Make money online
9 things that make your blog sink
It’s crazy, I know .. we’re all writing in blogs, creating many many topics and hoping we can live a luxurious life from this. Or at least some expect this. But why are there SO FEW blogs that are worth reading? It’s weird: there are millions and still a huge part of them are sub-quality, spammy, idiotic posts blogs. As a blog writer myself and in the end visitor to so many blogs I kinda found out what makes ME leave a blog in 2 seconds. Let’s see what are the things that make your blog .. sink:
1. Hosted at blogspot or another free host.
Call me snobbish, call me anything you want, but I totally dislike anything that’s not on his own domain. Is a .com that expensive you weren’t able to get one? Did you really have to smoke that pack of cigarettes or drink that beer? Think about your health, eat less junk and drink less, not to mention quit smoking for 1 day and put those 9 USD for a domain. Once you start having visitors and make it successful you’ll thank me.
2. Default theme
Yes, I have something with this too. I assume you started your blog to also earn some revenue … to get money one has to also spend some. Please do yourself a favour and have a less stock themed blog. You don’t go in yout pijamas when you meet with a client or when you go to meet with your lover. Your blog or ANYTHING you make on the web is HOW you present yourself on the internet. If you want people to see you with no pants, then by all means let it rot in that default skin other thousands of sites/blogs share.
But if you really want someone to respect your blog, make it look unique. You don’t have to know rocket-science information, just open some images in an image editor and the CSS page and play with some colours. Look at some nice designs and realize WHAT MAKES THEM GOOD. Ask for reviews and improve.
3. Links only to Youtube movies
For the sake of God, please don’t waste my time with this crap anymore. Who cares you found a nice movie (most of the times some stupid stuff with comic twists)? Don’t you have a forum to post that message? Or just make a small category for such uninteresting stuff and reserve your entire blog to YOUR ideas and experience. Ya know .. I also go to Youtube and browse some of the movies … there are millions .. I just hope you won’t link to all of them and then brag about how interesting your blog is.
4. Copied news and reviews from other sites
Again .. please spare me from this. If I want news, be sure I know where to find them. If I want product reviews, I’ll make sure I get them from the specialized sites, not your blog that combines everything just so that you can brag you are active.
I don’t care Google was sued, or bought yet another multi-million venture. I came to your blog to read your content. Good or bad, funny or awfully boring .. I want YOUR ideas and thoughts. Remember .. that’s why people should create blogs for.
5. No original and personal content
I like reading blogs. Those with content I won’t find elsewhere, with some personal stories and ideas. I stayed at night once to read a blog of one of my members who has Psoriasis. I didn’t know too much of this, but I read her ENTIRE blog for 2 hours I think .. I learnt a lot about it and also about her own struggle, progress and regress in treatment.
Even if I am not normally interested in a disease I don’t have and didn’t see any person to suffer from it in my own life, I read everything with hunger for more awesome information. It’s the blog of a normal person, with so many problems. And still, the relaxed way and simple but plesant way to present the information, made me stay and eat up all stories.
Don’t use big “techy” words, don’t try to copy or imitate anyone. Be yourself and just write about what is importan for you. And yes, people will come and stay for hours to read your stuff.
6. Stolen content from others.
Aside news and reviews many still use and might or not link to the original source, there are still many who actually steal content from article sites or forums. Maybe you like one of the artices on Wtricks.com or some of my posts here … I am glad, in the end that’s why I created them, so that one can actually benefit from them. But please don’t copy them, or you’ll have some serious legal problems. LINK to my articles if you like them that much, don’t copy. And no, I don’t care for a back link. My articles are unique and exclusive and I would rather have less links that waste my work on other sites. So again … don’t take other people’s content. Some might get angry.
7. Two line posts
I am not the advocate of 20 page articles, even if I write some long ones myself. There is not a “perfect” article size, that’s for sure, but still when all I see in your blog is a 2 line post and a link to something “interesting” you found on the web, I realize once again that the percentage of good blogs is horribly small and that your blog my friend is not in that category.
Write something longer than 3 lines. And again, don’t create an entire blog post just to link to something. Use links as referrence and write your own content. ORIGINALITY my friend is what makes me link to your blog and visit it. And wait unpatiently for yet another awesome post that would make my day.
8. Too many ads
Well I am being realistical .. I know that after paying for a domain name and host, doing your design (or paying someone for that unique skin), speding time writing unique articles and promoting, you also think about monetizing the site. Please do yourself a favour and don’t just put ads there so that I have a hard time finding the actual content from all the adsense, clicksor, adbrite etc. ads.
Advertising shouldn’t be the main thing I see on the site. Many of us know ads from the content. We won’t click since we’re too mad on you for hiding your content under a veil of ads and we won’t stay too much on the site because we can’t read the stuff.
I am sure you already know that putting some pop-up ads or singing/blinking ones or those horrible flash ads that occupy the entire page when you hover on them would make me leave your blog in a second and NEVER come back again.
Learn how to use ads and blend them nicely in the page. Use columns for this and try to understand I CAME FOR THE ARTICLES, not to see all kinds of ad formats. For this I can look into the Adsense ad format examples page and not waste my time on your blog 
9. No comment opportunity
Well, you know something .. I like commenting on blog posts. Don’t worry, nothing spammy or stupid. Quality commenting that would increase the value of your blog and give you the right impression that I read the articles and found them to be so interesting. Do you worry about spam? Install Akismet (an awesome plug in) and moderate all commments. This way you can keep spam out of the blog and also let me express my ideas.
These would be the 9 things that make me turn around and leave your blog. Try to have these in mind and send me a link to your blog then. I will surely come to read and enjoy a good quality content.
so, you couldn find the tenth one?:)
nice post, though
Arhi’s last blog post..Cat dai sa te zelistam?
9 things that make your blog sink | Ramona .. web development, business, life…
Do you want your blog to be better? Avoid these 9 mistakes. Maybe it’s a mean article, but it does say the truth ;)…
Welcome Arhi, nice seeing you here too
Well, just give me some minutes and I can come up with 9 more
I think you can add:
10. Posting Regularly
I know most of us have full-time gigs elsewhere, but my RSS toolbar on Firefox only features so many slots. So, a blogger that stops blogging for an extended time usually gets unsubscribed. Not that they need to post every day, but to keep readers returning, you need fresh (and relevant) information.
Thanks!
Welcome
Hmm .. good idea. So we might have:
10. Inactive blog, or not posting frequently …
Fantastic article and some great tips to be sure. Thanks for the info Ramona and best of luck to you.
Young Online Millionaire’s last blog post..Day 14-15: 30 Days to Blogging Success
Wow!
My blogs have lots of ads because of the subject matter…do you have any sympathy for me?
Also, one of my blogs is hosted at blogspot and I think it’s of good quality and there are many others that are also good that are hosted by blogspot. Can you give me more feedback on this one? Pretty please.
Hello Tanya.
Sure I have sympathy for you, in time you’ll weed out the ones that are not giving you too much revenue and stick to those that really work. We all do this.
The fact the blogs are on blogspot kinda drags them down. I dislike commenting on them since the comment system is a tad weird: normally I like seeing the article too when commenting, not having to choose from too many ID options (as in blospot) etc.
I know blogspot is a very reliable place to keep your blog on: the uptime is better than on my paid host since it’s Google’s hosting, but on the long run this does damage your blog’s image and it kinda prevents other people from interacting too much or even having the interest in advertising on it.
It’s just a matter of time: all successful and well written blogspot blogs DO get proper hosting/domain once they kick off. I just like to see this happen from day one since it kinda saves issues with transferring and losing PR and traffic
Just saw your article after coming here from Entrecard. I’ve got a blogspot I just started but it seems to do everything I need. They have an option to use your own domain name instead of the blogspot name, would you recommend that?
Mat’s last blog post..Cuba gets a makeover
I like blogs that seem to care about what they are doing and actually spend time posting (like your blog Ramona.. good work heh).
Anyway, I guess I’m guilty of #2 and #5. I use a theme I found on some free WP themes site (but atleast I changed the header graphic!). I also don’t really write too much about my personal experiences as much as I should.. but I’ll start soon, thanks for the suggestion!
James’s last blog post..Web directories… worth the submission?
Hello Mat and James
Mat, the problem with blogspot lies in the comment system too. Even if you do have your own domain name, when I try to comment and get that comment page blogspot has, I just feel like running to the woods. I am a snob, that’s true, but there are also others who are discouraged to comment seeing that page.
I’d use a blog hosted on wordpress.com, but they don’t allow you to place ads.
Thank you James for the nice words, so glad some of my ideas were of any help
Hello. I would like to talk with you about the advertisement at your Blog (www.ramonaiftode.com/blog). Could you please contact me via email.
Waiting for your email.
Thank you
OK, I hear you. I need my own domain. My address is a mile long and is very easy to mistype.
What is a good, cheap, and easy place to get a domain. I think the reason most people don’t do it isn’t because beer and cigarettes are more appealing–it’s a lack of knowledge.
Tom’s last blog post..Squatting on the Job
Hello Tom and Vladimir
Tom, the reason I mentioned the cigarettes was that some of my friends would also tell me they can’t afford a domain, but they do spend 2-3 dollars a day on their daily nicotine addiction
I get my domains from Godaddy. Never cared a lot about the prices, it’s more important for me to be able to purchase them (I use paypal for a short time and it was a pain to shop online with a Romanian master card
Nice job with your blog, and you’re right too about having my own domain (as you can see I’m on blogspot :)), but also I’m a beginner in blogging and I don’t know if I can succeed in keeping a blog on my own - maybe there is no big difference between a blog and a static site but untill I’ll learn how to do it right, I’ll prefer to stay on blogspot (hope it won’t be for long) because I think it’s a good way to learn. Keep on this god work, Tity.
TITY’s last blog post..Buxmania - follow up
Nice post Ramona though some pointers I already heard before.
Another stupidity of most bloggers is using long URL. For example, instead of using http://www.johncow.com they use http://www.johncow.com/blog or http://www.johncow.com/wordpress. Maybe they don’t know how to install Wordpress in the main directory. This is the information era, there are many resources out there. Having this kind of URL is bad for branding.
Having your own domain is a pre-requisite for a “make money online” blogs like yours but some niche or personal blog with original content may prefer to use free services. For example some blogspot blogs and Wordpress.com blog are more famous or have more unique hits than your pathetic blog. Try a look at this blog http://delfindjmontano.blogspot.com/, http://sethgodin.typepad.com/ or this one http://99zeros.blogspot.com/, it got more mainstream media coverage than your make money online blog which relay on Entrecard.com for traffic.
Blogs using blogspot or Wordpress.com that are voted and reviewed on Time.com Top 100 blogs:
a) http://www.indexed.blogspot.com/ got to Time.com to verify: http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1725323_1725329_1725409,00.html
b) http://2ohreally.wordpress.com/ got to Time.com to verify: http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1725323_1725329_1725356,00.html
c) http://thesartorialist.blogspot.com/ got to Time.com to verify: http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1725323_1725329_1725358,00.html
If you don’t read TIME magazine. Then, this will be your first time.
Don’t discriminate this kind of blogs on the same way that you won’t like to be discriminated because you are a black American, Asian, Arab, Hispanics or a high-school graduate jobless Romanian illegal immigrant. If you do this you are guilty of online bigotry. It is stereotyping.
There are many other well written blogs out there using sub-domain and free services. Don’t say my blog is better than yours because I’m using a top-level domain or I host my blog in my own dedicated server colocated with a prestigious data center. Instead you must say: My blog is better than yours because it was featured as a “Must-Read” money blog in the October 2008 issue of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, “blog of the week” by BusinessWeek or cited by the CNN for this so and so insider information.
Ummm This is getting to long … I hope I did not cause the greatest possible offense to people with the smallest of minds.
POST THIS. I hope you won’t delete this. If you do… that’s the sign that I just hit the right button. Just an exchange of ideas.
Thanks! Osh!
Another worth reading blogspot blog. http://fakesteve.blogspot.com/
Like all other human endeavor, there are always garbage and the worthy. Generalization is a sign of a weak mind.
Your site is not even original. Just another make money online blog. Wanna be John Chow or Darren Rowse? Chris Garret? or Jeremy Schoemaker is better?
Get a real job.
“Can’t stand mediocrity and I try to run from it as fast as I can.”… Are you a some kind of Harvard graduate summa cum laude? Or a PhD candidate at Yale University? Maybe a rocket scientist at NASA? I guess not, you are just try to feel superior towards other people.
Maybe you hate life? A broken hearted lesbo, I think?
Trying to be controversial for an increase in blog comments and site hits. TOTALLY LAME.
Your idea is the oldest trick in the book. That’s because it works. Those who agree with you might link to you. Those who disagree might link to you, and then try to disassemble your points in the same post. Those who agree might also share what you’ve written with social
media, as everyone likes their world-view affirmed.
I would agree with most of your opinions, but having a free hosted blog is not always a cause for a downfall of a good blog. I have friends who are using blogger.com as a platform for their blog and they get regular visits from their readers. Personally I own several blogspot blogs with different niches and I have my personal blog on selfhosted.
Hello “forbes” and welcome to this lesbo blog.
I thought personal attacks are not something one should do when one is discussing an article. Calling me a broken hearted lesbo doesn’t get into the “let’s discuss nicely something” list of things.
Mediocrity doesn’t mean just not being able to work at NASA. Who said that a genius in there can’t be mediocre? I am not discuss a job per se here, I am discussing how a person can see life and go through it. It’s my slogan and I did have something in mind when I chose it
This is not a money making blog, please read the page source too. Where do you find “make money online” repeated a lot? Where do you find paid reviews? I just lost 30 USD for NOT posting a review for tnx.net because I don’t do this. These are my own ideas and I have the pleasure of presenting them in MY OWN blog, on my domain and host. They are not meant to be offensive, as your words were, they are meant to be an eye opener for those who want to learn something from an idiot straight woman (with 6 years already spent together with a man, can offer you more sex details if you’re interested) who’s got thousands of work hours on the web. I have started creating sites 6 years ago, I work at least 10 hours a day in this, do the math and then tell me I don’t know what I am talking about.
I do have a real job. Two if we were to be more exact: radio DJ and web designers (for 1 year I have my own web design firm and more than 100 sites I made personally: 25 are mine, the others for my clients).
Many of you are mad for me picking on blogspot. I know how it works, I also had a blog there. I know what it offers and what it doesn’t offer. I had free hosted sites 5-6 years ago and I know what I am saying when I tell you that any site that has a future, will go to its own domain name and hosting.
I created a webmaster forum in the winter of 2004 on a free host. For 6 months I worked like crazy to develop it: I had tens of articles created, 500 uniques/day for a free hosted site. And then downtimes, lags and all the jazz since it was a free hosted site.
Moving to the domain/host was necesary since I’d lose all my work with all the problems. It took me 2 years to get close to that traffic record and some months to recover the PR. Not to mention the lost traffic due to redirects, lost pages etc.
I KNOW WHAT I AM SAYING, i moved to a domain and lost traffic and exposure. Redirects can be done, but they don’t make up for the losses since they can’t solve all the issues.
There are many good blogspot blogs, I know that, I do read some of them. But they have this thing that would drag them down from the specialized visitor’s point of view. I am not the “average joe” who’s seeing a site, I am a web designer and developer. I might be interested in advertising, I might be interested in many things that might bring someone some money from my pocket. Still, seeing that blog on a free host, kinda makes me wonder. I am willing to do business with someone who’s not yet interested in creating a business on ones own: a site that makes money should be on a proper domain. The first thing I learnt about business is that “it takes money to make money” and I try to follow this too. Even if it does cost me a bit.
When I get hundreds of USD from advertising on my network of sites I tend to be overjoyed. But I did spend 10 USD/domain and 20/USD for a big reseller plan to keep the herd on my own small bit of server. It gives me FREEDOM to do and say what I want and to also run my small online business.
As I said before, stop being offended by my words, because it’s not my intention. Even this “straight into your face” style is not as mean as you like to think is. I do say the truth and most of you know it. I don’t diss a blogspot hosted blog, I just wished it was on a proper domain so that I can remember that dang thing. When I see a “myniceblog.blogspot.com” I already know there’s too much to remember. What branding can you have on such a site? When I forget the subdomain name, trying to remember on what main domain it is: blogspot, wordpress, god knows what other free blog hosting site … My first 4 sites were on such subdomains and moving them was a pain. Not to mention (as I mentioned above) the traffic and PR losses.
The next 20 were started on their own domains and it was way better: I was able to promote them as they were from day one, and spread my links without the fear one day all will be lost. I know you can redirect them, but redirecting hundreds of links (if not thousands) is not somethign I’d like to do for the next 2 months. Even if we’d be able to perfectly redirect these links, imagine the time needed: I assume the cost of this time is more than 10 USD/domain
I don’t have time to check whether blogs are on blogspot or not. I can afford domains. I have domains I’m not even using. and I can make subdomains as many as I want for free. And no I didn’t really start my blog to make money.
I suppose I could get blog.tixrus.us and make my blogspot blog point to that. And I’m not an artist such as yourself, so a default theme that is simple and doesn’t look too artsy works for me. For me content is the one and only thing, whether it’s johncow.com or http://mylamehosing.ro/~student429/projects/blog
Colleen’s last blog post..RSShugger: a clever way to get publicity
love the tips. i’ll try to remember them in my blog =)
I agree to not hosting to free blog platform. I just moved to Wordpress and started developing the new site. Because if we really want to stand out from the crowd, then we have to own our own domain name.
Webhosting Reality’s last blog post..How To Start A Forum Site Using Lunarpages Webhost
Well I am not into the raging war of blogspot or not. I have blog on blogspot, on paid hosting, as well as free hosting. They all have their pros and cons, so at the end its just a matter of choice.
But I do agree that we should try to quit smoking, not to buy hosting, but for the sake of our health. Check out my site at : http://cigarette-free.com/ to see some of my resources to get you started to quit those hazes.
I have been looking for sites like this for a long time. Thank you!
When you said about don’t place too many ads on your blog, you serious with your word. I look you just place several ads not more. You may add more ads if having nice article like this and you post regularly. I don’t mind as visitor.
Monetize Blog’s last blog post..Blogging And Internet Marketing
Great suggestions and pointers as to what makes a great blog. I have followed these tips as well. Check out my blog, http://www.mooladays.com. I think I have balanced out the ads and how the feel and importance of the content is still there because of you.