How to set your Lifestyle

Write with an authentic voice

Drop the jargon and soulless language if you can help it. Whoever’s reading your content needs to feel like you care about the topic on a personal level. This is different than say, a business article about software integrations, where expertise is king.

A lifestyle audience cares about expertise, but they also care about intangibles like their apartment’s feng shui, confidence in their appearance, pride in their decor and all the fun they’ll have around the fire pit you just taught them how to build.

I’ve found that it helps to use personal anecdotes. These will showcase your credibility and experience with your topic. Plus, if your audience feels connected to you through the feelings you express in your writing, they’ll come back for more. Pop culture references are also welcome.

To put it simply, lifestyle writing is largely about how the content makes the audience feel. As any good pet owner knows, voice and tone directly affect how a message is received.

2. Break your content up with lots of headers

Lifestyle content should be airy.

A wall of text with long paragraphs and run-on sentences will leave your audience gasping for breath.

If you’re writing about a text-heavy subject, include some imagery or video. A photo is a lifestyle blogger’s way of cracking a window.

Ahh, breathe in that fresh mountain air.

3. Try to keep it evergreen

Most lifestyle content is inherently evergreen. For instance, “Acclimating your pet to the new house,” will be relevant as long people with pets move into new houses. “10 foods every athlete should avoid” will be as useful in 2022 as it is now – presuming there are still athletes who eat food in 2022.

And even the stuff that’s trend-based (e.g., mid-century modern furniture has been in hot demand since 2015) usually has value beyond the year it was written (mid-century modern is still cool last I checked).

That said, pay careful attention to where you might be dating yourself.

“Spruce up your apartment with these 5 low-light houseplants” will age better than “The best low-light houseplants of 2020.”

And if you include a year in your title for SEO purposes, do not include it in the URL. You can update a title from 2020 to 2021 next year and re-promote your content, but changing a URL is a hassle.

4. Be concise and accessible

Great content is never hurried and it doesn’t skimp on detail. Nevertheless, as a content creator, be mindful of what details are distracting or unnecessary.

Also: Keep in mind that people who read lifestyle blogs don’t want to feel like they’re taking the reading comprehension portion of the GRE. Don’t make them dig for information. If you’re providing instructions in a how-to or recipe blog post, do it in clear steps. If you’re creating a list (“5 things to do in Portland, Maine”), break them up and maybe include a photo of each of those five things.

A few more tips here:

• Use short sentences.
• Avoid needlessly big words.
• List things out in bullet points.

5. Make it original and actionable

People want to walk away from lifestyle content having learned something that they can use in life. It could be something about the world. Or it could be something about themselves.

Either way, they need to feel that the knowledge, instruction or perspective they’ve acquired will complement or enhance some part of their lifestyle.

Resist the temptation to spew out platitudes or rehash what other bloggers have already said. It’s fine to use other blogs for inspiration, but don’t just mirror their ideas. Offer something that people can actually use – actionable advice, instruction, recipes, etc. And try to say what you’re trying to say in a new and interesting way.