Viva the Easter Broccoli Bunny! Managing your blog readers’ expectations

Mar 18, 2008

Viva the Easter Broccoli Bunny! Managing your blog readers’ expectations - Day 2 of 5

NOTE! If you enjoy this post, please feel free to share and twitter it with the tinylink http://tinyurl.com/32lumy . Thanks, I appreciate it!

Quick! Visualize:

Are you ready? Are you anxious? Can you guess what I’m about to write?

Smoke Signals! In a Tornado!

Are you seeing them in your mind yet?

Are they effective?

Or are they immediately dissolved by the raging winds that physical hit them the instant they’re released?

Tell me now…is the information you offer in your blog presented the same way?

Hmmmmm? Well if so….

Welcome back to Day 2 of Managing your Blog Readers’ expectation!

So glad you could return! Yesterday, we discussed what quality means to your blog readership. "Quality" to you isn’t as important as "quality" to them, ie, consistently delivering to them what they expect and desire.

Today, I’d like to talk about information. More specifically, the presentation of information.

When readers come to visit your blog, ideally they want:

To learn
To be entertained
To be intrigued
To be left alone in gosh-darned peace to read

Whoops, wait a sec there - carefully re-read that last point!

To be left alone in gosh-darned peace to read

Peace. Peace? I can hear the question formulating in your mind….

Oh, you mean the reader shouldn’t have interruptions like the door-to-door marching band fund raisers or the telemarketer’s calls of "A wealthy foreign dignitary died and wants to leave you 3.84 beeyon dollars and all we need is your SSN and bank routing ID to give you 23 cents!" or….

Nope, I don’t mean that at all. I mean:

The reader’s experience shouldn’t be smashed to smithereens by unexpected visual, audio, etc. unmitigated hell.

Consider, dauntless reader, the following 3 critical points:

The visual aspect of your blog layout
The grammatical aspect of your blog post
The audio component of your blog post

Let’s go over them one by one.

The visual aspect of your blog layout

When a reader clicks on your blog post, is it pleasantly simple to peruse your entire article?

Are the letters clear, or do you have a very busy background?
Is there enough whitespace to visually determine where the article IS and where your blog design RESUMES?
Do your graphics enhance your blog, or do they glitter or blink or spin or consume the reader or…..?

There are many great resources for finding/developing a blog layout that lends itself to the viewer, including:

Next, let’s dive into:

The grammatical aspect of your blog post

Do you know:

How to use paragraph breaks?
When to use "your" and "you’re"?
How to spell "misspell"?

You should always take advantage of spell checking and ideally, base grammar review as well. While reading:

You’re coffee must be getting cold

might not freeze off the teenage market, it’s a slight given that adults who possess more education than a styrofoam cup will notice (and react negatively to boot).

Some useful grammar resources that will benefit you include:

and finally, let’s enjoy:

The audio component of your blog post

THERE SHOULDN’T BE ONE!

No no, let me amend that..there shouldn’t be one that’s AUTOMATIC and IMPOSSIBLE TO TURN OFF!

Nothing is more irritating than being drawn into a magnificent essay and really delving into the information at hand…only to be rocketed out of your chair when 9 Inch Nails lyrics come crashing through your innocent speakers.

In other words, podcasts are great! Music clips are terrific! Videos are divine! IF and ONLY IF…the viewer can control how and when they are played.

Here’s some tips about including audio components in your blog:

These three simple considerations (visual, grammatical and audio) of your blog all combine to one huge

Blog Reading Experience

Remember, you want the experience to be positive, enjoyable, and ideally so memorable, people will tell their friends about it to boot. It only makes sense.

Thus let’s draw Day 2 of "Viva the Easter Broccoli Bunny! Managing your blog readers’ expectations" to a close - hope you enjoyed the tutorial! And do feel free to twitter about it as well.

ThankYouVeryMuch!

Owlbert

#BEGIN highlights of this blog writing post:

Beginners blogging tips: Don’t confuse your visitors with un-necessary sights and sounds.

Intermediate and/or Advanced blogging tips: Blend every component of your blog posting to enthrall your readers and compel them to tell their friends about you.

#END highlights of this blog writing post

ps - speaking about Grammar, enjoy a trip down memory lane:

pps - and speaking about, well, grammar:

KIMBALL’S ENGLISH GRAMMAR - FREE SHIPPING NR 1912|

ANTIQUE BOOK HOSSFELDS METHOD SPANISH GRAMMAR TE GURRIN|

Antique Book German Reader & Writer Grammar Series OLD|

Antique 1858 Smith’s Grammar School Speller Book |

Antique Key Japanese Conversation Grammar Plaut 1905|

204: Antique Signed 1918 A French Grammar Book|

1938 Grammar School Sterling Silver and Wood Plaque|

(By the way, if you have any questions about the topics in this posting "Viva the Easter Broccoli Bunny! Managing your blog readers’ expectations - Day 2 of 5", do comment below - I'll try to clarify any issues).

Barbara Ling and Owlbert

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2 Comments, Comment or Ping

moosh in indy.

OOH! Did I pass? Because all of the things you mentioned are total pet peeves of mine.

moosh in indy.’s last blog post..Neener Neener Road.

Mar 18th, 2008