It’s been nearly two weeks since I took the plunge. Joining the ranks of social media and eMarketing bloggers everywhere has been an exhilarating process, but things have not gone perfectly. I’m still in the process of learning all of the blogging etiquette rules–and as I’m sure many new bloggers can relate–I’ve unintentionally broken a rule (or two…or three).
While I’m the first person to acknowledge that some rules are meant to be broken, these are a few of the blogging mishaps I don’t plan to repeat going forward:
- Not ending each post with a question to elicit conversation and opinions from others. If the whole point of a blog is to start a conversation, build community, and learn from a collective pool of knowledge, then asking readers for their opinions only makes good sense.
- Adding a signature line including (gasp) my Web address to comments posted to other blogs. I think most blog applications include a form for those leaving comments to register by filling in a name, email address and a Web address. The email address remains annoymous to everyone other than the moderator of the blog, but the name will typically appear as the header to the comment and readers can click-through the name to a Web URL if one was entered. I’m so used to the notorious email signature, that not leaving a signature on blog comments is taking some getting used to.
- Reading a blog post, having an opinion, and not posting my thoughts. Contributing to the ongoing conversation blogs cultivate is part of the fun (and responsibility) of being part of the blogging community. It takes participation to keep a community going, and in the blogsphere, that participation translates into providing comments on other blogs when you have an opinion.
Mistakes are just part of the learning process. Blogging is a great way to share ideas and gain perspective, and I’m willing to stumble a little as I master this new art. Sometimes messy paintings turn into great masterpieces, and I’m not about to let a potentially great blog slip away because I wasn’t willing to endure a few stray brush strokes along the way.
What do you think are some additional blunders that bloggers should try to avoid? What mistakes did you make when you first began blogging?
10 responses so far ↓
1 Mike Figliuolo // Oct 14, 2008 at 5:46 pm
Hi Jenny. My 0.02:
1. Make it so everyone can comment (without having to register for Blogger, Wordpress, etc.) – minimize barriers to joining the conversation.
2. Post ALL comments. I moderate mine but only to prevent profanity, hate speech, libel, etc. The minute you start censoring for anything other than those, you become Big Brother and lose credibility/squash the conversation (which is why we’re all here).
3. Be consistent. Consistent frequency of posting (mine are 1-2x/week), consistent length (mine are 600-1000 words), consistent topics (mine: leadership, career, strategy, customer service), consistent delivery (TUE and THU for me). I use twitter updates to fill in the gaps. Your audience will appreciate the consistency/predictability and that’s how you build a brand.
4. Have a voice. Sure blogging is about conveying info but don’t be boooooring. People want to learn while being entertained.
5. Share. Share your audience. Bring in guest bloggers and other perspectives. Don’t hoard your readers – they’ll leave eventually.
Hope these thoughts are helpful. Perspectives anyone?
2 Catherine Somerlot // Oct 14, 2008 at 8:17 pm
All great suggestions…thanks for sharing!
Does anyone have a problem with constant spamming on Wordpress? Before I lost my Wordpress blog to the aether, I would be deleting spam comments every day. Any suggestions on how to prevent spam?
3 Dirk Singer // Oct 14, 2008 at 8:24 pm
Hello Jenny,
I put up a post about this back in July when I reached my 1 yr blogging anniversary. Some of the things I’d picked up were:
1 – You have to be in this for the long haul. Numbers do creep up, but it’s a slow climb. Even getting 100 regular daily visitors is a huge achievement
2 – That means you can’t blog for the sake of it. There has to be some other reason – in my case I build up a database of articles I can draw upon for work, and practice writing
3 – If you work in an agency, don’t talk about yourself. Sometimes I can’t help but to big up the work we do, but I try and keep the ratio at 5/100 posts. Otherwise it becomes boring and self congratulatory.
4 – As Mike says, link back and share
5 – Use a visitor tracking system like getclicky or feedburner so you see what works and what doesn’t. The posts you think are your best ones are rarely the most popular
Anyway, full post is here, and hope that helps!
http://tinyurl.com/54yhwq
4 jmccutcheon // Oct 14, 2008 at 11:09 pm
These are all great suggestions–thank you!
Catherine – I have received a few spam comments today. I’m not sure how to control this or if it’s possible at all? Anyone have any ideas?
5 Mike Figliuolo // Oct 15, 2008 at 12:14 am
Not sure what capabilities Wordpress does or doesn’t have but on blogger, I can control what gets published through comment moderation. I don’t have a lot of spam comments (then again, maybe I’m not important enough yet to be a spammer target….
If you can moderate, you should be able to interdict the comments before it’s an issue.
6 Pam // Oct 15, 2008 at 1:08 pm
I disagree with Dirk… why can’t you blog for the sake of it? I have no big objectives other than I like to do it, my friends can read it and tell what I’m up to and I’ve made friends who have similar interests.
But the things I’d say about blogging…
1. don’t let it stress you out…. I do it for fun, but many of us seem to impose rules upon ourselves like we need to blog x times per week or month… sometimes life gets busy and I don’t sweat it if I don’t put up an entry for a while… sometimes a friend will give a gentle nudge… but I don’t post if I don’t have something to say that is at least a little worthwhile.
2. remember you never know who may read your blog…. so be careful what you say and who you talk about! I’d never want to hurt anyone’s feelings so I always keep this in mind. I say nice things that I wouldn’t mind if they got back to someone, but if I have to vent I do try to keep it anonymous. I also try to keep the venting to a minimum…. even if it feels good to vent from time to time, people don’t always enjoy reading it. I try to keep it funny if I am ranting… I enjoy reading a humorous rant myself once in a while… we can all relate. But I tune out those who only use their blog to spew hate and anger daily.
3. If someone comments on your blog try to go visit their blog… return the favor and comment on theirs. This builds community and friendships. DON’T go around leaving comments on everyone’s site just whip up traffic to your site, when people are doing this it’s pretty obvious and it seems lame to me.
4. I always assume people want and are flattered by your putting a link to their site on yours… but it’s really polite to ask their permission first…. and then they are also aware of the honor you are doing them (at least that’s how I feel when someone asks me to link to mine!). There may be some who don’t want the extra traffic or really they just want to be able to say yes or no. Everyone usually says yes… but it’s a courtesy.
5. If you like someone’s site – let them know! Just tell them you visited and liked x about their site… the topics, the art, the design of it…whatever…. who doesn’t love a compliment?
That’s it for me for now.
Pam/aka Dieverdog
7 jmccutcheon // Oct 15, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Thanks Pam for your alternate perspective. It’s great to hear the different ideas everyone has when it comes to blogging.
Spam Update :: My husband just informed me that for Wordpress blogs there is a plugin called “Akismet Configuration.” It is supposed to help control spam–I just enabled it on my blog.
Thanks again for all of the great opinions!
8 Catherine Somerlot // Oct 15, 2008 at 7:54 pm
If I ever learn the horrid inner workings of Wordpress (I won’t, but I can pretend by playing around with the CSS!) I’ll have to find that Akisment Configuration! I’ve only blogged 4 times and probably have had only 5 visitors, so it’s not about traffic. It’s probably about dormant blogs! Thanks everyone for all your thoughts!
9 Julian Sutter // Oct 15, 2008 at 9:38 pm
The Akismet plugin helps a lot for the blogs.
If you don’t mind the look of it, the official Captcha can help a lot.
http://www.captcha.net
10 Ricardo Bueno // Nov 5, 2008 at 1:32 am
Look at it this way, in a way, we’re all constantly *experimenting* as we continue to navigate the social media landscape. We try new things to see what works and what doesn’t.
What have I found works well (for me anyway)? Making it easy for people to engage (comment). I don’t have a captcha code for people to comment but I do moderate my comments constantly to make sure people are “playing nicely” so-to-speak. The other thing is remembering to keep the focus on my readers. I learn more about them by reading what they write and engaging with them to get to know them better. That drives traffic because they share my feed with their network. Sure I’m interested in finding new readers elsewhere but my existing base is a good place to start.
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