Often when I write one of these types of posts it seems like I’m picking on one particular group of some kind. Today this is a little bit different. I’m picking on a group, but the group isn’t as specified except for one thing; it concerns blogs. And it’s what I see “people”, and when you see what I’ve written you’ll understand why I went that route, doing, well, wrong, or badly, or whatever; just not good. lol Here we go.
1. If you’re not trying to live what you write about then you’re wasting your time blogging. Now, that sounds harsh, but I’ll tell you what I mean. Right now, if you look to the right of this post you’ll see a post I wrote on my business blog about “trust leadership”. In that post I highlight 9 blogs I visited on Sunday. I found it interesting that all of those blogs talked about leadership in some fashion, some of them talked about building trust, yet 8 of them moderate comments, one of them adding captcha to the mix. To me you reap what you sow, and if you’re telling people up front that you don’t trust them, then why should they trust your content?
2. Your blog platform is, well, lousy. Of course this is just my belief, and for once I’m not talking about different commenting systems. Lately I see a proliferation of blogs on places such as Typepad, Tumblr, and other sites like these. I don’t count these as regular blogging platforms, although I know the Typepad people will say it is. Any platform that begins by pretty much telling me if I don’t sign into it you’re not going to honor things from outside such as Gravatar, and that you’re not going to send me messages if I comment unless I sign in (I’m not talking about a different comment system, but in this case it’s a part of the site) then it’s a lousy platform. As for Tumblr, it seems to be set up for instant messaging thoughts; in other words, you’re thinking “kill my landlord, kill my landlord” and thus you say it. Or you saw an image of puppies being cut up and you thought it was neat so you posted it. And the comments you get back are “neat”, “wow”, “cruel”… If that’s basically what’s being promoted it’s a lousy platform.
3. You leave lousy comments. Okay, this one I’ve touched upon before, but in this instance I’m not talking about people having to write great comments, and I’m not talking about spam. I’m talking about people who leave comments that never address what the topic is about. Sure, some of them might mean well, but if it doesn’t advance the conversation then what’s the point? Of course there are times when one can be funny with a one liner that actually pertains to the content, and if you’ve built up that type of equity with the blog writer then it’s fine. And if I put up one of my Muppet posts I really don’t expect anything other than “I love/hate the Muppets”; course, if you hate the Muppets you’re a cruel person. 😉
4. You don’t at least try to do a good job of writing your blog posts on a regular basis. I think I’ve written only one post in all these years that I should have checked over before I put it out, and that was when I used my Dragon software without going back to read everything. None of us are perfect, thank goodness, but most of us are pretty good. If we invite people into our space the very least we can do is have a nice place for them to sit.
5. Don’t leave “please contact me” comments on blog posts. The only time one can validate that is if the person who owns the blog hasn’t given you any contact information anywhere else, and if you as a blogger hasn’t put an email address somewhere on your blog so people can contact you, do it now. I have this type of thing happen to me all the time when people want to write guest posts or contact me for some other reason, but I have an About page on every blog that has at least an email address that you can reach me at.
6. If you read any of the “page” information that people have let instructions on make sure you read it if you have any questions. Of course most people will say they don’t have questions, but sometimes they do. If someone has written a comment policy it probably means you should read it if you’re thinking about leaving a fake name or one of those keyword names to see if the person whose blog it is likes that sort of thing. If not, you may find your comment gone or that you’ve irked the blog writer.
7. Let me expound on the “information” part of pages. I have a high number of people that want to either write guest posts for me or buy advertising on my finance blog. I created a page where I tell people which email address to write me at AND to use my name; if my name isn’t in the email it tells me you didn’t read what I had to say. It’s very simple to follow, and any time I get an email without my name on it I just delete it without reading it. Could I be missing something? Yes, but if you don’t stand by your standards then why have any?
8. By the way, if you’ve written any “pages” that you hope people will see, at least make sure they’re understandable so you don’t confuse people. There shouldn’t be any question as to how you want people to act in your space if you’ve taken the time to put something together.
9. Be nice. So far I’ve popped on some things I don’t like. Just asking, but in saying what I’ve said, have I been anything but nice? I always figure there’s a way to get a gripe across and still be nice. One doesn’t have to be too forward. One doesn’t have to use bad language. One doesn’t have to name call. Yeah, there are things that irritate me, but anyone you meet will tell you I’m a nice guy and, in my own way, a straight shooter. When I work directly with people in more of a coaching or training role, I give them options of things to do and my belief on the consequences of those actions rather than just tell them what to do. If someone asks me an opinion and I know they’re going to disagree (yeah, I often already know that) I’ll rarely be forward and tell them that, unless it’s the only way to get them to leave me alone (here I’m talking about things like religion; don’t go there with me). I want to be treated nice and courteous, and Dr. Phil says you teach people how to treat you by your actions. Yes, I watch Dr. Phil. lol
10. Guest posting; give your best and then try to give something different. I just wrote a guest post for someone I know locally. She said I could write on anything. I took a look through her blog to see the types of things she wrote about, then I wrote this post titled Why I Call Out “Isms”. One of her passions is the rights of others, and I tend to agree with her on this. In my mind one doesn’t “mail in” a guest post. You give it your all, try to turn it into something you might not always do for yourself, and go that extra route. I hope you check it out to see what I mean. It’s a topic I might write about here every once in awhile, but it’s not the type of post I’d write here; at least I don’t think it is.
And there you go; I bet you thought I wouldn’t be able to come up with 10, did you? So, share your thoughts, as always; after all, if I didn’t want to hear them, I wouldn’t put them out there.
I think you nailed it. I don’t know if I would have listed 10 regarding guest posting, but I could be wrong. A lot of people think that guest posting is an important part of blogging. If beginners would read this and follow it, they would have a good chance of being a good blogger.
John, I had to list it. Guest posting, for those who do it, is an important feature of blogging, and I sometimes think some people miss the boat when they get the opportunity to do a guest post.
Great post, Mitch (uh, oh…that is not a good comment).
I think I have done a good job so far. Sometimes I do get time constrained to maintain commenting on other blogs which I do enjoy. I still need to get better at planning ahead like you do. Getting there!
I do think my back pages need to be looked at again. A lot has changed since I put them together. Thanks for the reminder.
No problem Scott. You’re doing fine with your blog and such, and knowing your time constraints one has to applaud you for keeping as as much as you do.
Honestly found difficulties to reply and add something on this post. The way you have explain this Mitch, definitely shows that you understand blogging and you have walking the path, not only that you do, but things described are complicated, but described as simple as possible. I quite like the topics that you choose and replies on comments.
Thanks Carl. You know, many blog pundits believe that when one writes a post that we’re supposed to leave something for prople to comment on. To me, that just says that one has written an incomplete post if they know the answer and they don’t put it out there.
That’s a good point Mitch, may be that’s why blogs and Web 2.0 is so successful, because there is interaction between people.
Carl, without interaction it’s just people putting out stuff and never knowing if anyone is really reading any of it.
Hi Mitch. I’ve read your articles, not only these one, and some of them are really interesting, with many great info I can get. Thanks for all your hard works, man!
I agree with you on most of it (you already know where we differ, lol!)
Just a couple of things… Tumblr is not a blogging platform as such, it’s more a site to share stuff, like Facebook with only the like button! I’ve sometimes wondered about one, just for sharing stuff I like and then I think “oh heck, I’d get no comments, just all this liking and what’s the point?” but y’never know one day I might go that route. If I do though, it would never be instead of blogging though, rather an ‘extra’.
Your article on the other blog is good, but hey – did you know it’s on Blogger? (I thought you didn’t like Blogger…!)
Be well, Mitch. 🙂
Val, we agree and disagree on that one point but where we agree, though I’m not sure you’d want to put it this way, is that you really don’t trust the comments your blog might get. And we know why, but at least you were up front about it. Those 9 people were talking about leadership and, to a degree trust, so the scales were different for them.
And yes, that blog does happen to be Blogger, and I hate Blogger but I liked the person writing it. Hey, you’re on WordPress.com and I hate that as well. lol
A well written post Mitch and I gave it a Tweet even though I found a small typo in your sixth point. 😉
I totally agree with your being nice point Mitch. There is absolutely no excuse for letting your emotions get the best of you when you’re online. I like you have always tried to be the type of person that takes into consideration other peoples feelings.
Sire, overall you’re a much nicer person than me. I think often we write on the same subjects but you will come across as less, well, “in your face” than I do, even while I’m trying to be nice. I’ve seen how you handle certain people that deserve to be pimp-slapped and we both know I just won’t put up with bad behavior from others without giving some of that bad behavior back. Still, at least when I’m pontificating I don’t get too mean, and I don’t use bad language, although I’m sure that my words have kept a few folks using blog systems I don’t like from stopping by anymore. But I’m good with that; if we stand for nothing… you know.
I don’t think I am any nicer than you are mate, I just handle things a little different.
As for those people using blog systems that we don’t agree with avoiding our blogs it just means I don’t have to feel guilty for not reciprocating their comments.
Good point my man; guilt is sometimes a wasted emotion when you haven’t done anything to really feel guilty about. As for nice, I’m still remembering that guy from years ago on your blog who, if it had been me, I’d have either just killed the comment or been way more vicious in my response than you were. And actually, I think I was kind of vicious towards that guy on that post. lol I’m sure you remember which one.
…because nice matters!
That is a sign I have hanging in my kitchen!
All great points!
I hate when people constantly swear in their blogs- just my pet peeve…
Carolee, I remember your telling me you had that in your kitchen now; very neat indeed, and a good lesson to your kids. As for the swearing, well, that’s why there’s a few “big names” that I could care less about. I’m not a prude, but if your stuff has to have that many bad words, you’re just not trying.
First off great guest post! I agree with you on all of these. Being nice…you’d think that would go without saying. I think some people just like to argue and be nasty for the sake of it but I put that into perspective by thinking maybe their life sucks and they just don’t even know how to be nice. Kill em with kindness I always say. 🙂 I’ve only done one guest post and fretted over it forever before submission. I think it is important to show your best work as a guest. Great post! Always enjoy your take on things.
Thanks Melinda. You know, over the past few days some people might think the comments I left on their blogs were contrary just for the sake of it but I don’t play that game. If I disagree I’m going to let you know why, and I’m going to be as nice as I can in the moment about it. But you know I’ll protect and support regular commenters here in a quick minute; don’t let unwarranted attacks go on either.
As to the guest posts, don’t fret; just get out there and be your funny self. 😉
Some hard-hitting points you raised here, Mitch. I’d like to react on point #1. I’ve experienced some blogs accepting my comment but deleting the backlink to my site, for reasons I could only guess. It’s unfair. And no, I didn’t violate spam rules or your point #3 on making lousy comments 🙂
Stephanie, the way I see it, if I was going to delete someone’s link I might as well delete the entire post. But I know what you mean, and every once in awhile I will go in and modify a link that seems a little suspect, but it has nothing to do with the comment itself.
these are some good tips. if more people read this article maybe there will be more quality blogs out there.
keep up the good work
Great points Mitch and I can pretty much agree with them all. There are a few I really haven’t run across so I guess maybe I’ve been lucky? I’m going to keep my fingers crossed and hope that remains the case.
I do have one guy who keeps commenting with one liners only to get links so from this moment forward, all his comments will be deleted. It’s also obvious he never reads the posts, he’s a skimmer. What a shame.
Thanks Mitch, always enjoy when you let us have it! 🙂
Adrienne
LOL! Thanks Adrienne. It’s not letting “everyone” have it as much as just trying to put some truths as I believe them out there. Some of these things are easy to fix, and it’s not always the fault of the blogger.
Hello Mitch! You expand my imagination when it comes to blogging lol but then I absolutely agree all the things that you have said here and I learn a lot actually. I like your point in number one it is so true that if you are not trying to live what you write then it is a matter of wasting time in blogging.
Thanks Abigail. I like that point as well, and I try to live by it with every blog post I write, no matter where it is.