This guest post is by the Blog Tyrant.
“Wow that’s an interesting looking title you’ve got there, I think I’ll check out that blog.”
That’s what I think. But three seconds later I’m gone, never to return again.
Despite racking your brains for amazing titles, composing literary marvels to dazzle your readers, and spending hours on your blog’s design, you still lost me. In this post I’m going to show you three serious problems that’ll make me leave your blog in three seconds (or less). Be very careful to fix these if they’re present on your site.
I need to open this post by reiterating a simple truth. It is a truth that applies to all businesses, not just blogs. And that truth is:
One loyal reader is worth thousands of one-time visitors
It’s true that one loyal reader (or customer) is worth more than thousands of one-time visitors. One loyal reader will do more for your blog than thousands of one-offs will.
Think about it for a second. Who is it that leaves comments, links to you on their own blogs, talks about you to their friends, Diggs and Stumbles your latest posts, and, eventually, buys whatever products you sell from your blog?
It’s the loyal guys. It isn’t the thousands of mindless drones who just sit there clicking Stumble, Stumble, Stumble, all day long and not interacting with the pages they land on. It’s your loyal readers. Sure, there are some exceptions like affiliate and product websites where you’re just sending super-targeted traffic to the landing page. But we’re talking about blogs, and on blogs, it’s the community that matters.
The three mistakes I’ll explain here will kill your chances of gaining loyal readers. Even if you answer readers’ questions and create content that will help enrich their lives, you are going to lose them if these silly little mistakes appear on your blog. If they do, fix them as soon as possible.
Three problems that make me leave your blog in three seconds
Let’s get into the bulk of the post and sort out these injuries that are crippling your blog. And as always, if you have others that I’ve missed, please leave a comment—your advice might help someone take their blog to the next level.
Problem 1: Lack of comments
One of the first things I do on a blog is check out how many comments there are. A lack of comments instantly turns me off, because I consider comments to be a good metric for determining how useful the articles are. If my initial scan turns up lots of “0 comments” notices, I almost always just close the window.
In my first ProBlogger guest post, on how to make your blog addictive, I talked about social proof and the fact that people need to see that other people are involved on a blog before they themselves get involved. Human beings really don’t like being first—it’s too scary.
How can you fix it?
How can you get more comments on your posts? I talked a little bit about that in my article on blog commenting, but here are a few extra ideas.
- Change the default “0 comments” text.
The first thing you should do is change that horrid default text that says “0 comments” to something more interesting and engaging. On Blog Tyrant posts where there are zero comments, the note reads, “Leave a comment, handsome.” That’s much more personal than “0 comments.” To change this text on your blog, just go to your Main Index Template file in your template editor, find the section called php comments_popup_link, and change the relevant areas. I also change the other text in that section, so instead of saying 5 Comments it says 5 Intelligent Opinions. - Ask for comments.
The next thing you need to do is specifically ask for comments. Design your articles in such a way that they really encourage people to leave comments and share their thoughts. This has a lot to do with not answering all their questions in the post itself, but can also mean putting a question in the title or the first paragraph of your post. There is a danger here, however, as if you constantly ask for comments, and no one leaves any, you’ll start to look even more lonely. - Create a “buddy” group.
This is something I used to do years and years ago, and it worked quite well. Find a group of blogs in your niche that don’t get many comments, and send them an email explaining that you’ll leave comments on their posts if they’ll do the same for you. It works really well.
If you’ve been blogging for a long time now, and you still aren’t getting many comments, it might be time to ask some hard questions. In my post on why blogging is a waste of time, I touched on the issue that many bloggers are afraid to ask: are you sure blogging is the best career path for you? Most of the time, however, you can fix a lack of comments with a few little changes here and there. But make sure you do, because “0 comments” looks horrid.
Problem 2: A butchered theme
The second thing that makes me leave your blog super-fast is when your template or theme is ugly, hard to navigate, and has been tweaked so much that it no longer works correctly. If I had a dollar for every time I visited a blog that had been tweaked to the point of looking terrible, I’d be as rich as Bill Gates. The reason I find this so offensive is because it shows that you don’t really care about your users’ experience.
One of the ways you can make it in the blogosphere is by appearing bigger than you are until you actually get there. And part of that is having a slick theme that functions perfectly for your readers. A lot of experts say that the content is the only thing that matters, but I personally think that’s garbage. I’m sure there are hundreds of excellent articles out there that I haven’t read because the site was too hard to get around, or too ugly to take seriously.
How can I fix it?
Because this issue of an ugly theme covers so many different areas of your blog, I want to offer a few broad suggestions that might help you.
- Get a custom theme designed.
The first thing that I’ll tell anyone who is going to take their blog to the next level is to get a custom theme designed for it. This is an amazing way to brand your blog and make it unique. However, I’m aware that it’s quite expensive and probably not an option for most beginner bloggers. If you fall into that category, move on to the next point. - At least get a logo designed.
Big corporate logos that need to represent a brand can cost tens of thousands of dollars. We aren’t there yet. Go to Google and type in “cheap logos” and spend $30 to $100 getting a pretty simple logo made for your blog. It won’t change your world, but it will help your readers take you a bit more seriously. - Choose a simple, clean, and mostly white theme.
The next option is to choose a theme that’s very simple, clean, and mostly white. Forget about black backgrounds and swirling colors everywhere, white is what people are used to reading on, and anything else is upsetting to the eyes. Your theme should be content-focused and really simple; don’t distract your readers with too much other than elements that are going to get them to subscribe or read more content. - Don’t edit it yourself unless you make it perfect.
WordPress is fantastic because it lets you add plugins and edit the theme to add social media icons and other things to your blog. The problem is that people edit the template themselves and end up making it look like a pre-school painting. Unless you know how to make the spacing and graphics work well together, please don’t edit it. Go to Rent a Coder and hire someone with knowledge to do it for a few dollars.
Take the time to present your content in a beautiful and easily navigable way. Don’t clutter the eye, and definitely make sure any additions that you make to the design enhance your blog branding. It is very important that you appear as professional as possible.
Problem 3: No original ideas
The last problem is probably the most serious, and unfortunately it’s the hardest one to solve. When a blog has nothing new to offer, readers can smell it a mile off. In fact, by a quick glance of the front page you can usually tell whether or not you are going to find something new on a blog. And if there’s nothing new to read, the window gets closed pretty fast.
Let’s be clear about something here. You don’t need to have some amazing new idea like Stuff White People Like. That whole concept is totally original and something that I’ve never seen before.
What you need to do is present your work in a different way from your competitors; you need to differentiate yourself from them. Go and have a look at your blog and ask yourself why a visitor would read your content over another blogger’s. Unless you can think of some solid reasons as to why your offering’s different, you aren’t going to retain me.
How do I fix it?
Fixing this problem can be hard if you didn’t start your blog with some original elements. That being said, there are some things you can to do differentiate yourself as you go along.
- Find an angle.
Everything you write about should have an angle. Even if you’re writing about a topic that has been done to death, you can still usually find a semi-unique angle to present it from. That angle needs to percolate through your blog and change the way you write titles, opening paragraphs, draw conclusions, and so on. - Brand yourself differently.
Closely related to the angle idea is the idea of branding yourself differently. People usually think that branding is just having a different logo, but it’s so much more than that. It is how your blog is perceived by others and where it is positioned in the market. Take Subway as an example. This brand is positioned as the only healthy option in the fast food industry, and as a result it’s killing this market space. The branding is all centered around why Subway is a healthy choice and will help you lose weight. Make sure you brand your blog in a way that promotes your angle and helps readers to perceive you as different and valuable. - Find out what others aren’t doing.
One way I find ideas for blog posts is to go to the major websites in my niche, look at their most popular posts, and see what they did—but also what they didn’t do. If you can identify something that’s missing, and tap into that, you’ll usually get people interested. This is even more likely if you realize that what the blogger has written about is incomplete or incorrect, and you can challenge them on it. I think one reason my blog post on selling a blog went to the front page of Delicious.com and got picked up by newspapers is because it didn’t hold anything back—a lot of the other articles out there seemed to not quite show you the whole process. That is now a theme on my blog: share everything.
There really aren’t any original ideas out there. People have been thinking for a very long time now, and chances are that if we think of something, someone else has already thought it. The task, then, is to present your ideas in an original way or make it seem like you are different from the next blog. Unless you can do that, people will have no reason to stay on your blog, or come back once they’ve left.
What do you think?
What makes you leave a blog super-fast? Is it the design? Is it the grammar mistakes? Or is it that you just feel like you’ve seen it all before?
The Blog Tyrant has sold several blogs for large sums of money and earns a living by relying solely on the Internet. His blog is all about helping you dominate your blog and your blog’s niche, and only includes strategies that he has tried on his own websites. Follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his feed for all the juice.
Ha ha. I know. *squints eyes in a threatening manner*
Now that’s some useful information! I went to my blog immediately and changed the “No comments” line to something more inviting: Leave a comment and share your thoughts
Fabulous – thank you!
I’ve actually closed my comments. In my field, folks don’t blog so there’s no incentive to leave comments. My readership is quite high, but most of my conversation with my readers is via email, Twitter, and Facebook.
After seeing the title “Blog Tyrant,” I thought about rebranding as “Attilla the Blogger” but I held off.
If the blog is loaded with ads, it’s likely I won’t stay long. Some ads, no biggie, but ads at the top, sides, below every post, not a compelling reason to stay.
If the blogger is trying to create controversy solely to generate discussion, that’ll chase me off. Take a side, be (reasonably) genuine…most folks go for that.
Arrogance, condescension and “if I could only get my readers to just do something with the incredible free advice I give them” – those qualities will bounce me fairly quickly.
LoL Darren,
When I look at the title, the first 2 problems come out from my mind are the blog is full of ads and the popup windows asking to sign-up or subscribe.
Great post.
Love the idea to change the text from ‘0 comments’.
Spelling and grammatical errors are my pet hate.
Some peeves of mine: Slow to load blog, and tons of “subscribe to my list” pop up’s & along bottom of window making it impossible to actually read anything. And a blog that takes you to another website to read the article, or worse.
I like the idea of changing the default 0 comment.
I definitely have to agree with the theme design. I’ve seen some excellent blog’s that could be greatly improved if they just had a better theme, to make it nicer on the eyes.
Great – I find posts like this so helpful! I especially like the “0 Comments” tip – I’m off to change mine now.
One thing that really turns me off is a page that is too busy. If it has ads all over it and text boxes all over the place – I’m gone.
Now that I think about it, music really irritates me, too.
This article has on useful tip. Changing the 0 comments tip.
The 0 comments problem can be a tough one for niches that have a strong presence of forums. A lot of times my posts are linked by a reader in one of the huge forums in my niche and they have a discussion about it over there!
Is there a plug-in that would say “This post read 1,750 times today.” That would be useful because lack of comments doesn’t mean squat if you find the content to be great.
Only 3 Tips but they were all awesome! I definitely had never heard about changing “0 comments” but totally love the idea. I don’t stay long on blogs that have pop-ups or require me to enter my email as soon as I get there.
Do not agree with the comments section at all. Sure you have social proof but you also have a lot of moderation and trolls to deal with which can take time away from writing good posts in the first place, so I think this depends on your blog (and nature and time).
Look at zenhabits.net and daringfireball.net ~ No comments but yet voted as some of the best blogs out there…
Nice theme, sure this is useful. As a designer I know the benefit of this, especially for my pocket. However I also see a lot of people spend ages on the ‘pretty’ without the quality content to go into it so this is also something to be aware of.
Which leads to point three. Original ideas, no brainer there. The hardest thing to solve and where most bloggers should concentrate.
Hi Darren,
What a shame you went to a blog with a low comment count and failed to even attempt some type of interaction.
A blogger of your status and notoriety could have really made a difference in the future of that blog — as well as being a great confidence booster to the blog’s author.
Building a community takes time.
There is no greater joy than being one of the first to comment, first to subscribe, or first to follow on Twitter.
In the future, let me know what blog you have rejected so that I may have that unique opportunity to network and make a friend.
Jeffrey Baril – Source Blogger
I came to this post a bit weary of how I’d feel after reading it BUT I’m quite proud to say I feel as though I can hold my head up and carry on blogging my life away. Might try the 0 comment thing too, a little tweaking never hurt anyone.
I don’t see the logic of a reader favoring a blog with a clever way of expressing 0 comments over a blog that simply states “0 comments”.
As as the blogger is concerned, If one is comfortable with spinning the truth, why not just post fake comments?
I don’t understand why people want to perpetuate BS.
There are many more people blogging than should be
blogging. Spelling and grammar dropouts, Oprah
wannabes, and folks with themes so obscure as to
be nearly totally lacking in general interest. Comments
and blogs alike instantly diagnose the educationally,
culturally and grammatically inept. The largest single
turnoff is lack of content. There simply is no beef.
Regarding comments, following your advice of displaying the latest comments on my sidebar has definitely helped me in having more people commenting on my blog: they see people interact there and that I always answer comments.
nice one @problogger. Off to fix my 0 comments settings right now. Oh, and find those next original ideas.
Hi Adam.
Nice points.
I actually stopped reading ZH after many years when Leo changed it to its new commentless form. It seems too dead and there is no interaction anymore.
Tyrant
Great article. So much information I will have to copy this into One Note to refer back to.
Now that I’ve left a comment on your blog, wanna stop by and leave one on mine? :) (See, I’m taking your advice already.)
Great ideas in this article.
I agree with everyone else about punching up the “0 Comments” text.
And as a former magazine editor, it’s refreshing to hear someone mention the importance of white space. It’s so powerful yet often overlooked. Poor white space…
So many points to think about – thanks for the guidance. I tend to read blogs as I would a book – i.e. if I can’t get into it after the first chapter/paragraph then I leave. The title has to spring out at me – with so many blogs out there today it would be impossible to read them all. At the end of the day it comes down to choice – what might be inspiring to one person could well leave another totally uninspired.
wow, thanks for sharing this bro, i am facing a lot of problems as you said. i will implement your ideas bro thanks again.
The “Ask for comments” from your friends is a neat idea.. Let me give it a try..
Also the 0 comments thing is a great suggestion!
Good points here Darren. I especially agree that 1 loyal subscriber is worth 1000 one time “drones”. This is why it is ideal for bloggers to build their lists as well. It will be much easier to monetize a blog when you have loyal email and rss subscribers. Cheers!
Thinkin’ outsite the box, will get their attention!…
:]
Not sure there are too many original ideas out there any more but using your own voice, rather than churning out another “top tips for xyz” piece is definitely important.
My big turn offs:
1. Poor spelling and grammar – just can’t take you seriously
2. Slow loading time and pop ups
3. Taking a ridiculously controversial stance for the sake of it. Actually, anything that shows you are more interested in driving traffic than the content you’re writing.
Light text on a dark background. Can’t read it, so I leave it.
[…] read up the guest post by Blog Tyrant in Problogger today. The post talk about three problems he found on a blog that will […]
I agree that good content is more important to me than the number of comments. In fact, if there are what appear to me to be too many comments, I won’t bother with them, and I’ll wonder, too, if it’s a love fest among friends.
A big turn off for me is a post that’s so long it could be a chapter in a book.
Lists put me off, too, because they can toss out too much information to absorb. Of course, I’ll make an effort to absorb their content if it’s relevant to the main idea of the post.
And that brings up another thing. Posts should stick to one main concept in my opinion. The information presented should augment that concept, rather than introduce too many new ones.
I learned something from your post. Changing the 0 comments is so cool! Thanks for the sharing.
For me, if the blog load slowly, I’m out of there. Also it must be clean. Never like blog with too many stuff going on by the side bar.
Your first reason made ME stop reading this post. Just because a blog has no comments doesn’t mean the material isn’t good. The blog could be NEW. So in your mind all new blogs should never get readers just because they have no comments…how logical is that?
Very true, without proper fielding for the readers, there might be many who won’t come to your blog again.
I often ask questions to readers such that they become a part of the talk.
Darren
My blog is suffering from what you have outlined in this post. I’m not the most experienced blogger, but when you said lack of comments may cause you to leave I can’t say I blame you. I think the number of comments say’s to some degree successful your blog is, or how enriching the content. Most would disagree. What turns me off about a blog? Pop-ups, hard to read fonts. loud distracting colors, disingenuous commenting …oh your site looks cool …..hugs and kisses! great article (leaves a totally irrelevant link)…Oh this is such a great topic(everytime they comment)
This article is a real eye opener Darren…..
-Jaco
yes the comment problem is really big, I also leave people blogs when I don’t see any hot discussion there.
Thanks for the pointers – already in the process of changing the comment portion of my blogs. I am not quite to the point of a custom theme just yet, but already have some ideas for when I do – thanks to you.
I hate when there are no paragraphs, no pictures, no subtitles….nothing to break up a huge amount of text.
If you want people to stay, you need to create “white spaces”.
I cannot read a bunch of text all crammed together and will click off.
I have to be brutally honest and say it depends on what your “goal” is.
Why are you building your blog ?
Is it for your ego or to make money ?
Many people don’t realize that “engaged” and “loyal” readers provide the lowest return from programs like adsense
Banner and offer blindness is a huge issue on some blogs with huge readership bases – the highest CTR’s on adsense come from search driven traffic arriving at your blog not people coming too hear what you have to say today.
Having readers and making money aren’t the same thing – creating a blog that people are drawn to is a noble pursuit but a TON of work
If you could make a number of smaller credible “blogs” that made you a passive income could you live with that ?
This is a great and honest article. It has encouraged me to think critically about my blog. I’ve been toying with the custom design idea, but not able to justify it yet. I’ve been working on quality content. I hope my blog looks neat and clean…I’m trying.
Thanks for helping me kick my blog up to the next level!
I will leave when I see the Giant Block o’ Text. Especially if the text is in a small and light colored font.
White space is good. Paragraph breaks are good. Font variations for topic headers are good. But! – even if the content is good, I feel too discouraged to try reading it if the text looks massive. I only got through reading Charles Dickens’s massive blocks of text b/c someone else made me. I’m glad I did, but I need incentive to take on that challenge. I won’t dive into a blog that looks like Dickens.
I took your great advice and changed the “0 comments” text to “you know what I’m sayin?” makes it much more personal and entices people to click on the comment link.
I’m hopeful that this’ll have the right effect.
check it out: http://onandtrue.blogspot.com
Very interesting stuff, as always Blog Tyrant. I do have to say that I don’t personally pay attention to comment numbers.
For one thing, some niches bring in greater numbers of comments than others. Many people only comment in order to leave their link, and this favors certain blogs more than others.
I’m all about the content – if the writing style is fresh, original, and friendly and if I’m able to actually learn something or at least feel inspired, I’m on board.
I am a typography snob, I have to admit. If the words are small and jumbled together – I’m out. I love your typography on Blog Tyrant.com by the way.
I also prefer great navigation.
Most of all, I guess I approach blogs and websites the way I do humans – if they’re likable, funny, and fun to be around, I’m a fan for life. If they’re crude, obnoxious, boring, or self-indulgent… buh bye.
I hate a blog which takes a lot of time to load.
I think another great idea is to be sure to separate your content into paragraphs – it is MUCH easier to read / skim when there is white space breaking up your thoughts.
I don’t know… I was sort of expecting someone to say how crass this guy comes off. Kinda smells like an asshole.
You’re disregarding entirely the fact that you may have one or two “gold” posts which will continually drive traffic to your blog. It takes TIME to build a community of dedicated readers and know what does and does not work.
You sort of have a bit of a blanketed way of writing this, that doesn’t really touch on the fact also that if you have a niche blog – you need to work hard to advertise your existence.
I find the 0 comments point a little chicken and the egg. Changing the wording is a great idea, but if no one wants to be the first to comment, how do you get comments?
I agree with many commenters above: black backgrounds and pop-up windows turn me off quickly. As well as automatic music that has no shut-off.
Thanks for another great article! Always helpful.
Things that make me leave a blog, never to return:
1) consistently poor grammar
2) horrible spelling
3) “txtspk” – which originated in SMS messages and should stay there
4) misaligned/ over-sized images in the sidebar
5) blinkies and other cutesy images
6) ellipses used instead of a full stop (period)
7) no paragraphs
Whew, that felt good! Mad for venting with like-minded folk!
Thanks, just changed the “0 comments”!
I’m a designer and spent a long time getting my site and theme just right, but your point about it being on white has got me worried. It’s a toss-up between being a bit different with my brand and whether it turns people off. Might have to get some feedback from other folks.
Cheers
Great article and I like the suggestion on the 0 Comments!
Slow to load, dark backgrounds and typos with grammatical errors…I’m gone. I can’t agree more that visitors deserve a clean, easy to read and informative environment if we expect them to linger.
Cynthia Briggs
http://www.cynthiabriggsbooks.com
I leave blogs that have a huge picture at the top of the post that makes me scroll to start reading the post. Also, bad grammar, poor punctuation, and general poor writing send me running.
I like the suggestion to change the “0 comments” default setting, but I can’t quite figure out how to do that w/ my blogger/blogspot account. Any suggestions?