Are You Game to Blog?

AARP’s September issue chose an interesting way to present content. In place of an article about saving money and getting the best deals possible, the editors offered a game grid, challenging readers to search for words on a grid.  There were ten sentences with certain words printed in red, and readers were asked to locate those words in the grid.

There’s no doubt about it, in blogging for business, the words are the most important element.  Where visuals come in, whether they’re in the form of “clip art”, photos, graphs, charts, or even videos, is to add interest and evoke emotion.  That innovative AARP article can serve as a reminder to us content writers to keeping “changing things up”. Here’s my adaptation of the AARP game, using definitions from Hubspot.com. (The words in bold are the ones to find.)

W     H     A     R     T     I     C     L     E     R     H     O

R      Y      T    R     T     O     A     N     C     H    O     R

S      P      M    E     T     A     T     A     G     S      I     M

S      E      A     R     C     H     E    N    G     I       N     E

X     R      G     B     L     O     G    U     Q     G     T     T

I      L      Q      J     K     P     O    S      T      J      E     A

S      I      M     P     L     E     R     E     D     S      R     T

Y      N      Z     K     P     G     Y     R     I     X     N     A

P      K      F     O     O     B     M    C    P     Z     E     G

B      C      W     E     B     S      I      T    E     V     T    S

1. An article is one single post on a blog.
2. The collective community of all blogs and bloggers on the internet is called the blogosphere.
3. A category defines the topic addressed in the blog.  A blog about apple pie might fall under
   “baking”.
4. Anchor text is clickable content on a web page that takes the user to another page or
   website called the hyperlink.
5. Metatags are elements of information that help a search engine categorize web pages
   correctly.
6. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication, a means for users to subscribe to a blog feed and
   be notified when new blog content has been published.

(Readers are welcome to send in the solution to the game in exchange for high praise plus a hyperlink to their own website. The real point of all this, though, is to remind bloggers to use visuals and to be innovative in presenting their products, services, and ideas to their own readers!)

The question is – Are you game to blog?