If you don’t read blog posts from begining to end, and you simply skim through them, then stop here. Just jump down to the page a bit and continue your skimming. You know you were going to do that anyways. I would have done the same thing.

Most people skim through blogs, they don’t really read them. All the hard work you put into your posts will probably go unread by most people. Sorry to break the news. What should you do to make sure the readers and the skimmers leave with your entire message in their brains?

There are a few tips and tricks to make sure skimmers read the real important points of your posts. Most of them tricks; on the eyes. Human eyes get bored easily so they start to look for different things on the page. A whole post of just plain ole text will get skimmed pretty quickly. Adding variations to the text or post will draw the eyes to those areas, and hopefully will get read.

Try these tips in your blog. I’ve has success with them in the past and it’s actually increased my visitor’s average time on site.

Use lists - If you skimmed or read this blog, you probably stopped at this list at some point. Please leave a comment below and let me know how you made it here (reading vs. skimming). Be honest, I’m sure everyone here would be interested in the percentage.

Use Bold, Italics, Underline - Also attention getters in a post. The eye natually pauses and usually reads the sentence that contains the BOLD, Italic or Underline.

Use pictures - We love pictures. So do skimmers. Put a pretty one next to your bullet points and the eyes will follow.

Get to the point within the first 2 sentences - If the first 2 sentences don’t give a good intro to the rest of the paragraph, the skimmer will have jumped to the next paragraph.

Write a killer first sentence - This is the hardest one to do, but if done properly, you may be able to get the skimmer so engaged, that they might actually read your post.

You can read all you want about how to improve your blogging skills, but you aren’t going to get that much better unless you can answer YES to all the following questions. Get to that point, and I promise you will see an immediate improvment in your blogs.

But I thought you were going to teach me how to write better blogs? I am! Just bear with me here. I’m not an English teacher, but I can help your blog. Think beyond the words in your blog, and think more about the driving force behind the words you type. Then watch as your blog quality steadily improves.

1. Are you blogging about something you are passionate about?
   If not, your readers will see right through it. Your blog will become dull because the day to day task of writing will become a drag to you.
2. Do you continually expand your knowledge on the topic?
   If you don’t, your first few posts will be awesome, but once you run out of knowledge on the topic, you’ll also run out of blogging skills.
3. Do you read other blogs that have similiar topics?
   NO? Why not? Not only will you gain a ton of knowledge (see question #2), you can also learn from their mistakes. If you didn’t enjoy their blog, ask yourself why, and improve on it. But also remember, DO NOT COPY their content. Get inspired, but create your own content.

Write your posts now, choose the day and time you want it published, and WordPress will do the rest. Enjoy your vacation and don’t worry about your blog. It will keep posting for you. Non of your readers will even know you’re gone.