Dress Code Applied

The First Impression

Missionaries have a strict dress code that allows some room for creativity. No missionary will look exactly the same as another, but they all look neat and polished. In the same sense, all our blogs are going to be different, but they must be put together and professional. These are some guidelines to work within so that you can do so.

Kickouts

Online, people are picky, judgmental, and have no attention span. If they don't like the look of your webpage or have to put too much effort into understanding the content, they are out of there. Usually, this verdict takes 5-10 seconds. An element or cause that regularly annoys web viewers and makes them automatically leave a page is called a Kickout. There are a few we can avoid.

Wall of Text
Interfering Background
Fancy Fonts
     Comic Sans (Personal opinion, but if I see it, I'll punch your blog in the face)
Web 1.0 Look
     Text changes fonts or colors
Media That Doesn't Load
Bad Spelling or Formatting
Automatically Playing Sounds or Music

Style Guide

Newspaper writers have a book called the AP Style Guide that tells them what to capitalize, what punctuation to us, how to list a birthday or address, how to refer to organizations ... It is often referred to as The Bible. By following the AP Style, news articles are clear, informative, uniform, and politically correct.

These are some guidelines to follow so your blog looks better. This short list is by no means comprehensive, and may change from time to time as I think of stuff. Once you have figured out your blog's style (fonts, colors, formatting...) stick with it. You can certainly break these rules, so long as you understand the principle behind it and have a purpose for doing so. 1 Nephi 4

Headlines, or Post Titles: Short, but descriptive. Eye catching. Try out a few different versions before you pick one.

Body/Post: 3-5 paragraphs long. It should be long enough to cover the essentials, but short enough to keep it interesting. Longer posts are fine, but make use of the page break feature. 1 Nephi 9:3-5

Font: Easy on the eyes. Online, Sans-Serif fonts are easier to read. Text should be formal in the body of post, but can be fancier for titles.

Pictures and Media: Change up your posts! They are good to have above the 'fold' of the page, or the first part of the page people see before they scroll. Media needs to load easily.

Links: Noticeable, but not detracting. Use them to cite your statements of doctrine. Have them open to a new page. PMG p. 106

Dignified Language: No typos, no grammar goofs, don't be too casual.

Preview: Useful for catching mistakes. Always always always preview before you post.

URL: Make it easy to remember.

About Me: Fill it out, make it look good.

Next: Teaching Skills