Why I won't read your blog

   Now and again, I love having a good binge read of other people's blogs. I return to a few select favourites and scroll through my feeds to discover new bloggers and check out their posts.

   On many occasions, I have spent all of a good five seconds on blogs before clicking the exit window. This might sound very bad but did you know that, on average, it takes all of five seconds for your audience to lose interest? That's how fast you have to be to grab their attention!


   In this post, I am going to describe what causes me to swiftly navigate away from your page or even clicking on your link in the first place!

Automatic DMs

   There is nothing more annoying than following someone and then, a few seconds later, being hit up with that cliché automated direct message: "Hey there! I would really appreciate it if you would take a moment to check out-" NO. Automatic DMs are the cold callers of the internet - the Jehovah's Witnesses knocking at your door! Go away. 

   I never have and never will click on a link from an automated DM and I know this is a popular opinion amongst bloggers so, if you have these, do yourself a favour and get rid!

Lots of pop-ups

   One. One is all you need and that is usually the option to sign up to your newsletter. I am completely fine with one pop up but if I click off that and then find myself unable to scroll through your post without being bombarded by more, I will click straight off your blog! 

   You need to have faith in your readers that they will navigate around your website and sign up for the things that they are interested in. If it is unwarrantedly shoved in their faces, it will make them not want it at all. 


Your posts are too long

   Short and sweet. You are not writing a feature for The Telegraph, this is a quick blog post. What a lot of people do - including myself - is scroll very quick through the whole thing before reading it and, if I decide that it is too long, I will either skim read or not read at all; it is mostly the latter. 

   Break up your paragraphs. Apply the three/four sentence rule: if your paragraphs are longer than four sentences then - the chances are - they are too long. There's nothing more off-putting than overly large chunks of text.

Not enough pictures

   What is equally as important as breaking up your paragraphs is breaking up your writing with pictures. This is crucial to maintaining interest in your post and showing off your creative flair. After all, blogging is not all about writing!    


Unorganised

   It is your duty as a blogger to ensure that your page is easy to navigate. If your blog has no navigation bar with categories for your blog posts, it is going to be extremely difficult to sift through your posts - particularly if there is a certain type I am looking for (eg: book reviews). 

   If your blog is not clearly set out, that's a major turn-off as well!

   Maybe not everyone will share my viewpoint on this topic as this is largely subjective but, if any of these aspects are true for your blog, you might want to consider making some changes even if they are small.

It may just make all the difference.

What are your pet hates when it comes to reading other blogs?
Let me know in the comments below!

29 comments

  1. Thanks for the tips! Love it.

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    1. You’re very welcome, I’m glad you found this useful!

      Meg x

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  2. I agree with all of these, having loads of pop ups is so annoying when you just want to read the post you've clicked on. x

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    1. Exactly, it can be so annoying! I’m glad you enjoyed my post.

      Meg x

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  3. How long should posts be then? I’m quite concerned with it

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    1. I would say the average is around 500 words. It really depends on the subject - if you’re merely giving a bit of advice or telling a story. If you have to scroll on your phone more than 3 times to read it, it’s usually too long. Hope this helps!

      Meg x

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  4. This is probably such a small thing but I always get turned off of blogs when there's a multitude of grammatical errors, especially now when spell checks are pretty good. It's mostly because my day job is writing, and I'm an English student at heart, but I just can't bring myself to trawl through something with mistake after mistake!

    Cordelia || cordeliamoor.squarespace.com

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    1. Oh no, I’m completely with you there! If there’s the odd typo, it’s okay but when there’s tonnes of grammatical errors and spelling mistakes, it’s obvious the person has not taken their time to edit their work. Although this would depend on how seriously they take their blog. If they want to do it for a living then that’s really not good!

      Meg x

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  5. This has been very helpful, making me realize i need to cut down how much i am writing. Thank you for these tips.

    Amelia x

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    1. I’m glad you found this post helpful, Amelia!

      Meg x

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  6. Great post! I love that you mention blogging isn't all about writing! One of my goals this year is to post better quality pictures. Short easy to read blog posts are nice too!

    Marquerite | www.marqueritetuufuli.com

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    1. It’s definitely more about writing; a lot of people fail to realise that, hence why many think blogging is so “easy” - nope! Good luck with that - I’m trying to improve mine too!

      Meg x

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  7. Yes, pop ups are the worst. I'm fine with a newsletter sign up, but lately I've been on blogs where every 30 seconds there's something popping up for a free resource or to enrol in their course. It's just too much.
    I sometimes feel people put too many pictures in their posts. I get it if it's a fashion piece but usually it just looks like they're covering for the fact they have very little to right about. Usually these have clickbait titles and very little actual information.
    Great post!
    Laura \\ http://thatgallowaygirl.com/

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    1. Exactly, it can get very overwhelming! Yes, I completely agree with this too. It’s good to use pictures to break up your writing but, if they are all clumped together, they lose the appeal.

      Thank you for reading, Laura!

      Meg x

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  8. This is such a great post! I completely agree with all of these, especially the automated DMs and pop-ups! They can be so annoying!

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    1. Thank you so much, I’m glad you agree!

      Meg x

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  9. This is really helpful! I agree with these, especially the multiple pop-ups that show up when I'm just trying to check out a blog!

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    1. Thank you! Yes, those can be very frustrating - just let me read your blog!

      Meg x

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  10. This post has some great tips for bloggers who are just starting out and don't know the best way to set up their website, personally I don't mind some long blog posts but I do prefer short paragraphs!

    Jess // foundationsandfairytales.wordpress.com
    xx

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    1. Thank you! I don’t mind the occasional lengthy blog post - it really depends on the subject but as long as the paragraphs are broken up, it’s all good!

      Meg x

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  11. I agree about the pop-ups and the weird DM's. My pet peeve is when I can't find a follow button or subscribe form easily. If it's not easy to find, my assumption is that they don't really know what they're doing.

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  12. Definitely agree with most of this, I can't stand reading blog pictures, it's just so boring! I do enjoy reading long posts sometimes if it's about something I'm really interested in, though!

    thefashionfemme.blogspot.co.uk Xx

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    1. I completely agree! If it’s a lengthy post but it’s very interesting, I don’t mind so long as the paragraphs are broken up!

      Meg x

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  13. How do you create the different categories in the bar at the top of your blog because I've been wanting to do this for a while now but I am soooo bad with the settings of my blog! thank you and loved reading this btw x

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    1. I’ve been asked this a few times recently! So you go onto your Blogger account —> Layout and then, on the horizontal bars across your page, you pick the option that says something along the lines of main menu or navigation bar. What you do in another window is assign labels to your blog posts, which you can do whilst creating/editing a post in the side bar. Publish that post and then scroll to the bottom where the labels are visible and click on one of those labels (eg: Fashion). It will take you to a blank page. Copy and paste the link to that page, go back to the other window, type in “Fashion” in one of the boxes and then in the box next to it, paste the link! Repeat for the rest of your labels and order them how you want.

      I hope I explained that alright!

      Meg x

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  14. I so agree with everything you've mentioned in this post! Another one for me (and this is quite a savage one) but if the blog isn't pretty, then I will leave pretty soon after landing on their site. It's bad, I know!

    Talia
    KIAORATALIA

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  15. Yes yes yes! I agree with every single thing you've mentioned. I mean on top of all the facts you mentioned, I definitely have to like their personality. Your blog page can't look too clunky, like the post itself has to be easy to read. But yes, I think the ones you mentioned are the most important ones! Great post love :) x

    Melina | melinaelisa.com

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  16. Oh these are some eye openers! Though i am fairly new, i will try to add some pictures to my posts, and try to be organized! Thanks for that

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