Reading Other People’s Blogs

I have recently joined this Blogging world and am learning new things all the time.  Yesterday I read a post written by a person who said she checks out like a hundred or so blogs a day.  She talked about what she likes, doesn’t like, what makes her click out of them as fast as she clicks in and other things she’s noticed by looking at blogs.  Unfortunately, the whole post was kind of negative and turned me off, but I did take some things away from it and she made some very good points.

For example she thought graphics were a must.  Now I haven’t used a lot of graphics in my blogging yet and have been a little unsure of it but after reading that, I have decided I will try to use more.  They do catch your eye and break up the black and white text a little.  Everyone likes pictures, it’s how we learn to read and sometimes the picture will stay with you long after the words have faded.
Long blocks of text that weren’t broken up by anything was another of the author’s dislikes and I have to say I do agree with this one as well.  I am trying to correct that on my blog.  I am still struggling with formatting issues. When I’m in draft view, it looks like I have made a new paragraph, when it gets to the finished view, there is no break.  So I will be trying to find help on this issue.  A line break was one solution and I have figured out how to use that.

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She had a few other points but it got me to thinking about what I like on a blog and what I don’t.  One thing I do like is if there is a “like” button that I can click and let the author know I liked their post and can relate to it.  That they’re not just talking to themselves or an empty room.  I also like the comment boxes for that reason.  Along those same lines, I like an easy way to follow them.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been reading a blog, really liked it and wanted to follow only to have to search for the follow button.  Make it easy to find.  No one is going to try too hard to follow you.  If you want followers, you have to make it easy.

Also the post can’t be too long or in today’s world, you will lose the reader.  Have you ever listened to a sermon or a speech  that went more than 15-20 minutes?  Have you been able to keep your focus on the message.  We live in an instant world.  Tweets and little blips are what people want, what they have time for.  Sure, if you are enormously fascinating we might hang on a little longer but most of us aren’t that fascinating.

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Another thing that I have noticed while reading blogs is that misspelled words and broken English are a turnoff for me.  There is a spell checker on just about every writing tool these days, it should be easy to check your posts.  I realize for some, broken English can’t be helped as there are many people posting from other countries and I’m not criticizing them, just saying it makes it hard enough for me to read that I’m not going to stick around for it.

Which brings me to my final point.  Comments.  Readers comments are very encouraging to a blogger and when I’m commenting on another’s blog, what I appreciate is an acknowledgement of my comment.  Some bloggers have huge followings and don’t have time to personally reply to each comment, which is why I like the option some Blog Hosts give of liking a comment.  I at least know you’ve read my comment and appreciated that I took the time to write.

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Now it’s your turn to sound off.  Please tell me in the comments below what you like and dislike about blogs.