writing.
• Use colors that compliment each other and work for the atmosphere of your website.

Blogs that do this well:

• Global Grasshopper—I love that they use photos both in their summaries of articles and throughout the articles themselves.
• Humans of New York—HONY is a highly attractive blog that is easy to look at and navigate.
• Matador Network—I particularly love that they use photos in their top navigation.

People Like to Share

In my opinion, this rule is the most important because what makes a blog unique is the ability for readers to instantly share, repurpose, reimagine, and reuse the writer’s words. As Sean Michael Morris states in “Digital Writing Uprising: Third Order Thinking in Digital Humanities,” digital writing becomes useful when others reimagine it for their own purposes.

“People like to share” also communicates that people like to be able to easily share with each other. Your blog should have Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, etc. buttons easily accessible so that people can share content with their friends and followers.

Blogs that do this well:

• Cowardly Feminist—I love that she often replies to comments from her readers.
• Huffington Post—This is a great example of easily shareable material.
• Watts Up With That?—His material is easily sharable and his blog often has conversations between many readers in the comments section.