10 ways to lose readers.
This is for those of you following the DU Journal: Brainshrub - Best. Journal. Ever! (Tips for political bloggers.)
Performancing.com has a wonderful piece on
10 Ways To Lose RSS Subscribers (Note: the link is
www.performancing.com/node/1934 I don't know why the link is going to "pernacing". The code in the message is correct, I've checked it a dozen times.)
Visit the site for the full details, but to sum up:
- Hardly post and when you do it is to apologize for not posting
- Re-post boingboing or some other popular blog, or copy and paste press releases
- Only ever write when in a bad mood, drunk or have nothing to say
- Constant unrelenting negativity
- Bang on about the same old gripe day after day
- Talk down to your audience like they are idiots
- Be incomprehensible
- Be elitist
- Be needy (Sucking up to A listers)
- Constant irrelevance
Forget your RSS feeds - this is a great way to lose readers
period.
I particularly agree 100% with #1.
For Gods sake, don't apologize for not updating your blog! Just update it.
The fact that you haven't updated your blog or journal for 3 months adds
nothing to the conversation. If anything, it makes readers less inclined to visit again because you've just reminded them that you don't update every day.
Think of it this way:
When an actor forgets his lines during a play and has to ad-lib a bit - she doesn't come on stage during the intermission to apologize. All that would do is bring attention to the gaff.
Banging on the same gripe every day is also tiresome. Even
BradBlog, whose primary issue is BBV, takes time to discuss other topics. If people are visiting your blog, they already know that Bush sucks - so try to find other things to write about.
Peace,
Paul -V-
P.S. (By the way, I'd like to apologize for not updating my DU Journal every day.)
