Stuff that bugs me about blogs:
1. You have music on your page. I listen my own music on the computer. I don't want to hear yours. Chances are 99% in my favor that I will hate it, not to mention that it will tick me off that I have to scroll all over your page to find the damn button to turn it off, so I usually just leave your blog.
2. If you don't respond to comments, I won't read you. I don't expect you to respond to every.single.comment, but I used to read a blog until I noticed she NEVER responded to comments. Not once. Why should I care enough to comment if I can't even tell if you notice or care that I did.
3. No real writing/content. Wordless Wednesday? Check. What I Wore Saturday? Check. A million Instagram photos? Check. Two billion giveaways and product reviews? Check. I just can't hang with that. I read blogs to see the other side, to experience life through someone else's eyes, to take a peek into someone else's world. If you don't have anything to actually say, then why do you blog?
My background before social work is in writing and my first job out of college was as a writer. I love writing and the connections that come from sharing your words with others. I find so many blogs with no real content but they seem to have many followers. Maybe it's something I'm just not getting....
Why do you blog? What do you want to get out of it? Would you still blog if no one read? There is such a big difference between bloggers who blog because they love to write and create and share and bloggers that blog to get readers. Mo has grown quite a bit since the early days when I kept it private and I love having dedicated readers. But if everyone took off tomorrow I would still be here, writing, creating and sharing.
I tried to put in the "work" necessary to grow my blog for about two weeks before I gave up. I'd rather just do what I do and not worry about that aspect of blogging. Anyone else feel that way?
What's more important to you, having a small but dedicated group of readers, or having a large number of "followers"? What makes you follow a blog or what turns you off?
What are your blogging pet peeves?
Do you have a vision for your blog or try to stick to one type of blogging? Ie, the crafting blogger or the Mama blogger? Will you write things that you think stick to your vision or do you branch out?
Let's talk about blogging! Share with me your thoughts and let's get a discussion going. I don't know why, but the concept of blogging is just fascinating to me.
I was just cursing someone's music on their blog! I was listening to my own music, I didn't want to hear their music.
ReplyDeleteFirst and foremost, I blog because I like to write. I think I lost my "vision" for a bit and got caught up in the numbers game but I've come to realize when I write and write for ME that I get the most comments and interaction. I love when someone out there can relate to what I am saying or finds my writing entertaining. I have a few more reasons why I blog, but they aren't as big a deal to me as just being able to write.
My biggest pet peeves: music, blogs that were once good turning into review/giveaway blogs (every once and a while is cool, but every day? no) and feeling ignored. Pretty much the same as you, I guess.
My first thought whenever I hear music is always, "where the hell is that coming from?". Then I'm just irritated. I think that's why I relate to and enjoy your blog so much, you blog for you and it shows. Whenever people write about something they think will generate a lot of hits or be popular, it always shows through. There's nothing necessarily with blogging that way, it just isn't the way I want to go about it.
DeleteI'm so glad I read this right now.
ReplyDeleteIt's just what I needed.
In fact, I was just writing down my hopes/goals for my blog before I read this. Talk about perfect timing!
I'm having major issues deciding what the heck to do with my blogs. I have too many, but I don't feel like I can mesh my craft blog, family blog, and design site all into one and make it work. It's really frustrating because it's hard for me to put all of myself into one blog, when I feel like I need to be on three different places at once. ahh.
Anyway! I replied to your comment with the new "reply" feature on blogger...Did it notify you? Because it shows up in my comment section, but I really hope it emailed you and let you know, too!
I love the new Blogger reply feature! I would always reply in the general comments section when people commented, but I was never sure if they actually saw it or not. I also get email updates when people comment.
DeleteAre you down to three blogs yet? I'm sure it would be difficult to keep up with all three, but you are right, they are so different, I'm not sure if you could combine them. Have you seen good examples of blogs where they do combine them and make it work somehow? I'm sure you could add crafting features to your family blog with ease, but I would leave your design blog by itself.
Fantastic post!
ReplyDeleteOK. I've been blogging for more than 11 years. I've gone through times when I've been blog popular to times when I'm sure no one read it. I think I have a total of 10 regular readers now. I still blog. I love it. Of course I want more people to read my stuff. I'm sharing my life and I want to make friends.
Because of my blog, I've met some really awesome people. I've gotten to fly out to California (I have no qualms with hanging with internet friends), I've talked to them on the phone, everything. We exchanged "snail mail" letters and Christmas gifts. A friend who I met because of my web page was in my wedding.
I blog to make connections. To share my life. I don't have a niche--I just write what I feel.
I usually don't like music on blogs either, but darned if I wasn't at a site the other day that had a song that I ended up really liking!
So I write my blog regardless of who reads or not (check my archives and you'll see lots of entries with 0 comments. To be fair, though I also crosspost to Live Journal and a lot of people comment there rather than my site.)
I do wonder how some people get 4000+ followers in just a few months. I wonder how they get 95 comments on every entry. But I figure that those who will relate to me will eventually find me, and I'll just keep blogging in the meantime.
ronni@anywhere-is.net
I'm old. It's hard for me to imagine blogging for 11 years or even that blogging has been around that long. I guess I did Live Journal what seems like a lifetime ago.
DeleteThe vast majority of my posts have zero comments. It sounds corny, but it really still is a family blog for us, to it doesn't matter to me. If my parents could figure out the Internet, they would be commenting constantly. :)
I always wonder how many of the 4,000 followers actually read....I know the biggest blogs out there that are supposed to be "the" blogs to read usually drive me crazy.
I am with you 110%!! I hate hate hate it when I get a comment that says "New follower visiting from *yadda yadda* blog hop. Please come visit me and return the favor." That fires me up and is why I don't do blog hops! I'll do link ups; but generally speaking blog hops tend to be more of a bloggy-whore-fest. In my experience, anyway. I want readers who want to read me. I've not been blogging very long, but I quickly learned that quality is definitely better than quantity. btw... I've made a new page dedicated to bloggy awards and honors I've been given; and I have the one you gave me linked back to you. Sorry I've not written my pay-it-forward post yet. I promise, I will. (I have like 3 to write - Eeek!) Life just hasn't really calmed down since the holidays yet. My poor blog has been so neglected. :(
ReplyDeleteI'm not big on blog hops, but I still like social media hops and we are doing our own on Tuesdays. I also like the hops where you link directly to a post or are more specific- like a hop only for a recipe. Was it you who did the ghosts of blogging past one? I liked that one.
DeleteSometimes it feels like when I do a hop, I get a bunch of people who comment on that one post I've linked up, but I'm not sure if it actually leads to more readers.
Yes, myself and Jamie (from Chosen Chaos) did the ghosts of blogging past link up. It was fun, but HOLY SHIZ was it a lot of work!
DeleteI agree. I've also found that to be true. Every once in a while I'll come across someone who I can tell I'll really enjoy reading beyond just the link up and I'll start following them; but 9 times out of 10, I'm just reading a blog post because I've linked up with them. I think it's important to link up with different link ups and not always the same ones. Otherwise, you're not being introduced to as many new bloggers if you're always linking up with the same people week after week. They're are some link ups I enjoy and link up with more often; but I'm always looking for good new ones :)
Great post....When i started my blog I had no idea what I was doing. I basically started it to vent and to get some of my brain diarrhea out in bloggy land to keep sane. I also do it so my LDG has something to read on herself when she gets older I do not know if this will be god or bad for her. I hate blogs that only do is giveaways, reviews and I am so sick of crafting blogs I want to shoot myself in the eye. Now I care to see comments from my regular folk and I am good with that. I rarely do blog hops anymore. Quality vs quantity. Annie HOW did you get the reply thingy on blogger??????
ReplyDeleteI go through some of the same things. This is for Cash (and future kiddos) to read when they are older, so I try not to put things that would embarrass him in the future or put too much information out there that he wouldn't want made public someday. It's a balance.
DeleteI have no idea! I think it's just a new feature from Blogger. Let me hop over to your site to see if you have it. Do you get an email that I replied to your comment?
hmm this list looks familiar ;) seriously. most annoying blog stuff ever.
ReplyDelete1.) I hate the music player too. It sometimes lags my laptop up.
ReplyDelete2.) I am guilty of this. I went MIA on reading blogs and commenting everyone especially responding to the ones who comments me. I try my best to catch up on replies whenever Arianna is in bed and then I remember the house needs to be cleaned and then I have homework to do. Oh vey. :( I will have to remember this next time especially for the bloggers who DO read my blogs and comments.
I am mainly blogging because I like to post what's on my mind. I don't expect anyone to comment on it. Most of the time, it's all about my daughter and I just like to log it through my blog. Some of our family members is subscribed to my blog because they want to keep up with us because I don't like to spam my whole Facebook newsfeed with everything that's going on in my "SAHM" life. Ya know?
Great post by the way! I completely love the aspect you are pointing out about of the mommy bloggers.
I think I would still be doing my blog if nobody was reading it. I was thinking I was coming to a crossroads where I needed to decide my direction. Since getting a little bit more active in the blogging community I wondered if I should follow suit and do what others do, that have lots of followers, and are potentially making a profit from their blogging. I don't know who wouldn't love to make money doing something they really enjoy but I can't see myself doing anything that isn't genuine or "me". So, I plan to continue on the road I'm on. My blog is still a little bit "all over the place" but I like it that way, because that's how I really am.
ReplyDeleteI am right with you: of course I want readers. But I don't want to sacrifice who I am for the sake of a following, either. And I don't want to paint myself into a niche, either. I tried that very early on and got burnt out very quickly.
ReplyDeleteOne of my biggest pet peeves and maybe heart aches about the whole blogging world is how rude people can be with comments, like if I leave one or two then hey I don't need to hear back, but if I am constantly reading the persons blog, talking to them ect....then hey I would like an occasionally response. I stopped reading and commenting on blogs that don't respond.
ReplyDeleteI do admit mine is full of mainly IG pics, only bc Judah wants to grab my Cannan from me and I am afraid it would break and I love their photo edit options. I try to leave a few that are not on IG.
I used to blog more about "real live" my heart, my past and my relationship with the Lord (encouraging stuff) back on my old wordpress blog. I had that for years. But after I married my husband his perfect little christian family didn't like my past and took my words and my past and used it against me. So my new blog (Judahs) its mainly about Judah, what we are doing, the struggles and upsides of being a mom. Although this week is a complete struggle bc he is out of town.
Also the music on blogs....drive me nuts...I don't get it
My blog has changed over the years. I can't pigeonhole myself, so I refuse to pigeonhole my blog. That has probably cost me readers, but I don't care. I'm a writer regardless of whether I have an audience. For the longest time I did not post a single photo of myself on my blog. Last year I got the hell over it and started sharing more of my personal life because I missed keeping a diary. Does that sound crazy?
ReplyDeleteMy least popular posts are of this series I've been working on for more than two years: 100 Movies. I started this project to force myself to watch "serious" films (ha), and I'm nearly done with it. But I've rarely received a comment on the posts, and I'm OK with that. I'd rather have quality and quantity when it comes to comments, y'know?
But yes, I concur with most of your pet peeves, too. Music -- post a link or a video if you want me to hear something cool. Don't embed your crappy taste in the site. My beef with Wordless Wednesday: Most of them AREN'T wordless. Accuracy, please!
(I'm an editor, and I'm a stickler for details. Now watch, I'll have a million typos in this comment!)
I'd rather have quality THAN quantity.
Delete(See, I knew I'd find a typo.)