I have been running in to them over and over recently. It is frustrating. Half of the problem affects content so much it is impossible to determine if the content is worth fighting through the hardships for.
Offense #1 Auto-play music
It. does. Not. Work. For. Blogs. Cease and desist. Including a player that visitors could individually enable would be fine. For the rest of us a link to a YouTube video or having one imbedded is the best alternative. Nothing makes me want to leave a blog or even a website faster than some auto play audio or video being forced on me.
Offense #2 Visual Issues
WoNkY FoNtZ, weird text, odd paragraph alignment, designs on the background of the text or poor color contrast choices.
Offense #3 A Lack of Spacing
The entire post does not need to be double spaced. Yet and still adding an extra line between every 3 lines of text can really give the eye a break.
Offense #4 Regurgitating News
When I want just the news go to a news source. When I visit a blog I want to hear what the author thinks about what maybe going on in the news. I get annoyed when I feel like all they are doing is rewriting a news story hoping to attract hot topic viewers.
Offense #5 A Short Story Masquerading as a Blog Post
When a post goes over 700 words I get bored. Wrap it up, extended it into a two parter or a series. Do. not. try. to. hold. on. to. people. endlessly.
Offense #6 A Snippet of Information Masquerading as a Blog Post
If it will fit in a tweet…why did I have to visit your blog? When a post is just a few lines it feels unfinished and readers feel cheated. 300 words is a good minimum.
Offense #7 Phrases like “New Blog Post”
With all the millions of bloggers in the world who cares? Your newest blog post has a title and a theme. Use them. Tell me why I want to care. Don’t waste time or space stating the obvious.
Offense #8 Vague Content I click on posts where someone mentions they are dealing with a problem to see how they have dealt with or are managing through the problem. I navigate away feeling ripped off if the problem never really gets revealed.
Offense #9 Vapid Valuelessness
A public blog is not a journal… too often I see people whose blogs add no value, begging for more followers and attention. Put out good content, be entertaining or informative and the people will come.
Offense #10 Sharing without connecting
As I mentioned I have joined blogging communities. There are those who visit other blogs and comment on posts via the communities. There are others who leave comments on the blogs themselves. Then there are those who are too busy or clueless to be bothered...
Hazzah, I have not committed these particular sins at J.S. Brooks Presents. I agree with you wholeheartedly and wish more folks would at least take the moment required to have a reaction for heaven's sake! Thanks!
ReplyDeletehahahaha Thankfully there are a ton of very nice blogs where all I have to do when I get there is evaluate content. I am delighted to see this struck a cord and others can relate.
DeleteOh- I've been guilty of the over 700 word post! haha! Offense 10 can be a toughie- it takes time to visit other blogs- It's one of the reasons I cut down on blogging frequency so I could dedicate some time to connecting with others. I think it has helped. My feedback has increased and I enjoy reading other people's stuff. It has also helped me to focus my own content better. Good list-
ReplyDeleteI enjoy seeing you popping around in the communities and here on the blog. I think awareness is the start. There are some people I see their blog posts religiously and I am not sure they themselves are real...
DeleteI have learned that less can be more with posting. Leaving a day or so between them gives time for more views.
Hmmm....I am guilty of quite a few of these offenses, my dear. Trying to make changes to Offense #1, thank you very much. Offense #5...I'm so darn wordy, will really have to work on THAT one. And some others.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your frankness and fearlessness. Your constructive criticism is appreciated. :)
Bless you hun! Good blogs can get away with a few of these offenses. A bad blog is still going no where if it does none of them. It is always about balance. I think the comments have been as informative as the post in terms of how other people view things.
Delete600 hundred words or less is always the limit for me. I'm sure I do some of these other things at times. Life goes at a blistering pace, and I don't always take the time to share like I should.
ReplyDeleteIt is good to have an idea of what the limits are. There is grey area for most rules. No one expects all bloggers to be perfect. We just have to talk about expectations and how actions affect others in the community. Communication is always the goal unless people just want an online journal to dump in privately.
DeleteI'm guilty of going over 700 words in my last blog...in every post. I was way involved in researching everything and basically told a life story for whomever I was profiling that day. I became bored in less than a week!
ReplyDeleteAnd I agree wholeheartedly with #7 and titles like "New Blog Post"...or people who, for instance, participated in the Post A Day/Week challenge on WordPress last year. They would just use the topic for the day as their headline—so you wound up seeing a couple dozen posts with the same title and no original content.
I read a post the other day was the 2353 words. I only know because the second to the last paragraph started to lose me and I decided to copy paste the content into a word document and see how far I had come.
DeleteWell established authors with secure followings can get away with whatever works. The rest of us need to work on how we present our content as much as our content until we reach critical mass.
Offenses #1 and #4 are an automatic "I leave your blog and do not return." One sin I do commit is not commenting enough on other blogs. Sometimes it is because I am using my iPhone (while waiting for a bus or some other reason) and I find commenting using an iPhone a very frustrating experience. But other times i am on my laptop-no excuse. I also do not interact with people who post on my blog enough - I need to work on these two blogging sins. Thank you for the list.
ReplyDeleteSome of these issues are cumulative. I can only imagine reading along on a hand held device. Still bloggers need feedback and interaction. It takes me less than 20 minutes if I keep up on it to flit around and see a handful of blogs. If they are good I try to let the bloggers know I dropped by some how.
Deletelol Yes one and four drive me up a wall!!! Not one time has it been worth it for either.
I think I might be guilty of the last two more often than not. Sometimes I just run out of time. Sorry.
ReplyDeleteWhen all I have time to do, is post and or share, like days when I have some place to be early and have pre scheduled, then that is all I do.
DeleteOn other days however I visit blogs and I comment usually via the communities on FB unless I want the extra traffic having my profile appear on the page might bring.
There are some people you see however who auto post all the time but never do anything else.
It could be almost creepy. Other people you see them commenting, clicking buttons and being helpful outside of their own work.
Running over to my blog to check how many I'm guilty of, I do know i need to work on Offence #10
ReplyDeleteA thoughtful blogger is a good blogger. A new blogging challenge starts today there will be plenty of new posts to look through and enjoy. Blogging is more fun in community context. We should all set aside a time each day or week to see what else is out there.
DeleteThese are great. I feel guilty because lately I have not been able to read or comment as often as I used to, but I try.
ReplyDeleteDon't feel guilty be informed. Know that the blogging community is alive and active. We see you as a part and value your input outside of just your posts. We all get busy but our friends get used to seeing us checking in and miss us when we don't show up.
DeleteWe're absolutely agreed on number one- I might be guilty of a couple of the others, too. :) I've got a guest post coming up that's over 1800 words, but I can't see a logical way to split it.
ReplyDeleteGreat post which picks up on some of the things I find particularly irksome.
Take care,
Casey
http://navigatingcyberloss.wordpress.com
If a post is really good word count is like book length. It is over when it is over. The best ones you never want to end. Most say a little too much and could use a nice strict editor.
DeleteMy first and only guest post is a story a friend of mine shared. It's about a wild weekend with his girlfriend that did not go as planned. We were able to split it into a two parter for the enjoyment of my readers.
Most I agree with, except the Twitter one..I don't have Twitter, I don't follow anyone on Twitter and I never plan to get Twitter....although I normally don't have one sentence posts, every once in a awhile....
ReplyDeleteAlso auto-music, I will leave as fast as I can click away....
I was just making a reference to how short Twitter posts have to be since so many people use it. I think the shortest blog posts I have seen have been about 3-5 sentences.
DeleteI'm not going to personally say if I am guilty of any of these, however as a blogger myself who reads other blogs I'm going to comment on some of these I've seen.
ReplyDeleteTo start things off right I'm going to start with #1. The worst and most common offense I've ever seen (or rather heard) is audio that auto plays. If I go on a blog, or more like ANY website, that has audio automatically playing when it shouldn't, I leave the site as quickly as possible.
#2, I'd have to say fonts and the weird typing. I absolutely cannot stand people thAt hAvE tO tYpE lIkE tHIs. Really annoying.
#10, I see a lot of this happening on Google+ with blogging communities. Too many just dumping links to their blog posts, but never really getting involved with the community. I actually just did a blog post this morning about a community I quite enjoy and find to be the best one on G+ for bloggers, since there is actual interaction among the members.