It’s time to ‘get something off your chest’ about blogging.
I listen to a sports radio station here in Melbourne and every Wednesday morning while I’m dropping my son off to his Grandma’s house for the day a segment comes on called ‘get something off your chest’. In the segment listeners are asked to call in to share something that they’re frustrated about, something that they dislike etc. They get about 30 seconds each to say their piece.
It’s a great segment for a number of reasons.
- Firstly it’s fun to listen to people rant.
- Secondly it causes some interesting debate.
- Thirdly it leads to solutions to problems (quite often questions are asked, confusion is clarified or problems are solved).
Every time I hear this segment I wonder how it would go to do it here at ProBlogger on the topic of Blogging.
So lets give it a go.
Here are the ‘rules’:
- Tell us something that you’ve been wanting to get off your chest about blogging.
- It could be a frustration, a problem you have, a concern you’ve been keeping to yourself – really anything that you want – just try to keep it to the theme of blogging.
- Attempt to keep it to 150 words of so maximum (I’m not going to police this – but it’d help us all to digest everyone’s comments if they were shorter than longer).
- No personal attacks please – while I don’t mind if you critique things or even others – try to keep things civil and don’t get too personal in bringing others down.
Hopefully this won’t be too negative (crossing my fingers) but can actually be a constructive experience and lead to us learning something about the medium of blogging.
PS: in a sense this is similar to my previous What’s Wrong with Blogging? posts from last year and the year before which led to some interesting discussions.
I just wanted to get off my chest that I don’t have anything to get off my chest! :)
I hate the blog treadmill. I hate that old content only stays popular if it ranks well in search engines.
I hate how you’re only as good as your last post.
There is nothing I hate about blogs or blogging, except when people take themselves too seriously, but that’s also about life in general, which is why I get such a laugh from this whole idea of blog celebrity and revel in my cartoons. To me, some A-Listers are just people who worked hard at something and reached a point of success, same as in any other damn field. Anyone who is a true master is always humble! One thing — I don’t like to read blogs that are hard to read, ie, bad choice of font, even if the content is choice.
As a new blogger my biggest frustration is lack of knowledge involving technical issues.
I am trying to learn as quick as possible but I still don’t know half of what you all are talking about.
It’s kind of ironic that I have all the time in the world but very limited skills and some of you have all the skills in the world but very little time.
I hate the fact that you have to do soooo much to get noticed.
Sometimes, I hate how it seems like there is nothing new under the sun, especially in the blogosphere. Everyone talking about the same topics and linking ’round to the same blogs – but there is nothing original – there is no innovation.
At least some people – mostly bloggers if you look at my blog (this is probably painfully obvious, but it’s linked in my name) and at http://www.newschallenge.org are actively trying to come up with new and different projects, whether they are blogs in the traditional sense or not. Of course, I’ve found many interesting, creative blogs in the Problogger community as well.
And like everyone else, spammers piss me off – but that’s hardly original.
I can’t help but share my friend’s frustrations dealing with clients who does not keep their word.
Clients who
1. Asks you for a discounted rate assuring a second project after the first one is finished, but NEVER did.
2. Tells you that a big project is coming up and asks you to prepare a contract, prepare a design but never hired you.
3. Make you work and work for several hours and suddenly stiffs you and never replies to your emails.
4. Says your rate is too high and offers you a sponsor link on their site as payment.
5. Makes you design a prototype and later cancels the deal but the site is now designed very similar to your concept.
I understand how he must have felt encountering this kind of problems from difficult and untrustworthy people and I too have experienced some of these problems from my previous clients who have given me a hard time.
Lesson? Always ask for a downpayment before doing anything and never give a discounted rate on the first project.
As posted on my previous post
http://alfredo.palconit.com/archives/designer-rants.html
I have SO MANY THINGS to be kicked off my chest..
1. I am an engineering student and the only one in my institute who actually runs a blog. And still no teacher is ready to give me relaxation in my attendance as many even do not understand the positive points of blogging!
2. I have been blogging for more than 9 months and still I have only 90 RSS subscribers (with 60 unconfirmed email subscribers ) even though other competitors have hundreds just because most of them use black hat techniques. Heck with them..
3. Akismet has started to block my URL (EVEN THOUGH I AM NOT A BOT) and so I AM NOT ABLE TO COMMENT on other blogs :(
4. Finally whatever the heck happens. I wont stop blogging and will continue to update my blog and enrich it with many tips tricks without thinking too much about my subscriber count and my daily readers…
www[dot]nofullstop[dot]com please pay a visit to my blog and I assure you that you wont end up saying it is a spam blog..
I really grow tired of the porn on the net. Enough already. I know what the female anatomy looks like and how interestingly it can be shared/used. Enough of the emails telling me how you like me and how you want to chat with me. Enough of the emails telling me I have a small and how you have the pills/creams/etc. to make it larger. If I want it larger I WILL find YOU, I assure you. :)
One thing I have to get off of my chest about blogging. What in the heck am I doing with my blog? I am not sure if it is about myself or a variety of other subjects that I write about. When looking at other blogs I think that my some type of plan might help me out, still not sure. I need direction for my blog!!
I get frustrated at the difficulty of being original. I just can’t. I see so many designs, applications and articles that do or talk about something new but finding that yourself never seems to happen. I’m always a step behind.
What I want to get off my chest…
Most of the comments on my content are positive, yet I only get about 25 visitors a day.
Having to bend over backwards for Google to get those 25 visitors, and I still have no Page Rank.
I can’t use the money I have in PayPal for advertising because I haven’t set up a bank account for my online income. It’s my own fault, I know. It still bugs me though.
Wow, I do feel better. Thanks.
I think the internet is largely a useful resource. However, blogs are not. What bothers me is that there is very little useful information in blogs, in general. For instance, a blog about ‘how to make money from blogging’ is always going to attract traffic from the 74.995 million of us who don’t make money from blogging. I really want to see cool ideas but I find so much crap out there. But really, should I be so critical? Look at life in general… especially television. So much of it is recycled plot lines, unoriginal, stick figure characters and so on. I think the idea of blogging is wonderful as it has the potential to reinvent publishing as we know it. However, at present it’s an over bloated content monster filled with meaningless nonsense. There are very few exceptions to this in my opinion.
I’m sick of constantly leaving comments on people’s blogs, relevant and on topic to have them not appear (either editorially deleted or picked up by akismet etc for no apparent reason)
I am also sick of people that steal content off your pages and then don’t take it down after you ask them to politley.
I also am frustrated that there is no sort of mentor system with blogging. There are many people out there with interesting things to say but are not tech savvy or do not know many people in the blogging community that really struggle just to get noticed, or know if what they are doing is right. I wish that some of the pros would get together and take some individuals under their wings, give them some directed advice, on the understanding that when they are up and running they return the favour to more novice bloggers… this would really be a community thing that is not currently present.
Finally I am annoyed that the vast majority of comments I get on my posts is spam, I really would like people to write things and interact, and have tried to encourage this to no avail – I spend hours writing and preparing posts just to have them ignored, maybe it is my content or maybe it is the visitors. I wanted to start blogging to meet people and stimulate debate, currently it seems like a one way street.
Anyway –
I get annoyed with many different things, I noted these in the post I put up 15 min ago. One of those things is how things like akismet sometimes call me a spambot and don’t display my posts, Unfortunately it must have taken exception to this and blocked my post from appearing…. which just proves my point – I understand its utility and rationale but at the same time wish it had some way of recognising that I am not the spammer it suggests (I make about 10 comments on blogs a day)
I hope that my post re-appears, else I will be back writing my other concerns about blogging as I would like to see what problogger’s’ readership thinks about them
I hate all the ‘make money blogs’ popping up, we already have problogger, johnchow and yaro wtf else u need? Not only are those guys the top blogs in that category, but their category is actually more how to be a professional blogger, not make money fast online….
What bothers me is that blogging doesn’t make enough money all the time. I have to get at least 4000 visitors to my blog to make 30 bucks. For this I have to write and post my articles to several websites all day. I wish it was more profitable.
I guess it’s not directly about blogging, but…
I hate how Firefox has all these wonderful add-ons. Yes, I hate it. Because now I’m tied to Firefox even though there are memory holes everywhere, and it crashes about 3-4 times a week.
But I love StumbleUpon (and I need it to stay on top of what’s hot). I need SEOQuake. I *need* AdBlock. I need the extension that puts my CJ balance right in my statusbar. I need the bugmenot addon.
So it’s weird, because it’s not the browser itself that makes me want to use it, it’s the third party software I can get for it.
I wish I could go back to Safari. It’s so much faster.
Joe
I hate it when other web sites use my whole posts using feeds >:(
I’m frustrated that some posts that I put a lot of work into get zero comments and only a few views. Then, others I knock out in only a few minutes get a huge response. Where I get the most response does help me determine what my readers want, but it’s not always what I’d expect.
One thing this does do, though, is teach me where to put my time. My blog used to be a hodge podge of unrelated topics. Now I’m turning to mostly humor pieces, where I get the most feedback.
I hate spam comments.
It doesn’t really go so far as to annoy me, but it does niggle me: those “warnings” one sees next to the comment box on many blogs, that reads something like,
Necessary? I don’t think so. Let’s give our readers the respect they deserve, and credit them with some intelligence.
I feel better already :)
What also bother me are those people who hate bloggers that wanna live of their blogging. I mean why be a hater? We all wanna do what we love best and yes most of us wanna work from home and be independant. And I’m not a communist, if I can get rich fast I will do so without being ashamed of it.
“What also bother me are those people who hate bloggers that wanna live of their blogging. I mean why be a hater? We all wanna do what we love best and yes most of us wanna work from home and be independent. And I’m not a communist, if I can get rich fast I will do so without being ashamed of it.”
I was one of the hater, then I realized how fun it can be to blog.
@Thilo “You can install anti-spam plugins”
@Leon G “People do have the right to express”
@off my chest You told you are not a spammer and you are asking every one to visit your site. I wonder why Akismet blocked you.. Ha ha ha
I hate the fact that there are so many pessimists out there.
I also hate the fact that there are so many rules that everyone feels they have to follow. I know, you have to follow them if you want to be found, but this is Google’s fault. Maybe if we all went with the flow, Google would adjust (insert dream cloud of newbie blogger here). If you don’t want to sign up for the social networking sites, then don’t. If you want to have your blog be about whatever, then do it. Everyone seems so conformist that it gets to be sickening.
The only thing that I can think of is trying to get more traffic to my blog. I’ve been running it for about 2 months now and still am getting about 40 hits per day.
I’ve tried many different tactics, such as submitting to blog directories, social networking, commenting on other blogs and even joined news groups.
I have all the content that I need, just need more visitors to see it.
Thanks,
Richard
I’m so tired of people trying to make money off their blogs. Why not create something just for the sake of art? What does Darren say? Focus on making something quality and of value before trying to profit from it. That’s the advice more people need to follow.
Also I can’t stand all these bot-run blogs stealing content from me.
I get annoyed when people ask the same old questions (we all know what they are), without bothering to do any research. They could come to ProBlogger or any of the other great sites for bloggers and get 99% of their questions answered, but they’re just too lazy.
Grrr.
Yo Erik “I’m so tired of people trying to make money off their blogs. Why not create something just for the sake of art?”
First of all “Art” hardly pays any bills. With everything I do on the internet, including blogging, I make a very good living. A better one then I ever had working for a boss.
“What does Darren say?” What does the man who makes a lot of money on his blog say? Pun intended.
Here are something i want to say:
1. I will update my blog more frequently with quality blogs.
2. I will add more widgets to my blog for more user activities.
3. I will spend more time for my blog.
Cheers
I am frustrated trying to find my blog’s niche audience. Our blog is about meditation and spiritual life, and should prove useful to those with spiritual interests. But where do such people hang out on the web? (If they do at all!) They say fish where the fish are. But no one is nibbling. :(
My number one, biggest issue with blogging…people not leaving comments!! I can tell, from the numbers on my counter, that people are stopping by (unless the number is from me checking on or adding to, my blog). Another little “issue” I have…yes…I started out my blog on a humorous note but…not everything in my every day life is funny. While I do try to find the silly side of things…it doesn’t always work so…for those who have complained about “the dark side” of my life, it’s who I am!!! Sure, I have a witty comment about most things but, if my cat died and my step-son is border-line psycho…do I always have to be humorous about it?
So, those are a couple of my problems with blogging. Otherwise…it’s great, love it, love reading other blogs etc…
melissa
The lack of great ideas for catchy headlines and low CTR on ads are not very fun. The time required to properly market a blog via the dozens of social networks and other communities while keeping up with breaking news, trends and maintaining quality posts while working a day job and trying to have a life offline is very stressful.
I Hate
1. it when bloggers complain that nobody reads their blogs.
2. bloggers obsessed with Google ad sense( ad sense sucks)
3. bloggers that ramble on about them selves
4. blogs that don’t get to the point
5. blogs with content you can’t read because blogger used dark text over a dark background
6. I hate blogs that use those annoying ads that pop up when you mouse over a link
7. I hate when I go to a blog and there is no about section that talks about the blog or the author of the content.
The moral tone that invades some of the posts and comments about blogging is starting to rub me the wrong way. People are passionate about blogging and have strong opinions about the “best” way to do things, and that’s great. But it becomes needlessly nasty and personal when people then take it to the next level and start to think they know the “best” way to FEEL about things. One person likes to blog for fun, one person likes to blog for rent … they don’t need to square off in a Sharks v. Jets rumble over whose goals are more legitimate.
Your absolutely right Margie. What I notice though is that the idea seems to be that if you blog for money you don’t produce quality content. Which I dont agree with. Besides I dont like the atmosphere here much. Perhaps I’ll just stick to reading Darren ‘s posts and Ill stay out of contributing comments.
Things that suck about blogs:
– Blogger blogs that only allow you to comment if you have an account, meaning that anyone hosting their own blog can´t use it in comments.
– Blogs that require you to type in a barely visible jumble of letters and numbers on a wiggly background . . . a simple math question or easy to read word is just fine.
– Not getting any comments, even with nearly 200 visitors daily.
I don’t like when people copy my posts and do not give credit. And some of them go as far as trying to find other sources, so that I won’t get credit from their blog. I don’t know what is their problem!
I don’t like when WP keep releasing new versions and you have to update, it’s too hassle to upgrade when you have a custom design.
… But I like my PR7 ;)
I hate that i have 100 good ideas and only 24 hours a day.
I hate that other people get money for nothing and good investors are hard to find.
I love the internet and the fact that it brings people together no matter where and who they are.
I hate feeling tied or obligated to my blog.
If don’t have time to post, I feel bad. I feel as though I’m neglecting something and letting someone or something down.
I’m annoyed at the lack of related blog content on health professionals like me who blog about their workplaces and professions.
People need to comment more. Nothing worse than having plenty of hits on a post and nothing much more to say about it because people don’t comment.
It annoys me how computer unsavvy people are, particularly the people I work with. So many people out there don’t know or understand blogging.
I despise how blogging gives me an excuse to feed my chronic insomnia!
Curious about the “About Pages” complaints from people. I NEVER read About Pages. I see no point to it. If the site is so vague that I need to read an about page to figure out what it is actually about, what’s the point? Thus, I have no About Page on my blog (which is related to news and reviews of graphic novels).
Am I making a mistake by not having an About page? Is that an immediate turn off for people? Seems a lot of people are ranting / complaining about poorly written or lack of About pages.
I do have a meta-blog, which is linked to my name; but I’ve been blogging nearly four years at my personal blog (Watermark: http://www.sbpoet.com) and I do have some peeves to unchest:
– “blogging” has come to mean political or pro or tech business blogging — completely ignoring the majority of blogs out there
– suddenly we have lots of ‘rules’ — which may or may not make sense for problogs, but are assumed (wrongly, I believe) to be applicable to all blogs
– personal blogs — which often have the best, most edgy, most risk-taking writing — are ‘dismissed’ as meaningless and unimportant
– the blog world is drowning in ads and make- money- blogging schemes, propagated by folks who don’t ask themselves: what am I good at? or: what can I offer? but only: can I make money at this?
– thus, it becomes more difficult to find those blogs that truly have something of value to offer.
Are you ready for this?
Dang it. I wish it didn’t take me so long to learn everything I know about blogging!
If I had known these things a few years ago when I started I would be a mack daddy blogger by now! It seems like the obvious is the best when blogging. Instead I took too much advice and tried too many failed experiments.
In August I started my first good blog. The rest before sucked. Why? Because they felt like so much work.
I actually enjoy my blog now and would continue posting 1 to 3+ times on a daily basis even if I made $100 per month.
I didn’t realize the great thing about blogging until recently. Bloggers have a way to voice anything they want. Your one opinion can impact millions of people. When you’re not a blogger, you’re just another person with a small opinion or worthless advice.
Even writing SEO-focused posts don’t feel like work to me today. It’s because I actually enjoy the content.
Another thing, I enjoy being an entertainer, being a social blogger, getting to know other people and what they think, and more. Blogging has become one of the most fun things I do with my time.
It’s an honor to have a blog and say whatever I want to say.
I just wish I had thought like this from the start, instead of thinking $ $ $.
I’ve had dieting blogs, even credit card blogs. Man, I don’t get a rat’s behind about that stuff. But I wanted to make money online so bad that I started a blog on them anyway.
I’ve had a make money blog, a sports blog, a blog about blogging, a writing blog, a product review blog, a humor blog…
All a waste of time.
Now I only blog at one blog that I love, my guitar blog. I’ve met other guitarists in the blogosphere and we chat about everything going on, what we think, we share our recordings… It’s just awesome.
I’d like to make a lot of money with my blog now only so that I can spend more time blogging.
It’s a straight up blessing.
My whole way I view blogging has changed. If it were only this way the day I started (and only if I already understood HTML, some PHP, monetizing, SEO, social media, etc)…
I guess the last few years was like going to blogging college.
I’m glad I’m on the right track now, but all of the failed attempts were annoying and unsatisfying.
Wow, I find myself nodding my head with a lot of these.
I wish commenters would actually READ what they are commenting on and stay on comment. Many times I’ve had commenters accuse me of saying things that I never said. When asked to provide me with an example it becomes apparent quite quickly that they misunderstood or misread but by then bad feelings abound on both sides. I really dislike it when the topic has degrades into talking about who-said-what-and-when.
This medium has a limitations. You can’t read “tone.” Assume the best!
I’m sick of…
1. Spammers. Comment spam, spam blogs that copy my content, email spam…
2. Bloggers who have a casual attitude toward spammers. Get some anti-spam software! And don’t assume spam isn’t a problem just because they haven’t found you yet.
3. People with an attitude about commercialism. I have advertising, and I deserve to make a few cents for what I write. Get over it.
4. Bloggers who don’t understand the concept–people who write deeply personal things on their blog and then get bothered when their boss/wife/etc discovers it, people who enable comments and then complain when they get comments from strangers, and so on.
5. Endless discussions of “the rules” or “what is a blog?” or “blogging etiquette”. Everything’s a blog, and nobody cares about the rules. Let’s forget about the novelty of blogging, each set rules we can live with ourselves, and focus on the content.
6. CAPTCHA images for comments. Don’t make me type “2kcx098v98fQ” to comment. It’s annoying to your readers and it’s easily defeated by spammers.
There’s more on my chest but I should keep it short…
– comment spam
– blogs that require me to register for their site before I can comment ( I leave without commenting)
– commenters that can’t respect the request to make it brief (150 words max)
– comment spam
(I REALLY hate comment spam!)
(all this in less than 50 words – more than enough)
I sometimes find it difficult to turn off my inner critic as I am creating my blog. I try to publish three to six posts a day, so there’s not a whole lot of time for editing. I just write what comes out.
I write a theatre blog because I love theatre. Sometimes I think the voice in which I write comes across as a little “Pollyanna,” like, “isn’t everything just peachy…”
There are a lot of bloggers out there who see themselves more as critics of the world at large. I sometimes am imagining the vultures descending on me before I’ve even clicked “publish.”
Honestly, Darren, you have been an inspiration as someone who has maintained his own, very positive voice throughout three years of blogging about blogging. I appreciate that.
(See, I can’t even complain in a post that encourages complaining…)