7 Reasons I Won't Read Your Blog

I was tagged by Misti Sandefur of Life of a Writer to offer seven little pearls of blogging wisdom on what not to do as a blogger if you want to keep your readers, subscribers, and fellow bloggers in your network happy. So here you go... seven reasons I won't read your blog:

1. Your font choice makes my eyes bleed.

I'm still a sweet young thing, so if my eyes are straining, it needs some work. Keep the sizes large enough to be easily read, don't use serif fonts (like Times New Roman, Courier, etc.) for screen-based reading, and stick to dark fonts over light backgrounds. Strain my eyes and you've lost yourself a reader, no matter how good your content may be.

2. You're a niche-idiot and it shows.

If I can tell from the first post or two that you really don't know much about the niche you're blogging in, I won't be back. Niches chosen just to earn money are pathetic. If you're not knowledgeable and passionate, it's going to show quickly.

3. You make me log in to post a comment.

I hate that. It's stupid. There's not a single good reason to do it (and don't pull that "it fights spam" card with me dearies... that's a crock of something). Put your readers first, and make their lives easier. Filter spam in some other way. If I can't interact with your blog (because there's no chance in hell I'm registering with your blog to leave a comment... I don't care if you're my best blogging buddy in the world on that one), then I probably won't waste my time with your blog in the first place.

4. Your comments are crap-infested.

If you don't care enough about your blog to get rid of spam comments, then I don't care enough about your blog to read it.

5. You have no blogging balls.

I hate boring bloggers. I won't read a blog if a blogger doesn't have it in them to speak out on issues that matter to them. Blogs aren't about being sweet, warm, and fuzzy all the time. I want to get to know a blogger. I want to see what they're passionate about, from what tickles them pink to what royally pisses them off. If you're afraid to speak out against anything at all, you really don't belong on the blogosphere.

6. You think widgets make you super cool.

If your sidebar(s) are littered with tons of blogosphere bling, I won't stay long. I mean, I may stay long enough to laugh at you for thinking you're little miss or mister popular (with your "oooh, I'm a member of this network that doesn't mean anything," or "I'm a girl blogger; hear me roar" crap), but I won't actually read your content. Stop joining little blog groups that make you stick their logo on your blog. Stop adding that Twitter crap to your site. Stop bragging about nominations that don't mean anything or awards you got because no "big" blogs felt it was worth competing for. Just stop. If you have too much space, remove a column. Add something worthwhile... sites you would truly recommend as resources, recent posts (above the fold, or there's very little point), popular or featured posts (to drive traffic to older content that you don't want buried), awards that actually mean something, etc. Just stop adding every new "cool" thing that you come across. If it has no real value, it's just an eyesore.

7. You're Google's little ....

If you bend over and take it every time Google announces a policy change (or are they hormonal whims?), changing your blog or posting style to make it more "Google friendly," kiss me goodbye as a reader. I'm the reader dammit... you write for me! Well, you write for all of us actually, but you get the point. Write for people; not for search engines. We'll know. Trust me.

So there you have it. I tried to not use the advice given in similar posts I've seen, while still focusing on some pretty big blogging sins (as well as personal pet peeves of mine). And I do believe I'll tag:

Latoya: of Writers' Brew

Matt: of A Musing Scribe

Denise: of A Writer's Life

Can't wait to see your lists of blogging no-nos ladies and gent.

Profile image for Jennifer Mattern

Jennifer Mattern is a professional blogger, freelance business writer, consultant, and indie author. She runs numerous websites & blogs including All Freelance Writing, Freelance Writing Pros, NakedPR, and Kiss My Biz.

Jenn has 25 years' experience as a professional writer and editor and over 20 years' experience in marketing and PR (working heavily in digital PR, online marketing, social media, SEO, new media, and thought leadership publication). She also has 19 years' professional blogging and web publishing experience (including web development) and around 18 years of experience as an indie author / publisher.

Jenn also writes fiction under multiple pen names and is an Active member of the Horror Writers Association.

Subscribe to the All Freelance Writing newsletter to get freelance writing updates from Jenn in your inbox.

Get More Content Like This in Your Inbox

Did you enjoy this post? If so, please subscribe to the All Freelance Writing newsletter where you'll be notified of new blog articles and receive subscribers-only content.

Subscribe now.


11 thoughts on “7 Reasons I Won't Read Your Blog”

  1. Hi Jen,

    I’ve got one for you.

    8. You force me to come back and visit your blog by not providing me with an RSS or email subscription to updated posts. Time is money, and I don’t have the time to surf the internet. If you want me to read your blog, bring it to my doorstop so that I have it at my fingertips.

    Speaking of which… where’s your RSS/email subscription, Jen? Either I’m blind or you don’t have one. Help?

    Reply
  2. I’m very new to blogging, and rather than try to filter through all the “how to’s of blogging”, I rather prefer the what NOT to do approach. Thanks for making me laugh. 🙂

    Reply
  3. What don’t I abide by here? I don’t have Twitter, award crap, or any of those other things I mentioned as being obnoxious here. The only button-style things here are the subscribe buttons, which are from a plugin b/c I can’t stand seeing a dozen or more of those stupid icons below every post like some people prefer to do. I’ve tried the more minimalist addthis service, but frankly, people seem to prefer the chicklets, because subscribers have been up quite a bit since adding them. They may take space, but they’re far from “useless” like several of the other things I mentioned.

    Reply
  4. I’m not offended… just curious as to what the issue apparently is. Nothing I have in the sidebars here is unusual:

    Categories
    Recent posts and comments
    Archives
    Basic Meta Info
    Subscription options
    Newsletter
    Blogroll
    Ads (and if people really prefer I remove those from the sidebars, I’ll just stick them back in the content – they’re there for your convenience to begin with to keep them out of the post text)

    I have a few things that others don’t, but none that I’d consider inappropriate or a waste of space:

    Job listings (not only monetizes the site to keep it going, but serves as a useful resource for the target market)
    Recent discussions (from the forum attached to this blog)
    Recent book marketing posts (from the book marketing blog broken off of this one, specifically for authors a few weeks or months back)

    That’s why I’m assuming she’s upset by the subscription setup for the feed, but like I said, it obviously isn’t an issue to most, or my subscribers wouldn’t be significantly up. People simply seem to like having their favorite option directly listed instead of having to set up the feed info manually in their chosen reader.

    Reply

Leave a Comment