Erik offered a post in his blog and I truly appreciate this opportunity.
As I was planning for this post, I shared the title in Facebook to asked my friend’s views in it. Nishant said, “It little looks arrogant.
Some people will reply who cares 😛 “. Yes, not only the title but the post itself is little arrogant, but my intention is fair and hope you’ll enjoy it.
The ‘I’ in the post is any blogger who loves to reader other’s blog posts and ‘You’ in the post is any blogger who can’t meet the expectations.
Table of Contents
I’ll Never Read Your Posts Again, You Know Why?
No offense, but your blog posts really sucks! I’ll never come back, never ever again!
Why do I always look for new posts and hop into them to share and comment? Being a blogger, can you stay away from recent ideas and happenings over the blogosphere? But I’ll not read your post again, you know why?
Everyday, there are a dozen blog posts in my reading list and I really love reading new content. I love building relationship with great bloggers, intermediates as well as newbies.
It’s really fun and hugely beneficial to interact with other bloggers. That’s the sole reason Bivori started commentDX group in Facebook and enjoy the ‘helping each other‘ kind of community feeling.
I truly love to read the posts that makes me little smarter than a few minutes ago and I like to share that post who might find it helpful.
However, there are a couple of blogs that’s just doing nothing for me. They simply suck my time and I’ll never visit them again. Make sure your blog is not in that list.
If you don’t want me to run away from your blog and help me to keep up with your content, you should know why I won’t read your posts again.
A Very Bad Beginning
You write about the same old topic that I’ve read a millions of times and you’ve not even presented your own view points? Oh! Common, why would I read that?
Do you plan your titles properly? Often I land to your blog through BlogEngage, Blokube, BizSugar or similar blogging networks and all I see there is the title and a little of first paragraph.
I may land to your blog from Facebook, Scoopit.it or Pinterest and so on. What can I see there? Your post title and a short snippet. Did you optimize them enough to welcome me to your post?
Is your first paragraph able to convince me that reading the post is worth my time? Does it tell what the post is about and ensures that I’ll get what I was looking for?
Sometimes, I’m interested to see an impressive and relevant image. Did you care to create or choose the best images for your post?
No More Textbooks Anymore!
Ahh! I’ve already studied in schools and collages, a huge pile of text books. I’ve also studied lecture notes and presentations.
I’m too much with them. Already!
Yes, you must provide information, you’ll teach me something through your post, but please, change your tone. Don’t remind me of those class room days.
Your correct grammar, sentence structure and thematic divisions can be awesome to get maximum marks in exam but dude, this is a blog post.
Be present in your post and let me feel you. Let me know about you and let’s have a conversation.
Failed by Wider Scope
I’ve seen some posts ‘How to Build successful blog’! OMG! As if it was ‘How to root your android phone’.
Any topic is related to many others and that does not mean you should write about everything. If you go wide apart, there will hardly be any depth.
I land on a blog post with my little time and a specific problem to solve. Writing a very wide post, you are testing my patience!
Regarding your blog also, if it includes every topic under the sun, you simply confuse me rather than helping in any respect.
When you really want to write everything about a subject, write an ebook, why blog post?
Pleasing to my eyes
Its not a paper book and will not increase number of pages, so, you are free to extend below the first fold. Make it comfortable to read and pleasing to my eyes.
Choose nice font, make it easy reading size, keep some space between lines, make shorter paragraphs and use sub headings where suitable.
I can read your posts only if you make me easier!
I’m Often on Smartphone
This is virtually impossible to read your post zooming and pinching. Why you’ve not yet made your blog mobile-ready?
Don’t you know we have some good plugins like WPTouch? Even better, you could use responsive theme that takes care of every screen sizes.
Bivori has an awesome responsive theme to offer – Isquar – which has page speed 92+% and Sandip offered it for FREE!
Believe me, you are losing many readers like me if your blog is not yet mobile-ready.
Trying to sell me some stuff
That’s nothing bad, but it’s enough.
What turns you off to read a new blog post?
Wait! Before You Go, Read:
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4 Awesome Free Tools to Increase Your Twitter Exposure + 7 Useful Tips
How to Write in English – Mary’s Top 10 List of Common Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation Mistakes
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150 Great Topics and Ideas for Bloggers
Are you not guilty as well? I don’t mean your writing sucks but what do you do to help those who you claim their writing sucks?
When you stop reading their posts, you aren’t of course doing them any good.
Point it out to them and they would be grateful.
Hi Mr. Suresh, that was a great topic.
Emmanuel, That’s why I declared it in the very beginning:
“Yes, not only the title but the post itself is little arrogant, but my intention is fair and hope you’ll enjoy it.
The ‘I’ in the post is any blogger who loves to reader other’s blog posts and ‘You’ in the post is any blogger who can’t meet the expectations.”
The tone of the post is definitely bit aggressive, but I intend to put forth my message strongly. Emmanual, I hope this post is a proof that I point out the problems to help them improve their blog, isn’t it?
Hi Suresh,
The headline is really awesome. It had compelled me to click the link 😉
Not only you, no one likes to read the posts if they are poorly written and they have a poor design.
I won’t read blogs if it has too many ads.
Thanks for sharing what do you hate 😉
Yes, too many Ads really turns the readers off. You must find a balance between the happiness of your readers and yours own 😀
OMG! While i was reading this post i was judging myself wondering was it me you had in mind while writing this article? This is the very question every blogger should ask himself while reading this article as see reasons to immediately effect changes and improve. It’s nice reminding me once again on the need to maintain a standard as a blogger and any wise blogger out there whether this post is talking about you or not should learn from it before you lose your readers.
Thanks
Mavtrevor
Nwosu, every blogger should learn before you lose your readers. Hope it was enjoying reading or a bit arrogant as Nishant said!
Hey Suresh,
I was little shock after reading this post because not a single one will be interest to lose the readers like you i do agree the post which we are sharing must be interested one to keep them coming.if we shared the post which been already discussed by all doesn’t make sense i will try my best to keep you interest on my blog 😉
Hi Shameem, turning towards the reader is the best thing any blogger can do to build up his blog! We have various tools to find what readers like in our blog and what is a pure waste.
Thanks for commenting, I really appreciate.
Hi Suresh ,
Well, that was really a innovative and incredible way of Writing the post which perfectly suits for the tilte !! Tips are simply superb !! I will definitely follow to give a better from my blog !!
Thank you Srikant. I’m much flattered now 😀
Hello Suresh,
Nice article if i must say bro. You’re right on some points if i may confess. Some bloggers take their grammar to the blogging world and start bombarding us with dictionary english. I don’t read those kinds of blogs i just pass if i don’t understand what you’re saying. I love this article and it is worth a share thanks
Yea! Dictionary English! Recently I’m reading a blog by someone from Ethiopia. I know the language is not as if I were reading Edgar Allan and in some cases I find it quite hard to make sense of some sentences, but I truly love his posts. I find honesty in personality and he is sharing exactly what blogosphere taught him. We tend to love people like us than our teachers in blogs 😀
I’m Often on Smartphone – that’s so true, especially these days more and more people browse from their phone/tablet. So yeah if the website is not mobile optimized that really can make the visitors stay lesser on the site. All the other tips are also quite important, nice post overall!
Thanks Chris! Having mobile friendly design (responsive?) is very crucial these days and I believe it will increase even further in future. We already have responsive themes, why to stay behind?
Hi Suresh,
It’s true that you should write for your readers, but you can’t make everyone happy with your writing, but if you are not able to make anyone happy it means you are doing something wrong with your blog.
These are small mistakes but still everyone should focus on it.
That’s very true Nishant. God himself failed to please everyone. We should be happy if our readers are happy with what we have to offer.
Truly appreciate your feedback!
Nicely summed up, suresh.
When you know your worth, a little arrogance is fine!
You have shared some very practical reasons for people not turning to read your posts ever again. You have to write content which is gripping besides being informative- not making it sound like a textbook. And make it visually appealing as well.
Totally agree.
Good luck with this post.
I’m sharing this ‘un on my Facebook page.
Thank you Ambika. It consoled me a lot! I was scared if it is too arrogant. Thank you for commenting and thanks to Erik to allow me to shout so loud 😀
Mobile optimization is a must have now for blogs but in near future there would be no need to optimize websites for mobile as mobile handsets and data services are getting very fast renovation.
That may be true in some way, but still we’ll need to re-organize the content to best fit for mobile devices. Like, displaying services, address and contact buttons at the top before the blog posts are listed in mobile devices while we can enjoy sidebars in desktop views. So, I still believe, mobile optimization won’t die that soon easily 🙂
Well.. the topic can be as old as the world but it can be described in a very interesting matter, humor, some facts and so on. so chessy topics can be good as well)
Thank you Evan. Yea it’s a new touch on very old topic!
Hi Suresh,
Aha! The textbook type post resonates with me, smart stuff! I am stunned at how long it took me to learn this lesson. People need to feel you in a big way if you are to become an effective blogger. People need to hear your story, to feel your voice. Write how you speak. Leave the dry stuff behind.
Thanks!
Correct Ryan! We need to grow up now. We’ve already learned collages 🙂
Thanks for commenting. I’m truly inspired by your voracious writing! Wish if I could be equally productive 🙂
Thanks Suresh for sharing your thoughts about distinguishing features of a blog that is liked and the one that is not liked.
As a reader, I am always looking for informative content and if after reading a blog, I don’t feel some value addition in my database then I believe that the read wasn’t worth the effort.
Getting that value is important and as long as the blogger is successful in feeding that value feature, it gives a reason for the reader to get back.
You caught very important point and that the perfect one! I must be enlightened after reading your post!
Thanks Ashutosh for commenting.
Interesting post. As you have highlighted, majority of bloggers copy paste information from each other. There is no originality.
And the great thing about blogosphere is that, only the guys with their own DNA survive 🙂
this article is simply awesome. Thanks it helps me a lot to write content for my blog.
I’d be glad to read your posts based on this article 😀
Hi Suresh, nice to see you here on Erik’s blog. I was wondering what happened, because honestly I was a bit shocked to see such an arrogant title from someone whom I consider to be a nice, and soft mannered person.
Now, after reading your post, I know that the “I” is not you Suresh and that is huge a relief. Wonderful points and really shrewd style of calling attention to some vital points of blogging.
Hi Kavita,
Nice to see you commenting here. The title emerged more arrogant during Facebook chat with friends. As they tend to drag me to softer edge, I happened to jump to more harsh one. Hope it won’t hurt as you are definitely not the one doing such mistakes as mentioned here!
Agree with most of the points. When you say forget about structure of grammar, you might be referring to free blogging habits, but what when your blog posts are a part of some journal entries. Or say you are a professional (other than a blogger) who have to show the smartness in all aspects. For me, it is a personal choice, there is no hard and fast blogging rules but all the personal experiences.
Ekendra, I do agree with you. But this post is ‘how to write blog post’. Whenever I pronounce the term ‘blog’ I feel the followers, readers and me talking with them in some gathering.
By that point what I meant is, as a general blog reader, I can forgive bad English, a couple of typos and also the difference between ‘then’ and ‘than’ (most of my Indian friends commit that crime 😀 ), as long as the blogger entertains me, departs the information useful to solve my problem.
Hope I clarify my stand?
Hi Suresh,
Its good to see you out of your blog. My views about you now changed. It seems you are all rounder with your writing skills.
Whenever I am going to write new post. Every time I confuse at starting point.
How can I take start?
Which words should I use?
I am sure I will overcome these. I my mind will driven more ideas after it..
Thanks for the wonderful post.
Writing new posts can sometimes be harder and the kind of dilemma you mentioned are quite common. Hope you’ll overcome soon. Here is a little tips for you and I believe it will be helpful in such situation.
I do not start like story writing. I rather use Expand and Elaborate technique for my blog posts. What I mean by that?
I pick up one message – like how to write blog post as is in this post.
I answer them as bullet lists. Take example of this post – I answered the question with:
catchy headlines
personal tone
focused to the point writing
text layout
mobile-friendly
Then I elaborate each points.
After that, change headings to something catchy. I believe headlines should arouse interest to read the paragraph.
When this is done, I re-read the paragraphs and make necessary changes to fit with new headings without killing the message composed for the bullet point answers. For example in this post, I choose ‘A very bad beginning’ instead of ‘catchy headlines’. Same is true for all other bullet points.
Finally, I decide the post title. As expected, I try to compose post heading something unique and enticing.
When the title is settled, I write overview about the title and compose the post opening. Thus, my writing approach is not top-to-bottom but center-to-outskirts.
Hope this revelation helps you to compose better posts? Will appreciate your reply. 🙂
Interesting post — you caught me with that great headline!
I think it boils down to knowing your audience. My readers will spot a spelling or grammar mistake from a mile away and rip the writer (usually me!) to shreds, so on my blog I have to be very, very careful.
Now, on other posts, it’s maybe not so important. For some people, having a great writing voice is going to be more important than spelling and grammar. For me, structure is the most important thing: if a post flows nicely, I can forgive many sins!
Thank you Ophelie for the visit and sharing your views on the topic. I do agree, the same measuring rod may not fit everywhere. I do respect your way of blogging.