Arr… yeah. Why did you start a blog again? `1To talk to yourself? If you don’t want other people to read it, why is it a public blog? If you do want other people to read it, don’t start the blog until you know what you’re doing with it.
Look, you’ve got to write what you know and like, or blogging will become a chore. But if it isn’t working out, reassess your priorities. Maybe an occasional off-topic post is acceptable, but when a good blog becomes interspersed with irrelevant posts, it’s a major turn-off.
3. Blank blogger.
“I have no posts lined up for today, so I’m going to have a big old ramble about nothing. Blogging needs to be raw, original and personal, so I think this is OK.”
There’s such a thing as too much honesty. You should plan ahead to make sure that you have several post ideas or even entire posts written ahead of time. If you really run out of ideas, perhaps revisit an older post, ask for post suggestions on Twitter maybe , read some other blogs, write a guest post, or take a break at all huh!
4. Link love.
“This week I’m going to link to a bunch of posts you’ve either already read or don’t care about. And I’ll do the same next week. And the week after. Failing that, I’ll just link to some random posts from people I like, not because their posts are relevant to you, dear readers, but because they’re my friends. When you’re done reading, why not give a little link love of your own?”
No, no, NO. Linking to other sites is good, but you should work it into your existing posts. A post that is nothing more than a bunch of links to other sites is not much use unless you include thoughtful, relevant links and give readers a reason to click them. Linking for the sake of it just isn’t a good idea.
5. Round-up posts (Circling in that way).
“I wrote 5 posts this week, here are links to all of them. I like this one, but that one could have been better. Next week, I might only have time to write 1 post, but I’ll do a round-up post anyway just because it wouldn’t be a week at my blog without a round-up post.”
I used to do round-up posts, but stopped after a few weeks. They felt like a school assignment, where you have to write “In this essay I will be talking about X. Here are my arguments for and against X. That was my essay about X”. Sometimes you don’t need quite so much structure and fluff. Some things speak for themselves. Maybe a monthly round-up isn’t too bad, but don’t just say “I did this, I did that” - make it GOOD.
6. My stats just went up.
“This week, I hit a new high of 50 subscribers and my posts received an average of 5 comments each. Thanks everyone! Let’s beat those stats next week!”
I love stats, but most of the time I prefer to keep them to myself. Stats are good to see how you’re doing, but they’re difficult to influence. For instance, even if you pull out all the stops, you might find it very hard to boost the number of people who subscribe to your site. People tend to set goals they know they can achieve, or that they can’t actually control but that they’d probably achieve even if they didn’t set any goals. Instead of writing about your stats, spend more time writing on-topic posts that give value to your readers.
7. Just a quick video from YouTube.
“Check out this funny video!”
What does this have to do with anything? If we really wanted to see videos, we’d be ON YouTube already. If you’re sharing a video that’s relevant, don’t write a cop-out post along the lines of, “You really have to watch the video, I’m not going to comment on it - everything that needs to be said is said in the video“. If it’s your video, give an introduction and possibly provide a text equivalent for those people who can’t or won’t watch the video right now. If it’s not your video, add some of your own views.
8. I found a new cool site.
“WOW. Facebook/MySpace/Friendster (etc) is so COOL. Go sign up now!”
Why write about this cool site if you can’t tell me anything about it? Give me a reason to check it out, and I might. Too many sites want me to sign up, I can’t sign up at all of them.
9. New version of WordPress.
“(Insert exact copy of official WordPress announcement here)”
My Dashboard tells me there’s a new version of WordPress. Do I really need to see this on every blog I visit?
10. Lists of posts you shouldn’t write.
Yeah, who needs those silly posts that just moan and groan about everyone else’s mistakes without offering any real suggestions for writing a good blog…
