For a moment – please recall your childhood. Did your parents consistently berate you? Were you given a set of rules? Some examples may be: Never burp as a guest, never point your fingers, never get in a car with strangers. The rules have the potential to resemble Santa’s huge naughty & nice list.
As we’ve now grown up – there are certain things we should stay well away from when designing, maintaining, marketing, and writing a blog.
Although some of the following tips are a matter of personal preference – all should be considered.
Design
- Never Use Frames – Search engines don’t like them, nor do people. In many cases – they cause more problems then they solve. If you use them solely for their ability to easily edit headers, footers, and sidebars – it’s time to look into using some PHP.
- Never Use the Marquee Tag - Granted, this was cool back in 1997. Not anymore. For most sites it looks cheap and amateur.
- Don’t Overuse Glitzy Graphics – Animated GIF’s, flashing banners, cursor tails. Cut back on the amount of fancy graphics used on your site. Just because you have the code – doesn’t mean you need to use it.
- Don’t Overdo Colors – Yellow text on a black background does NOT look good. Plus, Batman would want his colors back.
- Never Use A Multitude of Fonts - On some occasions this can be done well, but in most cases – stick with a few, readable fonts. Make your main content font easy to read.
- Never Use Background Music - Music that automatically starts when you visit a page is a nightmare. It’s also terrible for users with a slow connection. You only have permission to use this feature if you’re managing the blog of Celine Dion or Justin Timberlake.
- Never Disable Right Click - The right click feature is used for many important functions (e.g. bookmark, send link). If someone really wants one of your graphics, this won’t stop them. There are other, more affective ways to protect against graphic theft.
- Don’t Use Splash Pages – This is especially important if you’re an informational hotspot. Readers want info fast. In some cases, splash pages can be done well if you’re showing off a portfolio or premium business.
Marketing & Community
- Never Participate in Blackhat SEO - Is it really worth losing your long term blog longevity, in exchange for some quick visitors? If the search engines find you out, they WILL terminate you – leaving you in the dust.
- Don’t Spam Others - It’s okay to email a blogger for link exchanges or information once or twice, but after that, leave them alone. Although I’m always open for friendly discussion – sometimes I just don’t have the time to repeatedly say no to a link exchange request.
- Don’t Require Blog Registrations for Commenting - On some occasions, this is acceptable. On the other hand, if you want to attract more commenting, don’t require registrations.
- Never Use More Ads than Necessary (and Popups) – Adsense ads shouldn’t be plastered on every cranny of your blog. Amazon banners SHOULD take LESS room then your blog content. Also – I’d stay away from popup ads.
Writing
- Never Use Text Talk - This is a terrible, terrible mistake. Don’t use text talk as your method of writing posts. Speak clearly please, otherwise, your users will revolt. “For” should not be written as 4.
- Don’t Misspell Words and Use Bad Grammar – There’s no reason for misspelled words. Firefox and Wordpress have spellcheck built in. Yes, a few errors may slip past your defenses – but routine misspells and grammar will become annoying readers.
- Don’t Post Never Ending Posts - If you have a post that’s 15,000 pixels in height, consider breaking it into a few pages or posts. Your readers will appreciate the break, and search engines will gobble up the extra pages.
Granted, we’ve all been accused of blogging sins – but ultimately, try your best to keep your reader’s experience in mind. You don’t want your Mother (aka Readers), to get angry with you.
Share with us YOUR list of Don’ts and Nevers!
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