You know I had my share. When my woman left home for a brown eyed man,
Well, I still don’t seem to care…
Err, where was I? As one of the founders of CMF ADS, I get many requests by publishers to add their blogs to our network. Suffice to say I take a look at a lot of blogs daily. Add to that total the blogs I see while dropping Entrecards, and we are talking about over 300 blogs a day. That’s a lot of decision making regarding the quality of a blog. Somebody has to weed out the great blogs from the ho-hum blogs; might as well be me.
1. A great blog instructs. Whether it be blogging tips, advice on love, music, movies, or fantasy baseball, you should come away from the site having learned something. Interestingly enough, the person writing the blog does not have to be an expert in these topics. Blogs of self discovery regarding a topic can provide insight to the novice and expert alike. The problem is most new blogs go through this self discovery period without ever finding themselves. Blogging about anything and everything, they never really mature over time. The sooner a blogger discovers their niche, the sooner it can get down to business.
2. A great blog isn’t afraid to hold an opinion. If I wanted a bland overview, I would read the Wiki article on the topic. Give me your feelings, likes, dislikes, and suspicions. Don’t be afraid to call a spade a spade, but please do it in a professional manner. State your reasons, give examples, and enough evidence that the reader can make a judgement of their own. Don’t be afraid what the fanboy spammers say about your opinion. Be honest and you might find the CEO’s of companies stopping by to comment; write linkbait crap just to be controversial and nobody will bother.
3. Great blogs take pride in their writing. While electronic media may have replaced newspapers and books as our source for information, it doesn’t excuse bad writing. The WordPress spellchecker is no substitute for proofreading. Preview your article before publishing. Let it sit for an hour, then read it again with a clear head. Rewrite the awkward parts and ask for a second opinion.
4. Good bloggers are disciplined and maintain a schedule. Whether it be a new post daily or once a week, quality blogs develop a rhythm of their own. Readers know from experience how often to check back for updates. Do not confuse this with “posting for the sake of posting”. (see below) Get into a routine and schedule time for your activities. Make writing one of them.
5. Posting crap for the sake of posting is not blogging. Just as copying your friends homework during lunch isn’t really doing your homework. We’ve all been there. A few days, weeks, or months have gone by and we feel bad about not having written any new posts. So we resort to cute little tricks like “Too Busy To Post Tuesdays”, “Wordless Wednesdays”, “Sad Apology Saturdays”, and “Site Announcement Sundays”. Do me a favor, if the article appeared at the bottom of my WordPress admin panel, I don’t need you to repeat it. If you saw it on youtube, I probably did too.
6. You aren’t fooling anyone. Audiences know a spam blog when they see one. Rewriting articles from a free article directory and then slapping AdSense onto the page might fool Entrecard admins, but nobody else. Crappy articles written simply to slip a Pay Per Post link into it is also wasting your reader’s time. Paid reviews are fine. But the second I see the big “Disclosure” link up top, I close the site. If you are going to do pay-per-post, choose only those opportunities that fit your niche so well you would have reviewed them for free. Other fakers include bogus RSS numbers, fake comments, lying about blog income, and faking your identity.
7. Your site is memorable. Can I picture your site after I close the browser? Or does it blend into the 50 other sites all sharing the same WordPress theme? When I think about your blog, do I know what it’s about? Give it a logo, header image, blog title, or something I can take away with me. When I return to your site again I should say “There it is!”, not “Is this it?”. Having your own domain certainly helps. Even better if I can type if from memory. Nobody remembers your collection of sidebar widgets, except in a bad way. People do remember good blogs.
Finally, Websites are not blogs. My advice here is for blogs. If your goal is to simply make money from a website, the comments above might be counter-productive. For those who don’t care what other people think about your blog, then why are you reading this? Password protect your site and call it your online diary.
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I love discovering interesting blogs. I have found blogs of people in other countries that I will never travel to and enjoy traveling with the blogger, with pictures and descriptions. Or, cooking blogs that push my own abilities in cooking. And, even those blogs that tell me about a favorite bloggers day –it allows me to get to know that person better. I also love providing interesting articles/travels/stories on my blog. Thanks for writing this…it’s a good reminder why people visit blogs.
Excellent Turnip, really well said.
Some people don’t have an opinion on anything and it shows in their writing. You, sir, have an opinion. This is good.
some blogs are just products of experimentation, or even an outlet to de-stress. Good only for a small circle of bloggers.
but once it is promoted and pimped in the wide blogosphere, it should be a good one.
Some very good points here Turnip. These certainly contribute to my idea of a good blog.
Well, maybe except for the niche part. Some of us (waving hand here going “me, me”) have so many topics we enjoy writing about that we don’t have a “niche”.
I certainly have opinions and voice them.
I certainly have instructed people.
I don’t re-write any articles — all my drivel (except where properly noted) is my own. If I quote something or someone, it’s noted there.
Checking for spelling and grammar is a given. I even check my comments
Schedules — well, I don’t post at the same time every day and some days I post more than once a day — it’s as there are things for me to talk about. If I go more than a couple of days between posts it’s because I don’t have internet access. But I never apologize for not posting or for posting more than once a day.
As for picturing my site after you close browser….if you can’t remember that eyeball, then you sir have the memory of an Alzheimer’s patient!
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I was actually thrown into blogging, and it’s beginning to develop on both a professional side as well as a personal niche side. It’s effort that is for sure, and it’s research to learn.
Stumbling across those blogs you spoke of in point number 5 is infuriating, I have a few alerts up when somethings going on that I should know about..and It ticks me off when I end up having to waste the time to see a piece of crap that has been grabbed from elsewhere!
Articulate and well said… as usual. If nonsense is a niche then that’s the one I fulfill.
Great article turnip and couldn’t agree more, especially with points 1 and 4.
Personal general blogs are fine but people can’t expect that it will become popular or make them money. You definitely need a niche, even if it is a broad topic, to really get the type of audience you want.
Additionally, I’ve always hated it when people put up crap posts. All it does is distract from the really good posts, the post that you want people to read. I’d rather leave a great post at the top of my blog for several weeks then write a crap post for the sake of it. My general rule is that nothing goes on the blog that isn’t delivering any value to the niche I’m targeting.
Very good advice. The little filler articles that normally get me all riled up are those with the memes or those handing out some or other award. If a blogger wants a link from my blog I would prefer if he/she just asks for one.
If one has nothing to say on your blog, it would be better to do just that, say nothing.
Interesting post by someone who is obviously an expert on blogs.
I sum it up by saying that a good blog must have an owner who is passionate about the subject and has the know how to make the blog look good.
Well, that right there is a good list.
And a great song!
I’m working on #3- making proofreading a priority. I like the idea of letting it sit for an hour. After working on a post for a bit it is easy to miss grammar and punctuation errors. Sometimes, after hitting publish and reading it the next day, I wonder why in world I wrote such an awkward sentence or two! By the way, just to mess with ya’- you listed #4 twice. Now, I better rush over to my blog and correct all my errors. Whew, that would be a job. LOL Great post, Turnip.
Good catch! I changed the order of paragraphs without numbering them properly. Should be fixed. You can stop checking your blog, I stopped looking after the first page. Silly me, I was too busy ignoring the crappy Entrecard Support forum to proofread my own post.
Looks down crestfallen. Well the proof reading and spelling bit still gets me from time to time. Let’s just say Microsoft Word Spell Checker has no Soul!!!
That aside, you know I love your Blog. Seems you always have something here, that I just have to agree with.
Being a insufferable smart ass that I am, I am always happy to see someone else that isn’t afraid to voice his/her opinion.
Your blog is excellent Regina. I’m not talking about the occasional oversight. I’m talking about people with 20-30 errors per article.
I agree with Stan, you certainly have an opinion and a lot of people value it! I know I do – so I’m a bit concerned that I don’t fit into 1 or 2. I think all others I fit into from time (or don’t in the case of no.6) to time so that’s ok (I’m only human after all).
Thanks Turnip!
I am changing my blog over from blogspot very soon.(Next couple of days) Then maybe, with additional changes I make at the same time, I will begin to fly in your radar. I will humbly submit soon.
This is great advice for the upcoming blogger. I discovered a few of these points the hard way, but my blogs have been making progress of late.
NathanKP – Inkweaver Review
my enlightenment reading this article. i must be thankful to margaret who recommend me here. it feels good to learned the essence of blogging, Thank you!:)
I learn alot from reading all kinds of blogs, some things I never opted to do. I do participate in Wordless Wednesday from time to time because it’s seems other “mom” bloggers enjoy sharing photos and I’ve picked up loyal followers this way. I do wonder however if there is a polite way to bow out of tags and awards. Once in a while is ok, but these things seem to be clogging up alot of sites.
This is the best article I’ve read here. Thank you for an articulate and well thought out post.
I was starting to pat myself on the back as I was going through your list, then had to stop when I got to #5. I am guilty (on my personal blog, anyway) of resorting to Wordless Wednesday. Since this is done more for displaying a hopefully memorable picture to friends and family out of state, does this count?
I don’t do this at 10 things, so I hope I’m still ok.
@Lyndi: I do try to avoid filler articles. I am, however, guilty of receiving and thanking bloggers for awards. Should I take yours back?
@Margaret: I check my comments too and it makes me crazy when I hit the post button and realize a typo has crept in!
Great post, but I totally disagree with #5. Just because someone posts something under the titles you’ve listed (I do a form of Wordless Wednesday, which isn’t so wordless, but I take time, effort, and energy to take the pictures I want), doesn’t mean they are posts without meaning.
Plus, with the millions of videos on Youtube, I highly doubt everyone has seen them all.
Oh, here’s a link you might be interested in participating in. It’s sounds like a great way to find “new” blogs……..:)
http://chuckwestbrook.com/great-content-no-readers/
LinaN: There is nothing wrong with posting a photo with no text below. It becomes an issue when lazy bloggers find a funny photo for “Wordless Wednesday” and sandwiched it between apologizes for not posting and their latest pay per post opportunity. If a youtube vidoe fits your niche, by all means post it.
Thank you for the comment about pay per posts…I’ve stopped reading a couple blogs simply because I feel gut-punched when I click through from my reader to see that someone has thought up some crap story so they could link to contact lenses or Harley Davidsons.
It makes me feel like I’ve been peddled imitation Melaleuca. Like the regular stuff isn’t enough of a waste of my time, you’re gonna pull that crap on me.
I’ve been blogging for 4 years. I do not have a niche blog, hence I don’t write on on particular topic. I do post funny pictures, with captions and stories to go along with them, because these seem to be the posts I have received the most responses on. Blogging is entertainment, an outlet and a source of information. What one may see as utter crap, another may find funny or interesting. It’s all a matter of taste. So to single out those who do participate in memes, blog carnivals and the like, is excluding an extremely large group of bloggers. What’s so funny is the fact that I didn’t blog for 6 months, yet I still maintained a decent amount of traffic, comments and requests for reviews and ad space. For me, there are no rules to blogging, except to interact with my readers and try to share a small portion of my life, my thoughts on issues and to hopefully entertain. Let individual bloggers choose what to read or not to read. In the end we would all benefit, instead of casting out whom we consider, “bad blogs.” It’s a matter of choice.
My goal in getting into blogging was to make money… I havn’t… I like the idea of just “stealing” other articles and slapping adsence to them…That’s great… Just kidding..
Now blogging has become addiction… I still want to make money someday (maybe just a little) But having my opinion out there is what is most satisfying today… I hope it is tomorrow… Great list… I’ am doing many of the “good blog” tips… I think
gulp~ anytime you want to feedback your opinion of mine~ gulp~ i’m ready
This was really nice post. web 2.0 marketing never worked for me.