Top 10 Blogging Don’ts
One of the main goals for bloggers is increasing traffic. We often talk about ways to generate traffic and increase readership of our blogs, but I thought today I would write about things you shouldn’t do if your goal is to increase traffic to your blog.
- Don’t ignore your readers: If your readers take the time to read your blog and leave comments, show them you value them by responding with meaningful conversation.
- Don’t disappear: Post regularly. Don’t make readers wonder if you’ve abandoned your blog or been abducted by aliens. Keep your content fresh to maintain your readers’ interest and keep them coming back for more.
- Don’t be anonymous: Publish a useful About Me page that tells your readers who you are and why you’re qualified to write about your blog’s topic or what gives you special insight into the topic to make your blog unique and interesting.
- Don’t wrap your blog in advertising wrapping paper: The easiest way to turn off potential readers of your blog is to make it nearly impossible for them to find your meaningful copy because it’s buried by a myriad of ads. Decrease the clutter.
- Don’t tell your readers nothing: Tell your readers something meaningful in every post. That doesn’t mean every post has to be 1,000+ words. On the contrary, a 10-word post could say just as much or more than a rambling lengthy post that provides no value to readers.
- Don’t be overly sensitive: When you blog, you publish your opinions for the online world to see. It’s highly likely someone will disagree with you. Don’t cry about it. Instead, join the conversation and learn from it.
- Don’t forget your words live online for a long, long time: What you write on your blog or elsewhere on the web today could be available for the online world to see for a very long time. Type cautiously.
- Don’t forget to link: Link to your sources, link to posts you enjoy, link here, link there, link everywhere. I just came up with a slogan for #8, “Linking, it’s the social web thing to do”.
- Don’t forget to proofread: Bloggers are busy, and of course, we’re bound to have typos in our blogs here and there, but an overabundance of typos makes a blog and blogger look amateurish and can drive customers away to find what they deem to be a more authoritative source.
- Don’t make readers sign up or register to leave a comment: Not only does it take time to register (and no one ever has enough time) but it’s also annoying. A sign up or registration process is an easy way to alienate readers and make them abandon their attempts to join the conversation on your blog.
Do you have any blogging don’ts to add to this list?
#2 is what I commonly see as the downfall of most bloggers. A post today, A post tomorrow, then 3 days later another. Those 3 days are crucial, even for an established blog.
Great list, Susan. Keep it up.
I completely agree with you that you should never ignore your readers. I make a point of replying to each and every blog comment – it is common courtesy to do so, and many of my readers have told me how much they love this about my blog and how it makes me stand out.
- Martin Reed
I think both inconsistent posting and not responding to comments kind of go hand-in-hand in terms of building an ongoing conversation and a community. That's the social aspect of blogging and that's why most people read blogs. A news site can regurgitate news stories, but a blog let's everyone participate. It's not much fun if the blogger doesn't participate, too.
Martin, great job on the positive feedback from your readers about your comments. Sounds like you're doing something right and developing a loyal community around your blog.
#10 – do you mean don't moderate comments? If so, what about comment spam control?
Beadinggem, for #10, I am referring to blogs that require readers to register to leave a comment. While this might be practical for very popular blogs, its a deterrent for smaller blogs that are trying to build readership and a community.
Spam is different and would be handled via your spam control settings wherein you require comments to be held for moderation in your blog settings. I think users are used to comments being held for moderation and that isn't nearly as much of a deterrent as requiring people to register in order to leave comments is.
I hadn't realized there was really any "don'ts" to Blogging, but all of these really make sense!
I find that linking to other blogs generously attracts readers. I don't mind linking to a blog that has something useful to say. If someone writes a useful method for making money or for blogging, I will happily link to them, and I know that I just found myself a new reader.