(Journalism and blogging, part 3.)
After speaking about good headlines in the previous part, now we should speak about the body, the main text itself, the essence, the most important part of an article or post. Although I made spoiler last time and discussing the headlines (titles), I wrote a lot about the popular themes already.

Why not the ants?

As you see, it is difficult to separate the headline and body of a post, the headline should describe the main text, and the main text shouldn’t contradict the headline. In the first line, what you need is a good theme, a topic, and some conclusion. You can write about a very interesting theme, but if all facts are well known, it will be boring, except for the newborn babies.

“The Sexual Life Of The Wandering Ants” – should be non-existent, except that of their queen. So, this topic in the title, on the whole, can be very boring. And these ants are fare away from us and I don’t care of them. It’s a symbol for boring themes.

What if you aren’t Shakespeare?

If you want to attract readers, choose a theme they like to read. As I wrote in the previous part, people are selfish, egocentric, and like to read articles related to themselves, primarily. Or the story has to be a very exciting, original, new, unique fiction.

If you aren’t Shakespeare or another great talent, don’t begin with the fiction. Write about you, me, other people. What people like to read depends on who they are. On Steemit, the popularity of themes (tags, labels) is reported every day by @arcange. Most are related to communities or dApps, but photography, life, bitcoin, cryptos, Steemit and Steem, games are also popular topics.

People like you

Think about the life of people like you. What are you reading often? Others with your age and similar hobbies may read the same things. If you don’t have own ideas, you can read a lot and make a selection of your readings. Or write critics. For example, the headline “The 5 most exciting posts I read today about Steem” sounds interesting for all Steemians.

Or, if you are a gamer, write about “The 5 most crowded online multiplayer games”. Make your research, read about it on other sites, search for lists, and make your own list. If you can aggregate the results of 3-4 other lists, you made something valuable – a new selection.

Do you know something we don’t?

Some people are thinking they are unique, special, different. In reality, they are ordinary, everyday persons. Other people think they have nothing interesting to tell to others, and in reality, they have. They lived in another country, or their parents had an interesting job? They are living with a special pet? Tell about it.

Or, you have resolved an interesting problem many people can’t resolve? How to repair something? How to build something? Write about your experience. Maybe you will realize you have a special talent in some terrain and writing will change your life.

Some examples more:

• Writing about money, the money of the people is always a good idea. If you have a tip on how to earn or how to save money, go ahead. Use a good headline to tell people it’s THEIR money.
• Are there 50 ideas on the internet how to kill or trap wandering ants? You tried 20, and there was the only one which really worked? Tell us, which. And maybe why the others didn’t.
• You find the collection of post stamps/watches/telephone cards/beer mats of your grandfather. You can make some nice photo series, and comment it, telling a story. (Choose carefully the right background and the right lights.)
• Your Gmail-box is full. You search in Google how to clean it, you find interesting methods many people don’t know. (Like searching for big size mails.) You write your experience to help others.
• You had an interesting student job some years ago in summer vacations, you were helping in an animal farm or in an exotic restaurant. Tell us the story.
• You are a fan of medieval style strategic computer games. Make a list of them and write your opinion.
• You are an expert of Star Trek, you have seen all 1000 episodes, twice. Explain to us why this series is revolutionary and is renewed again and again, until today.
• You are a bored housewife and have no idea what to write about. Read 10 articles written for bored housewives, and tell us why this advice is good or bad. Which were the best ideas about what to do in your situation? There are millions of others like you.
• You invented how to make good macro photos with the phone and a magnifying glass. Explain to us.

So far, so good. Please, tell me if you have a good idea of reading my advice. Or am I wrong about something?

(Photos: Pixabay.com)