Seven Deadly Sins of Blogging

Pinyo at The Great Nexus Webmaster Blog says there are seven deadly sins of blogging.

1. Using Free Blog Hosting Services
2. Ignoring the Basic Principles of Good Web Site Design and Usability
3. Being the Jack Of All Trades
4. Not Posting Regularly
5. Publishing Badly Written Posts
6. Spamming and Stealing
7. Failing to Establish a Personality

Numbers One and Two: I don't know why "free" would be number one.  I'd look at design and usability first. Those sites with a black background and light text? Almost unreadable, and I have pretty good vision.  As Jakob Nielson says,

Accessibility's business goal is not to get a high rating on a Section 508 compliance scorecard. On a website, what you really want is to sell more products to disabled customers. On an intranet, you want to get more workplace productivity out of your disabled employees. These sound remarkably like the goals of any usability project, and that's exactly what they are.

Of course, some usability issues are different for users with disabilities than for those without, but the overlap is remarkably large. Also, it's an oversimplification to distinguish between users with and without disabilities as if that were a dichotomy. It's really a continuum of people with more or less severe disabilities. For example, most users over the age of 45 have somewhat reduced vision and need resizable fonts, even if they don't qualify under the official definition as "low-vision users." Senior citizens' usability issues are different from those of young users with disabilities, but again, there are many similarities between the two groups.

Number 3: Being the Jack Of All Trades

Pinyo writes,

People read blog because they are interested in a particular subject. If your blog does not focus on a subject, a person, or a thing — then you risk hurting your blog popularity....The better thing to do is focus one subject and be the master at it.... If you are multi-talented and have many things to blog about, create one blog for each subject.

I disagree on this issue. There's nothing wrong with a single-issue blog -- I follow quite a few, such as Joanne Jacobs, who writes on all things educational.  I've started a couple of blogs on single issues, and abandoned them all as the projects have matured or my interest waned.  The blogs I really enjoy have a strong point of view (or voice)  and a wide range of interests (examples:  Making Light, Learning the Lessons of Nixon, Ozarque, Cobb, and Orac Knows).

I would substitute for this one, "develop a set blogging principles".   Lisa Williams  has an excellent example of blogging principles--what you will and what you won't write about, and how you will manage elements of the blog.  I still haven't published mine, and I should.  Thanks for the nudge.  (some other examples of blogging principles:  Duck's Scratch Pad,  Notesgirl)

Number Four: Not Posting Regularly
This has some merit, but I would have said, have some sort of feed (RSS, bloglines, or the like) so that regular readers can see if you have published something new.  Personally, I use bloglines.  I also would say, enable comments.  Blogs are conversations, not monologues.  The best part of some blogs are the conversations in the comments.

Number Five: Publishing Badly Written Posts
I'd also say, have a policy about language for your whole blog.  I edit comments that have words I wouldn't want my daughter to utter. 

Pinyo writes,

Also, if you are stating facts and statistics in your post, make sure the information is well researched.

I'd add, provide links to substantiate your claims.

If you aren't quite sure of your grammar and spelling, go ahead and compose the post in word-processing software, using the grammar and spell-check functions.  Nothing damages credibility like those sorts of errors. (Aside to Pinyo: the use of plurals, possessives,  and articles  need a bit of work.)   

Number Six: Spamming and Stealing
I agree with everything Pinyo says under this heading.

Number Seven: Failing to Establish a Personality
While I agree in principal,  Pinyo writes,

You should have your biography and photo on the blog so that your readers can establish closer connection to you as a person.

What about those anonymous bloggers?  I am public, but that doesn't mean a great blog cannot be anonymous--for personal reasons (see Autism Diva) , or for professional reasons (see Shrinkette, Professor Plum, Profgrrrl).

I'd say there's only one blogging sin: being boring. 

Thanks to Dustbury for letting me play.  He got it from A Fistful of Fortnights.

 

Comments

[Pinyo]

Wow, that's some extensive review of my humble article. Thank you for such an excellent and constructive points and counterpoints.

In my follow up post, I did mention that I unintentionally left out the fact that are many types of bloggers and my post was aimed more or less to those who do it as a commercial venue.

As for the side note for me, yes, I know my English is not quite there yet. I learnt English as a second languague, and having my initial English education in the NYC public school system did not help a whole lot. However, I try everyday to write the best I could. :-)

I will definitely be looking more closely at the Blogging Principles by Lisa Williams

I found your site via: http://sandhill.typepad.com/sandhill_trek/2005/11/transgressive_b.html

[Suzanne]

Nice review. I have a rather loose set of blogging principles for my blog but nothing in writing. That could be an interesting exercise.

As for the blogging sin of being boring, I've never found this site to be guilty of that!

[Stu Savory, Germany]

I, too, disagree with Pinyo's number three (focus on one subject). Feel free to write on a broad spectrum of subjects (after all, the polymath is the ideal educated renaissance person), as long as you are not boring and as long as you disseminate some of your knowledge in each of your posts.

Otherwise, Pinyo is going in the right direction :-)

Stu Savory

[Pinyo]

Liz, I read Blogging Principles by Lisa Williams twice yesterday. It really got me thinking about priciple or lack thereof on the Web. I am thinking about putting together something for myself. Thank you.