If you're a blogger, remember that people read vertically now.
Not horizontally.
They read with one hand on the mouse and a finger on the scroll wheel. You're probably doing it right now.
People engage blogs ready to scroll or click, so you want to make your posts as scannable as possible.
Don't expect everyone to ready everything you write. They just won't do it, but you can do some things to best position your posts to be read.
Here are some blog formatting tips:
Shorter posts work well.
Images in the posts seem to help too.
You can also use some formatting techniques in your posts to help a vertical reader.
For instance, you might bold certain sections of your posts for emphasis. You can even use subheads like:
Other Helpful Ideas:
Use bulleted lists.
- They work really well.
- People like them.
Numbered lists are also good.
- They're equally easy to scan.
- People like them in odd numbers like three, five, or seven.
- A list of ten is good too. Surely you can come up with a "Top 10" list for something.
Spend extra time on your blog post titles. It may be the most important thing you write.
People don't just scan blog posts, but with the aggregation of blogs in feed readers, people may only be scanning your blog post titles. The title has to tell people what you're going to say before you say it. Don't try to be too creative or mysterious with the titles. It will usually work against you.
Blog Post Title Examples:
I could have titled this post: "Vertical Blogging" but that doesn't really mean anything to someone until they read the post, but the purpose of the title is to hook readers not inform people who already read the post, so that's not a good option.
I could have tried the rhetorical question approach with a title like: "Do You Know How to Format Blog Posts?" It seems like a good title but it's not. Someone reading the title might think they in fact do know how to format posts whether they know anything about vertical reading. They would have missed a potentially helpful post.
One more thing. Don't forget to always, always, always add value with your posts. It's what will keep people coming back...or not coming back, as the case may be. Use the Old McDonald approach to content with value: EIEIO
E - Entertain
I - Inspire
E - Educate
I - Inform
O - Outrage
Vertical reading. Vertical blogging. That's where it seems to be now.