5 Ways Bloggers Tick Me Off
- Require me to login and or register to leave a comment. Who the flip are you that I should have to remember another password just to talk to you?
- Publish a partial feed. When you change to partial feeds, I unsubscribe. I am sorry about the scrappers who republish your feeds; but honestly, if I wanted to go to your site, I would just bookmark it and not bother with your feed.
- Never respond to comments or emails: Do yourself a favor and quit now. If you do not want an email or a comment, disable them.
- Begging for Diggs, links or RSS feeds: If I want to, I will. I understand encouraging me to do something, but for crying out loud people, If your template asking me to digg you is longer than your post, we have a problem.
- Use the <!–more–> tag: Now seriously… If you are Lifehacker and post 10-12 times a day, I would understand it. I still would not like it, but I would understand it. I do not want to have to click multiple times to get to your content, and what is more, I will not. Institute this and I will only come back if I have to, and then only as a last resort.
And a bonus: Apologize for not posting more. I have done it, we all have done it, but I know one lady who posts about every 4 weeks, then apologizes for not posting more often. Just get over it and post.
What do you see out in the blogosphere that ticks you off?
Regarding the fifth point:
I put in the more tag so that
1. the page loads faster
2. SEO benefits (atleast thats what ppl believe)
Otherwise, the first 4 and the bonus point ticks me off as well.
Although I’ve been blogging for over a year, I’ve just brought up my new site on wordpress and I’m learning all about the options. Give us newbies a little slack please! I’m playing with the widgets, feeds etc. As I learn I’ll hopefully not tick you off too much!
@Ashwin-
The more tag also cuts your RSS feed, so by doing 5, you are also doing 2. If you managed to get around that somehow, look at your stats and see how many people come in via the front page of your blog as opposed to coming in by search.
I always write for the humans.
@Michelle-
It is a learning curve. You are doing fine; just keep blogging!
Hugh,
I was told that by keeping the partial short you allow more of your posts to stay visible on your “Main” page. The group I am working with actually encourages the use of entry text and then extended text. I am assuming this would put me on your list of banned blogs. I try to get my main point out in the entry text and leave it to those who want to go deeper to read the rest.
I don’t always write really long entries, and for those I just use the entry text section.
I think one also gets more ad placements using the two page method but I am not trying to live off my blog earnings. I think the John Chow emulators have turned my taste away from any thought of that.
I’m not sure if the system requires a login - I don’t think so. I have no control over it anyway.
If I don’t respond to emails it may be that I am busy or away. I try to respond to any serious email. Spam, invites from half-naked MySpace-friend wannabes I delete.
So, I don’t know if I have lost you as an RSS reader, if you ever were one, or not but I will continue to visit your blog just the same. I think you write with emotion and sincerity. I like that.
Business Transformation in the Dark?
No power all day long - gave the presentation the old fashioned way; I spoke outloud. No mike, no slides, no problem.
Thank you for those constructive and instructive comments. Another thing I struggle with “sidebar stuff.” Some of my favorite blogs are so packed with links, widgets, ads, etc., that finding the actual content is difficult, let alone reading it. Yet, these sidebar elements drive traffic and in many cases are helpful to the reader. How much is too much?
Hugh -
It’s true that the more tag cuts off in feeds off, but there’s a plugin to solve this issues:
http://cavemonkey50.com/code/full-feed/
My home page is second most visited page for my blog!
Plus I tend to write long articles sometimes with images. It’s better that I add in the more tag.
@ Roger-
Yes, you get more page views, but at what cost? How many of us enjoy reading an article online at Newsweek or whatever and having to click through six pages to read the entirety of a 1500 word article?
All: I am writing a follow up article to address some excellent points brought up in the comments. Check back Friday Afternoon for the follow up.
Hugh,
I am not sure you can do this on Newsweek specifically, but many of the news sites have a Print Friendly Version link. I click that and usually get the whole article on one “page” with fewer ads, banners, menus and all the rest of the clutter.
You have a point. I see that I have to choose between long and short posts, and a few or many posts on my front/landing page.
I look forward to your post.
[...] this brilliant article I wrote yesterday, I talked about the 5 things people do on their blogs that tick me off. I have [...]
Newbie here, but I agree about trying to write for the humans. Which is why I don’t use the more tag, and I try to write at least daily. But I’m still scared of scrapers, so I keep my feeds partial.