10 things that make your blog suck.

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Grumpy-Cat

I think I’ve been in this blogging business long enough to tell when I see a bad blog. So I decided to round up the ten most annoying things I’ve seen bloggers do that make me hit the backspace key and never visit their blog again. If you blog, I hope you don’t do any of these things.

1. The blogger allows comments, but attacks anyone who disagrees with them. I’m not talking about abusive or trollish comments (which should be trashed or sent to spam anyway), but there are some bloggers YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO DISAGREE WITH. You can’t have a civilized debate because even questioning their opinions sends them into the online equivalent of a two year old’s temper tantrum. If you are so certain of your rightness that you must attack those who even suggest a differing viewpoint, why allow comments at all?

2. The majority of the blogger’s posts are hate-filled, trollish screeds against someone they dislike. It’s fine to rant occasionally, but when the object of the blogger’s ire becomes a single-minded OBSESSION, it becomes offensive, especially if it’s meant to slander an individual (who isn’t a public figure). No one wants to read your verbal projectile vomiting.

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3. The blogger’s posts are full of typos, misspellings (did I spell that right?) and offensive grammar. Honey, there’s such a thing as spell- and grammar-check. I don’t like grammar nazis either, but what’s even worse is someone who has the writing skills of a second grader and doesn’t bother trying to correct their errors.

4. The layout uses clashing colors, unreadable fonts for the sake of looking “cool,” a typeface/background color combination that’s difficult to read (such as a red font on an orange background), or loud, flashing tacky graphics of the type that used to be called “Blingies.” Viewing a blog like that can cause epileptic seizures. Dude, this isn’t MySpace. Fortunately I don’t see too many blogs like that.

5. The blog is difficult or impossible to navigate. Unfortunately I’ve seen a lot of blogs like this. There’s no list of recent articles, no header tabs labeled by topic, no table of contents, sometimes not even a search bar. How the hell are you supposed to find what you’re looking for? I understand the minimalist look is trendy and and all, but confusing your readers is not cool. When I see a blog I can’t navigate I’m outta there.

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6. The blog contains a lot of broken or outdated links. The only time this is excusable is if the blog is no longer active. Otherwise, take the time to update or remove non-working links.

7. It drives me insane when I see a blog that has no original material and every post is a reblog of someone’s else’s article, meme, inspirational quote, snarky saying, or photograph. If you’re so lazy or uncreative you can’t write any original material, why have a blog at all? If all you can do is recycle other people’s material, a social media account like Facebook or Twitter lets you do the same thing. Recycling or reblogging other people’s material is fine sometimes. We all have those days we can’t think of anything original to say or just like something so much we MUST post it on our own blog, but if that’s ALL you can do, I’m sorry but you bore me. Even worse is when I see a copyright protection notice in the sidebar, when there is nothing original to be copyrighted.

8. The blog dwells in negativity, self-pity and hate. This is a bit different from #2, because the blogger may not be on a personal vendetta against an individual (or group of individuals), but every single post they write is a negative, self-pitying, depressing screed about how much their life and everything in it sucks. They hate everything and everyone, including themselves, and their blog is nothing more than their own personal vomitorium. You leave their blog feeling like your soul has been sucked into their vortex of darkness. There’s nothing wrong with writing a rant or spewing a little negativity or self pity sometimes (especially if you’re using your blog as self-therapy, as I am), but if ALL your posts blather on about how much your life SUCKS, and how everything and everyone SUCKS, then YOU suck as a blogger and you need a therapist for your severe depression and anger issues, not a blog.

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9. Conversely, blogs that are all sweetness, light and positivity ALL THE TIME also drive me crazy. As bloggers we are human. We have bad days and bad feelings sometimes. Normal people aren’t positive and happy 24/7, 365 days a year. I’m very suspicious of anyone who’s so perky online all the time I feel like I might get diabetes just reading their blog. I feel like they’re hiding something. An occasional rant or admission of failure makes you human. People who are too perky and happy all the time and never admit anything may be wrong in their lives are annoying and boring, not inspirational.

10. Finally, I can’t stand blogs where all the articles are long walls of text, especially if they are in a tiny font. I don’t care if you’re Edgar Allen Poe reincarnated, I won’t bother reading your well-written post if there’s nothing to break up the monotony of your wall of words.

84 thoughts on “10 things that make your blog suck.”

  3. Reblogged this on galesmind and commented:
    Excellent article! Great tips to polish up a blog too. Definitely going to check mine out. Only saw one blog filled with slander and hate . It is inactive now. No one wants to read garbage like that.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Hmmm…not sure why your comment went into moderation. Anyway, fortunately I don’t see too many blogs for the sole purpose of slander either. i can only think of 3 off the top of my head, and one of them is some dude that’s obsessed with Jason (Opinionated Man) and writes hate posts about him every day. It’s pretty sick and says a lot more about the guy’s pathological envy of OM than anything else.

      Liked by 2 people

      • Well my friends and I had one like that too. She finally abandoned her blog. People don’t want to read that kind of drivel. If you have a problem with someone I really don’t think that a Word Press blog is the place to deal with it.

        Liked by 2 people

        • I think blogs like that run out of steam after awhile even for the blogger. In most cases, people get bored with hating someone and eventually just want to move on from that. At least I would hope so. So those kinds of blogs just sort of die after awhile. Also because no one reads them.

          Liked by 1 person

          • It’s sounds a bit like Facebook when people can just slander one another or put up disturbing photos… big business’s like this have to be made to make a stand… There has to be a line with ‘freedom of speech’ when it can harm another person… it is time for us all to bring into practice honour and respect… First for yourself, which then automatically flows through to others…. I know for sure, this guy who is so hateful to Jason is taking out his own frustration of himself… It’s time for him to sort himself out, therapy or something… barbara

            Liked by 1 person

            • The man is obviously a very malignant narcissist or a sociopath…he is projecting his own character flaws onto Jason. It’s sad because it’s so obvious.
              Facebook is terrible. I try to avoid drama there but it always finds me anyway. I agree they should take a harsher policy toward bullies but maybe it’s outside their control, idk. Not that it’s an excuse

              Liked by 1 person

  4. Some of my grammar mistakes are due to a punctuation issue. I am working to get better at that. I agree with the negativity and trolling issues you bring up. Blogs full of negativity are ones I try to stay away from. You have a great post here. Keep on blogging.

    Liked by 1 person

      • I too love to write about blogging. My slant is to encourage people to do it and to be original. I am a immigrant from Tumblr where reblogging is king. WordPress is a highly intelligent and creative community. I shall be following along here to learn more.

        Liked by 1 person

        • Yay, thanks for coming to WP, Tony . Although writing articles about blogging isn’t my primary focus (it’s mental health issues, specifically cluster B personality disorders and Aspergers) it is becoming more so, and I actually find writing articles about blogging the most fun to write. Stick around!

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  6. oh the wall of text. i cannot even force myself to read walls of text. i’m on a ‘inject some more light-hearted content’ project for my blog. it’s not so easy i tell ya. especially when thoughts such as ‘isn’t this insincere?’ arise. how do you mix it up?
    ennjoyed this postt.

    Liked by 1 person

    • LOL, I probably use too many pictures, quotes, cartoons etc. in my posts. That’s because that part is actually the most fun for me and sometimes I get carried away.
      The way I do it, I go to Google Images and type in a phrase of what I’m looking for, no matter how crazy or obscure, and 99% of the time I can find something that fits perfectly. I especially love using cartoons. Be careful when using images though, if it’s not a stock photo or is original artwork without the artist’s name on it you should try to give credit. I try to always do that but sometimes neglect giving credit or can’t find where it’s from.

      Liked by 1 person

  8. Lol. Funny but true! My biggest pet peeve is #5. I get it sometimes WordPress interface isn’t always user friendly, but I don’t want to have to search to find your About page or find the teeny tiny link so I can leave a comment….sometimes I can’t even find it!

    Liked by 1 person

    • That drives me crazy too, when you can’t find the Like or share buttons or where you can post comments.
      I found out sometimes you have to click on the article itself and suddenly it’s there. That’s why I have the Like and share buttons on the homepage too, not just the blog post itself.

      Liked by 1 person

      • Yes you have to make it easier. And I gotta be honest, I know a lot of bloggers get their own sites and link to WordPress, but I just want to leave a comment, I don’t want to put in my email, website, etc (even if no one else sees it). Often I won’t leave anything…probably lazy of me, but that’s why I like WordPress.

        Liked by 1 person

        • I know some bloggers have their sites set up where you have to sign in. I will almost always bypass a site like that because frankly I don’t want to take the time to sign up, create a password, etc. But I can understand why some bloggers do it, especially if their site is about something sensitive or controversial, or if they’ve been stalked or harrassed. It probably gives you more control over who can see your blog. I won’t ever do it with mine, but I can understand it, even though I hate it.

          Liked by 1 person

  9. i’m guilty of #4… wordpress doesn’t let me change the color of the text, and i don’t want to get a new theme that does because i’ll have to set everything up again. and maybe #5, but my blog is more about little thoughts than long posts.

    Liked by 1 person

  10. Ooo, I am sure I am guilty of some of these things (just not the hating or the ranting). Took me quite a while to figure out the link and widgets things, but I am working on it. I think my site is kind of boring but I am really quite afraid to mess with it, or else I will jack the whole thing up. I am sure some of my posts are too long, but I am working on that too.

    Liked by 1 person

  12. I am guilty of my blog not looking so great. I don’t know how to do tags on the side or do more pages on the top that direct you to your other blog entries or do categories on the side. Maybe I need a paid premium than a free premium to have those features. At least it does have my recent blog entries and a search bar.

    Yes I allow comments and I only had one hater and I know my response to his wasn’t nice but his response wasn’t nice either and he was accusing me and I do love people’s clever responses to haters and trolls so they inspire me and it’s something I enjoy. I did read a blog once I did enjoy but he accused me of leaving him negative comments and didn’t want anyone disagreeing with him so I never read his blog again. He just got unfriendly with me all of a sudden all because I wrote how something wouldn’t work for me he wrote about.

    I have enjoyed negative blogs where someone slams a person and other people in general, I enjoy the drama. Oh well everyone has their own tastes. I have talked about my ex’s sometimes in my blog or a boy I knew who was violent and I have done rants.

    Liked by 1 person

    • I looked at your blog, it actually looks pretty good to me. It has what it needs and I like the design.

      Negative blogs can be funny sometimes but they get boring fast.

      Like

      • As a matter of fact I indeed am smoking. Ha Ha Ha It’s the other website me and Buddha9 used to a guest of. Letting you know I am not done with them. No. I feel they got away with murder.

        Liked by 1 person

          • Deafpiratevideo, Th3Harold owns it and deaf people get to register and either blog or vlog and leave comments? Same with Visual Vlogs-Owner- sher and nemesis, deaf cube-lombie, Slvlogs -Edoedo and Deafvideovlogs-Robert. There’s two more but never been a quest. I joined dpv about a year ago. Some vloggers were starting to bug Harold about the bloggers needing to start camming up? Then Harold shut it down. I went on to VV and the owners threw me out then I went on to deafcube then deafcube shut down Then I forgot which site I went to after this. The site Slvlogs-owner Edoedo was horrid. I’ll explain more later. One thing I want to say Buddha9 and I did nothing wrong!

            Liked by 1 person

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