This brief writing exercise combines practice with expertise to give you a winning combination. Let’s look at a picture and practice how to use imagery in blogging to increase traffic, engagement, and shares.
Bloggers have the ability to transfer our pain or elation with a single sentence. We can take a reader on our journey, even making the heat color her cheeks during our embarrassing moment.
But it’s hard to write about your life, your children, your field, your experiences and get the reader to engage! Your trials with laundry don’t exactly scream, “I can’t look away!” How do we draw a reader in when we are trying to make money writing a post about a toilet bowl cleaner or giving invaluable blogging tips? #winkwink
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How to Use Imagery in Blogging
Today’s writing exercise is to incorporate the use of imagery in blogging. We need to remind ourselves: readers will only feel our pain, anger, anxiety, or elation if we give it to them.
It’s our job to present the reader with a picture. And just like a photograph, the subject captured in a snapshot might be easy to identify or speak volumes with what is missing.
- What do you see in this photograph? Can you see a couple looking at each other with loving eyes? When you glance just outside the snapshot, do you see a toddler stacking sugar packets, trying to chase away the boredom while his mother tries to caffeinate her way back to normalcy?
- What do you hear? Is a couple fighting in hushed tones over tapas? Did a small intake of breath sound as final as a resolute, “No.”? Are the only sounds the murmur of a crowd having filler conversation and the clinking of cups, or does one sound stand out?
- What do you taste and smell? Does the scent of roasted beans energize you upon entering? Is there a bitter tang to the coffee? Does it remind you of something? What words are souring your mouth during this moment? What words are going unsaid?
- What are you touching? Is the table one of those wobbly ones, doomed to be unbalanced no matter how many sugar packets you shove under the leg? Are your hands dry from the cold, winter air or sweaty with anticipation?
- And in general, what are you feeling in this moment? Is there a note of tension in the air? What emotions do the food, drink, or environment conjure for you? Are you annoyed with the toddler who keeps tossing his sippy cup to the floor or more annoyed with the mom who keeps picking it up?
Before writing a post, take a pause, consider all of the 5 senses, and the overall feeling you want to convey. You might find your posts generating increased engagement or being shared more.
When An Expert is Worth It
Considering submitting an article to a major publication? Writing an eBook? Trying to grow your blog’s audience through opt-ins, courses, or lead pages? One of the most important parts of any writing endeavor: know when to call in the experts.
When you get help from an expert, you gain confidence in your product.
I recommend Grammarly to clients and use it myself (even inside WordPress without a plugin). If you’re writing an eBook, it’s more than worth the price of a few coffees to have the world’s most powerful grammar checker review your final draft!
Takeaways
Use imagery in your blogging to increase engagement, shares, and traffic. Seeking out help from a trusted source like Grammarly will elevate your writing, possibly making it appeal to a wider audience. And let’s just face it: more traffic is never a bad thing!
If you found this imagery exercise useful or want to spread the word about the valuable service Grammarly offers, please consider sharing this to a “Writing Tips and Resources” board on Pinterest or Stumble it for discovery.
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