Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from Sean Platt of Writer Dad.

Clear, crisp online copy has never been more important. It is the creation of our content that makes or breaks a modern online business. Quality content turns disinterested leads into ardent subscribers and those subscribers into loyal clients.

Blogging is all about communication. The more effectively you are able to communicate, the more easily you will be able to spread your authority and increase your chances of generating compound sums of money.

Though effective communication is reliant upon clear ideas and lucid delivery, it isn’t enough.

The most effective online content situates its message in a way that makes the reader feel as though they are immediately adjacent, unwilling to interrupt. One of the best ways to achieve this is by employing the clean lines of an uncluttered theme.

I’ve used Thesis for every online project I’ve had throughout the last year. Only recently have I discovered the elegance of Frugal. Arguably, there is no better theme (free or premium) on the market to highlight the power of words by leaving so much white space for the print to stand bold.

The right theme combined with clear writing will help to take your content to the next level. You already have Frugal. Follow these tips and take your content creation as far as it can go.

1) Write a rough draft quickly without over thinking. The first draft is not a time to measure perfection, it is a time to unleash your thoughts. Editing comes next. If you can articulate your thoughts to perfection the first time through, that might be an indication your content isn’t quite as valuable as it could be. Revision while writing is a pillow on the face of pure thought.

2) Edit your words as though someone else wrote them. Every word isn’t golden and word count is irrelevant. It is the density of ideas that make your content remarkable. 250 or 1250, make every word count. I promise you, there is fat in your first draft. Cut it.

3) You want your copy lean, but also strong. Once off the treadmill, take your copy to the weight room and make the few key changes that can pack a little power in your prose. Stay far from weak words and opt instead for vocabulary with muscle. Us, are, were, it – these words cast with abandon will only weaken your content. Own the action. Use active language rather than passive.

4) Don’t try to sound smarter than you are. All beginning writer do this. I know I did, but I drank from a bottle when I was a baby too. My general rule – never use words you wouldn’t use in typical conversation.

5) Read your work out loud. I don’t publish a word on any of my blogs until I’ve read the content out loud at least once. Invariably, my mouth catches much of the minutia my mind’s inclined to miss.

6) Print it out. My writing partner, David prints his stories while editing, a trick he learned in the newsroom. Reading on the computer screen can become tiresome and many online writers tend to gloss over what their eyes would catch in print. Print your copy, mark it up, then dip in for one last online edit.

7) Be yourself. Like it or not, everyone else is already taken. If you try to write for an audience of everyone, you will be lucky to be writing for an audience of anyone.

If you create valuable content and keep it as clean as your theme, success is only a matter of time.

Sean Platt creates remarkable content and specializes in branding. Follow him on Twitter.

Talk to any blogger worth their RSS feed and you will hear about how it’s the content we put in our blogs that matters most, not the theme that frames it.  You will hear about how it’s not the look of your blog that gets you on the front page of Digg, but the words, images and videos that plaster your pages that make or break the success of your blogging endeavors.  You will hear that ‘It’s ALL about the content!’

I believe this wholeheartedly as I’ve experienced this truth first hand.  Since I first began to blog I have gone through many phases of focus.  There have been times when I would spend day on end, pining over the perfect look for my blog theme, neglecting the quality of the content I shared.  Then there have been other times when I did nothing more than ensure the best writing and the highest quality voice I could possibly muster.  Which of these instances do you believe brought the most traffic, subscribers, links and buzz about my blog?  Need I answer this question…?

As I’ve grown as a blogger I spend more time focusing on words and less on widgets and plugins.  Yet I’ve lost no bit of passion for design and code.  If anything, I’ve become even more enthusiastic about web design and more specifically, WordPress theme design.  But my passion lies not in flash and flair, but in simplicity, flexibility, efficiency and the value of JUST ENOUGH.  My goals have changed from putting the focus on the theme, to using the theme to properly present the content it bares.  Just like the wrong picture frame can dilute the power of a portrait, so too can a poorly, over done Wordpess theme, take away from the message of any blog author.

The sense of invisibility.

The perfect WordPress theme for any blogger is going to seem invisible when you are reading the pages of the blog.  This requires a specific balance that comes from a super clean look as well as JUST ENOUGH flair to enhance the visuals.  Just like grandmas perfect pasta recipe, too much or too little of any ingredient will render a less than desirable end result.  It’s ALL about the content, but only when properly framed by the perfect package or simplicity and just the right amount of salt.

Just like no two bloggers have the same voice…

…so should no two themes look EXACTLY the same.  The frugal WordPress theme address this fact in two ways.

1. Being the perfect picture frame. In its stock form, the frugal theme is perfectly subtle and therefore allows the content that YOU put in its boundaries to become the main focus.  By adding your own unique images and words and whatever represents the message you intent to voice, you will quickly turn the frugal theme into the look, feel and function of YOUR desired blog.
2. Flexibility is its forte. By building the frugal theme with simplicity in mind, you will find that customization is about as simple as it gets.  Not flashy backend features, but the most basic code that allows for even the non coder to adjust their theme until it perfectly fits their blogging needs.  By including a free guide book, I make customizing your frugal theme as easy as paint by numbers.

So is it REALLY ALL about the content?

The answer is still an absolute YES, but as you can see, the theme DOES matter.  There are way too many themes out there (both free and premium) that don’t even come close to incorporating this perfect blend of design characteristics to properly frame your precious content.  You want your focus to be on your voice, but for this to effectively occur, you need to be sure that your blog design is not doing anything to dilute or distract from it.  My voice is my passion and blogging is my medium.  With the frugal WordPress theme I have created what I believe to be just the right mix of ingredients to effectively echo our words.

Eric