As a newbie I wanted to find the fastest and easiest way to write my blog posts so that:
- It appears to be a well formatted post.
- It stands out from the crowd of others who post on steemit.
- Makes it easier to clearly understand my points when reading my articles.
- Makes it easy so I can post great content on a daily basis.
Today I'm going to show you in a video tutorial a tool I use to write my blog posts for steemit. As a newbie I wanted something that was easy to use, saved all my data in one organized place and synced with my google photo account.
Using the online editor called "StackEdit.io" allows me to take the guesswork out of my daily blogging on steemit. Although steemit has its own editor here are the reasons I like stackedit more than the steemit editor.
- Saves your posts so you can reference them at a later time
- Has a handy tool bar at the top so you can quickly access the most common markdown syntax.
- Has a side by side live preview of your content as you are writing it.
One of the great things about the the online editor is that it's a WYSIWYG editor meaning "What you see is what you get" They have what is called a "live editor" which means it synchronizes instantly on the screen in a side x side format. So you can see instantly if you have made a mistake with your formatting to a link to a website or an image.
The Science Behind The Blog Post
I didn't mention this in the video but I also like the fact that it counts your word count of your blog post. Word count in a blog article is important because according to the bufferapp.com blog
"The ideal length of a blog post is 7 minutes, 1,600 words".
With 1600 words you are providing just the right amount of content for you readers to believe that you have given them value. If you post a more images in your post it's acceptable to lower the word count to about 1000 words.
This Sentence Is Only Six Words
There is actually a science behind the length of everything you post online from the idea length of your headline being a total of 6 words. Imagine that you have only 6 words to capture the attention of someone who is going to open and read your content. The reason being is because people are just scanning through reading headlines. So if you want a remote chance that someone is going to read your headline keep it to a minimum of 6 words.
If you can write a captivating 6 word headline then you are probably one of the worlds greatest writers because its actually very rare to see a header that short. Of course you might see this on new stand cover pages as you are standing in line waiting to check out at the grocery store.
If you'd like to learn more the science visit Buffer App Blog
If you have found this helpful please consider following my profile, @herosjourney, for more fun and helpful articles!
Written with StackEdit.
▶️ DTube
▶️ IPFS
I'm not sure if it's DTube or my browser: I just tried to leave a comment on your video at DTube, but it wasn't working. I'm logged in, and I know how to leave a comment.
Odd.
Anyway, this was my comment I meant to post:
"Thanks for this tutorial. It was a good introduction to StackEdit. If there's one thing I would've liked to have seen, I would have liked to see you take your post from StackEdit and put it in Steem, just to see how it's done. I'm sure it's easy, but that would've been a nice way to finish this tutorial; that's not to say that you didn't do a good job--you did."
I also like the Buffer App Blog. The optimal word length is 1600 words. That's good to know.
Update: I just checked the DTube video, and see this comment was there.
Odd. I thought that, as far as commenting went, Steemit and DTube were different platforms. I suppose I'm still learning.
This is such a helpful review. StackEdit is in itself a cheat sheet for markdown. It looks like it makes everything so easy. Kinda cuts down on the job of editing. I love it. I will be using it soon.
I am going to check out StackEdit for sure. I didn't know anything about Markdown before joining Steemit, and it has taken some effort on my part to learn how to use it correctly. I just about have it, but it sounds like StackEdit will make things much more efficient - which we need since we are wanting to be consistent and produce quality content here.
I also had no idea the ideal blog post length was 1,600 words. Rarely do I write that long in one post! I always aim for more than 500 words, but usually stop around 1,000. I think as long as you are helpful and provide value, the word count isn't as important. Good tip to know though!
thanks for the helpful info will definitely give it a try .
This is very helpful. I was using the Hemingway app, and it was adding weird code to the markup. I'll try it your way instead for the next one.
I'd heard of StackEdit before, but you've motivated me to finally check it out. Sounds like it makes writing posts very easy. I usually write in Word first and then copy and paste into Steemit, but I might convert to StackEdit. You were very convincing. Thanks - we can all use every way possible to make our online easier.