How to Write a Glitch Free Blog Post?

Though you know how to use the blog post editor effectively, you may not able to write a glitch free blog post sometimes. The following are the reasons why your blog post, after finished writing, looks awkward on the blog when viewed, which results in loosing the readers forever.
  1. You are copy-pasting stuff from internet.
  2. Your blog post editor will not load the CSS from your blog template.
  3. You wrote an article in word processors and copy-pasted it.
  4. The CSS is not working in the post.
  5. You have not actually cared about structuring the blog post.

1. You are copy-pasting stuff from internet

Agree to disagree that you have not copy-pasted any content from the internet. Newbie bloggers normally copy-paste stuff in the earlier stages of blogging. It may be seen throughout the article or just a part of it is being copied from somewhere else.

In a video about plagiarism, Matt Cutts once says that a little copied content is not bad.

That doesn’t mean you can copy-paste stuff from now on. He mean to say that if any blogger or webmaster is using the pre-existed content like free images on the internet, it will not be considered under a major copy content issue. He also says the word ‘little’ and he mean it.

However, the copy-pasting images will leave residue of CSS they were bound to, in your blog post. So, when you insert any such content, remove the pre-formatting of the entire article or the external content.

Removing the pre-formatting of the content:
In your blog post editor, you can see the remove formatting button, a symbol of ‘T’ with red ‘X’ suffixing on it. Take a look at the following screenshot to get better idea of it.

  1. Select all(Ctrl+A) or just drag-select the content(from external sources) you just inserted.
  2. Click on the ‘remove formatting’ button.
  3. Do not publish the article as soon as you remove the pre-format. Re-align it now and check it in preview. Once you are satisfied with the structure of the post, then publish it.

2. Your blog post editor will not load the CSS from your blog template

Always remember that the blog post editor you are writing articles in, may not deliver the same structure of the post as it is seen on your blog.

Why so?

Because the blog post editor is just like another word processor. It cannot give you WYSIWYG(What You See Is What You Get) user interface. Though you create every piece of the article on your own, it might show some glitches because of this.
Solution:
Tweak your template and remove unnecessary gaps and trim the ‘separation CSS’ snippets. For example, if your blog template have the line-height of greater value which is stretching your blog post, trimming it can help it get into good shape.

3. You wrote an article in word processor and copy-pasted it

So many newbie and intermediate bloggers write in word processing software like MS Word and copy-paste the whole article here into the blog post editor. As they are not used to it, they’d prefer to use third-party word processors. If you are one of them, you should read this point clearly and slowly.

The word processor software also applies its own structuring formats to the content that is created using it. For example, if you place a ‘textbox’ in MS Word and copy-paste it in to blog post editor, the ghost of it will remain inside and annoys you when tried to edit.
Solution:
There are two simple and smart solutions for this situation. They are,
  1. Making your MS Word the default blog post editor.
  2. Using the Windows Live Writer.

4. The CSS is not working in the post

You may not always type only text form of article, isn’t it? Sometimes you may need to specify CSS to optimize content and make it look more reader-friendly. The glitches you are seeing in the finished article might also be happening because of the wrong specification of the CSS in the post.

For e.g., If the following piece of sample code is to be displayed separately as I did below, I should have already added the respective CSS in the template otherwise it would look like as shown in ‘sample 2(italic)’

Sample 1:
.box{
background-color: white;
    width: 300px;
    padding: 25px;
    border: 25px solid green;
    margin: 25px;
}
 Sample 2:
.box{
background-color: white;
    width: 300px;
    padding: 25px;
    border: 25px solid green;
    margin: 25px;

}

Even after adding CSS, you may get errors while using the classes that you had specified in the code. If you had specified a class with a name .box and you used it in wrong way, it gives you a glitch.

For e.g., You should use the class name in the HTML as <div class=’box’></div> but not as <div class=’#box’></div> or <div clas=’box’></div> or <dvi class=’box’></div> or with no proper ending </div> tag.

Even the spelling mistakes counts. The red colored text indicates spelling mistakes in the above example. Check it twice in ‘preview’ window before you publish the article.

5. You actually are not caring about the structure of the blog post

The structure of the blog post is what drives the visitor from the top to end of your article. You might be a versatile writer but it would not make you a good blogger. Blogging, though you think is as same as writing, need some skills to present the information that engages your visitors for a long time on it.

Consider the following while you are writing a blog post:
  1. Paragraph breaks
  2. One line gaps above and below the images
  3. Padding the left or right aligned images
  4. Decorating highlights with bold and italic styles
  5. Single line gap between the last paragraph and next heading
  6. Single line gap between the heading and preceding paragraph
  7. Any other structuring principles of your own

Conclusion

I DO NOT RECOMMEND ANY BLOGGER TO COPY-PASTE stuff from internet. We use images sometimes that are pre-existed which is also called copying stuff from the internet. It may not affect your blog but, it will still be a copied image. If you wanted to have unique images in your blog posts, try to create your own using the online tools like canva.com.

2/Post a reply/Replies

  1. i also used to write on MS word, @Rahul Krishnan but some time i got problem with font size and font and heading. After coping form word and pasting on CSM that again i have to re-format the post

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Satya,


    Most welcome and thank you for letting me know about your opinions about the post. It makes a blogger happy when he comes to know that the post has been useful for his readers.


    Cheers :)

    ReplyDelete

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