A Nice Top 10 List on Bad Blogs

Once again, I love the way the negative lists are more interesting than the positive lists. I mean lists of what not to do, as blog posts, get more traffic than lists of what to do. Mistakes are more interesting than tips or keys to success. Go figure.

It works for me too. So I clicked on Sian Phillips’ 10 Ways To Create A Bad Blog. The title got to me. And — hooray — the list made a lot of sense.

(Aside: Plus a chuckle: Sian’s list contains only nine points, not 10. Does that bother you? I think it’s just amusing. And it goes with common blogger wisdom, to the effect that 10 points are better than 11 or 9. Magic numbers are 3, 5, or 10. Or so I’m told.)

I like the list:

  1. Bad spelling and poor grammar
  2. Too much sales speak
  3. Bad formatting
  4. Too much tech speak or boring content
  5. Bad links
  6. Infrequent publishing
  7. Hard to leave a comment
  8. Keep your Social Media links secret
  9. Don’t tell anyone about your post

I like Sian’s priorities. I completely agree with her first three points, and in that order.

I was particularly glad to see grammar and spelling on top. That’s reassuring to me because I care about that. And some of the smartest people I know don’t. But I  can’t help it, I hate it when a published blog has glaring errors. (I have to forgive small errors and obvious typos because of pots and kettles).

Points like bad formatting, bad links, and hard to make a comment are good points, and common errors.

Her point 4 bothers me a bit. Boring content should be number one, except that our world and our interests have splintered into so many diverse subsets that I wonder if it isn’t a matter of not being boring, but rather, finding the people who are not bored by what you’re writing. Sian uses tech speak as an example but tech people like tech speak, so that’s not a great example.

Comments

  • Aaron Bell says:

    Hahaaa. I really enjoy the “To NOT Do” lists. Really helps us ensure that we do the right things right.

  • Jakob says:

    In Denmark there is a saying: Your own success is good! However others failure is not so bad either.. perhaps that is some of the explanation as to why “How not to do” lists are more interesting than “What to do”… ?

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