No, I'm Not Going to Read Your Blog

Consider this the subtle answer…

You’re desperate for me to read your blog. I can tell.

You’ve Tweeted the link, submitted it to sharing sites and implored me to click your Facebook like button.

But guess what? You may as well stop wasting my time and yours, because it’ll be a cold day in hell before I read your blog post.

Why I’m Not Going To Waste My Time Reading Your Blog

Now don’t get me wrong. I might well click that link (once). I might even skim your subheaders and weigh up my options before I click the back button and never return. But I’m not going to read what you’ve written.

And because you’ve put your heart and soul into writing that post, I’m going to tell you why.

Because you haven’t put your heart and soul into your blog post

I can tell when you’re phoning it in. Because your lethargic post has the fingerprints of a writer who’d rather be down the pub all over it. You’ve not gone into any depth, you’ve just posted a bullet point list, and you’ve not even found thirty seconds to source a decent picture.

I’m frankly insulted that you think I’d even consider reading something you couldn’t be mithered writing.

I don’t like the look of your URL

I’ll forgive a poor pun in the name of making your title memorable, but there are a few things that put me right off reading your blog.

Things like this:

  • myboringblog.livejournal.com
  • youllneverreadthis.tumblr.com
  • cantbemitheredwithwordpress.blogger.com

If you’re not writing angsty fan fiction or painfully unfunny asides and you don’t work for Google, you’ve got no business writing on LiveJournal, Tumblr or Blogger.

If you want to be read, you need to be taken seriously. And that means either self hosting, or at the (very least) using a WordPress blog.

You’re not interested in my feedback

I’m talking to you again Blogger blogger. If you’re not interested in what I have to say, I’m not interested in what you have to say.

So if you’re making me sign up, log in or jump through your (or Google’s) hoops to leave a comment, I’m not going to bother reading your post.

And if you’re arrogant enough to have disabled comments entirely, well then, you and I are just never going to get along.

You’ve thrown a pop-up at me

This stops being cute

I’m not four years old.

Things popping up at me no longer elicit a gasp of wonder and excitement. They provoke groans and grumbles. If I have to close a popup before I get to your content, I’m not going to bother.

If I have to close a popup that springs into action 15 seconds after I’ve started reading your post, I’m going to hurl my monitor across the room and send you a bill.

People really do feel that strongly about popups. So if you want us to read, think long and hard before you start winding the handle on that Jack-in-the-Box.

So, how can you get me to read your blog?

It’s simple really.

Be magnificent. Have faith in your own abilities and get a proper domain to give yourself some authority. Then push yourself as a writer. Don’t take the easy way out with paper thin posts, and produce some outstanding content.

Then open yourself up to plaudits and critics alike with a free and open comment policy. You’ll attract the odd nutter, but the people that enjoy and value your work will tell you so, and it’ll spur you on.

Finally, trust in your ability to sell yourself as a writer. You don’t need desperate popups. Solid sales copy and calls to action will get your ebook, feed or newsletter noticed. And if you don’t believe me now, sign up to my RSS feed or follow 603 Copywriting on Facebook and I’ll prove it to you.

And don’t forget to leave me a comment below, because I might just read your blog post after all.

 

20 Comments comments for "No, I’m Not Going to Read Your Blog"

  1. Craig at 3:36 pm

    I read yours at lunch, now if only I could muster a blog post that resembling being creative or engaging I might get you to read mine! Copywriting isn’t my forté unfortunately (but at least my blog is a self-hosted WordPress one.)

  2. Carly at 5:48 pm

    Very well put – If I visit blogger, read all the way to the end of the post & then have to sign in to Google to leave a comment (that links back to my profile, yuk), then I am not a happy girl.

  3. Josh at 6:52 pm

    I agree with everything you’ve stated although I’m not as discriminatory against of URLs as you are. I will agree if someone is going to try to be an authority they need to purchase a domain. Everyone has to start somewhere right? Pop ups are my biggest pet peeve only to exiting pop ups. You know the ones that appear when you try to close the tap or move away from that page? “Hey glad you stopped by please subscribe to me pretty please?!” If you have a great blog I’ll subscribe, don’t let my experience be marred with something like that. Speaking of experience, I’ve enjoyed the post and will now go browse the rest. Thanks Andrew 🙂

  4. Ann Hawkins at 11:36 am

    Love it. I started with blogger but that was six years ago so I excuse myself. (That blog is still standing and still gets comments tho)

    Can’t understand the ‘sign in to leave a comment’ stuff or the lame tweets that say “My latest blog post” followed by a link and no inkling of what it might be.

  5. Chris Burns at 12:41 pm

    I feel like a comment may have been deleted. Did I miss something? Nice post, yours is not one of those blogs “I’m not going to read” 🙂

  6. Derek Cromwell at 2:09 pm

    Love the jack in the box analogy – great post. I am forced to talk so many clients out of the pop-up for opt-ins and eBook offers. They think it’s not the same because it’s not really an ad. But… it is an ad. And it’s annoying.

    and it makes me want to punch babies (not mine, someone else’s)

  7. Jamie Fairbairn at 2:54 pm

    Personally I can’t stand pop-ups so am with you on that one. I think it’s like going into a shop and having someone immediately get ‘in your face’ saying do you want to buy something?

    The URL side of things doesn’t bother me too much but I can definitely see your overall point. If you’re going to do something you might as well do it properly otherwise who is going to have trust in what you’re saying?

  8. Kavita at 12:24 am

    Hi Andrew. Agree to your reasons, Title should be catchy and indeed this post title on serpd caught my attention. Content is also important. Although some articles with relatively less content seem informative, I prefer blog posts with atleast 300 words.

  9. Bel at 7:59 am

    Oh, come on. You don’t read my drivel because of its url? I’d understand if you’d not read it because of its content, after all I’m not writing to earn a living – but because it’s on google? Really? Well, d’uh!

    • Andrew at 8:40 am

      It’s different. Yours is a hobby blog. If you were trying to set yourself up as an authority and you were using Blogger, I’d be stifling laughter with a fist in my mouth.

  10. Stacy at 7:05 pm

    I agree with all of your reasons and I have another for disliking blogspot, those blogs always load really slow on my computer. A couple even freeze it up completely (picture heavy ones). Obviously I don’t return to those.

  11. Peter L Masters MCIM at 1:23 pm

    I like this a lot!! The cut and paste and that’ll do brigade should stick to Twitter. For me Blogging is all about passion, enthusiasm and quality, original writing. Having said that, it does take time to find style and consistency, I’m not crazy about some of my 1st Blogs! We all have to start somewhere, right! It’s about design too and sharing. As I say in one of my posts, ‘Content without an audience is just words and pictures!’ Get it read, don’t be like Salinger!! Good for you! Peter

  12. Stacey Herbert at 9:50 pm

    Hi Andrew,I found your post in Nittygriddys round up,and glad I clicked through – although a few weeks late. But good content is somewhat timeless right?
    My two biggest things are definitely pop ups which make me huff and puff at the screen. For the most part I decide that I can’t be bothered with all your Jazz, when all I want is to read what you wrote.
    But I think my biggest sticking point has to be comments. Some blogs are like “pat on the back parties”, there is no debate, “I agree with what you to a point, but I think etc etc etc”. The comments are over policed to suit the writers ego, or who they think is cool enough and worthy to be responded too.

    Comments that you spent time,energy and thought on which are clearly not spam are left in moderation for days, if ever moderated. This causes me to have a total disconnect from a blog and it’s writer, delete your feed from my reader and never return again. I doubt they much care, but there we go

    I guess what I’m saying is engagement is the biggest thing for me, even if you don’t always like what your readers are saying, you have galvanised them enough to comment, so unless they have been totally rude or disrespectful to you or your readers, you should connect.

    Sorry if I got slightly off track here, but I found your post insightful, interesting and slightly cheeky which I love. Thanks

    • Andrew at 10:30 pm

      You’re not wrong there – there’s nothing worse than a blogger making you feel ignored. I try to respond to most comments I get (either here or on Twitter), because otherwise what’s the point?

      The whole thing about writing for the web is that it’s a two way process. Nowhere else can you get instant feedback, so you’re right, it’s rude not to try and have that conversation.

      Glad you enjoyed the post!

  13. Brittany Rubinstein at 10:20 pm

    Hi Andrew I found your post through Serpd and I absolutely love it! Your point about URLs is spot on. I tend to take blogs a little less seriously if they’re not hosted on their own domain or are at least hosted somewhere decent. And the section about pop ups made me laugh. Nice job!

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