Many people think writing a blog is not much more than writing your thoughts. It's viewed as a sort of free, creative writing that you "blah, blah, blah," write whatever comes to mind. And many people write their blogs in that manner. Blogs are for your readers, not for you and what you want to write.

A good blog will have the markings of time spent planning it, purpose, structure, and a theme. Your first consideration should be purpose. Why are you writing it? Are you solving a problem? Are you answering questions your audience may have? Is it informational or educational? Is it a story? Consider these elements before writing to greatly improve your blog.

Sites like Quora.com, Reddit.com and YouTube are sources for determining what your audience would like to know. At these places, you can search your topic or area of interest and learn what is trending on people’s minds.

Readers are busy people – they work, they may have required reading, or they may be running a company.

• Be sure your blog is catchy and memorable
• Write content that is scannable*
• Use format, white space and visual appearance for interest *meaning, they can scan it and grasp salient information.

A great picture is always an eye-catcher. Unsplash.com, Pixabay.com and Pexels.com are wonderful, free resources for photos. Headlines or subheadings help break up the body.

Consider using a different font, bold or italics for special words or phrases you would like to stand out. Change sentence length. Be sure to include a few short, punchy sentences to grab attention. End with a Call to Action (follow me, share, question, reply) and include your contact information. If you have a website, steer your reader to it for more information.

Hemingwayapp.com is a great source to copy and paste your content. It tells you in color coding which sentences are difficult to read or if you used too many adverbs. Hope these tips help. Happy blogging.

Trina Gigax, WIN Cleveland Blog Editor

 Fresh Eyes Reading