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Rate - 5 Things That Turn Off This Reader
When I started blogging, I also started following blogs. I was told that commenting on other blogs was a fantastic way to get incoming links. Two years later, I follow blogs, because I love reading the thoughts of others and incoming links is just a happy benefit when I'm inspired to leave a comment. Over the past few years, I've discovered many interesting blogs, have followed and unfollowed blogs, and I would love to share with you what turns me off about blogs. I'd love to read what turns you off; between us, we could come up with a great list that helps us keep subscribers.
Music: I've been involved in many forum discussions on music and the common thought seems to be that people don't like music. Here are a few things to consider:
- You may need to have a license to the tracks that are getting air play on your site.
- Your taste in music may not be shared by listeners. I love Eminem, cranked way up, on my iPod where he belongs. I think only my 14 year old stepson shares my love of Eminem.
- The volume of your music may be too high. I try to remember to keep my computer volume low, because I work on the train to and from work, but every now and then, I forget to crank it back down after I watched a funny YouTube video. Music blaring out of my laptop at 6 in the morning isn't popular on my train. Go figure. If music is a must for your site, then I think it should be optional.
Follow Me, I Follow Back: This isn't a judgment of blog parties and link ups; I've participated in these several times, hoping that people would follow me because they're interested in photography, not to just get a reciprocal follow. The problem that I see with this strategy for new readers is that you get a lot of people who stop by on one or two times and then you never see them again. I used to think that this was fine, because out of 100 people who stopped by, maybe 5 would actually like my blog and follow me in earnest. Then I realized that I was settling for 5% - not good enough.
Why not link up to blog parties in your niche? I started linking up to photography challenges where I found even more blogs to follow and genuine subscribers to my blog. I also look for blog parties that are well organized; putting each blogger in a category allows others to search out specific niches. A brilliant idea.
Crappy Pictures: As a photographer, maybe I'm hypersensitive to this, but I cringe when I see crappy, out of focus shots. This bugs me more than posts without photography, which I've come to accept happens, not everyone has time to take a picture to match up with every post when it's not a photography or lifestyle blog. But please take the time to take a decent picture; you can do it.
Bad Grammar: Thank you to the rare person who leaves a comment only to point out my spelling errors. That's crazy helpful. No really, it is. Because it's taught me to read through my posts at least once before hitting publish. I tend to get excited about a post and hit publish right after I do a spell check, only to come back later, horrified at the number of mistakes, or find myself typing a humble response to a member of the grammar/spelling police who decided to read That post. I would love to tell this mystery officer to stick it, but I've learned that grammar and spelling is a pet peeve of a lot of readers and I don't want to alienate my readers by giving in to the desire to virtually flip off a member of the law. So learn from my experience and double check your work.
Advertising: I love that everyone is working to monetize their blog, but I think it's a little overboard when there is a lot of distracting advertising ads, pop ups, or redirects to a full page advertisement. If all the ads are paying the bills and you don't see a decline in readership, then carry on. But if you're wondering why your subscribers have stalled and you're not getting comments, this may be one of the reasons. I sometimes wonder if my intolerance for ads is due to the introduction to a DVR into my life. Not watching commercials may have contributed to my short attention span.
So what turns you off of a blog?
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