Blog Posting: Give ‘em Eye Rest

By on July 31, 2007 in Blog Coach, Blogging with 22 Comments

Eyeball
We’re scanners. Our eyes move fast and furious trying to capture all we can in a short amount of time.  Just as the best road trips have rest stops along the way, the best blog posts have eye rests along the way.

Give your audience one (or more) eye rest stops in your blog posts.

  • Images – I always encourage placing the image to the right. Why?  We read left-to-right. Unless the image IS the story, let it be an eye rest. It will enhance – and maybe even compel more readership.
  • Bold Text – As scanners, we’re flying through text. Especially with longer paragraphs, publish a money quote in bold text.
  • Hyperlinks – Hyperlinks are valuable to everyone involved, and the value for your reader is twofold: 1) They can dig deeper into the subject and 2) the change in text is an eye rest
  • Lists – Short bullet or numbered lists are always good for an eye rest.

Which article are you more likely to read and remember?

This one:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Pellentesque
molestie neque nec ante. Pellentesque dui ipsum, porttitor vel,
placerat sollicitudin, venenatis ut, dui. Praesent erat arcu, molestie
sit amet, interdum in, nonummy pulvinar, nibh. Mauris imperdiet
condimentum nisi. Donec eu turpis non leo nonummy sollicitudin.
Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices
posuere cubilia Curae; Integer justo lorem, sodales sed, mollis at,
gravida viverra, diam. Donec nibh leo, scelerisque sed, cursus et,
venenatis scelerisque, erat.

Or this one:

Lipsum07
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Pellentesque
molestie neque nec ante. Pellentesque dui ipsum, my money is on the second one, venenatis ut, dui. Praesent erat arcu, molestie
sit amet, interdum in, nonummy pulvinar, nibh.

  • Mauris imperdiet
    condimentum nisi.
  • Donec eu turpis non leo nonummy sollicitudin.
  • Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices
    posuere cubilia

Curae; Integer justo lorem, sodales sed, mollis at,
gravida viverra, diam. Donec nibh leo, scelerisque sed, cursus et,
venenatis scelerisque, erat.

Give your readers an eye rest. They’re more likely to remember what you wrote – and therefore spread your words.

Photo on Flickr by imadoofus123

About Mike Sansone:

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  • http://www.momentonmoney.com Art Dinkin

    Thanks for the sage advice, teacher. :)
    As for which paragraph I would rather read, I would have to recall my Latin which I have tried so hard to forget! Just kidding of course, you point is well taken and one I needed to hear (again).

  • http://simonpayn.typepad.com/simon_payns_blog/2007/08/how-to-write-ar.html Simon Payn’s Effective Customer Newsletters

    How to write articles people want to read

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  • http://www.freetraffictip.com Tinu

    You’re so right, it’s the second one that is more appealing to read. This is the main reason I want to change my blog template – somewhere in the CSS, even when I do bulleted lists, they don’t space out right, even though, on reproduction in feed or on Facebook, they look fine.

  • http://www.blogopreneur.com Kian Ann

    Thanks for the great tip Mike, actually I guess all the unbolded or non-headings don’t matter much as long as your headings and bolded text tell a story!

  • http://www.drewsmarketingminute.com Drew McLellan

    Mike,
    As you know…I’m a big fan of not always putting the image on the right. I like to mix things up so that the blog doesn’t become visually stale.
    And I let the photo’s natural direction (is the object or person looking left or right) dictate position as well.
    But…I’ve always been a rebel. And I usually follow your wise counsel to the letter.
    Drew

  • http://blog.giftideahelp.com/ Elizabeth Anderson

    Obviously, the post with the bullets is the preferable one. You will remember it more. I will try to put more bullets in my posts. I am already following Mike’s rules for the placement of photos in posts, am trying to make sure that I bold a word or sentence.

  • http://www.thebetanews.com Dennis Bjørn Petersen

    I usually place the pictures to the left. I always use pictures that are related to the text, but after reading this I’m in doubt. Any chance of getting a clearer definition? Should the picture be placed to the right 9 out of 10 times?
    Really interesting post btw :-)

  • http://piotrj.wordpress.com Piotr Jakubowski

    Great advice, Mike.
    Looks like I’ll have to restructure my next posts :)

  • http://www.manageyourwriting.com/2007/08/stop-move-away-.html Manage Your Writing

    Stop. Move away from the screen.

    Mike, at Converstations, asks Which article are you more likely to read and remember? This one:Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Pellentesque molestie neque nec ante. Pellentesque dui ipsum, porttitor vel, placerat sollicitudin,…

  • http://www.alexandersplayroom.com Maria

    These are some great tips Mike. I just recently started a blog and will definitely use these ideas.
    Maria

  • http://www.soupornuts.com Chris Melton

    I’ve been blogging for about 6 months now and your reasoning just feels right. Thanks for the tips.
    http://www.soupornuts.com

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  • http://www.testoftimedesign.com/blog Justin Brady

    Hooray for information architecture! Those interested in helping their readers out, and making information more understandable MUST pick up one of Edward Tufte’s books. I consider him the father of information architecture! http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/books_vdqi

  • http://stateofmindcoaching.com/ Jade Handy

    Blog Posting: Give ‘em Eye Rest! -Great advice for writers.

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