BlogHer - plagiarism - Comments

avoid the gimmicks!

alittlesandy — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:38:41 -0500

I hate it when I go to a blog PACKED with gimmicks, ads, and begging (please vote for me, please click this, etc.).

I go back for one and only one reason. GOOD CONTENT.

Ok, I think we aren't in

MLOKnitting — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:37:24 -0500

Ok, I think we aren't in total disagreement here. Mashadutoit is pretty much saying what works for both SEO and click-through rates. Too often I have seen the overly techie crowd not indicate that something is a link. Many audiences just don't realize what is and what is not a link.

As you know, there are no "always" rules in this business. :-)

Pax,

MLO / Melissa

Depends

Melanie Nelson — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 08:06:01 -0500

Melissa,

I'm a tech writer too! :)

I can certainly see your POV and I think the decision a blogger makes on how to design links depends on what the blogger is trying to accomplish (and, of course, who the audience is).

If your goal is to have a strong SEO presence, you need to have more descriptive links than just "click here" because the search engines are looking at context of links as well as what they're linking to. In addition, other blogs linking to you need to use descriptive links so those same search engines can discover who is linking to you and in what context.

Melanie
Contributing Editor at BlogHer.com (Web/Tech)
Blogging Basics 101

about click here

mashadutoit — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 02:26:54 -0500

Maybe one can satisfy both MLOKnitting and Melanie by making the link

You can click here for latest samples

Instead of just

You can click here for latest samples

You can click here for latest samples

But inserting "click here" everytime you make a link is going to be very cumbersome.

Disagree on "click here"

MLOKnitting — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 22:33:18 -0500

I'm saying this as a very, very experienced technical writer. It really depends on the audience you are writing to. In usability studies I actually participated in we had a much higher click-through rate using "click here" than any other phrase with a general public. This is something that will change eventually, but, for now, if you're targeting older users or non-techie users, "click here" is more effective than other form of writing. (And, I used to subscribe to your point of view on this.)

MLO / Melissa

Excellent advice

Vered — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 12:27:47 -0500

Reducing clutter on the homepage and moving things to separate pages makes the homepage look better, load faster, and can also help with improving pagerank, especially if the links are do-follow links.

----

Need to hire a blogger? I’m a mommy blogger and a blogger for hire.

Trying to Get It Right

fittothefinish — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 10:43:32 -0500

I really appreciate these tips, especially as a new blogger myself. In trying to be sensitive to the asthetic value of the blog, I am trying to carefully examine what should be in the sidebars, etc.

I hate dark backgrounds and if I hear music I try to never come back! Thanks again for the great information, and I'm looking forward to the next post on this topic.

Diane

lost 150 pounds and talks about it at:

www.fittothefinish.com/blog

Great Tips!

babybeatnik — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:30:39 -0500

Thanks for the advice. I am just starting a new blog (actually giving it a REAL try this time!) and I really need any help I can get. I look forward to reading more!

Erin

A Beatnik's Beat on Life

Posts are too long!

Myg — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:17:48 -0500

That's one of my pet peeves. For whatever reason, when I read a blog post I want it to be short and punchy. I'll read longer posts but they have to be incredibly well written - better written than your average blogger usually writes. That said, I am often guilty of this very thing!

And the autoplay music thing? JUST SAY NO. Otherwise, when I'm at work and I'm sneaking a peak at your blog everyone will know I'm not working! And that would suck.

Amy

http://wisermom.org

What you're doing should be

Melanie Nelson — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:06:51 -0500

What you're doing should be OK depending on what the Creative Commons license covers. The photographers sharing their photos via Flickr can choose specific CC--check their pages to confirm you have permission to use the photos in that way (I'll bet you do).

Melanie
Contributing Editor at BlogHer.com (Web/Tech)
Blogging Basics 101

One of the guilty ones

Ms Batman — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:40:45 -0500

i made eeveral of those mistakes when I first started blogging. I had the uber busy sidebar. Every new gadget I saw I had to get and add to mine. There were days I would post several (read 5 or more) times a day, and then not at all for days. Britt told me that in order to increase my readers, post once a day, and make the post something of substance. I am still working on that mistake.

I look forward to next week, with more mistakes to avoid. I want to be a better blogger, and write more than just fluff n stuff. Thanks

Becky

You saved me ;-)

Ria605 — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:23:37 -0500

Thanks for the post. I was one of the evil music villians... I did get carried away in all the cool gadgets you can have on your page. However, even i realized it could be a bit annoying so i've taken the music off of my blog.

Thanks for the helpful advice.

Ria~

Photos

Shraddha — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:20:41 -0500

I am a new blogger.

I add photos by others to my blog which have creative common license.

I have added note on my sidebar

"All the photos used in this blog are under Creative Commons license (CCL).The credit to the phtographers reponsible for the original creation is given as caption under the photo"

Is that enough?

Or I should be doing more?

Thanks,

Shraddha

http://theselfloveproject.wordpress.com/

I would add

mashadutoit — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:33:41 -0500

I would add -

Writing too many posts all at once and then running out of steam

Writing about completely different subjects in a single post - makes it difficult for readers to find things again later.

Demanding that people leave comments "dont any of you read me anymore"

Not putting titles in posts. Everything is "untitled" or "no title" looks really messy

Not writing concisely - looooooooooooooooooong posts

Oh and my favourite - not using paragraphs to break up text. Its all one big unreadable block.

And on the topic of garish sidebars - I'm finding the animated Oxygen add on blogher extremely distracting and annoying ;p

Yep, the music is a big one

Melanie Nelson — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 13:44:25 -0500

Auto-loading music is probably the number one mistake new bloggers make and it's the one that hurts them the most. Many time bloggers think if they offer the ability to turn off the music it's OK. Unfortunately, the reader has left before she bothered to search for the widget with the mute button. It's best to save everyone the trouble and just not include the music. If you want to share that part of your life make a list of your favorite songs or those you're listening to and put it in your sidebar.

Melanie
Contributing Editor at BlogHer.com (Web/Tech)
Blogging Basics 101