Who wants to improve the quality of their posts? (Hint... you should all be raising your hand). No matter how good your content already is, chances are - there are ways you can improve it. Maybe that means experimenting with new things, or getting out of your comfort zone to try something a little different.
Constantly learning and evolving is part of what helps you bring your unique voice and talent to the steemisphere!
When browsing through Steemit, reading and responding to various articles - we naturally tend to critique their content. What we liked, what we didn't like, what worked well, what seemed a little off... etc. If you want to improve the quality of your posts, I suggest taking that critical eye and turning them on your own posts.
Do an Artistic Critique from 5 Perspectives
Take a few of your recent posts and try to go through them as an observer. If possible, detach emotionally and look at it from a more non-partial point of view. This can be a little tough, especially if you’ve poured hours into the post... but it's definitely a worthwhile exercise.
Evaluate Flow
First, scan your article visually and see how it looks and feels from a layout perspective. Do you have photos that are fairly evenly spaced between text? People can usually relax into reading an article more easily when it looks visually appealing. By keeping the flow of text, photos, headings and quotes as evenly spaced as possible throughout the article – it will look more put together.
Second, read through the entire thing. Ok, so maybe the visual format feels good, but how does it flow when you are actually reading the piece? If you find yourself starting to glaze over certain paragraphs – this is a good sign that you need to break it up. You could do this by splitting it into two smaller paragraphs, adding a photo or quote, or maybe re-wording a few sentences so they have a bit more OOMPH!!
Generally speaking, people have a hard time staying focused in a big block of text. Keep it interesting and break it up!
Be Smart About the Photos you Use
Good visuals can go a long way in enhancing your posts. Generally speaking, having a few photos sprinkled throughout your post will go a long way to making it look more professional and visually appealing. More than just breaking up the text though – photos have the power to set the mood for your entire article.
Sure, almost any photo is better than nothing – but if you put in the time to find photos that really encapsulate the points you are trying to make, your readers will really be able to feel that through the screen!
Also, I’m sure this goes without saying… but make sure you credit the photos if they are not your own! Even a statement at the bottom of the article is better than not crediting them at all. Pixabay.com is one of my favorite spots to free, high quality images – but sometimes a quick google search will yield good results as well.
Please, Please Please Start Using more Headings! (hint… it helps with engagement)
As you can see in this post, I’ve utilized a few different heading styles by making the big points centered and larger, and the sub points smaller and aligned to the right.People love to know what’s happening next, and by providing a clear road map – they will likely be more engaged as a reader.
This also allows people to quickly scan the article to see if the topic interests them. When people feel like it will be a “chore” to read your article… you are going to start losing people in the first paragraph. By really breaking things up and providing a clear outline for the article – they are more likely to read the parts that interest them and then scan the parts that don’t. There’s nothing wrong with that!
I think we can all agree that we’d like to see more meaningful engagement here on steemit and fewer crappy “nice post” comments. By keeping your reader engaged, they are more likely to make it to the end of your post and feel inspired to leave a meaningful comment.
Set the Mood Up Front
This is something that I haven’t personally focused on much, but would like to moving forward. Have you ever noticed that @surfermarley starts each post with some kind of inspirational quote that relates to the article? I think this is brilliant because it immediately puts the reader in the right frame of mind to digest her content.
By setting the mood with your readers in the beginning, they will feel more of an emotional connection to your article and are more likely to get something meaningful out of the post. Using a quote is a great way to do this…but you could also just focus on crafting your first paragraph to set the mood as well.
This particular tip can be a bit harder to quantify because everyone writes and interprets words differently – but take a few moments to critically access your opening paragraph. Are they a couple of bland sentences strung together… or do they paint a picture? What emotions are evoked in these words? None…? Hmmm… you can probably do better.
Close with a Call-Out to Readers
Steemit is all about building community and relationships. Generic comments like, “I really loved reading this post!” and generic responses like “I’m so glad you liked it!” are not bad, but they don’t really help us get to know each other better. Most people want to engage in a more meaningful way, but maybe feel lost on where to start.
By closing your article in a way that generates conversation – you are helping to encourage better discussion. This could be a specific question about your readers personal experience with the topic, or a thought provoking statement that you are asking readers to give input on, or perhaps even a call to action that encourages readers to post a picture, article or some other medium in the comments.
To be honest… I’m terrible at this and would really like to improve. I often get to the end of an article and feel lost on what to write and so I post something generic like, “I hope you enjoyed this article. Thanks for reading!”. Does that do anything to encourage good conversation? Nope.
Someone who I think is really good at this is @denmarkguy. I’d recommend following him and then studying some of posts to see how he wraps things up in a way that promotes dialogue.
I really hope you find this article helpful. Thanks so much for reading!
hahah you didn’t think I’d let myself off that easy did you??
Ok, here’s my attempt at closing out this article with a call-out to readers.
I have a homework assignment for you all. We covered 5 key areas that you can look at to critique and improve your steemit blog posts and then there were little nuggets within each one. If you read this article, I want you to pick ONE thing that you will focus on in your next post and comment on what that is below.
If you want to get really ambitions, I’d love for you to also leave a link to your next post where you used that idea and put it into practice. That’s right… feel free to comment twice. Once saying what you are going to focus on and another one after you’ve put it into practice.
Seriously though... I really do hope you found this post helpful and I really am grateful that you are here reading it! <3
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