Tips on how to make blog posts on Utopian

Repository

https://github.com/utopian-io/v2.utopian.io

Introduction

The blog category on Utopian has been active for a while now and new contributors to the category are emerging every day. The "Utopian Effect" is happening, as individuals are beginning to discover, and develop their skills especially in writing about open source projects.

My activity on the blog category of Utopian started recently. Yet, I've had a few people ask me for tips on how they can create great blog posts on Utopian. I always refer them to an article created by @didic on how to create great blog posts on Utopian. That article has been helpful and I'm seeing great improvements in my writing.

In this blog post, I will be sharing my own tips on how to write blog posts on Utopian. These tips have been helpful to me and I'm certain they will be helpful to you too.

Post Body

The blog category is seen as one of the most stressful categories on Utopian and that's partly correct because sometimes it requires a lot of brainstorming which can cause mental stress. I experienced this when I was creating my first blog post. That post is yet to be published though. But, with the tips that I'll be sharing now, writing blogs has never been easier and although I'm not so great at it, I'm a work in progress.

The things you need to do or know before you start contributing to the blog category is to;

1. Read the blog category guidelines

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This is the first basic step for every contributor who wishes to contribute on the blog category or on any other category on Utopian. The guidelines help you to understand how the category works and the things to do or avoid to ensure your contribution is eligible for a potential reward.
This part is skipped a lot but it is really important. When I decided to delve into the blog category, this was the first thing I did. The guidelines are really insightful.

2. Be passionate about writing.

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The blog category is all about writing. If you don't have a passion for writing, you will struggle greatly in this category. Unlike the other categories, writing blogs and getting good scores requires a long length of texts and word compositions. It takes someone passionate about it to keep going and if you are not passionate, you will get bored as soon as possible and will be able to only achieve the first milestone on the questionnaire about the volume of the blog which is "less than 500". This has a great impact on review score so you should try as much as possible to create a content that has a minimum of five hundred(500) words. This can be easily achieved if you are passionate about writing.

3. Have a good knowledge of the project you wish to write about.

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This is another important point you need to take note of before you start off writing anything. This helps make the mental burden lighter and increases efficiency in the workflow. It is easier to write about projects you know and even use. When I found out about open source projects, I decided to use them. Most of the apps on my phone are open source and I use them virtually every day and this has increased my level of knowledge about these apps and I can write about them without having to search for points on the internet. Another added advantage is that you'll not lack ideas to create the content. Furthermore, the content will not be heavily plagiarized since it's your own knowledge of the project you are sharing.

4. Start off with a constructive title for the blog post

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After reading the category's guidelines, and you have good knowledge about the project, the next question that usually comes to mind is

What can I write about?

This where a lot of people have issues. This was an issue for me too. I had read the category's guidelines, I had good knowledge of the project, I'm passionate about writing but I still didn't know what to write about. Then I started off with creating constructive titles, and this worked like a charm because once I had a title in my head, I knew what part of the project I'll talk about or if I'll be reviewing a project and comparing it with other projects. This has been really helpful for me lately but it might not be to you though. I've heard and seen people who prefer to create content first before sorting out a title for it. I tried that out once and I had a very hard time getting a title in the end. Constructive titles guide you on the path of great content creation.

5. Set the goals of the content.

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After getting a great title for your blog post, it should give you an insight into what you will writing about. What you wish to achieve from creating the blog post, are the goals of the content. They could be to review projects or compare them or both.
When the goal is set, the creation of content should be seamless. For now, I prefer to review and compare projects. It seems like the easiest thing to do.

6. Split the content into points.

It could become tough creating a lengthy article. The way I tackle this issue is by splitting the content into parts. This not only helps to make the work easy but also helps you keep track of the content you are creating. I noticed that when all the points of a content are jumbled together, it is very easy to run out ideas and also you can go out of context. In all the blog posts I've written, I ensure I split the content into points. Sometimes, it even inspires fresh ideas. It even worked while I was creating this content.

7. Be proficient in grammar and sentence composition or construction.

I'll be giving this out as a tip even though I'm obviously not good according to the reviews I've gotten on my contributions lately. But, it is still a good tip to point out. If you are proficient in grammar and sentence composition, it increases your chances of getting high scores from a review. I've gotten a little better by using some tools that were recommended by @didic. The tools are Grammarly and Hemmingway. These tools won't turn you to a grammar wiz overnight but will help you improve your grammar and sentence composition efficiency in no time if you are interested in improving.

Summary.

Here are my tips on how to start contributing to the blog category on Utopian. These tips are great in my opinion(because I created it) and they are not guaranteed to enable you to make great posts but are enough to get you started.
To learn how to create great blog posts, read this article which I already stated in the introduction. The tips I stated here, are my own methods and they have worked for me and I'm optimistic it'll work for you likewise.

You may be discouraged when the review scores are not always up to your expectations but don't be. Every great blogger didn't start out great in the first place. To grow you must be consistent and learn to put in mind the reviews that you get on a contribution. Fortunately, the moderators in this category are great at giving constructive feedbacks that will help you improve and become a better open source blogger.

Thanks for reading!.

I hope you found this piece valuable.

If you have other ideas and tips on how to create blog posts on utopian, please share those tips in the comment section. Every piece of information is valuable.

Resources

https://steemit.com/utopian-io/@didic/how-to-write-a-great-utopian-blog-post

Content was not ripped off this source but it helped to guide me in creating this article. Images used in this post are properly sourced.

Series Backlinks

I'll be sharing other valuable tips on this subject as I continue working on the category.