When I'll quit browsing your blog within 10 seconds…

(This is a guest author article.)

DISCLAIMER: This is a personal list of "dislikes" on blogs. I am certainly not saying you should dislike the same things that I dislike, but I thought I'd share them anyway. So here are my top dislikes in blogs. If you take any offence from this, then you can send me a cheque for it later — it's not free.

• Top flashing ad banners — I don't mind advertising on personal weblogs, but it should be subtle and shouldn't distract from the content. Top Flashing ad banners somehow gives a very cheap feel to your website.
• Embedded videos in the first two or three posts — I've already said that I don't like too many embedded videos on blogs. If I find more than a couple of posts with videos embedded in them in the home page, I'll close the window.
• Black background, white text/bright pink colours etc. — Even if you have great content, I won't like to read it because it's a strain on the eyes. Bright pink especially sucks.
• Poetry — If I find poetry on your blog, I'll escape… Best of luck with finding yourself a good publisher.
• A lot of SEO articles/your impressive web stats/how much you rule — Heh. Everybody loves reading about how many visitors you get each month and from where. Not me. Thanks anyway. Goodbye.
• I see words like "monetize", "favorite me", "technorati", "digg me", "youtube", "stumble me" etc in many places — Use nouns as nouns, not verbs. You probably fall into the above category.
• Default blogger/wordpress/xyz themes and templates — I have nothing against the default templates provided by blogging software, but the biggest problem is that they're default. Lots of people use them. Thousands, millions, trillions. Quadrillions. Unless your blog has really unique content, I probably am not interested much in it.

Should I explain my dislikes? No, I won't. Either you get it or you don't.

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August 8th, 2007 By hari | Categories: Internet | Tags: blogs, browsing, noads, reading | Respond | Trackback URL

2. Pingback: In The Sphere: A Niche, a Cow, and a Millionaire | BlueFur.com on 2007-08-11 at 1:35 am

   [...] put up a guest post over at Untwisted Vortex listing seven things that are immediate blog turn-offs. These are things that Hari notices within the first 10 seconds of visiting any given blog and if [...]

2. MrCorey on 2007-08-08 at 5:55 pm (Reply)

   I guess that I lost you the other day, then, when I published my modest traffic trend.

   2. hari on 2007-08-08 at 6:20 pm (Reply)

      Don't be silly. You don't do it often and besides you're a friend. That excuses everything.

3. MrCorey on 2007-08-08 at 9:39 pm (Reply)

   I will balance that article with one about accessability, just to be sure, though.

4. maurizio on 2007-08-08 at 9:58 pm (Reply)

   Well, I agree with some points but now with all of them.
   Especially the last two. I use those words sometimes and I don't always see how to change them with other meaningful words.

   I dislike the last one for just one reason : plentyoffish.wordpress.com
   

5. Jo on 2007-08-09 at 12:40 am (Reply)

   I couldn't find my way around digg, youtube, facebook, or stumble if someone did it for me much less alone! LOL.

   Notice I didn't post how many visitors I got last month? lol. It didn't impress me much so I sure as heck wasn't boring anyone else with it.

   I like black backgrounds but only if it ties in with what I'm doing and only with neutral or calm colors. Bright pink makes me want to throw up. lol

6. Comedy Plus on 2007-08-09 at 2:45 am (Reply)

   Wow, I don't think I do too many of these things. I hope not anyway. Great list and some of these things bug me too. Have a great day.

7. Vic Grace on 2007-08-09 at 10:01 am (Reply)

   Yes I agree with all of those plus I generally do not stop to read large amounts of text in odd fonts that have no paragraphs. Also pictures so huge in the heading that it takes all day for the site to load. I dislike pink blogs, I figure the content is probably do gushy and emotional so it puts me off, so I keep clicking. I don't like advertisements in my face either. I came to read what you have to say not to see ads.

8. hari on 2007-08-09 at 10:20 am (Reply)

   Hey, thanks a lot everybody. I wasn't really sure I would draw so many positive responses.

   Maybe you're all afraid to take offence because it costs money (as I mentioned above )

9. Erika on 2007-08-09 at 1:04 pm (Reply)

   I tend to hate embedded videos in the first two or three posts too. One here and there is okay (and at SOME point it has to be at the top) but when they get too many my computer can't handle it and slows wayyy down.

   2. Erika on 2007-08-09 at 1:06 pm (Reply)

      Oh yeah. I hate PPP. but SOME blogs I can excuse it for.

      And Ironically. I posted a "poem"! woo who.

      

10. Chris on 2007-08-09 at 9:01 pm (Reply)

    Nice list. I would have to agree with most of these myself.

    Especially the bright pink. The minute I see bright pink, I immediately don't want to know who the genius is behind it.

11. Lorna on 2007-08-09 at 9:08 pm (Reply)

    "Use nouns as nouns, not verbs."

    Wow, then you'll definitely hate my blog — a few of my posts read "I googled for…" or "You've been digged"

    2. RT Cunningham | Untwisted Vortex | Philippines on 2007-08-09 at 9:21 pm (Reply)

       I use "dugg" myself, but "googling" is actually a new verb meaning to search via the Google search engine.

       I think the worst one, and I'm guilty too, is the "favorite me" line.

12. Thomas on 2007-08-10 at 4:19 am (Reply)

    Really need to get my act together and customize my layout

    Lol at the poetry part

13. hari on 2007-08-10 at 10:57 am (Reply)

    I don't really *object* to usage of certain nouns as verbs, but I draw the line at "favorite me" or "digg me". That sounds… ummm…
    Thomas, your blog looks fairly unique…

14. cooliojones on 2007-08-18 at 8:33 pm (Reply)

    I swear to you yesterday I came upon a blog that still had the 'Just another Wordpress blog' tagline. So, so sad!

    My New Hustle | Make Money Online
    Be the man, stop working for him.

15. Shrinidhi Hande on 2007-08-29 at 3:48 pm (Reply)

    Regarding default templates: Not everyone can afford to get a professional looking custom built theme. 95% new bloggers stick to default templates for several years…

    2. MrCorey on 2007-09-03 at 12:21 am (Reply)

       That's a valid point. However, I've never paid for a website template and mine's completely personalized. I do have a hosted space that I put my site on, but before I looked around for a faster solution to my growing site, I was hosted on a free host. So, I customized my theme. What I did at that time was to go to the Wordpress Theme Viewer (there were a few back then) and pick out what I liked. I then uploaded it to my theme directory and away I went.

       With Blogger, there are about 30 templates to choose from and Wordpress.com accounts have a large choice as well. So, there really isn't any reason to stay with the default theme. Even if you like, say, Kubrik, you can change the header color.

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