Online Marketing Blog - Latest Comments in What Not To Do With Your Business Blog

Re: What Not To Do With Your Business Blog

edwin — Fri, 09 May 2008 11:51:32 -0000

I can't disagree with one thing,
some time ago Matt Cutts posted some holiday images on his blog..who cares..keep to the point..

Re: What Not To Do With Your Business Blog

Yair Bar-On — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 11:21:54 -0000

This article is a great proof that good content will attract traffic forever. It was published 8 months ago and brought me here today.
I have just started blogging last year and already have pages on my blog that attract daily traffic from search engines.
I liked this article a lot.

Re: What Not To Do With Your Business Blog

Jason Bartholme — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 15:35:04 -0000

I'm occasionally guilty of number five. Although I approve all the comments that come in, I sometimes drop the ball on replying. Not out of laziness, but I just get distracted.

Re: What Not To Do With Your Business Blog

Gyutae Park — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 23:25:40 -0000

This is a great list. Some of it is common sense, but it's really unbelievable that people would still make the mistakes. I think it's all about leaving our webmaster Internet marketing shells and putting ourselves in users' shoes.

Re: What Not To Do With Your Business Blog

Lucas — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 10:38:27 -0000

A nice checklist, thanks for that...!

Re: What Not To Do With Your Business Blog

Lee Odden — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 09:53:38 -0000

Hey Carsten, those are some great suggestions, thanks!

Re: What Not To Do With Your Business Blog

Carsten Cumbrowski — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 02:26:11 -0000

Hi Lee,

Well spoken and my two cents to this list.

1. Register or login
I hate that too, especially if they send an email that contains a randomly generated password or activation link. It takes time, usually the time it would take to write the comment itself, if not longer. Makes you think sometimes, if you "have to" comment or better take off without going through all that. The account management got easier for me since I use RoboForm.

2. Publish content in PDF of MS Word format
Sorry, never encountered that yet.

3. difficult to subscribe
Yep, in some cases are you lucky, if they kept the tiny standard link to the RSS in the footer (WordPress), but I had cases, where there was no link anywhere on the page and no auto-discovery tag either. I had to guess the feed URL (e.g. /atom.xml, /rss.xml, /index.rdf, /feed/ etc.)

4. Contextual ads
Agreed, even worse, if the content surrounds the ad

5. Being gracious, respond to comments
The people, who do not respond, even if the person who comments directly addresses them, are arrogant assholes who do not want to communicate and engage in a discussion. They use a blog for their ego trip.

6. Who the hell are you?
Hehe, it also helps to address the person who wrote the post "Hey Blogger Dude (Gal?!), I think...." :)

7. Date or the name of the author
Name, see 6), Date, I see your point, but in some cases is the blog used as just a publishing platform and the content published are actually well crafted articles that might not be that time-specific and somewhat timeless. However, I also prefer to see a date, even if it is not a "news" post.

8. Archive architecture
You are right, but it does sometimes require a bit more technical knowledge than some folks possess. The default settings of some blogging platforms are IMO insufficient and provide poor usability

9. Bland looking blog
Tells me that the person is not serious about it, because it takes either time or money = something of value. Not providing/investing this value tells me how much you value your own blog. ($0 <= Value <= $1)

10. What can OMG do?
Just continue to write what you have on your mind rather than thinking about what you should write about and what readers want to hear, unless you want to get around 5) and write stuff that provides no reason why anybody should comment.

Cheers
Carsten

Re: What Not To Do With Your Business Blog

Kent Schnepp — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 18:33:50 -0000

Good stuff Lee. Very valid points. I agree with all 10!

Re: What Not To Do With Your Business Blog

gabs — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 07:13:29 -0000

Failed point 1 until someone email me saying why do I have to register which you couldn't at the time LOL..

hehehehe..

Re: What Not To Do With Your Business Blog

billse — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 10:52:10 -0000

You hit the nail on the head, especially about the importance of login-free comments. This kicks the barn doors of a blog completely open. Business usually serves well to cater to the convenience of customers/clients, so why would users be any different? They're customers/clients too, ultimately.

A business who is so afraid of blog spam and doesn't want to moderate, is not embracing this 'not-so-new-anymore' model correctly. A business who is semi-walling themselves from negative comments with logins, is at least partly disconnected from their whole customer/client base. I know I've opted to keep my questions or opinions to myself because I didn't want another password to remember. That particular blog lost a chance to engage me and earn my attention or interest.

The thing that makes this generation of web business and service IS the social interaction, which is much more than it ever used to be. But with all the now global competition, this social interaction, for better or for worse, is becoming a major key to survival.

Re: What Not To Do With Your Business Blog

Troy Perkins — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 01:02:01 -0000

PS. Lee, you're a lucky man! I wish my wife had half the interest in reading my blog, especially making comments.

Cheers to Camilet!

Re: What Not To Do With Your Business Blog

Troy Perkins — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 00:58:58 -0000

Camilet, you've made a great point. In fact I started inadvertently posting off topic items to my blog which is supposed to be of SEO focus only... I'm beginning to regret it. Long days and nights and birthdays turned my mind to wonder and get off topic. However, wanting to be focused, its hard for me to talk about SEO and SEM or at least write about it everyday! I mean heck I'm not superman, yet I want to keep a constant flow of material going... any suggestions? FOCUS, PASSION, ...not wanting to BURN OUT ;-)

Re: What Not To Do With Your Business Blog

Camilet — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 23:40:20 -0000

OK Lee's blog is one of the only blogs I truly LOVE in large part because of its predictability. And because he's my husband :-)

I guess I'm sort of obligated!

What tires me about many blogs are rambling diaries.

I want to go to a blog that has predictable content - in terms of its subject matter - and yet challenges me to think in a different way!

I don't want to see a daughter blowing bubbles (no matter how cute) on a blog about search. Unless of course the blogger is sharing strategies for how to move "dog pet toy bubble maker machine" results above "bubble bra manufacturer" results in Google.

I guess what I'm getting at is FOCUS bloggers! FOCUS!

Re: What Not To Do With Your Business Blog

Troy Perkins — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 06:22:03 -0000

Lee, you've got some great points here. I am trying to figure out how to turn on author name and date publication within WordPress right now. I'm a relatively new blogger, but have been doing SEO for over a decade. My blog is relatively new, would you mind putting me in the hot seat http://www.totus.us/seo-sem... and tell me what else I could improve on? ...Great Read! Thumbs up :-)

Re: What Not To Do With Your Business Blog

Patricia Skinner — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 04:14:05 -0000

All good points. I think I'll point to this. Lots of people ask me about good blogging tips. :)

Re: What Not To Do With Your Business Blog

James Omdahl — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 15:34:15 -0000

Having to login to post a comment ticks me off every time. I think that might be my biggest pet peeve with Search Engine Land.

Poorly formatted ads that are stuck in the middle of the content hurt my brain as well.

One I'd add is a poorly formatted blog. For some reason I can't stand the header area of AndyBeard.eu - it's great information but annoying design.

Re: What Not To Do With Your Business Blog

Marcis Gasuns — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 13:45:54 -0000

RSS to email option offered at Feedblitz was a real discovery as far as I am concerned. The article is short, but informative, tnx.

Re: What Not To Do With Your Business Blog

Stephanie — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 11:21:54 -0000

Great points! As I read your list, I was making a mental tally of all of things that I am doing well and all of the things that I need to improve on my blog.

As a relatively new blogger, I enjoy hearing what makes blogs valuable - and your article certainly helped. Thanks.

Re: What Not To Do With Your Business Blog

Rose — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 19:48:37 -0000

"Don’t make readers register or login to make a comment." Well said.... This is a big pet peeve of mine.

Re: What Not To Do With Your Business Blog

Brian Turner — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 12:37:34 -0000

"Some call this a SEO blog Brian, what are you doing here? "

Timeout. :)

Re: What Not To Do With Your Business Blog

Jeffrey Eisenberg — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 13:57:40 -0000

As usual, this is a solid post Lee. I wonder if someone can give or sell Brian a clue. Maybe he's just having a bad day but it's a shame he chose to share it with us.

Re: What Not To Do With Your Business Blog

Lee Odden — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 12:16:40 -0000

Some call this a SEO blog Brian, what are you doing here? I agree you should stick working with clients and not this silly old boring blog.

Re: What Not To Do With Your Business Blog

Brian Turner — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 10:51:16 -0000

I honestly can't remember the last time I read anything of value in a SEO blog. In fact, since I stopped reading blogs, I've discovered far more unique and creative ways to get links and have been trailblazing away since.

Meanwhile, too many supposed SEO's are trying to look good in front of other SEO's. I'd rather spend that energy looking good in front of either my clients or my business bank manager.

2c. :)

Re: What Not To Do With Your Business Blog

Charles Lau — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 04:35:47 -0000

Oh wow! It looks like a good lesson for all of us here!

Re: What Not To Do With Your Business Blog

Matt McGee — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 23:12:34 -0000

"I opt for the latter to encourage comments while discouraging savvy comment spammers."

I respect that, Lee, and if it works for you, you shouldn't change. I opt for the former because it rewards people who do register and comment with a followed link. I would tend to agree with fantomaster that NOFOLLOW is not a spam deterrent, too.

"I especially have difficulty understanding why some bloggers require registration before you can comment."

Tamar, because every blogger is different. :-) I blog at night. I don't even look at my blog during the day because I'm too busy working, sometimes spending full 8-hour days at a client's location. It's not realistic for me to have open commenting and take the chance that someone's gonna spam the daylights out of my blog and have it go untouched for 8-10 hours. Today. I checked my blog first thing in the morning, and then just checked again now -- 11 hours later.

(Lee, to answer the question you posted on Sphinn -- no, because of the above.)

My comment policy works for me. If anyone else isn't able to babysit their blog all day, maybe it'll work for you, too. Here's the link, in all it's no-followed glory. :-)

http://www.smallbusinesssem...