Whether you’re a seasoned graphic designer, an innovative web developer, or a passionate blogger, mastering typography can elevate your work to new heights.

The Basics: What is Typography?

Typography is the craft of designing, arranging, and choosing type to make written language legible, readable, and visually appealing.

It encompasses various elements such as typefaces, font sizes, line lengths, line-spacing (leading), and letter-spacing (tracking).

Key Components of Typography

• Typefaces vs. Fonts: A typeface is a family of related fonts, while a font is a specific weight, width, and style within that typeface family. For example, Arial is a typeface, and Arial Bold 12pt is a font.
• Serif vs. Sans-Serif: Serif fonts have small lines or strokes attached to the end of larger strokes in letters (e.g., Times New Roman), while sans-serif fonts do not (e.g., Helvetica).
• Kerning: The spacing between individual characters in a font. Proper kerning ensures that text is visually balanced.
• Leading: The vertical spacing between lines of text. Appropriate leading enhances readability by preventing text from appearing too cramped or too spread out.
• Tracking: The overall spacing between characters in a block of text, affecting the text’s density and readability.

The Importance of Typography in Design

Typography is vital in design because it impacts the user’s experience. Good typography:

1. Enhances Readability: Clear and well-structured type makes content easier to read and understand.
2. Sets the Tone: Different typefaces evoke different emotions and tones (e.g., a formal serif font vs. a casual sans-serif font).
3. Establishes Hierarchy: Typography helps guide the reader’s eye, emphasizing the most important parts of the content.
4. Strengthens Brand Identity: Consistent use of particular typefaces can reinforce brand recognition.

Choosing the Right Typeface

Selecting the right typeface involves several considerations:

Purpose and Context

Ask yourself what the primary function of your text is. Is it for a formal document, an engaging website, or a creative blog? Each of these contexts may require a different approach to typeface selection.

Readability Across Devices

With content being consumed on various devices, ensuring readability across screens is crucial. Opt for web-safe fonts and test how they look on multiple devices.

Emotional Impact

Fonts convey emotions. A whimsical script font might be perfect for a children’s book cover but unsuitable for a business report.

Best Practices in Typography Design

Limit the Number of Typefaces

Using too many typefaces can make your design appear chaotic. Stick to two or three complementary typefaces to maintain visual harmony.

Use Hierarchy to Guide Readers

Employ different font weights, sizes, and styles to create a clear hierarchy. Headings should stand out from body text, and key information should be highlighted effectively.

Pay Attention to Alignment

Proper alignment ensures that your text looks organized and professional. Common alignments include left-aligned, right-aligned, centered, and justified text.

Balance Line Length and Leading

The ideal line length for readability is typically 50-75 characters. Adjust leading to ensure that lines of text are neither too close together nor too far apart.

Consider Accessibility

Ensure your typography is accessible to all users by considering contrast ratios, font sizes, and legibility. Tools like the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) can help guide your choices.

Tools and Resources for Typography Design

Typography Tools

• Google Fonts: A comprehensive library of free, open-source fonts optimized for the web.
• Adobe Fonts: A premium font service offering a vast selection of typefaces for any project.
• Font Squirrel: A collection of free fonts for commercial use, complete with embedding options.

Educational Resources

• “Thinking with Type” by Ellen Lupton: A foundational book on typography principles and practices.
• “The Elements of Typographic Style” by Robert Bringhurst: An in-depth guide to the art and craft of typography.
• Coursera and Udemy Courses: Online courses that provide comprehensive learning experiences in typography design.

Conclusion

Typography is a powerful tool in the arsenal of graphic designers, web developers, and bloggers. By understanding and applying the principles of good typography, you can create visually appealing, effective, and engaging content. Remember, the goal is to make your text not only beautiful but also functional. The typefaces you choose, how you arrange them, and the attention you pay to detail can significantly impact your audience’s experience and perception of your work.

Ready to enhance your typography skills? Dive into the resources mentioned, experiment with different typefaces, and don’t be afraid to iteratively refine your designs. Mastering typography is a journey, and every step you take brings you closer to creating truly exceptional content.

As bloggers, we need to be creative; we can’t afford to write the same thing every time, we had to come up with unique creative ideas.

Creativity is a god gifted talent, and not everyone has it. However, you still can find the way to be creative in your writing.

According to Wikipedia:

“creativity is a phenomenon whereby something new and valuable is created such as ideas, jokes, literary work, a solution, an invention etc.”

As the definition says, creativity is the process of an invention.

In writing, we bloggers can proudly say – we invent Ideas, Words and Sentences.

So, how to be creative at writing?

Brainstorm Ideas before you start writing

You can’t just sit in front of your computer and think what to write next, just trying to type something on your computer won’t work and your writing will definitely lack creativeness.

This is why you need to brainstorm ideas before you start writing.

Brainstorming creative ideas isn’t that easy, you need to find the creative juice.

How to find it?

Do creative tasks like reading interesting books, solving puzzles, tweeting (tweeting helps you to play with words), etc.

Initially, find a topic which you want to write, and then brainstorm the ideas.

Once you find the title, brainstorm the certain combination of subheadings that can match your title.

Then list out those points in your notepad or something – having a notebook or notepad is essential thing for writers, you must learn to take notes while brainstorming ideas.

In case you can’t find new ideas, there are some online ideas generating tools such as Tweakyourbiz.com/tools/title-generator.

Use these tools to brainstorm new ideas.

Personalize your writing

When you write blogs, give some personal touch to it because when you try to make it look too professional, it’ll definitely lack some creative spark.

So when you’re writing a copy, add your personality or perspective to it.

And you’ll be surprised to see how your copy will be different from others.

Another way to write creatively is by telling stories; write your own story, your thoughts, your experience, it’ll definitely look unique and creative because it is exclusive.

Stories draw your audience into their own imagination and make them feel like they are in your character; same thing happens while we watch movies, we unconsciously feel like we are the heroes.

Story telling also helps you to build a good relationship with your audience. Audience will start trusting you.

See how Pat Flynn used his story to build a successful brand like SmartPassiveIncome.

Story telling also helps you to build a personal brand.

Tips for personalizing your writing

• Write what you know
• Don’t feel shy to express
• Don’t bother about what will others think
• Always be real

Have the right mindset

Before you start writing, make sure you are distraction free.

If you’re tired or not active while writing, then forget about creativity. Your writing always reflects your mood.

So you have to be enthusiastic, for that you need to have a healthy mindset while writing.

Nowadays, everyone is busy with their exhaustive lives, but as a writer you can’t be like that; you had to find a peace of mind before you start writing.

Major things to do. . .

• Learn to Relax before you write
• Eliminate distractions
• Select a silent place to write
• Don’t bother about the outcome of your copy while drafting
• Just go through flow and don’t stop
• Don’t work overtime, you’ll get burned out

If you get angry and frustrated a lot, then it’ll be very difficult to be creative at writing.

Try to build passion for writing and enjoy; then you’ll get a lot of creative ideas flowing.

Draft it, add, and proofread

First draft of your post will never be perfect.

So, draft it and take a little break. Once you take a break and comeback later to edit, you’ll find a lot of errors and mistakes.

You’ll also realize how terrible your first draft was. Don’t delete it, just tweak, it’ll look good.

After that you can add as much as content you want.

And finally, proofread it.

No matter how good writer you are, you can’t skip this proofreading process.

Ask every top blogger/writer, they’ll all agree that proofreading is the important and Must do task.

So, proofread it for minimum 2-3 times before publishing.

Conclusion

Since blogosphere is getting highly competitive, having a creative style of writing will definitely help you to stand out from the crowd.

You can adopt Creativity in your writing by following the above points.

It is not necessary that you should follow the same steps to be creative; creativity is something that YOU invent.

So, you can be creative if you just write what you know.

Writing can be of various types, but when you intend to do it professionally you need to take care of certain facts and play by the rules of the game.

A professional writer is QUITE different than a regular blogger or author or a poet. While all of these professions focus on writing, a professional writer has a huge responsibility on his / her shoulders. They have to adapt themselves to the needs of the clients whom they cater to.

I am a professional writer engaged in freelance writing since the past 5+ years, during which I worked with a plethora of clients on multitude of projects in varied niches.

Here are a handful of tips from my personal experience that will make your article writing look flawless and add finesse to your work.

Title your Content Well

Your content is like a gift that your readers are excitedly waiting to open and read. But what fun is a gift without a great gift wrap?

I am sure every one of us knows how easy it is to transform a dull and boring gift into something quite cool and exciting by a simple act. Just wrap it and dress it up in a funky looking package, right?

I am not saying to fool your readers with a funky title to disguise boring content. A great title will help in fueling the interest of your readers and will make them want to click on it and read more.

Warm Up with Your Introduction

Writing an introduction for your article is a lot like a first date; you should not and will not ask for a kiss before getting comfortable with each other.

Your introduction is meant to do exactly that- get comfortable with your reader and let them get comfortable with you!

What goes into your introduction? It could be anything that is guaranteed to attract your reader’s attention and interest. Try playing around with different things like a shocking statement, a popular quote, a pertinent question and so on.

But remember whatever you do, DO NOT exceed beyond 200 words here.

Plan Your Article Body Systematically

The body of your article is the most important part for your message that you are trying to get across to your readers.

If you have managed to get your reader to stick with you even after they read your title and your introduction, then you should give yourself a pat on your back. Bravo, you sure did a good job until now.

But if you mess up with your article body, you will lose your reader very quickly. So, make sure that you plan your article body and divide it into many different sections with appropriate sub-titles.

Doing this achieves three things: first it makes it easy for your reader to digest the information, secondly it helps them to quickly skim through your article and still get the message and finally it is pleasing and comforting to their eyes.

Polish Your Grammar Please

This one tip itself is worth a million dollars, because no matter how well you package your article in a funky title, use a great introduction to snuggle up to your reader and hook them in with systematic subtitles and sectioned content, they will still see through your BLUFF if your article is ridden with grammar errors.

Please do yourself a favor and on your poor readers too and polish your language and grammar before attempting at professional writing.

Confirm Your Facts

Beware, this is a huge land mine that can blow up your both your hard work and your dreams of becoming a professional writer if not paid the attention due to it.

As a professional writer, you may be hired by clients to write articles on a variety of topics that you necessarily do not know much about.

But that does not mean that you should write only on one topic which you posses a qualification in. You are free to write on any subject matter, provided that you have got your facts 100% correct.

Confirm and re-confirm by using more than a few references when you mention technical, medical, scientific or any sort of facts.

Wrap Up Your Article Smoothly

Just like you made your reader comfortable at the beginning of your article, please make sure that your readers leave with a good feeling in their hearts.

Do not end your article abruptly without warning; it leaves the readers stranded and with a very bad impression of the writer.

Wrap up your article with a summary or synopsis that need not be more than a sentence or two in length.

Synopsis

The tips that I have discussed here, about how to write an article should be implemented each time you attempt at writing one.

As the popular saying goes, “Practice makes man (and woman) perfect”. So, keep practicing and you should be perfect in no time.

Good luck with your professional writing career!

Surely, that’s not news anymore, is it?

If for any reason you think guest posts are not your thing, then you need help as blogger.

Now we have disbelief out of the way, it is appropriate to ask: Have you written your first guest post?

In writing this post I had two kinds of bloggers in mind. The first, those bloggers who know guest posts are an important but never got around to doing it.  Second, those die hard conservative bloggers who believe their best posts are best served to their local audience.

I know part of what is keeping you away from that first guest post may be mental laziness or just plain selfishness.

You may be surprised at how many bloggers linger over the send button after writing a great guest post.

It should have been published on their site, they ponder.

Well, I have come today to burst your bubble.

And just in case you are still in need of excuses, I have more bad news: I will show you how to come up with a guest post strategy, locate top blogs, pitch your guest post ideas and finally, how to write the greatest guest posts you can dream of!

What are we waiting for?

Developing a Guest Blogging Strategy That Works

It all begins with quality content. The thing is, quality content does not just happen. That is why you need a strategy that works. Posting one or two posts per month may not be sufficient to give you the kind of results you desire.

Put differently, guest posting involves hard work.

1. Drip-Fed Guest Posting: In this approach you target a couple of blogs and slowly build reputation in those communities by and cut your teeth in the field. While most bloggers can survive with this method, the results may take a longer time period to be evident.
2. Rapid Guest Posting: This is the short-gun approach to guest posting writing. Here you write as many guest posts as you can as fast as you can. Wondering about where you will get to publish them? That should not be a problem. Just announce to your audience that you are on a guest posting marathon. You will be surprised how many persons will accept content from you! Bloggers need content and as far as you’re your blog is rich, they will be glad in hosting you for some days.

Of course, the approach you choose would depend on whether you price quantity over quality.

Being socially active won’t hurt you

Bloggers love it when guest post offers don’t come from the blues.

Building a relationship with bloggers you want to pitch first before asking to guest post will significantly reduce the number of rejections you receive. So, it is smart to create an excel document with at least five fields: Blog URL, Blogger Name, Email, Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus profiles. Start following them on social media.

It is critical that you actually interact with them.

Do not make the mistake of adding them and leaving the rest to chance. The best way to do this is to start following him on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ and interact with him. Here are some other things you must do:

Here are some other tasks you can perform to leverage your social gusto:

• Comments: Now you have a shortlist of bloggers you hope to write for, start leaving thoughtful comments on their blogs. By thoughtful comments I mean you should engage with the author by asking questions are bringing perspectives that move the conversation forward. Of course, if you have the opportunity, answer questions left by other readers. That is a good way to demonstrate your expertise before the blogger and inject yourself as a member of the community. The benefit of doing this will come in two ways:

1. The blogger will be very pleased that you are taking some burden off his shoulders.
2. When your guest post goes live, the community will already know who you are and would be comfortable commenting and sharing your post.

• Join his newsletter: If the blogger has a newsletter, join in. After a couple of emails, it is smart to let the blogger know you are on his list by responding to one of his mails, preferably one that publishes a smart tip. Make sure your email contains your signature, which by the way should include your blog address. Most bloggers would click on that link and give you a look over, further breaking the ice for you.
• Email: At this time sending a direct email to the blogger is a good idea. Note that it does not have to be about a guest post. Remember, you want to build that relationship. Compliment their writing, make an enquiry or ask for advice. I have had bloggers who asked me to send in a guest post after exchanging a couple of emails.

Note that some of the top bloggers have guest post guidelines. If you find one on a blog then you may focus on the guidelines given instead of these tips.

Do you think going through all of this is just too much for just a guest post opportunity? It depends on how far into the future you are looking. Relationships you establish with bloggers for the purpose of guest posting will have value that goes beyond that guest post.

It helps to keep things in perspective by thinking long-term.

Wrapping it Up

So now you have it. You can be sure that if you follow these steps, you will have more guest post opportunities in a month than you would care to handle. Now all that is left is for you to start the actual pitching.

It is important for you to realize that guest post pitching is a numbers game. If you can write twenty guest posts, pitch 40 bloggers, remembering that not all bloggers will say yes.

You may notice that I have not gone much into the actual writing of the perfect guest post in this post. That is because that subject is a full-length topic of its own and I will be doing a post dedicated to that alone in the weeks to come.

Have I left out a magic tip that works wonders for you?

You are welcome to share in the comments!

Image courtesy of Graeme Weatherston at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I’ll tell you one secret – writing killer articles is not enough today.  It’s especially important these days – we have a lot of bloggers and tons of blogs, which compete with others for the audience.

So, what shall I do – you may ask me.

You should arouse interest in your readers!

Each blogger must decide, how he or she wants to charm their visitors. If you don’t have any idea – below you can find 20 tips, how you can attract your posts. Of course you can choose only one or few of them.

But remember – your readers don’t like boredom.

How to Attract Your Blog Posts – 20 Tips For Normal People

 1. Use Pictures or Photos

A lot of people say, that one picture is worth more than thousand words. I agree with them – and you?

2. Use Graphs and Tables

Some type of your readers like numbers. You can help them in reading post on your blog by placing graphs or tables inside.

3. Prepare Rankings

Rankings are great both in getting more readers and in selling your own or affiliate products. You can make your rankings for almost everything – products, websites, tools

5 Most Powerful Blogs About Blogging And Making Money Online

 4. Use Videos

Videos are great both for people and for SEO. You can find a lot of videos on YouTube. Placing them in your blog post is very easy.

 5. Use Infographics

Infographics are relatively new way of showing information or knowledge. But are very informative and easy to absorb

 6. Make Interviews with Others in Your Niche

A lot of people like interviews – and it concern not only reading interviews, but also be interviewed.

 7. Prepare list(s)

People are lazy (I’m lazy too). They like lists, because lists save their time.

If your list is great, it may be even linked by others

Below you can find some examples of lists:

Top 100 Websites For Bloggers

The Entrepreneur’s Handbook: 101 Resources for First Time Entrepreneurs

Women in Blogging: 125 Fearless Female Bloggers

37 Ways a Virtual Assistant can Grow your Internet Business

8. Tell Your Own Stories

Nothing is better for your readers than telling a great story. It may be an example of how you made something or even lessons learned from the past. But there is one, very important thing in telling stories – you are not allowed to lie!

9. Give Examples

Showing examples is very similar to the previous point. But here you can describe not only your experience, but also experiences of somebody else. What’s more – in that case you can link to his/her story. It will be appreciated…

10. Use Slideshows

Power Point slideshow is great not only for executing presentation, but also for showing your readers something important. You can upload and share your presentation for example on Slideshare

 11. Be Controversial

This point may be very dangerous, if you aren’t familiar with discussed topic or made something stupid. But in most cases, you will only trigger discussion below your post or on other blogs. Great!

12. Make Reviews

People like reviews. If review is made by trusted person or company and in professional way, we will believe in it.

13. Link to Others in Your Niche

Sometimes you want mention about someone’s great post or article in your niche. Just because. After it you can contact with him or her to let them know about it. Maybe they will link back to you?  If you want to mention one or more of my posts – don’t hesitate and do it now! But remember about contacting me after it

14. Use Mind Maps

Mind maps are great for sharing your ideas in graphical way. They are simple to create, and easy to understand

 15. Answer on Questions or Resolve Someone’s Problem

Answering on questions or resolving problems is one of the greatest way for making relationships with your guests. With good reason there is a lot of services like How to or Yahoo answers

16. Ask Your Readers About Something

In contrast to answering on questions is asking them It’s also good strategy, but firstly you must be recognized as a blogger to use this tip

 17. Be “Google friendly”

This post isn’t Google friendly. First of all – title isn’t searched a lot of times. I can call this article more attractive for this search engine, but I didn’t. Why? I make some tests…

If you want to get example of competitive keyword  – no problem. For example How to use Twitter… (monthly there is about 90.500 exact searches of this phrase) is very competitive keyword. Great tool for such keyword research is Market Samurai (be careful – affiliate link inside!)

18. Be Funny with Your Content

Sometimes you must make your readers laugh. If you are making SEO – you should like this video

19. Make Your Posts Easy to Share with Others

Sometimes you can find great articles about something, and you want to share it with your friends or others (for example on Twitter, Facebook, etc.) But you couldn’t find buttons or even links for sharing. Give your readers possibility for sharing interesting articles!

20. End with Call to Action

If you want to engage your readers – just ask them to make something on your blog. You may ask the question, ask them to comment on your blog, or request about following you on Twitter.

And how about you? Do you like this post? – please tweet it! You don’t like it – please tell us about it! Or maybe you want to share with us your tips, how to attract your article? Feel free and comment it.