KISS - Keep it Simple, Stupid

KISS is an acronym coined by the U.S Navy in 1960 (source wikipedia) and it is also a very famous design principle in the technology world. I cannot stress how much it also applies while writing your blog.

It is recommended to have a simple introduction, telling the audience what they can expect from your blog article and what how the reader will benefit if they read the article. This sets up a good premise to capture the engagement of the reader.

Likewise, a good conclusion summarizing the points that you've covered in your article, along with any reference links for further reading will be a good way to conclude the article.

A bonus tip is to have your subscription and the twitter handle at the end of the post to ensure your reader has the ability to connect with you to increase your overall engagement.

KIC - Keep it Concise

It is highly recommended to keep it to the point and concise. The simple reason being that your readers are generally very busy. Ask yourself if your reader could ready your entire article during a 5-10 coffee/tea break.

As a rule of thumb, the ideal length for an article is the length occupied when you press the 'Page Down' key 4 times. If you feel you want to explain more, then evaluate if you can make it into a series of articles vs one blog post.

Regarding the content, break it down into points and turn them into sub-headings. Each sub-heading should have a logical start and end. As a bonus, it'll be good to conclude your sub-heading by introducing the next topic in your article. This improves your overall continuity and increases reader engagement.

Count the number of "You"s in the Article.

While this might sound silly, this is very important. Why? The simple reason is that I'm writing to you, the reader, and not for myself. So I'll comb through the article and change as many self-references as possible from "me" or "I" to "you"s in the article.

If I'm not able to change it, it's a good indication that the article will never work in terms of engagement, since the readers will not be able to relate to the article nor the topic.

Use Illustrations, Images & Code Examples

To the age-old saying of 'A picture is worth a 1000 words', it's cannot be more true especially when it comes to your blog article. If you are explaining an article, completing it with illustrations ensures that the concepts are reinforced in your brain.

Images with the text help the readers consume content easily, as compared to just text, which can tend to get monotonous. Placing the images strategically within your article is important and care should be taken to not break the reader's flow while placing the images.

A good rule of thumb is to either read out your article yourself or give it to a friend and ask them where it kind of gets monotonous or the attention slip away and place the image around those portions.

The above can be extended while embedding code snippets while writing your technical article. It is easier with code snippets, since, your article would naturally go about explaining the code.

Show and Tell

Finally, you'll need to tell your reader how they've benefited from your article in a way they can identify. A good way to do this is by providing them with a bunch of actionable items, for example, you can provide them with the required resources to take the knowledge they have gained from your article and move forward.

For a technical article, providing a demo to your work and possibly the Github repository greatly increases engagement and is very satisfying to the reader.

Conclusion

In simple words, write from your heart. Write about the things you are most passionate about and the rest will follow. Start writing consistently and you'll improve leaps and bounds.

I hope you've enjoyed this article and I would like to recommend two more excellent articles on blogging tips:

How to write a blog without motivation? by @iamshadmirza

A Guide for writing consistently for technical writers! by @atapas

If you enjoy my articles, don't forget to Subscribe. You can also find me on Twitter @skaytech

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