I’m a very prolific blogger and read a lot in my blog community and in other blog communities. I can’t stand some of the things I see and if I have a problem, I can guarantee other readers of your blog do too. Here are four things bloggers are doing wrong:
1. Contests.
So I’m noticing while reading my google reader bundle that 90% of the blogs that I read require the winners of contests to make first contact! Can you imagine? What are they thinking?
I follow 90+ blogs. There’s no way (without google reader of course) that I could remember where I was and when I entered a contest, let alone remember to check back, find the winner post and see if I won.
Bloggers would be far better off contacting the winners first. Afraid of getting caught by the spam filter? Then keep your contact info readily available in the winner announcement. Also make a page that lists current contests and their links as well as recently finished contests with a link to the original post and the winner announcement.
I’d remember and trust a blog for making it easier on me than for themselves. I regularly follow the blogs that did this with me when I won from them. Think about that.
2. Bad Visual Decisions.
For instance a smorgasbord of images that feature on both the left and right side of the article! Now alternating images is not necessarily bad, but we’re talking well over half a dozen just randomly inserted pictures of all shapes and sizes. Talk about a visual assault! To avoid retina damage I quickly skip over the post and move on to the next in my reader.
3a. Titles that have nothing to do with the post.
Yuck. I’ve come across that many times. Most of the time I wonder if the blogger forgot the topic or used a sensational title to lure me in under false pretenses. This is called bait and switch and nobody likes it. Don’t do it. If you’re lucky, I just think you can’t stay on topic and leave… hopefully to come back for your next post.
3b. Boring titles.
I won’t even bother with a boring title. How hard is it to come up with something fun that fits your article? Consider these five romance novel related articles that I wrote:
- 10 Reasons Zombies Make Bad Romance Heroes
- Get into Bed with Judith James (Author Interview)
- The #1 Reason Women Love Triangles in Romance
- Review: Summer of Two Wishes by Julia London
- Should Authors Own a Blog?
I use lists, questions, and creativity to come up with to the point, fun, and informative titles. Wouldn’t you want to check those articles out?
4. Terribly long winded posts.
This gets me every time. I can’t keep focused for super long posts. It needs to be broken up if you’ve got a lot of information. Consider making it a series or post it with big bold headers. Break up long paragraphs. Do something, anything to keep a post easy to read and the text visually stimulating.
Now that I’ve shared my pet peeves it’s time to confess; do you commit any of these crimes?
Keira runs a book review blog for readers by readers on romance novels entitled Love Romance Passion. She’s been reading romance since she was a teenager and began blogging about romance so she could share her passion for her favorite genre.
Photo Credits: Marty.FM
Originally posted 2009-09-02 03:44:57. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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8 comments ↓
I know that I sometimes write long. I think the problem is not that I’m too long winded–well, not most of the time–but that I’m picking topics that aren’t quite right for the web. I’ll look at ways to break things up into a series of smaller posts. That’s a great tip.
I don’t think it’s the topics Jennifer– you might just need to change up the title of the post or make the text stand out more. There’s lots of ways to do the latter. For instance you can:
1. Add topic headers
2. Add bullets
3. Bold important sentences
4. Change color of font on super important sentences
5. Change font size
6. Add relevant images to text
7. Break up paragraphs… internet text is not like normal text. You can get away with weird paragraph breaks if necessary. Blocks of text make people’s eyes glaze over lol.
8. Link to relevant posts. Links are interactive and popular.
9. Quote something and indent it if ‘blockquote’ doesn’t do that for your theme automatically.
10. Add anchor tags and create a ‘table of contents’ at the top of the page. See here on how to do it: http://www.w3schools.com/HTML/html_links.asp
Hope that helps Jennifer!
Thanks for using & crediting my photo!
Great content! I can say that I am definitely guilty of a couple of your “things bloggers do wrong.” Especially the images that pop up along the sides.
I am not long winded. Seems like I always have to struggle to come up with posts.
Keep up the good work. I will come back to see what new content you have.
I agree with the idea of too many images. But for many bloggers the opposite is true. They don’t use any images at all and their blog pages look dull and uninviting. One or two key images that relate to the post can be every bit as important as good titles.
While we’re on the topic. I agree that the best title is one that is descriptive and interesting. But a title isn’t really for entertainment value, it’s a hook for the reader and should be written in a search engine friendly manner.
@Blog Angel a.k.a. Joella -You’re not wrong about the hook. Titles and sub-headings should both be catchy attention grabbers. Both will keep readers on the page longer!
How do you feel about different sized images in a single post?
Great list.. I’m working on #4 lol
Trying to write shorter posts for readers benefits and mringin in more traffic pushing out more posts.
But sometimes I sit and say ok, this will be a quick post.. and then my mind wont shut off, and i’m left with a long mini novel..lol
One area that I struggle with is finding a balance between written content and offering video content. Wondering if you would comment on what that balance might be? Are readers or visitors more likely to watch a short video or spend the same amount of time reading. Thanks for you post and outlining these tips.
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