Better Blogging

Look, I’m no blogging expert, but I will tell you my opinion. Oh, you didn’t ask for it? Well, I’ll give it to you any way. I think to be successful and get readers, you have to appeal to the masses – not just what you want or like. I get it, blogging is a bit on the vain side. It’s supposed to be about yourself, but if it’s public, you have readers. You have to consider your reader.

Most of my photography friends understand these little things that are annoying – slowly, small things like no music on blogs, has been happening. I can sense people are becoming happier for this. Now, if only some of the design/home decor blogs would get up to speed on, I’d be happy there too. We’ve done surveys in the photo world, and we know what readers don’t like. Therefore, we fixed it. You can too!

1. Enough with the music. You don’t need music to auto-play and blare on your blogs. It’s not cool. It’s not enjoyable. When I find a new blog I usually have to go direct to the website to get the feed or see if I even want to follow it. That’s when it scares me. And, sometimes, I don’t care for the music you put on there. Besides, if I’m surfing while with family in the family room, it scares them, too! Reading should be simple and pleasurable without the distraction of music blaring…don’t you think? Which leads me to my next tip.
2. Use a Feed Reader – so you don’t have to hear the music…and be updated when a new post is up for you to read. I use Google Reader. I simply copy the blog’s URL into the subscriber feed area and voila, I have all my happy little blogs in one space.
3. Fancy photo borders and brushes do not make looking at your photos better. Watermark them, sure. But, don’t get all artsy fartsy on your photos. I want to see large, detailed images. If you’re showing me something you are proud of, don’t cover it up! Just take a picture, maybe do a little color and exposure correction, watermark and then save for web.
4. If you’re using blog software that lets you share “excerpts” only through the feed, then that is all I see in my Google Reader. If I have to click on them to go out of the reader to your site directly, you defeat the purpose for me. So, I have to unsubscribe. Look into your settings and fix this. Readers should be able to see your entire post, with images (not shrunken down to tiny thumbnails, either). If I choose to comment, then I will click on the blog to go to the page and leave a comment. Time is precious, you’ll get more readers, promise! I think it’s also called “truncated” or the famous “READ MORE” click.
5. Formatting – look, wording your blog post like center-justified poetry is hard to read. It’s VERY hard to read. As is, trying to get artistic with your formatting. Like, using 12 point text and then highlighting nearly every other word in a larger point size (20 pt) and bold. Yuck. You have to realize that your readers want to read and understand, not analyze it all to try and make sense of it.

Luckily, that’s it for me. Things like bright colors, and tons of photos (as long as they are all different photos) and grammar, don’t really bother me. Because I am usually reading you through Google Reader, not the blog itself. I am the queen of typos, so I don’t mind so much. Except the whole your vs. you’re thing. But that’s another post for another time.

These are my opinions and are not the “rule” at all. Do what you will!