This is going to be a pretty quick post but it’s still very important.

If you’re going to be doing a serious amount of blogging or writing on the Internet then you have to change your writing style from what you may have learned in high school or university.

When people read things on the Internet they tend to skim. This is probably because there’s such a ridiculous amount of content out there and people only have so much time.

Therefore you need to make things as easy as possible for people reading your content.

Fortunately this isn’t hard to do, you just have to slightly adjust your writing style.

Break Your Text into Small Paragraphs

You might be used to writing essays and reports with large paragraphs however if you do this on the Internet most people will see a giant wall of text and decide they don’t have time for that.

The best thing to do here is break your text up into small one or two sentence paragraphs.

This makes your text considerably easier to skim through quickly and makes it much less likely the user will give up and leave your site.

Use Lots of Headings and Sub Headings

Much like you see in this post it’s best to break up your content into sections with headings and even sub headings if necessary.

This again helps people skim through your posts and identify what sections they really want to read or even just get a quick idea about what you’re writing about.

In WordPress you can simply select your text and use the built in headings.

Heading 1 is for the most important heading and is typically reserved for the post title.

Heading 2 is what you’re going to use for the main headings of the post and then you’ll use the remaining headings for any sub headings throughout those sections.

Giving your post a headline such as “8 tips for…” or “6 reasons to…” makes it very easy to divide up your post into sections. Numbering the sub headings is a big help as well.

Headings and sub headings also have the added bonus of helping with your site’s SEO.

Use Images Throughout Your Text

A giant post of only text is boring so it’s always a good idea to use eye-catching images throughout the post to help keep the reader’s attention.

Try to use quality images that are at least somewhat relevant to your post.

WordPress will also let you add captions to your images and feel free to add those as well.

Format Your Text

Feel free to bold important sections of your text or even italicize or change the colour.

Again, people skim things on the Internet and you want to make the most important parts of your post stand out to capture attention.

Block quotes are also a great way to make important text stand out.

Bullet points and numbered lists are another excellent way to present information quickly and efficiently.

• They’re much easier to read than several sentences
• They present information clearly
• They help you eliminate unnecessary words

Conclusion

That’s pretty much all you need to know to start blogging or writing on the Internet, I told you this post would be quick.

The main take away here is to make your content as easy as possible for your audience to skim through.

Then do your best to entice them to stay on the page and read everything more closely.

I’ve found that this style of writing also works incredibly well for emails, especially e-mail cover letters when you’re applying for a job.