by Rena Sherwood

Created on: December 11, 2009   Last Updated: July 06, 2010

How do some blogs become more successful than others?  Although you could promote blog posts until your fingers drop off, it’s the content that keeps drawing readers back.  You have to make your content different and to the point in order to get and keep a reader’s attention.  In order to do this, you need to develop your own writing style, or “voice.”

Also, many freelance writing job ads show clients who want content written "in a blog style" or "in a blogger's tone of voice."  But what do they mean by that?  The writer's style or tone for an investigative piece in "The New York Times" will be quite different from the voice used in a blog.  The differences are in use of first person, blending opinion with humor and using white space.

First Person

Unless told otherwise by a client, blogs are usually written in the first person.  The blogger talks directly to the reader.  For example, a blog would have "you should do this" rather than the third-person "one should do this."  It's a far more conversational and informal way of writing, but it also grabs the reader's attention because they are being talked directly to instead of talked down to.

Depending on the blog, you can base posts about your life, your opinions and your experiences.  You can also keep details of your personal life completely out of the way and just write as if you were a sort of digital Dear Abby – giving advice but not revealing too much about yourself.  For example, stating that you were through a divorce is fine, but listing all of the gory details of the divorce is overkill.

Humor and Opinion

A blogger's tone of voice is not entirely serious.  Bloggers usually have the licence to say what we feel but are too polite to actually say aloud.  But the most successful bloggers need to be creative and humorous about how they feel without actually risking a liabel suit. 

One successful blog, "Cute With Chris" has a blogger that heavily uses sarcasm as well as lots of cute pictures of baby animals.  This sarcasm can be at people that hate his blog, at the American government, at the airlines, at live theatre or even at himself.  Some fans wrote on his blog that they were there for "the snark" and not for the pictures of cute animals.  Those that can make fun of themselves are far more credible bloggers than those that are not willing to write about their own faults.

When you do give an opinion on a blog, be very clear to state that it is your opinion and do not present it as fact.  This can avoid a lot of lawsuits or, at the least, hurt feelings.

White Space

Blog posts are generally less than 500 words.  To put it bluntly, no matter how talented a writer you are, most people will only read about 200 words before clicking off to another website.  One way to keep them reading your post is to make it short, add visuals like images, polls or vidoes and use a lot of white space.

White space is exactly that – the white space in between blocks of text.  Use bullet lists, subheadings, short paragraphs with spaces in between them because that creates white space.  This makes a reader think "Oh, this isn’t such a long post, then.  I have time to read this."  Then they read it and hopefully become charmed by your wit and individuality. 

References:

“The Huffington Post Complete Guide to Blogging.” The Editors of The Huffington Post. Simon & Schuster; 2008.

“Letting Go of the Words: Writing Web Content that Works.” Janice (Ginny) Redish. Morgan Kaufman; 2007.

“Cute With Cris.” http://www.cutewithchris.com/

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