This is a guest post from Karen who runs the site AMeaningfulExistence.com, Karen is a fantastic writer who we can expect big things from, but enough from me I’ll let Karen do the talking;

As I’ve been building my site up, I’ve been observing others in the blogosphere and noticed some undesirable behaviours. Read the list below and see if you recognize and agree with any of the Top 5 Symptoms of Bloggers Behaving Badly.


1. They Don’t Comment On Other Blogs

Why don’t you see some bloggers joining in and commenting on other blogs? Is it because they feel that they are adding to their competition? What a selfish idea! The blogosphere is huge and one of the best ways to network and stand out from the crowd is to comment on other blogs, whether they be in your own niche or not. Question: Have you commented on anyone’s site today? Writing “Nice article” doesn’t cut it either. Either add to the conversation or don’t bother commenting on another blog. We can tell when you’re just commenting to get your blog address on more popular blogs. James is a perfect example of someone who makes a point of commenting on at least 20 blogs each day. As a corollary to this are those bloggers who don’t bother responding to their reader’s comments. I know that it can be difficult to respond if you receive several hundred comments on each post, but James has a great article on this topic called You Are Nothing Without Your Readers. Maybe you can’t respond to every one, but why not pick a random number to respond to. Without your readers and their comments, you might as well just have an online journal.

2. They Don’t Help Other Bloggers

What’s obvious to you may not be obvious to other bloggers, so why don’t you help them when you see a typo, grammar mistake or a design flaw? Bloggers who don’t bother helping other bloggers by letting them know if something isn’t working on their sites are pretty selfish. We can all use an another set of eyes with regards to our articles and site designs. Wouldn’t you want to know if there was something glaringly obvious to everyone on your site, except to you? The next time you see something wrong, help out the blogger by either leaving a comment or by contacting them directly. Who knows? Hopefully, they will pay it back or are you perfect and you never make a mistake?

3. They Have Obnoxious Ads or Are Only In It For The Money

You know who we’re talking about. Someone leaves a comment on your blog so you go and visit their blog. When you get there, the entire site is one big ad for something you wouldn’t ever be interested in purchasing. What are these bloggers thinking? That I’m going to buy from them when they have such an obvious money-hungry blog? No way! I can’t imagine what they were thinking. We all know that building relationships with others and providing valuable content is more important than making a dollar. Those flashing and pop-up ads are so obnoxious, too. There are so many other ways to monetize your site that having these types of ads does more damage than good. It’s not worth it, so don’t do it.

4. They Diss Other Bloggers

Here’s another way that Bloggers Behave Badly – they diss other bloggers (usually the A-listers) with the sole intention of gaining viewers to their site. This is another obvious tactic used by some bloggers who are trying to take shortcuts, rather than taking the time (and putting in the hard work) of making a meaningful blog. The tactic may work in the short-term as who doesn’t like a good fight sometimes, but it’s cutting off your nose to spite your face. The long-term repercussions of doing this aren’t worth it. You’ll lose the respect of your audience and also lose integrity. Don’t be ‘that guy’ who does this. It’s not worth the immediate feedback versus the long-term potential of your blog. Don’t get me wrong, writing a quality article giving constructive feedback that concerns other bloggers is okay, it’s when your sole motivation is to bait those bloggers to visit your site is with what I take issue. We’re all adults so a little criticism is fine and it allows us to grow. Being mean for no good reason isn’t okay.

5. They Make It Hard To Contact Them

Another way that Bloggers Behave Badly is that they make it difficult for you to contact them. You would think that by now every blogger has a Contact page on their site, but it’s simply not true. Sometimes they do have a Contact page and the form doesn’t work. Having a way to contact the blogger is Blogging 101, so there’s no reason for this to occur. The worst is when I receive one of those automatic emails when I comment on a blog and try to reply back to the email, only to find that the return address isn’t valid. Why even bother emailing me to thank me for commenting if you don’t want to engage me further? Even worse is when I leave a comment on your site and you don’t respond that way either. Don’t make it difficult for me to contact you. I don’t want to have to hunt down to find your email address hidden someone on your home page. Make it obvious for me.

eventually
Creative Commons License photo credit: shoothead


What other symptoms have you observed for Bloggers Behaving Badly? Are you guilty of any of them? Please let us know by leaving a comment below.


Thanks!

As I've been building my site up, I've been observing others in the
blogosphere and noticed some undesirable behaviours. Read the list below and
see if you recognize and agree with any of the Top 5 Symptoms of Bloggers
Behaving Badly.

1. They Don't Comment On Other Blogs

Why don't you see some bloggers joining in and commenting on other blogs? Is
it because they feel that they are adding to their competition? What a
selfish idea! The blogosphere is huge and one of the best ways to network
and stand out from the crowd is to comment on other blogs, whether they be
in your own niche or not. Question: Have you commented on anyone's site
today? Writing "Nice article" doesn't cut it either. Either add to the
conversation or don't bother commenting on another blog. We can tell when
you're just commenting to get your blog address on more popular blogs. James
is a perfect example of someone who makes a point of commenting on at least
20 blogs each day. As a corollary to this are those bloggers who don't
bother responding to their reader's comments. I know that it can be
difficult to respond if you receive several hundred comments on each post,
but James has a great article on this topic called You Are Nothing Without
Your Readers. Maybe you can't respond to every one, but why not pick a
random number to respond to. Without your readers and their comments, you
might as well just have an online journal.

2. They Don't Help Other Bloggers

What's obvious to you may not be obvious to other bloggers, so why don't you
help them when you see a typo, grammar mistake or a design flaw? Bloggers
who don't bother helping other bloggers by letting them know if something
isn't working on their sites are pretty selfish. We can all use an another
set of eyes with regards to our articles and site designs. Wouldn't you want
to know if there was something glaringly obvious to everyone on your site,
except to you? The next time you see something wrong, help out the blogger
by either leaving a comment or by contacting them directly. Who knows?
Hopefully, they will pay it back or are you perfect and you never make a
mistake?

3. They Have Obnoxious Ads or Are Only In It For The Money

You know who we're talking about. Someone leaves a comment on your blog so
you go and visit their blog. When you get there, the entire site is one big
ad for something you wouldn't ever be interested in purchasing. What are
these bloggers thinking? That I'm going to buy from them when they have such
an obvious money-hungry blog? No way! I can't imagine what they were
thinking. We all know that building relationships with others and providing
valuable content is more important than making a dollar. Those flashing and
pop-up ads are so obnoxious, too. There are so many other ways to monetize
your site that having these types of ads does more damage than good. It's
not worth it, so don't do it.

4. They Diss Other Bloggers

Here's another way that Bloggers Behave Badly - they diss other bloggers
(usually the A-listers) with the sole intention of gaining viewers to their
site. This is another obvious tactic used by some bloggers who are trying to
take shortcuts, rather than taking the time (and putting in the hard work)
of making a meaningful blog. The tactic may work in the short-term as who
doesn't like a good fight sometimes, but it's cutting off your nose to spite
your face. The long-term repercussions of doing this aren't worth it. You'll
lose the respect of your audience and also lose integrity. Don't be 'that
guy' who does this. It's not worth the immediate feedback versus the
long-term potential of your blog. Don't get me wrong, writing a quality
article giving constructive feedback that concerns other bloggers is okay,
it's when your sole motivation is to bait those bloggers to visit your site
is with what I take issue. We're all adults so a little criticism is fine
and it allows us to grow. Being mean for no good reason isn't okay.

5. They Make It Hard To Contact Them

Another way that Bloggers Behave Badly is that they make it difficult for
you to contact them. You would think that by now every blogger has a Contact
page on their site, but it's simply not true. Sometimes they do have a
Contact page and the form doesn't work. Having a way to contact the blogger
is Blogging 101, so there's no reason for this to occur. The worst is when I
receive one of those automatic emails when I comment on a blog and try to
reply back to the email, only to find that the return address isn't valid.
Why even bother emailing me to thank me for commenting if you don't want to
engage me further? Even worse is when I leave a comment on your site and you
don't respond that way either. Don't make it difficult for me to contact
you. I don't want to have to hunt down to find your email address hidden
someone on your home page. Make it obvious for me.

What other symptoms have you observed for Bloggers Behaving Badly? Are you
guilty of any of them? Please let us know by leaving a comment below.
Thanks!

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Filed under: Guest Post • Starting Out • Useful

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