Blog Posting: Give 'em Eye Rest
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:
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
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