How to Write a Blog Post

I am no authority here, and I think everybody can participate to the discussion. What do you like in a blog? What must it have to be good? What standards should it have?

If you want to say yours, or share any article, this is the right thread!

I just found a random article.

https://www.blogtyrant.com/how-to-write-the-perfect-blog-post/

I do not like to think at other blogs as competition, more like people we can admire or learn from (learn from their mistakes and from what they do right).

Finding the target is useful, but sometimes esp for personal blogs it's important to start writing, we can rearrange the target and the soul of the blog post after post. If we never write, or are too bound to an idea, the writer's block could always catch us!

I think that if we write about our personal experience the blog will always be unique.

The blog should be interesting and understandable for our target. 

Visually interesting, easy to read and skim, using bullet points and bold to improve reading. Short sentences. The use of paragraphs...

My blog is... Oh my blog. A diary in the end. I share it, more for the sake of letting know what I do, to be able myself to follow my progress and being accountable. I don't go very deep in any topic, but I did it in some posts. 

But this is material for another thread. I will probably post it tomorrow.

I blog about chess but in a different way. It's really hard to explain.

https://www.chess.com/blog/CDRED141

You Kanda have to read a few to understand. 

@CDRED141, I think that explaining how you blog would be a good part of improving at blogging and focussing better at your objectives.  

We are here to learn, to share, to explain. Using written words also out of our blog should be a pleasure.

How would you describe my bloging style? 

After you, sir!

https://www.chess.com/blog/ChessPawn921Analysis

I like to blog about tactics and other types of strategies to help people improve. I started with Opening Traps, moved on to specific trick and tactics within the game (such as a post on Back Rank Attacks), and now, I am focusing on Bullet because it is my highest rating (and I have not found any Bullet blogs).

Different. I blog about chess but by looking at it in different ways. 

Hmmm... It looks like this thread took a completely different direction from the one I wanted.

I had the idea of generic rules, like a kind of checklist, to go through to know if we are writing a good or bad post/blog, despite of the style. 

It did. CD posted, and we got the wrong idea. A checklist could be a good idea.

If you are in BlogChamps, follow my reviews.

@ Marziotta,

I think there would be different checklists for different types of blogs. So, maybe we could start with an expectation survey of our group before we make checklists to find out what they expect. 

I would suggest that we start a forum for each type of blog. I know that the blogs I plan will fall into the following categories:

Personal experience stories related to chess

Reflections on chess 

Personal journeys and diary stories

Creating chess puzzle contests based on a theme

How to articles 

Discussions of tactics or strategies

Discussion of different phases of the game (opening, middle game, and endgame)

Integrating learning theory with chess instruction 

This may be too detailed for rules, So maybe we could categorize it into the following broad categories:

Personal diaries, journey stories, and reflections

Discussion of the different parts of the game

Tactics and strategies

How to articles 

General topics of interest articles

Teaching articles 

Activity-based articles

Just a thought 

@ChessPawn921 Iam in blogchamps, I will follow your reviews, it would be great if you shared your canvas here, since maybe a couple of us are not in blogchamps.

@Renate-Irene you are very right, every type of blog should follow different guidelines. If you have an idea on how to organize threads please go ahead!

We can keep this thread for very generic suggestions and for what we think of our blog style and whatever comes. Threads get a life of their own, and it's nice even when they go somewhere unexpected!

Maybe different people could take care of different threads. My blog is a diary/progress blog, I could take care of that category. I try to make a thread a day to keep the club active. I think it is better to be active regularly than doing everything at once. Of course, if you have better suggestions on how to keep a club I am all ears!

Of course everybody can post all the threads they want, I just try myself to post regularly to keep the club alive and running!

On another side, @Renate-Irene, yours is a personal blog, but completely different. Should they still follow the same principles? Just wondering.

@ Marziotta,

The critical difference between our blogs is that yours are experiential -- a diary-- what happened. Mine tend to be more reflective, reflecting on experiences and analyzing or synthesizing them. I think that I try to integrate the experiences into a whole, like a picture of a puzzle where each piece is unique and contributes to the whole. I think the whole that I am searching for is the soul of chess and the relationship between chess and life. Even my comments are all related to that. So, it is organic, and there are no specific guidelines per se; I do not have any, yet there seem to be internal guidelines I follow. In a way, my blogs are a way of self-discovery. I invite everyone who wishes to travel the journey with me and maybe find their own journey within my journey. 

I follow general principles rather than guidelines; some of these principles are implicit rather than explicit. However, I have read a lot about writing (at one point, I wanted to be a writer), so I have learned many of the basic principles, and I am happy to share those. 

Just stumbled here...

https://www.chess.com/news/view/chess-coms-suggested-best-practices-for-bloggers-3823

Probably needs to be updated 

Any suggestions on how to update it, @CDRED141?

It's 4 years old. The bloging community's wants has changed. 

Ok, what are your suggestions to improve it? How do you feel the blog community has changed?

Btw, this post is pinned in the top bloggers club.

Another post that popped upon my Google feed, not chess related. I like most of all the idea of novelty:

https://ahrefs.com/blog/how-to-write-a-blog-post/

@Renate-Irene, any basic principle would be appreciated.

I also did my research on how to write better, but have not found the story to tell yet.