Skip to main content

How to Alienate Your First Reader?

By VJ
Let's say you started your blog today. After setting it up basically, you did some search engine submissions, some social media work, and emailed your contacts. Let's see what can alienate your readers from your first blog.

1. Theme Vs. Loading Time

There are already coolest looking blogs in the blogosphere. The readers are no longer looking for really a great design. All they want now is content that loads really faster. The era of Flash and design gimmicks is long gone. So, make sure your blog loads within the first four seconds.

2. Advertisements

Readers know of Adsense and various other forms of ads. They frown now upon links with tiny descriptions and a URL at the end, as they have already on banners. It is always best to wait until your blog starts getting at least fifty daily search engine visits before adding advertisements.

3. Widgets

Don't think readers love it if you spice your blog up with widgets like the fancy clock, social network profile pics, etc. Add only as few widgets as possible. The must-have ones like translation widget, archives widget, RSS subscription widget, social network icon list, etc. may be added.

4. Search Form

Have one search form and only one. I have seen some bloggers have two Google Adsense search boxes, as Adsense allows maximum of two. This is ridiculous.

5. RSS Widget Icon

Do you have that large, fancy RSS subscription icon on the top? Get rid of it. It distracts users. Only a simple, standard-color RSS icon is enough with optional email subscription form.

6. Visit Stats

If you have small visit stats, don't put up a stats icon at all. With StatCounter, Sitemeter etc., you can opt for invisible trackers. Or at least, you can place the tracker at an obscure spot.

7. Personal Posts

You have a brand new blog on a specific topic, and the first few entries are about how hard up you were for the last few months, how you managed to buy this new domain and put up this blog, and how your last night's dinner was. You have already alienated most of your readers. Don't put up any personal post at all (even an about me page) until you start getting a decent traffic. And post the most useful entries first, and also let users know of them through a 'featured entries' widget.

8. Streamlined Navigation

If you have a new blog concentrating on a topic, create links with keywords a possible reader wants to see. For instance, if your topic is "car insurance", then place home page links to topics like "insurance firms", "basic info", "get cheap insurance", "local insurance", etc. Don't give your first visitor the most advanced article. Let them browse to it as they wish.

9. Enable Print Pages

Printable versions of your pages are very easy for most readers. If you publish entries in a number of pages, a user might expect to see a printable page, which loads all the content on one page faster.

10. Related Links

Have there something for the reader to bookmark. Create a directory listing or one-page link list for all the related information. This is something that most users love to see. And they will most likely bookmark it.
Labels:

Comments

  1. AnonymousMarch 13, 2009 at 8:28 AM

    Excellent tips here.
    I specifically agree with #3 - that of using the least possible widgets. Subtlety is acknowledged in the blogging world with a great readership!
    It happens that some of the blogs out there rank very highly in content, but are foolish enough to sport a cluttered design which hampers reading. I use feed readers to view them. I just don't have the time to give a damn about it!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Comments are moderated very strictly

Popular posts from this blog

Power of Short Sentences

By VJ
Post dedicated to Thomas Hardy (see History Today below). There are monster sentences like the one you encounter as the first paragraph of Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens . One of my friends, whom I am getting equipped for his IELTS ( what is this? ), told me that the examination recommends long sentences. In writing classes also, I guess it’s longer sentences most tutors promote. But indubitably shorter sentences are more powerful . We will see why. Take a long sentence for instance: Tom Cruise, one of the finest actors in the whole world, is perhaps the most powerful celebrity to exist ever according to Time Magazine, but many people still dispute this fact and point out that there are more powerful and popular actors than Cruise, though they were unsuccessful in providing the total number of fans, who liked the films of those actors. This is a long sentence and it is very confusing . Though it has a logical construction and conveys a meaning, it falters in many occasions and seems ...
1 comment
Read more

Creative Writing: Crafting Characters With Emotional Appeal in Mind

By VJ
When you read the greatest fiction works ever, have you ever asked what was so compelling about them that you not only kept reading it, but you ended up reading all other major works of the writer? It may well be because the writer touched your emotional quotient quite a bit. Every reader has a unique taste . Some like to read suspense thrillers , some tender love stories, and some others dark horror and bloodshed stories . That’s why there are all sorts of genres out there. When a writer gives you what exactly you want, you will keep reading. Here we come to the emotional appeal. Character Imperfection Perfect characters may not always be the upshot of a writer’s deliberation. It may well be due to ignorance . Usually the upcoming writers take it for granted that if they create perfect characters, they will be able to garner a bigger audience . It is not true. You have to ask yourself what a character would do in a particular situation. Perfect characters—perfect gunmen, perfect...
1 comment
Read more

En Dash, Em Dash, and Hyphen

By VJ
We have three types of dashes in use: The hyphen, En Dash, and the Em Dash. In this post, we will see how to use them all correctly. Hyphen (-) The hyphen is the minus key in Windows-based keyboards. This is a widely used punctuation mark. Hyphen should not be mistaken for a dash . Dash is different and has different function than a hyphen. A hyphen is used to separate the words in a compound adjective, verb, or adverb. For instance: The T-rex has a movement-based vision. My blog is blogger-powered. John’s idea was pooh-poohed. The hyphen can be used generally for all kinds of wordbreaks . En Dash (–) En Dash gets its name from its length. It is one ‘N’ long (En is a typographical unit that is almost as wide as 'N'). En Dash is used to express a range of values or a distance: People of age 55–80 are more prone to hypertension. Delhi–Sidney flight was late by three hours. In MS Word, you can put an En Dash either from the menu, clicking Insert->Symbol or by the key-combinatio...
11 comments
Read more