Should You Put Your Blog on a Diet?

Blog obesity is a growing epidemic. With all the plugins, widgets and modules available, blog owners often allow their blogs to become bloated. It’s not just the aesthetics of your blog that need to be streamlined, some practices of content production can also add to the problem. Isn’t it about time you put your blog on a diet?

NAVIGATION

It is easy to stick every great new plugin and widget on your website. We all want to have the latest ajax tool and a badge for our online activities, but it shouldn’t interfere with the usability of your site. Focus on making it easy for your users to navigate your website’s content and archives, your website shouldn’t be a maze.

We know that everyone belongs to communities that they may want to showcase, and there’s nothing wrong with doing so; just make sure that your readers do not have to hire a private detective to find your most popular stories.

The most important rule of usability is to make it as simple as possible for your users to find what they are searching for. Do not sacrifice this for the latest badge or widget.

Why not get some feedback with a simple poll on your site?

SUPERLATIVES

Using great superlatives is an excellent way of writing the ultimate headlines and content. Do you use superlatives to describe every single article you write? Even the best writers can’t knock out a classic every time.

In moderation, superlatives will draw your reader’s attention and highlight your best posts. If everything you write says it is “fantastic”, the effect will be lost. Use this technique where it will give you the most effective return.

ADVERTS AND AFFILIATES

You may love ads, but your readers don’t. Take a step back from your site, try to see it through your readers’ eyes. Do the ads get in the way? Do they blend in so well with your navigation that you click on them by mistake? No one is saying you can’t have ads, especially if your business model revolves around them, but if the focus of your blog is to build an asset then less can be more.

Choose the right ads and do not try to deceive your users into clicking on them. You will loose their trust and probably never gain it back. Every link doesn’t have to be an affiliate one.

This is probably where most sites can trim off a few pounds.

JUNK POSTS

There are many types of junk posts and fillers, i.e. top 10 list of your favorite social networks for the umpteenth time. We are all busy and have to resort to them from time to time. They serve to let your readers know that you’re alive. But when your blog is more filler than content, you should think about what value you are adding to the web. If the answer to that is none, why are you blogging?

Regular updates maybe be good for for Google, but if the content isn’t interesting to your readers, then you’re wasting your time and theirs. There are many tips on coming up with article ideas on the web. One of the best ways is to mindmap, Problogger have a good mindmapping guide here. Put in the effort and you should be rewarded. Regular junk posts show that you are either unable to write anything good or are just lazy.

BLOG FILTER

There is no denying that publishing your blog posts more frequently will reward you with more traffic. On the other hand, post too much and risk alienating your loyal readers. These readers are the most valuable to you. They leave comments, interact with your website and spread your content around the web.

Too much posting will make it difficult for readers digest all your output. Instead of serving out 20 posts a day, you may find a lesser number with more quality may give you a higher return of investment. Get rid of the noise and focus on content.

LENGTH OF POST

We have been guilty of occasionally writing with word counts closer to a thesis than a blog. Due to time constraints we’ve been writing shorter posts recently. We’ve found since our shift to shorter posts our feed numbers are growing faster and we’re getting roughly the same amount of links back. You don’t always have to say everything at once.

Bulshoy, a content manager over at ShoutWire.com, suggested in our comments that the minimum threshold for a quality post should be at least 500 words. Obviously, every niche is different, but if you are blogging at high wordcounts or very low ones, you may want to experiment with different lengths to weigh up your optimum return.

COMMENT PACKING

It is good practice to respond to your readers, however is every other comment yours? You might need to tone this down if that is the case. Certainly, if all you have to say is “thanks for commenting”, you can wait until you have received a few comments and respond to everyone with one reply. We’ve already read your post, now let us read what others have to say about it.

These are just a few ideas for reducing some of the saturated fats of the blogging world. Can you think of anything other bad practices, or good practices that can turn bad?