The Anatomy of a Blog
The blog is highly versatile. It is a tool for expression in many different lines of being. In one instance, it is a medium to rant, in another it is for breaking news, in another it is to keep a website relevant, and even in another it is to gossip. Whatever it may be, the blog is the silly-putty of the writing world.
Just because it is the silly-putty doesn’t mean it has no composition. The anatomy of a blog is based on a couple of principles, and this is entirely the evolution of this writer, meaning there is no reasonable expectation of the fundamentals.
Length
The length of a blog varies. In this writer’s own experience, grading the readability of a blog is directly related to this, only in so far that your goal is have many readers. Generally 500 words is good for a blog. Anything longer and it is likely that either you have a very good long form piece, or you are a bad writer and substitute quantity for quality.
If, for instance, your blog is designed as a tool to drive traffic to a site, or as a means to have better SEO, then the shorter the better. Outside of monetizing purposes, or goals for attention, a blog need not subscribe to a word limit.
(Traffic is sometimes good)
Commerical
It just so happens blogs are the driving force for a lot of internet traffic. In a commercial blog it is generally a problem/solution sort of deal. It may come off as newsy, however, in most cases the blogs that are written in the business world are advertorials. This is a mix of an advertisement and editorial. If a well spoken writer is in charge of it, he or she will sculpt an enjoyable read even though it is essentially to sell you something.
Sourcing
To be taken seriously sources are a must. Plagiarism is not policed as it should be, and in a world with countless blogs being written on a daily basis, plagiarism is a very easy thing to fall into. The anatomy of a well written, and informative blog will have sources, unless of course the writer is writing from personal experience and explicitly states this (ahem, like this blog). In order to bring legitimacy and credibility to the blog, or whatever it is selling, anything that is sourceable ought to be. Generally, on a digital medium, the sources are hyperlinked in a word, and clicking on it takes the reader to where the writer found it. It is important.
Images
Many writers have a pet peeve when it comes to images. A lot of viral blogging sites post blogs compiled as a list of pictures. This is cheap. This does not convey too much information. It does, however, get attention.
In this writer’s own experience, there are two types of images that are highly effective. The first is an infographic that is based on rigorously compiled data. They are easy to read and contain a wealth of information.
The next type of image is the GIF. This writer is a healthy proponent of the GIF. It stands for graphic interchange format, which means it is an animated image. It can be cut from video and the file format is so old that most word processors and web hosting sites do not need to specially optimize it. It is just a copy and paste ordeal.
If you have any questions about blogs, or ones that can be written for you or your business, feel free to contact us at info@paradigmnext.com
By: ParadigmNext http://paradigmnext.com
Google+: https://plus.google.com/+ParadigmNextChicago
ParadigmNEXT, Inc. is a digital agency headquartered in Chicagoland. We provide branding, identity, integrated marketing, social media strategy, art direction, web-design & development, startup incubation, commercial video production, product development, and commercial storefront development services to a wide array of clients ranging from bootstrapped startups to successful longstanding companies.