I was reading a hair blog last week (hosted on Blogger) and got so frustrated with the navigation, I left.
It led me to think of things I don’t like about some blogs.
1) I Can’t Find Your Content
I stumbled upon a very well-written article about hair last week. The content was so juicy, I immediately longed for more. Problem was, I couldn’t find anything else the author had written.
No archives.
No recent posts.
No categories.
Nothing but the last post on the homepage.
The left and right navs were flooded with ads, social networking widgets, and other random links and buttons that trashed the experience.
Maybe the recent posts were buried there somewhere, but I didn’t stick around long enough to find them.
2) You Make Commenting a Pain
What if I don’t have a Blogger, OpenID or Discus account? Now what? What happened to the option where I can leave my name and URL so I can comment?
I notice this more with Blogger blogs. To prevent spam and anonymous trolling, many people disable the option to comment with your Name/URL. Instead, you need a profile with various sites (Blogger, Discus, etc.) before you can comment.
I can understand wanting to prevent spam, but don’t make it too difficult for your readers to join in the conversation. Most people aren’t going to leave your site to sign up for an account just to comment on your blog.
Use anti-spam plugins like Askimet (if available for your blog platform) and take advantage of comment moderation so you can review every comment before it’s published.
3) I Don’t Like Flying Things
Are you serious? Is this some video game?
You’re really going to make me chase that flying subscription box around the screen with my mouse? And now you hide the close function so I can’t get rid of it?
Oh I get it. I have to enter my e-mail and subscribe to get the box to go away? Ahhhhhhh, I see.
OK…
Bye!
P.S. The exit pop-up asking if I’m sure I want to leave looks desperate and is equally annoying as the flying e-mail form.
4) Your Posts are One Giant Paragraph
If you befriend one piece of HTML markup, make it the paragraph tag (<p>).
Ironically, writing in paragraphs is one of the first lessons we’re taught about writing, yet for some strange reason many people don’t apply this lesson online.
Remember, your readers love to scan and probably don’t like headaches. Chopping up your piece into 3-4 line paragraphs will make it easier on their eyes.
5) You Seem Greedy
I make a conscious effort to keep selling to a minimum on this blog. Now, I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with selling. Of course, everyone has a different strategy and you should do what you feel is best.
I just think you should watch your sell/inform ratio. Unless you have the kind of site where people expect to spend money (shopping, charity sites, etc.), you really should be conscious of how much you sell.
It’s interesting that I receive so many questions about building backlinks, making more money, etc., yet no one ever asks me how to build credibility.
‘Cause let’s face it. Without it, you aren’t really going to sell a whole lot.
There’s still too much “build and they will come” and “advertise and they will buy” mentalities online. If you aren’t taking the steps to prove that you are…
1) Credible
2) Can be trusted
3) Genuinely interested in helping others…
You will have some tough days ahead in the selling department.
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What causes you to leave certain blogs?
TRUE, the popups are annoying. If they would write engaging posts they would NOT need the desperate popups. I would look for it.
Crazy thing is, they do work. Everyone and his mother told me they did, so I did put up a popup thingie, for 10 days and it worked. I did take it down after 10 days.
Yep! I don’t care what statistics are out there that say they work. They are annoying and they look desperate. Why would I want to join your list before I even read the article?
Now I don’t mind the ones that show up in the lower right hand corner after several minutes. I can see how that would work because you’ve given your visitors time to actually READ and decide if they want to be on your list.
I would also love to hear from people who say they work to reveal their findings on how much people BUY after joining. Having people on your list is one thing, but are they buying anything????? After all, THAT’s what counts.
Well said Lisa! I really LOVE the content you put out. I follow you on Youtube, I listen to your podcasts and I even bought one of your starter courses on Udeme. I find you to be honest, credible and extremely hepful.
Awww thank you Phil! I’ve been seeing your activity (likes, shares on Twitter, etc.) and I really appreciate your support. Glad I could help. I love what I do!!
If I had a dime for every reason I leave a blog, I would have 100 cents.
I agree! I was holding my breath while reading this, sure to find something that was related to me and my blog. Thankfully I’m safe there – other than the fact that I write in Norwegian, and you wouldn’t understand a single word of it, of course 🙂 I just wanted to thank you, once again, for a great post, and let you know that I’m gonna stop the “spamming” now, and just read and enjoy your great blog =)
That’s why the bloggers should write content in number of paragraph. Writing all content in a giant paragraph will discourage and bored the readers.
Wow, great post. I even got a few giggles out of it- before scurrying over to my site to make sure I’m not offending with the long paragraphs. I did a spell check yesterday, no grammer, I don’t have ads up yet and definitely agree wholeheartedly about the nuisance level! Glad I stopped to read this
Hi Lisa,
You had mentioned vital mistakes here which every bloggers do when they are new in blogging.However if one want to be successful blogger, there are many things you should to know and get it, working with blogging as your life and get many experience.
Thanks
Yes, i completely and absolutely agree with points you have written …. look and feel is an important aspect for any blog or website. If you are make thing more complicated, where you readers find hard to perform any particular action then, surely you are losing your readership …. pop-ups can be quite irritating and all of the above you page weight is dramatically increases as well as loading time which is certainly not going to help the blog owner … Crawler hates heavy pages..
navigation should be simple!!
I have reached the point where I will check the comment field first,even before I read the post.
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Great post and for a new blogger it is valuable information.
Thanks a lot.
Be yourself and be happy, never stop dreaming!
Happy Natural Life,
Kristin
Hi Lisa!
I have Disqus commenting on my blog, and you can comment as a Guest without registering.
I really love alla your posts. I find them relevant, informational and I know there is a real person behind them. Thank You!
I agree about everything. What mostly makes me leave a blog is what you mention first- if I can’t find the content.
There’s really nothing much I can add because you basically said it all. I just feel the need to commend you for writing this great article. It got me thinking about blogs again. Honestly, I’ve long given up on blogs after enduring enough failure in the past. Maybe I’ll give blogs another shot sometime.
Thanks Lisa! I’m a newbie to blogging and I’m making so many silly mistakes along the way. However, I’m determined to improve and master blogging. Thank you for all the great information!