The Magic F.

[brainshrub]

Occasionally you come across a study that backs up with science what you've learned through trail-and-error.

Over the past year I developed something I came to call "The Magic F". The word "magic" may sound silly, but it was the only way I could explain the observation that content organized in an F-shaped pattern seemed to encourage people to spend more time on Brainshrub.com, and, they were more likely to return later.

Last month, I finally found someone who had studied and described this phenomena in detail: F-Shaped Pattern For Reading Web Content.

Go read it now, then come back here and we'll discuss a few extra thoughts on the matter.

Well? What are you waiting for? Shoo! I'll be here when you get back.

...

All done?

Good.

Web surfers rarely read entire blog posts. Instead, they scan them for relevant information then move onto another site. Therefore, your goal as a blogger should be focused on making scanning rewarding so that readers are encouraged to return day after day for more information.

My experience with my own site has been that this pattern works best for reader retention and return visits:



The red areas are where you should place the main points of your blog entry. The blue areas are ideal spots for pictures, graphs or bullet points that reward the human eye for scanning the page.

One of the most common mistakes writers make with their blogs is that they forget that the internet is not printed with ink. Unlike paper, computer screens are a strain on the eyes. Very few people have the patience to read 1,500 words of text on a monitor, no matter how well-written or astute the essay is.

If you want a blog that will help create social change, you have to be able to get your message across first. To do this on the blogoshere, work within the limitations of the medium: Reward the reader with images, keep your posts to under 500 words and make darn sure that your main points are written within the red zones of the "Magic F".

In blogging, how you lay out your text is more important than the quality of your writing.

Make the Magic F your friend, and you will be richly rewarded.

Cross posted here.

[corkhead]

1. howscome your post is shaped like an E

[brainshrub]

2. Good question. Here's why:

DU Journals are rather limited in how you can lay out text.

As far as I know, there is no way to wrap text around pictures, so making a Magic F is a bit more difficult on DU.

[mrfrapp]

12. Wrapping Text Around Images

You can wrap text around pictures in DU by using a bit of CSS. All you need to do is embed your picture in a div tag and specify a style, in this case a float position and perhaps a margin. For example:

[div style="float: left; margin: 1em; margin-left: 0em;"]/path/to/image[/div]

I don't know if this trick works in all browsers but it certainly does in Firefox.

Web surfers rarely read entire blog posts. Instead, they scan them for relevant information then move onto another site. Therefore, your goal as a blogger should be focused on making scanning rewarding so that readers are encouraged to return day after day for more information.

My experience with this site has been that this pattern works best for reader retention and return visits:

The red areas are where you should place the main points of your blog entry. The blue areas are ideal spots for pictures, graphs or bullet points that reward the human eye for scanning the page.

The red areas are where you should place the main points of your blog entry. The blue areas are ideal spots for pictures, graphs or bullet points that reward the human eye for scanning the page.

One of the most common mistakes writers make with their blogs is that they forget that the internet is not printed with ink. Unlike paper, computer screens are a strain on the eyes. Very few people have the patience to read 1,500 words of text on a monitor, no matter how well-written or astute the essay is.

If you want a blog that will help create social change, you have to be able to get your message across first. To do this on the blogoshere, work within the limitations of the medium: Reward the reader with images, keep your posts to under 500 words and make darn sure that your main points are written within the red zones of the "Magic F".

In blogging, how you lay out your text is more important than the quality of your writing.

Make the Magic F your friend, and you will be richly rewarded.

[brainshrub]

15. Ohhhhhhh! WOW! That's cool!

Holy S**T Bat Man! I've been wanting to do that for years!!!

I didn't think it was possible on DU! This is great!

Thank you, thank you THANK YOU!

[TallahasseeGrannie]

3. I thought this was going to be an entirely different topic

about another "magic F."

But it was enlightening!

T-Grannie

[brainshrub]

4. Fudge? Feathers? Fun?

What else did you think F would stand for?

[TallahasseeGrannie]

7. I thought it was about the effectiveness

of the F-word (F*ck) in blog writing! It can be very effective if not overused! Almost magical!

[brainshrub]

9. Actually, a potty-mouth hurts you in the Google rankings.

While only Google Inc. knows this for certain, SEO-experts say that Google gives preference to PG-sites when it comes to rankings. There are exceptions to this, but that's the general rule you should follow.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

10. I can see that

I use Google in my classroom a lot and the F word pops up more than I'd like.

It is like salt. You should use it only sparingly. Mostly I only say it if I stub my toe.

[jean]

5. Very interesting, thanks!

[carolinalady]

6. .

Thank you very much for that interesting article. My husband is getting a web page designed for his plumbing business and this may be a very useful tool. For at least the next five minutes I will be selfconcious of my personal scanning habits. Now I would like to apply what I have just learned.

This is the second paragraph so it will not contain really important stuff. Just move along....



Oh yeah, GEORGE
still reading? BUSH
must be. TOTALLY
and COMPLETELY
SUCKS
CROOK
COWARD
LIAR
Ignoramous
MORON
now I am done.

[brainshrub]

11. You got it!

Your blog post is more likely to get the message across than a 1500 word screed.

[displacedtexan]

8. Makes perfect sense.

After all, we view art or advertising as schwa images.

[BrklynLiberal]

13. Great info.

Maybe should also be posted in the media group?

[brainshrub]

14. Ask a mod. I don't know.

I've been posting "Tips for Political Bloggers" in GD, but thanks to the DU Journals I'm not overly concerned that this will get lost in the shuffle.

I think these posts should stay in GD, but whatever the mods decide is fine by me.

[DoYouEverWonder]

16. I would have never seen this

if you hadn't posted it here.

Thanks.

BTW: Good to see ya

[brainshrub]

18. Good to see you too.

[brainshrub]

17. Kick for the evening crowd.

[lildreamer316]

19. GREAT info! K&R!!

Thank you so much!!