Don’t Neglect the Visual
When you look at this post, what immediately catches your eye before anything else?
Bloggers are writers so it is easy for us to focus purely on words. What you will find though is bloggers who put that bit extra effort into the the look of their articles will achieve a greater response.
In a discussion with Darren today we agreed that great looking posts tend to do better with StumbleUpon than great content alone. This makes sense because with the SU toolbar it is your first instinct to make a snap thumb up or down decision. Nice looking articles will be more favored.
Yes, the words are what people are coming for, and lousy writing with great appearance is no better, but consider visual elements as being a spicy condiment that compliments an already tasty dish.
Each blogger will have their own individual style. I like to have a left or right aligned small image at the top of my posts. Darren tends to have a button for his series. Brian likes to have a wide graphic that represents the article.
I like the way on DoshDosh the manga images break up the flow of the article adding visual interest, even though they never seem to have anything to do with the content, they look great and add a splash of colour.
How can you add imagery to your posts? Do you like to see pictures or prefer the text?
I think that visuals are often sadly neglected — especially on ‘pro’ blogs, which tend to be either sparse or cluttered with clashing ads.
I think blogging is a visual experience, and it should be a fun or thought-provoking one. The entire blog — not just individual posts — should pleasure the eye.