1. OH MY EYEEEEES!
Also known as a fuchsia background with lime green font and a hundred flash-animated banner ads scrolling down the side of the page. Some blogs look like a cyber-Vegas. Only not the “Bellagio and tickets to Cirque du Soleil” Vegas. More like the “Lady Renay’s Can-Can Revue and $.99 steak dinner” Vegas. Catch my drift? If you are not a professional web designer and/or are color blind, consider using any of the ten million available free templates available online. If you are adamant about designing your own theme do yourself a favor and make a list of a hundred blogs, then quickly click through each of them and notice which ones make you want to stop and read. You will find that the best blogs do not assault the senses, but rather, invite the reader to stop and enjoy the words on their screen.
2. BE MY FRIEND! SUBSCRIBE TO MY NEWSLETTER! TWEEEEEET!
This is the OCD blogger who posts and then immediately jumps on their social networks and starts hammering people to visit their site, meanwhile refreshing their analytics pages every fifteen seconds to see who is reading. My advice: Be cool. Use your social network wisely. Don’t pester your friends and don’t insist that every post you write is golden and should be paid attention to right this moment. If you refuse to listen to this advice, you will find that people will begin avoiding you—much like the guy who wears a sandwich board and screams at you about the end of the world as you walk by.
3. The Thief
Does this really need an explanation? People work hard to make their blogs interesting and informative. They pour their writing, photography, and design talents into them. So when someone comes along and does a right-click-copy on them, they have every reason to be upset. Even if this doesn’t land you in legal trouble, it will get you blacklisted on every social network and blog ring known to man. Most bloggers are friendly folk who love to help each other out. They key is ASKING FIRST, and then making sure you credit your sources appropriately.
4. Bad Grammar/Spelling
None expects you to be an English profesor, or have perfect grammar and spelling but for cryin out loud! you can check your content automatically with a spellchecker. Posting content with lots of mizspelled words and poor grammar just means your lazy. And nobody likes a lazy blogger.
5. Extended, Unannounced Lapses in Posting
I’ll be frank. People who read blogs are addicted to information. They want fresh content every time they visit. If you are writing a blog that you want people to pay attention to, it needs to be updated weekly—daily if possible. If you can’t avoid taking an extended leave of absence, have the courtesy to let people know you will be putting the blog on hold and when you are expected back. On the other hand, if the only person you care about reading your blog is your mom, then don’t worry about it. She probably already knows where you are anyway.
6. Secret Blogging
Just because you write really good posts doesn’t mean people will read them. Successful blogging requires two important things: content and marketing. Even if you have nothing to sell on your blog, you have to “market” it, or let people know it’s there. Much has been written on the subject of getting readers to your blog. Blog directories, social media, tagging, SEO—the list goes on. Whether or not you are a web guru, if you have any desire to reach an audience with your blog, you have to educate yourself on the basics of internet marketing. Otherwise, you’re really just talking to yourself.
7. Selling in every post
Blogging is now being used by all kinds of business owners, independent contractors, and even large corporations to build relationships between themselves and their clients. This is great, because it means there are actually some very qualified, educated and informed people writing posts. However, things can go sour when the blog becomes the equivalent to a sales pitch with every post. Spamming online is the equivalent on not brushing your teeth for three days, drinking six pots of coffee, and then standing really close to someone while you’re talking to them. Sell your product or service through your personality, not with hard sell pitches within your blog posts.
8. The epic post writer.
Some bloggers have a lot on their minds and they need to let it all out. However, it would do them well to edit (read: chop) their posts before they hit “Publish.” Because there is no bigger turnoff than hopping on someone’s blog and seeing the dreaded WALL O’ TEXT. That is, a column of text with few paragraphs that runs on so far that you can’t even see the bottom of the post unless you scroll down. You may be the Homer if the blogosphere, but people who read blogs are usually not there to curl up next to the fire and get cozy with your post. Refine your posts. Make them clean and easy to read. Use paragraphs. Break up the text with lists and pictures. Your readers will thank you.
9. Cliché blog posts
We all know you love your dog, your kids, and chocolate. You probably also hate Mondays and traffic. There isn’t any reason for people to come to your blog and read about this stuff, because they probably blog about it themselves. Find unique information, or if you absolutely must blog the same topic everyone else is, work at making your post stand out in some way. And for heaven’s sake, don’t write about how ‘zany’ and ‘unconventional’ you are. That ought to be self-evident.
10. Ignoring Comments
If people are leaving you comments, you should be stoked. Many bloggers work their mouses off trying to get readers to participate in discussions on their site. So, if someone is leaving comments, do yourself a huge favor and acknowledge them. Comment back, write a blog post that answers a question, and thank people for taking the time to write their thoughts on your blog. If you don’t, they’ll think you’re negligent, or worse—a snob.