Good Content is Good Food
Comparing your struggles and problems in blogging to things you know and love can really help you to get better. Yesterday, as I compared blogging to Golf, today is something more of a culinary direction. Everyone loves food, whether you care to admit it or not. You need it to live, so why not make the most of it?
Presentation is Everything
If you’ve ever been to a restaurant besides the McDonald’s type, the food is pretty. Chefs pride themselves on using their creativity to make the dishes look great. Use of colour, balance, negative space and little details really help a dish stand apart. The same can go for your articles.
- Colour - Maybe make the <strong> tag or the post headings a different colour. Make sure they work with the rest of the design and pop on your background.
- Balance - Don’t cram everything together, and make sure one side isn’t ‘heavy’. With the left column being wider on this designs, as most are, I balance the sidebar by adding a little colour.
- Negative/White Space - This is more having to do with your design than the actual article you’re writing, but as a rule, open is good. I’m not saying that you must have white, but negative space is pretty much a necessity.
- The Details - Whether it be an image in a post, a pull quote, block quote, a list like this, or whatever- the details make a difference.
Using a system like WordPress is great for controlling the post’s presentation. You can upload all your images right there and the WYSIWYG editor provides an insight as to what it will look like. Always preview your posts before publishing for, because WYSIWYG stands for What You See Isn’t What You Get 
Discover Something New
Discovering a new ingredient can really light a fire under a chef. Finding a new topic that pokes your passion can do you wonders for you too.
A new way to do things, an uncovered topic or a strong opinion go a long way in terms on rekindling your blogging spirit, should it need kindling. Alternatively, if you’ve been going strong a good amount of time, it can really set fire and set you apart. See, now blogging is like fire too 
Also, when discovering a new topic, there’s always the chance of others writing about it and linking to you because of it.
Perfect Your Craft
There are those that cook. There are also those that love to cook. Being in the latter and in a similar situation for blogging, it’s not a chore. When I cook, it’s also not a chore. I want to do it, and I like to do it, so why not get better? One thing that brings your skills along in either discipline, whether you like it or not, is time. The experience gained from blogging for a year, or cooking a new dish for the first time is something can not be taught.
Sometimes the only way to learn something or to get better is to just do it. Sorry book nerds.
All that said, find some time to cook up (yes, I went there) a great post thinking about how it will look. Also try and go somewhere new with your writing, and what you write about. It’s all very simple, but you won’t know how much it will help you until you go do it!
Leave a comment
David Hopkins
August 30th, 2007 at 5:59 PM
The aspect that really livens your blog up is the large text you put in blockqoutes, as Ryan has also picked up on. I’ve seen similar things to that, but the way you are doing it a bit different. Its similar to newpapers, except you use a much nicer and bigger font.
Robert MacEwan
September 9th, 2007 at 6:03 PM
That does stand out even in my minds eye when picturing the blog itself. This leads me to the next question which is how is this done? Via plugin and are you using a wysiwyg to post content?
Connor Wilson
September 9th, 2007 at 6:43 PM
I just use the built in WYSIWYG editor in WordPress, but I preview the article a couple times as I go along to make sure things are working out right. Just “Save and Continue Editing” and there will be a link to preview after the first time.
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