Blogs are the one of the biggest and fastest growing medium of publishing on web..
Blogs have brought in a personal publishing revolution …
Blogs this Blogs that.. Blah Blah Blah !!!
You will find similar lines all over the web glorifying blogging. And actually all of them are very much true. Blogging has changed mass media in a big way and is still doing so now.
Blogging was one of the earliest manifestations of Individual freedom of expression on the Internet and one that has had a big impact on life outside the Internet as well.
The low entry barrier to blogging however also often leads to generation of a mass of low quality content on the web, the authenticity of which can be doubtful. With the growing importance of blogs in online marketing and the stress given on ‘Content Strategy’ and ‘Content Marketing’, recently there has been a huge infusion of content on the web.
Millions of companies and individuals today are trying to ride this Content wave to reach the highs of traffic and sales. If you are planning on jumping on to this wave, its important that you know that its going to be an uphill battle that needs a lot of patience and monitoring. You are competing with millions of other for traffic relevant to your cause.
The Gateways to this flood of traffic are popular Search engines who are trying hard on their end to make sure they weed out content that is irrelevant, spammy or just plain bad quality. Its important for you to make sure your content is up to the scratch and can make it through this maze of booby traps called as Google’s search improvement algorithms with funky names like Panda, Penguin Hummingbird and what not !
Whatever they are called, the important thing for you as a content publisher to know is that all the Search Engines are trying to do is make sure their results are quality. They are after the bad guys ! So if you are one of the good guys and are not engaged in any ‘illegal’ SEO practices, you will mostly be OK ! However just like with the conventional laws of our world, excuses like ‘I didn't know that was Illegal’ won't work. So even if you have a good heart and would never think of doing anything illegal, it's in your best interests to know what is Illegal. So make sure you do your homework on what's not the right thing to do ! If you don’t, you are sure to get caught in the Spiders Web and ejected from results.
I didn't know that was Illegal’ won't work
That being said, because someone is behind us to publish that blog post or because sometimes we are all just plain lazy or because some of us are just thinking of ‘Getting it done’ without bothering about the quality of the output, there are millions of blog published today that are in my honest opinion pure crap.Its extremely frustrating when such content is shared and time is wasted even skimming through it..
As I have expressed so vividly, bad content can make people mad and frustrated. Believe me such a person is not going to buy your product.
So its in your best interests not write a post that causes such effects. It will have a huge negative impact on your brand which at times is irreparable. The point of all this background was to make sure you understood the background as to ‘Why not to write bad blog posts’.
My Idea of a Bad Blog post
Since Quality of blog content is a matter of perception, let me give you a list of the type of blog posts that i simply hate to read. And hopefully you can help me expand it by commenting on this post.
Posts with gray content which you can't glean any purpose from
A blog post that packs a lot of content with lots and lots of words that goes on and on about vague concepts without conclusively expressing any opinion about them. These blogs are so obviously written just for the sake of blogging that it shows.
Blogs that make statements without any content to support it or any backgrounds
The straight exact opposites of the above case, these blogs will make wild statements without giving any background whatsoever. There is no supporting content, no context to what the blog is talking about and no clear content to make you understand the statements. These blogs end up leaving you with a ‘What was that all about’ feeling.
Badly formatted Blogs
Big paragraphs of text that goes on and on without any formatting are the biggest pain to read. Even if the content is great, a badly formatted post which is hard to read doesn't leave a good experience in the mind of the reader or the eyes of the reader ;) .
Badly Structured Blogs
A logical flow of the content with some kind of logical structuring (and this may vary according to the subject of the blog post) adds a better readability to the blog and also makes it easier to understand and digest. Blogs which miss paying attention to these details are also no the best reading experience. For instance a short introductory paragraph giving an overview can go a long way in influencing how well the blog is digested.
Blatant Product Marketing Blog posts that have no educational value
Sure you are blogging to promote your brand and your products. No harm in that. However when you are doing this you are walking a thin line. Its important that such blogs add some value to the user reading it. Blogs that go on and on about how spectacular your products and services are a big turn off !
Grammatical & Spelling Mistakes
Another huge turn off and something that can impact your blog and brand in a hugely negative way is a blog that's not proof read and contains tons of mistakes.
In our next blog in this series I will explore what i think is “The Secret recipe for an awesome Blog post !” What is your idea of a bad blog post ? Do comment and help us improve this blog !
Initially, I had planned to write this as an internal guideline for everyone in our company where we are encouraging everyone to blog. However, since this could help generally anyone who is blogging or planning to blog, we decided to post it online.