Well, “readable” to me, means “loved by”. Stuff that will please the readers, and make them feel friendly at your blog. It could also mean  different things to different people. So, let me just try and find out as to what are the best practices that will help you write a readable blog.

1. Always bring in a new perspective.

Don’t worry if you have nothing new to write – Be clever, refresh stuff,. Not many gurus tell you this, but I know they do this very often. When I started my logging career, I found it difficult to find new things to log about. The problem was that someone would’ve already blogged about it.

But then i thought about it, and realized that I’m not going to write anything ever, if I was going to look for new content always. Somebody had to write it already. But I also found out that whatever was written already had some information missing, they wouldn’t be complete. So i dugg those, and wrote improvised articles on those topics, with a better coverage. As a matter of fact, I even out rank them in SERPs for the keywords they used to be ranking for.

2. Write without jargon, in layman’s language.

Especially, if you’re into technical stuff, you might get carried away while writing articles to use a lot of jargon. Big mistake. Unless you’re writing a book or speaking at a conference, it doesn’t help much writing in jargon language. The reason is that while at a conference, people listening to you are at a certain level of understanding. They’re probably from your league, so they know the jargons. While on the web, you will get the learned guy as well as the newbie. While it is okay to use jargons at places, its always better to write things simple and understandable by all. People kinda like that.

3. Don’t say something jus because you know it.

Yeah, don’t do that. People read your blog be cause, they want to learn from it, they’d like to take something back home if possible. They don’t want to listen to you just because you can. So while writing articles, focus on the value. See if whatever you’re saying helps the reader in any way.

4. Address to every section of your readers

As I said, there could be experts and learners subscribed to the feeds. Though it may not be possible to satisfy all within one post, spread out the message. Reach out to the experts in one post, while talking to the other chunk in another post. This doesn’t mean losing focus on your content though. A good tactic is to use examples in your articles. People like examples, so use them well to address every section of your readers.

5. Always go that extra mileage, delight your reader.

I’m always tempted to write something off my mind and get away with it. I believe so many of us will identify with that. But no, I know that’s going to bring down the value of the blog. If i were you, I’d think “Oh, this man is taking it too easy now, its time for me to unsubscribe..”. And since I don’t want that to happen, I always go that extra mile, take in that little bit of extra effort while writing articles, and make me take it really not easy all the time. In the long run, it helps.

Makes sense ? Simple, is it not ? Hope you enjoyed the read. Do let me know your thoughts through the comments.