Style Guide for Blog Posts
“Keep in mind that this is just a guide...you can style things however the heck you want, really!”
Here is your regular old paragraph text using Paragraph 2. Use this for you basic paragraphs. Crap, I need at least 2 more sentences to make a paragraph…what should I write? I have no idea. Thank goodness for Lorem Ipsum!
Duis pretium mattis risus, in imperdiet arcu viverra non. Morbi sit amet tempus ante, gravida suscipit odio. Sed pretium facilisis vehicula. Nam ornare, lacus sit amet posuere rhoncus, quam mauris faucibus dui, a placerat magna mi at magna. Orci varius natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus.
*If you have disclaimer text, a footnote, or a citation, or anything that needs to be really, really small, use Paragraph 3.
Use Heading 3 (Unbold) for Your Basic Headlines
Use Title Case unless your headlines are a sentence.
If your headlines are a sentence, don’t use title case
Also, don’t use periods or colons at the end of a title. But you can use question marks or exclamation points! If your headlines are a mix of title and sentence, then default to sentence case.
Subheads Are Paragraph 2 Bold
Same rules apply regarding Title Case & sentence case and periods & colons (eww).
Sub-Sub Headline
I haven’t seen any of these in your blog posts (yet), but here it is in case you need it. Paragraph 2, bold, italic.
LET’S SAY YOU’RE WRITING A SIMPLE LIST OF WORKOUT INSTRUCTIONS
Your headline should be Heading 2 with an orange underline
USE ALL CAPS IN YOUR HEADLINE
The list text should be Heading 4
You can bold the entire list for extra emphasis, as I’ve done here
Don’t use punctuation at the end of a list item. Unless you’re using more than one sentence.
You don’t necessarily even need the bullets. Add them if you’d like, or don’t.
Ok, but what if you need a more extensive list? Like, a list with short sentences and videos or images that help explain your sentences? See below!
A SLIGHTLY MORE ROBUST LIST
1. Make sure all your titles are Headline 4 Bold: If you have a short amount of text that follows, you can leave it as Headline 4, but unbold it.
2. Here is an example of how to change your headline: Just so you can see how an image looks within the list.
3. This text editor likes to automatically format numbers with periods as a list: You can get around this by copying the number & period from elsewhere, or writing the number, adding a space, writing your text, then going back and adding the period after the number.
AN EVEN MORE ROBUST LIST
1. “When would I use this more robust list?”, you may ask: Use this list type if you have a headline, short description, and a small paragraph.
For example, here is a paragraph (in our standard Paragraph 2) that relates to our first list item. Well actually, it’s more like a couple sentences followed by fake Latin. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Donec ultricies, augue tincidunt rhoncus molestie, nulla enim accumsan elit, vitae iaculis ipsum leo sed libero.
2. Like the previous list, headlines in Headline 4 Bold: Followed by a descriptive sentence or 2 in Headline 4 regular.
Now you can expand on your list items using this paragraph in Paragraph 2. You can even add some images or videos above or below.
2. In fact, here’s a video: Here’s how a video looks within a list.
I’d suggest placing your headline & descriptive sentence above the video/image and your detailed paragraph below it. Like a neat little expository sandwich. Lorem Ipsum.
Ok, now I think you’re ready for the ULTIMATE LIST, which you would use if you’re going into extensive detail (paragraphs, man).
THE ULTIMATE LIST
1. This time, the headlines are in Heading 3
Since you will be writing a large amount of text for each item, Heading 3 will make your list more readable. I’m going to add some Lorem Ipsum now, since that’s really all there is to say.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Donec ultricies, augue tincidunt rhoncus molestie, nulla enim accumsan elit, vitae iaculis ipsum leo sed libero. Quisque et volutpat sem. Pellentesque pulvinar massa at vulputate ullamcorper. Duis pretium mattis risus, in imperdiet arcu viverra non.
Morbi sit amet tempus ante, gravida suscipit odio. Sed pretium facilisis vehicula. Nam ornare, lacus sit amet posuere rhoncus, quam mauris faucibus dui, a placerat magna mi at magna. Orci varius natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Sed nec elementum leo.
2. Item number 2 in the ULTIMATE LIST
Subhead 1
Vestibulum et arcu ut nisl varius ultricies. Aliquam augue augue, rutrum a nisl nec, scelerisque ullamcorper felis. In in dictum nisl. Pellentesque facilisis risus eu porta fringilla. Pellentesque semper, nulla id convallis feugiat, sem nisi ultricies dui, in aliquam enim diam in odio. Curabitur in purus id libero consectetur cursus rhoncus et felis. Nam lobortis pellentesque pellentesque.
Subhead 2
Fusce molestie nisl finibus, accumsan nisl a, sodales lorem. Sed justo justo, efficitur ut nulla nec, sagittis aliquam massa. Nam id nunc sapien. Duis varius commodo vulputate. Ut aliquet velit lacus, ut pulvinar nisl placerat et. Morbi rhoncus sapien non congue posuere. Praesent vel nulla quis nulla varius gravida nec non nulla. Nunc egestas varius convallis. Cras pretium et quam quis ullamcorper.
3. Item number 3
Etiam ultricies libero ut tortor blandit, volutpat cursus nulla suscipit. Integer accumsan malesuada congue. Proin sed nisl aliquet, mattis leo vitae, tincidunt neque. Curabitur a nunc id sapien suscipit ultrices sed vitae lectus. Integer molestie massa vel massa gravida condimentum.
Suspendisse efficitur augue porttitor aliquam commodo. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Cras eget vestibulum velit, sit amet aliquet ante. Aliquam non ornare massa, accumsan mollis sapien. Praesent eleifend massa non enim commodo, et commodo odio luctus. Integer at accumsan mauris, sit amet commodo elit. Cras sem risus, volutpat at auctor sed, vestibulum at leo.
What if my list doesn’t have a title?
Use the standard Paragraph 2:
Just like this
Item 2
Item 3
etc.
Warning: Use this “Warning” style at your own risk, or if you need alert your reader to something very important.
Question
How can I style a Fact/Fiction, Myth/Reality, or Q/A section?
Answer
Like this!
Action Step: Use this style for action steps.
The text box for related links is below. Place a spacer or image (usually your book promo banner) before the related links box, or the gray background will leak into your previous text box(es).
This is how to set up your related links:
My Second Favorite (Because It Has A Picture Of A Cat, Duh)
All Your Related Links Should Be In Title Case (To Match Your Blog Titles)