I think this is great advice and (I think - I hope) I am not guilty of any of these.
From Social Media Today:
Nothing is more important to a blogger than having a loyal following. However, even the best and bravest of the blogging community often make critical mistakes that not only fail to build a visitor base, but sabotage these efforts. Here are seven common mistakes that you need to avoid if you don’t want to drive visitors from your site.
1. The giant brick wall of text.
Only one in seven people who visit a given entry will actually read the entire thing. The rest will skim through it, taking a look at headers, images, bold text, links, and other portions of the site that stick out. Nonetheless, many bloggers present their content in long paragraphs, with no headers, no bulleted lists, no bold text — in short, as a giant brick wall of text that’s nearly impossible to skim.
2. Selling out without subtlety.
Yes, we understand: You’re in the blogging game to make money. That doesn’t mean that your entries should be obvious advertisements for a product, or that ads should flood the layout of your site. Trying to sell without subtlety, and without already establishing reader loyalty, is like trying to kiss your blind date two minutes after meeting them — it comes off too strong, it makes it seem like you only care about one thing, and you’re likely to send them running.
Yes, we understand: You’re in the blogging game to make money. That doesn’t mean that your entries should be obvious advertisements for a product, or that ads should flood the layout of your site. Trying to sell without subtlety, and without already establishing reader loyalty, is like trying to kiss your blind date two minutes after meeting them — it comes off too strong, it makes it seem like you only care about one thing, and you’re likely to send them running.
Number 2 is the killer for me whenever I read a blog. My company does marketing and advertising for some major corporations so I can understand this concern by most bloggers. But I try to do my best and tell things like they are.
The truth is best. Now, at this time, I sometimes think that if I can't say anything nice, I'll say nothing at all, but very soon I figure that this blog will be a blog for consumer advocacy and I'm going to write clearly about corporations who are not doing a good job. Sure, some of them will be mad, but, in the long run, when I complain about their product and service if they take that and consider it honestly then do something to fix the problem, I am actually doing them a favor.
Anyway, if you are a blogger, you might want to read more about the 7 Ways to Lose Readers to Your Blog here.
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