consensus for formatting posts?
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I am wondering if there are any resources for blog post formatting?
Most of what goes on my Pages page are videos, articles, and links to other blogs. I often write a few lines, then paste an excerpt from the article, blog, etc.
Is there a standard/proper/best way of formatting these excerpts/quotes that makes it clear that you are inserting someone else’s voice/text? ? Do you use actual ” ” marks? Do you italicize? Do you indent? I see the “quote” button on my Post editing page, but I’ve been told that the indenting looks too wonky in my blog, and everything should be left aligned. Perhaps this is simply a matter of personal preference.
Thanks!
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Quotations can be plain text inside quotation marks. Or they can be visually differentiated somehow, especially if separate paragraphs. The automatic way to differentiate them is highlight the text and click the quote button. Depending on the theme, the result varies from the discreet to the ridiculously pronounced. (Since your blog is private, I can’t tell how blockquotes look on it; which theme are you using?) If you don’t like the result, you can use other means, such as indenting or italics.
The important thing is to mention the source, with a link to it if it’s online.
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IF it’s a significant quotation, the standard way to indicate this is with a block quotation.
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Thank you for your replies.
I am using Tarski, which indents the text a fair amount. I thought it looked OK, but a few people have told me it looks kind of budget and sloppy. I had to set my blog to private since I am still working on content and editing, and I was getting a fair amount of traffic.
I guess I’m primarily wondering if there is a uniform standard, or if everyone does it differently, and what folks’ opinions are about the various options: italics, indent, quotes, etc.
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Quite frankly, the number one mistake I see beginners making is keeping the blog private until it’s perfect. It’s a blog: it’s never perfect. If Tarski looks cheapish, we have 80+ other options to choose from.
The rules of print formatting translate almost seamlessly to blogs, with the exception of the link: you must always include a link. If you use an image, you can either credit the source via text (and link to the text) or make the image itself a link to the source page. If you use a quotation, you can put the link in-sentence such as “and as raincoaster said in this article…” linking to the specific article rather than the whole site. You can also put it in a line:
whatever
Or you can even (and this is iffy) make the first few words of the quotation the link to source, as in:
several long, thoughtful posts coming soon. But not on any kind of regular schedule; the neighbors with the wifi seem to have moved away. Ah, primitive surroundings.
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True, nothing is ever “perfect” however this site is my business site and I am still adding text and images to my static pages. The “blog” portion of my site is one page. So, you can see why I would like to wait until I have the site together before publishing it.
I am also not saying that my theme looks cheapish, but that too many formatting adjustments on quoted texts and excepts can look overdone and jumbled. Does that make sense? I’d like to be as streamlines as possible with the formatting, paragraph style, indents, etc., while still clearly separating out the quoted text.
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Quite frankly, the number one mistake I see beginners making is keeping the blog private until it’s perfect. If Tarski looks cheapish, we have 80+ other options to choose from.
I agree and would not ever set my blog to “private” to muck about with formatting or editing. Doing that creates a 404 (page not found) for every visitor coming from search engines. In a healthy frequently updated blog the traffic from search engines can be between 30 – 60% of all traffic.
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@erinmidwife: There’s no single convention. You can check various books of yours and see: a blocquote may be indented, or in slightly smaller font-size, etc.
As for Tarski, I don’t like its blockquotes either: too much indenting (both left and right) plus grey instead of black text – looks like a patch from another blog.
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Are you aware of what the icons on the Visual editor are for? If not then please see here > http://en.support.wordpress.com/visual-editor/
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Thank you for the link and thoughts.
Timethief, I understand your thoughts on keeping my site private, but you can imagine the implications of launching a half finished website, right? This site is for my business and is primarily a static site, i.e., a typical business website. I have not yet uploaded all my content or photos, etc. The blog section of my site is just one page. I cannot, from a professional standpoint, have people coming to a site that is unfinished. It would reflect poorly on my organization and presentation.
I suppose I’ll just stick to quote marks and perhaps a different color text rather than indenting. We’ll see. Thanks for all the feedback.
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You can highlight the text and use the indent button instead of the b-quote: much less pronounced.
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TT and panos and I understand where you’re coming from, and we are coming from a place of significantly greater experience. I charge $150 per hour for social media consulting and strategy, for instance, and I get it on a regular basis from some major brands and organizations.
When you say you are getting significant traffic, realize that you are now annoying all of those people. They don’t care if your periods aren’t perfectly round or you have more to add later; that’s the very nature of the web. They DO care that they come to your blog and you don’t want them to see it: they are very unlikely to return. Your concept of “perfect launch” is not serving your readers or your business.
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Not to harp on it (this is one of my main themes when I teach business blogging) but you are a midwife, right? How long do you think these readers can wait?
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oops I just realized i never responded here.
Raincoaster, my blog’s main function is to serve as my business website, to be accessed by women and families researching midwifery care. My blog page is for their benefit, and the benefit of friends, current clients, and anyone else who stumbles upon it. I did not create my site with the intention of actively gathering a readership. If that happens– great–I just wanted an area to share things with my clients, friends, fellow midwives etc. I’m not too worried.
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Okay. Sorry, I can be a bit sharp. And I’m always disappointed when a person with good ideas doesn’t share them because the formatting is not quite to their liking. But it is your blog, so it is your call.
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thanks! by the way, my blog is up now, and I was pleased with the traffic on the first day. almost 300 views and all i did was send out a few emails and a facebook post!
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