This is a guest post by Vernon Swanepoel. If you want to guest post on this blog check out the guidelines here.
It is very rare for someone to say “Your blog irritated the heck out of me”! It isn’t because people are all so nice - no, it is simply because they just leave your website right away!
Are you driving away traffic because your blog is just plain irritating??? Perhaps???
In the blogging world today there is a massive amount of stuff churned out for you to add to your blog, and sometimes the temptation is high to keep on piling it all in. Does your blog look crisp and professional? If not, perhaps you can chop away at some of the riffraff that has accumulated on your blog. Get out your axe and let’s see what we can take off…
There is one big thing to keep in mind when you write/develop your blog … I’ll get to that later…
- Pop-up Subscription Notices - Like everything in this post, this is not taboo in your blogging, but use it with extreme caution. I complained recently to a blogger, they had a subscription banner that you just couldn’t get rid of. If it sets a cookie and only pops up the first time the visitor visits your site, then it’s okay. Even then, I don’t like them, and I think it is far better to not have them at all.How can you turn this around - there is one great use of these pop-up things I have seen that will make your readers happy to visit your site - if you give something really meaningful away to them. In most cases this will be an ebook.
- Half of your ads - You want to make a couple bucks from your site? Me too. Are you? Why not - maybe it is because you chase your readers away before they have the chance to fall in love with your blog. You can certainly run ads without offending anyone, and a reasonable number is okay, but take a good look at your website and ask yourself “is any visitor to my site going to look at the website and think that the site looks fantastic?” Use that as your measuring stick. How can you turn this around - If you have material that you have produced, such as books or software your visitors know that you are going to be selling that to them, and you can make it really obvious.
- Pictures as structure - Okay, if you never get down into the code of your blog this isn’t relevant to you and it is a bit dated, but I think it is still happening all the time. Make sure your website style is done with a good CSS file, so that you have a faster load time. How can you turn this around - Well, in your header you can go ahead and do some stylish things, using images and whatever you like, just make sure it doesn’t waste to much time loading and make sure it looks really professional.
- Poor quality Pictures - If you like to use an image for every post - which I do, make sure that you get images that catch a bit of attention, and look quiet good. Where do you get them? Well, of course, you can take some yourself - if you write about a topic, perhaps you also photograph relevant stuff. But, there is a much easier way - use Google Image Search to find good pictures. Most importantly, go into advanced options and choose a sharing license, and give proper attribution to the author. Don’t, don’t, don’t use people’s images without their consent or a sharing license. And if you can, just drop them a note to say you have used their picture. They may become a fan of your blog.
- Baggage - simply put, t0o much stuff on your website. Each page of your site should either be telling your visitors where on your website they might find what they are after, or it should have one main story. If you have a bunch of scrolling media updates, Twitter feeds and so on, consider chopping some of that back. Look at each page and ask yourself “Aside from reading the content, what are the most important things that I want my visitor to do”. Is it a subscription or an ad you want them to click on - well if there is too much stuff going on, consider chopping out a good deal of what is not important. Consider it this way, they may only pass that page - or your whole site - once, so give them the chance to do the things on your site you most want them to do. Don’t hide it amidst to much other stuff.How can you turn this around - If you have updated content (blog posts, for example), one of the most important things to you would be subscriptions. Make it easy to find the subscription by having it at the top of the page as well as at the end of each post. By taking away some of the other content, you can add more of the important stuff, and I think your feed icons and text is perhaps the most important thing - other than your text, on most pages.
- Animation - Oh… I can’t stand it anymore! They’re *blinking* and *beeping* and *flashing*! (Movie Quote)Simple one - don’t irritate the heck out of your blog visitors. I know that many ads that you get through affiliate programs are like this, but, again, think of your visitor. Sometimes I really want to read something and actually leave a site because the content is right beside something flashing at me. At least put it far away from where your user is reading. Distracting a visitor to your blog with silly things is really not a cleaver way to build up a following for your blog. One way to turn this around is in educational material. Explaining things like Longshore Drift can be done really effectively with animations.
…It is all about one thing - letting your reader have a good time on your blog!
It is all really saying a lot of the same thing - see your blog through the eyes of a would be visitor. There really are a huge number of blog out there, all competing for the user’s attention. Give the visitor a good reason to stop a while, to take it in and give them the desire to visit again.
Vernon is starting a project on his personal blog Sandcurves.com, exploring the theme “Developing a Meaningful Blog”.
Article by JaneSheeba
+Jane is the founder of Problogging Success. She is an expert blogger, consultant, freelance writer and blog designer. Don't forget to get your hands on two FREE Ebooks she offers.
Jane has written 257 awesome posts for Problogging Success.
I've known Jane for quite a while now and one thing I can say about her services is that she never fails to deliver. Actually, no, she always over delivers.. If you are looking for some to assist you with your blogging needs, that being, an audit of your website, a redesign (or even minor tweaks), and to do that all important site maintenance for you, give Jane a try. You are in good hands.
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Thank you for the handy information, especially the part about Google images. I did not know they had advanced image search options for reuse.
Thanks!
@ Jane,
Thanks so much for the chance to do a guest post on your blog
@ Susan,
I’m glad you found it useful.
Hey, Jane! I can’t agree more with simplicity…I use Thesis theme with minimal elements on it, as I want my readers to focus on content. Glad we feel the same about the excessive flashy things on a blog. Alison
Pictures are indeed part of the elements in blogging. It should be relevant to your topic and you can get these type of pictures at free royalty photos just like at freedigitalphotos. Another element that bloggers should consider is the headline. It should be an eye catcher so that people would be compelled to read your content and catcher their attention.
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