How to Write Interesting Posts

How to Write Interesting Posts

by prophetiesdemerlin

Many people wish to write blogs, wikis or other types of articles covering their favorite subject matter but have a difficult time coming up with what to write. Some may even have an idea of what to write but don’t feel comfortable expressing their thoughts in blog, wiki or another type of article format.

So, in this blog - we’re going to attempt to help inspire anyone who could use some pointers in these areas on how to write interesting posts.

What is an Interesting Post?

Firstly, what is deemed interesting is mostly subjective (based on one’s personal feelings and or experiences).

So it’s a good idea to get a feel for the community one is in and what kind of content the of said community like the most. This can be quite easily achieved by simply scrolling through the communities timeline and finding the posts with the most likes and or engagement.

An example is if you are in a Comic Book based community - you can make a post about a comic book related film or cosplay of your favorite comic book character, if you think the of that community will be interested.

On the other hand you wouldn’t want to only make one particular kind of post over and over again, unless you managed to really strike a cord and fulfill a needed gap in content in that particular area.

In my experience, it’s always best to attempt to mix things up a bit. This actually helps grow your personal brand and ensure that your content doesn’t get stale. So if one were to write a comic book movie review one week - they may want to post a cosplay post the next and then return to a different comic book movie review post the following week.

This isn’t mandatory by any means but what it will ensure, is, that people will be more inclined to check out your posts if, a) there is some consistency and b) if that consistency is broken up a bit with the element of surprise.

What you don’t want to do (unless you are just starting a community or an agent or leader of a community who needs to do such) - is post more than one to two post every three days - as this can come off as spamming or attention seeking and will generally turn people off.

When a new or old member logs into any given community- they are looking for a nice, balanced mixture of content. If they see only one person posting the same kind of content repeatedly - they are likely to assume the community is underdeveloped and on its way out and will more likely than not - exit the community looking for more varied and evenly distributed content elsewhere.

Another great way to pre- gauge interest about a topic in any given community is to post a poll asking the what they are more interested in.

Those examples aside, what more can we do to find and improve the interesting factor of any given post?

In some cases, this may be easier than others. If you are in a Tarot community, it’s a safe bet that the new Tarot deck you just bought might make an excellent post. Yet, in other cases, depending on the community and it’s specific topics - this may take a little extra...

Research

If you are choosing to write about a film or television show (or anything really) you’ll want to do as much research as you possibly can to ensure that you can provide your audience with only the most relevant and informative information possible.

Things like the release date (if it hasn’t been released yet), a little about the cast, the production crew and the story - all make for a great outline for an television show and or film or book or music release.

If the subject is already available- you’d want to include that info as well.

A great way of understanding what is driving people’s interest in any given moment is to research what topics are being most searched and discussed using things like Google Analytics and or Google Trends.

So if you search Doctor Who and Google shows you that no one is talking about Doctor Who at the present moment - you might want to choose a different television, film or book ip to write about, ensuring that more people are interested in any given subject at the specific time that you are writing your post.

Picking hot, relevant and current social trends to write about strongly increases your chances of getting more people to click on your post and actually read it.

So once you temporarily garner the interest of your audience- how do you keep it?

Engagement

This is where engagement comes into play. Engaging posts are more than just readily available information and or one’s opinions of such. The objective is to get into the readers head and give them a sense of personal inclusion. This can be achieved in many ways although some of the simplest ways (according to Grammarly.Com) are to use interesting and vivid words that best describe your thoughts in the shortest space possible and by asking your audience questions.

Far too often we are only eager to share our thoughts, knowledge and experiences- and certainly, that process can result in an interesting post - yet, without posing a question to your audience - they are left with little to nothing to discuss and much possibility of engagement, goes right out the window.

So, I always recommend asking your readers questions throughout a post or at least at the very end, after you’ve stated a particular piece of information or opinion.

example -

“Perhaps I’m overthinking it .. What do you think? Should blog writers ask their readers questions?“

This is much more likely to get people to respond in the comments of your post than if you didn’t ask anything at all.

Another key to writing an interesting and engaging post that is often overlooked, is, the understanding of your audience as to what kind of written piece one is reading.

Is it a Blog, News, Wiki or Fiction?

There are many ways to write a post on Amino. There is the blog, the wiki, the straight news article etc.

In some cases an entire blog may be a piece of fan fiction, others may be a matter of fact straight report on a subject or an all out opinion piece.

Always try to make sure you clearly define what kind of piece you are writing so there is as little confusion as possible.

This doesn’t mean that you can’t mix and match those styles - because you can - what it does mean - is that you want your reader to know what is fact, what is opinion and what is fiction and clearly define that as much ad possible.

I try to make my blogs at least 2/3 fact and 1/3 my opinion and I try to always specify which is which, with great clarity.

Most probably know this but still I see many who do not - a wiki is not the same as a news article or blog.

Wikis are more so intended to be straight, non biased, encyclopedia-like, informative articles that one would find in an encyclopedia, dictionary or Wikipedia.

Whereas blogs can be straight information- they are often accompanied by opinion and that’s what makes them a blog.

News articles are (supposed to be) in many ways, similar to wikis yet should be made in blog format.

Why?

Well you wouldn’t want to make a wiki for an book, television show or film - that would technically be more of a news article and or personal opinion blog combination.

Only after the release of any said book, movie or tv show would you want to typically create a wiki for it. This way one can accurately compile all the relevant data pertaining to the subject, sans any one opinion or bias.

Of course Wikis may include critical reception, current Rotten Tomatoes Scores etc because that isn’t the writers opinion.

Wikis are also ever evolving. Meaning, they are, by design, meant to be added to in some instances. They evolve over time - such as a television show of which only one season has aired - technically one would go back and edit their wiki to include following seasons and eventually cancelation or the shows finale.

Now that we have some idea of how to research what people are currently interested in - and how to keep them engaged - we are going to go over some basics that will help finalize your post and make it the most interesting and engaging post it can be.

The Basics

You always want a post to be a minimum of three Amino sized paragraphs (2 to 3 sentences).

You want to separate your text blocks every three to four sentences or less to ensure that when one is reading your post - all the text doesn’t just run together and or run-on endlessly. If a reader sees too much text all at once, without being broken up accordingly - they are likely to turn away assuming it’s just too much to take in at one time.

For this reason it is important to always break your text up into smaller, more manageable chunks.

One can and should perhaps take this a step farther by adding …

bolded text sub headers

… every so often to help the reader find particular parts of the blog or wiki that may interest them or that they may return to, if they read blogs in periodic moments throughout their day.

The last two suggestions are perhaps two of the most important things one can do to ensure a greater amount of interest and engagement of their post right off the bat. Without them, no one may even click on your post to see all of your hard work.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

I can’t stress the following enough - always include at least one to three photos that match the subject of your work. They can be your own photos, others photos, original art and or others original art. If you choose to use art or any image that isn’t yours - you must include at the bottom of the post where you got said art or photo.

Google image search is not an adequate “by-line” or source credit. The sourced information must include a direct link to where the photo came from and or who holds the copyright.

This isn’t as difficult as it sounds - it’s simply one extra step of locating the link that appears in all Google Image searches and or image based sites such as Pinterest.

Please keep in mind that if one does opt to use a copywritten image they must be aware that the copyright owner may request them to remove said image at anytime and this must be adhered to immediately.

For this reason it is highly recommended to know what images one can and should use for what posts.

If you are writing a review or a news like article featuring an comic, film, book etc you may feel free to use whatever publicly released images of such under what is called fair use.

On the other hand if you are writing a straight opinion piece about why Disney sucks - you might want to expect a Disney representative to be ing you demanding that you take their official copywritten images down immediately.

Most online artists don’t mind if you use their art as long as you credit them but not all feel the same way and it’s always best to get written permission by said artist first.

That said, there are millions of pieces of public domain art (most anything over 80-100 years old) that anyone can use for anything. On top of that, there are millions of publicly available background images, desktop wallpapers, gifs etc that also generally fall into fair use or public use that one may choose from.

Regardless of what kind of image you choose to include, as long as you properly cite the source and or copyright holder - you are most likely safe as long as no one requests that you remove it.

Another easy and fun option for making great custom pics with text is utilizing such free apps like “Vintage Logo Maker” (for custom text overlaid on images) and “PixBay” for tens of thousands of free public domain images to choose from.

The key takeaway here is, posts that don’t include images at all - are far less likely to even be opened and read.

Last but certainly not least, is possibly the most important aspect (outside of the main photo) that represents your interesting and engaging post is…

The Title

A great written piece, with an equally great picture isn’t always enough to get people to click on your post - it must have a great title.

A good title should be short and sweet, encoming the overall topic or topics of the post in question. All letters other than prepositions, should always be capitalized.

An obvious example would be as follows ..

How to Write Interesting Posts

Whatever title you choose should be catchy, compelling and descriptive, described in as few words as possible.

Final Thoughts & In Closing ..

If you’ve made it this far, congratulations! You now have a better idea of how to gauge and research interesting topics and a few pointers on how to best showcase your next interesting and engaging post.

that interest is built upon engagement and engagement is simply making someone else feel that they can the conversation or thought. Try to make your post fun, light hearted and ask your audience questions - making sure to give them space to breathe and comprehend each point and or subject that you wish to explore and discuss.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions of any other ways to make posts interesting and engaging, sound off in the comments below!

If you liked this post please take a moment to hit the like button and or visit my profile and follow me for more tips and tricks on how to make your posts and or community all that it can be!

Thanks for reading!

🖖 :relieved:

For even more tips and tricks on how to make your post all that it can be, including step by step instructions with pictures on how to use Aminos many features, check out my blog

How to Make Awesome Blog Posts that Consistently Get Featured

http://aminoapps.descargarjuegos.org/p/wys3vu

[main image sources] Picture from PixBay /Titles by Vintage Logo Maker & PhotoLeap / Ghost Club Logo copyright :copyright: prophetiesdemerlin & PopMetaCultural 2020, 2024.