I see this so often on Pinterest: “Things You Should Never Have On Your Blog” or “Biggest Blogging Turn Offs” or even “Why I’m Not Reading Your Blog”. And I click out of curiosity and end up rolling my eyes and getting a little annoyed. So many of the items they list are completely subjective and they don’t really have a viable reason for not having. But there are some that beat the rest in the that’s-totally-subjective contest.
Read More Tags
If you haven’t already seen, I use read more tags. The read more tag is when you add it after a certain section of a post, so it must be clicked to continuing reading a load the actual post page. I saw one blogger didn’t like this because she didn’t want to have to load a new page. While that’s fine and dandy, I’m keeping my read more tags. They keep my home pages cleaner and easier to navigate and make it easier to track my stats for what posts get the most traction. If my whole post was on the home page, I can’t exactly track my stats for that post. So, it’s beneficial for me to have the read more tag and I’m keeping it.
Popups
One of my biggest pet peeves in blogging is pop-ups, and for some reason, a blogging don’t is not having one? Popups are usually the “subscribe to my newsletter!” boxes, and I will immediately close the tab and find something else to read when it shows up. I can’t see the content or read what you’re writing when a box pops up covering. No, I don’t want to subscribe until I know if I like your work or not. Personally, I think it is best to have the banners at the top, having a side popup that is out of the way, or integrate subbing into your posts. Even putting a box in your sidebar I can click on is preferable over a pop up for me. Of course, if you think it works for you do it, just I am not a fan at all.
Profanity
So I totally get why people say not to curse in your writing, and it has the potential of offending readers. However, I am not a person to shy away from it myself and believe that it can be a powerful tool to get your point across. I have used some profane words to get my point across in pst writing. It’s certainly a preference and has its time and place, so I am not including it in the majority of my writing. Again, it’s subjective to what you want and what your readers want.
Pin It Graphics
I am mainly including this because when I saw the reason the blogger hated when we don’t have a pin it button, I was confused and annoyed. Her reasoning was that it took too much work to manually pin it. I don’t know what she meant by manually pinning it, especially when sharing buttons at the bottom are available and a Pin It button can be added to your browser, so I didn’t exactly get why she required that we add a plugin with a graphic over the images, when there are simpler options available. I know it’s best to make your site accessible for the laziest human on earth, but come on.
What I want to be taken away from this is you can do what you want to your blog, it is your corner of the Internet after all.
What are your blogging pet peeves? Let me know with a comment!
I do swear every now and then in my posts. Personally, I don’t ever see myself never swearing in my writing, but that also doesn’t mean I will swear in every single post.