I’ve been blogging for a long time. A loooooong time. 8 years. Okay, that’s not a long time compared to some bloggers but still a long time. It actually feels like it should be longer! 😀 It’s one journey I’m grateful to have started, but over time, I have developed a few pet peeves related to visiting other blogs. And today, I’m letting them out, people. No holding back!
5 Reasons Why I Leave Your Blog
These are the things annoy me when it comes to blogging. I won’t name any names to protect the guilty, especially when the guilty party is moi.
More Ads than Content
I have ZERO problem with bloggers trying to earn some hard-earned coin from their blogs. None. My issue stems from visiting a new-to-me blog that is more ad than content. When you have to close 20 gazillion (a conservative estimate) pop-ups to even view the content, then get the pleasure of viewing an ad after EVERY SINGLE PARAGRAPH, I go a little nuts. Seriously, bloggers! STOP IT!
As much as I hate to burst your unicorn bubble, you’re probably not that special. Even if you were the lucky “first” blogger in your niche, an hour later there will be 80,000,000 (a conservative estimate) blogs on the same topic competing for eyeballs. Thus, if you overwhelm me with ads, then “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” because Google has many suitors who want my attention (and dollars), just like Taylor always has some eager dude waiting in the wings to have a song written about him on her next album.
Social Media Share Buttons Covering Content
Oy. This is a huge pet peeve of mine. But you know those sliding social share buttons that creepily follow along as you read something? Well, sometimes, they cover up content. And I’m not sure if the blog owner is simply unaware (which is bad) or doesn’t care (which is worse) but it annoys me. I mean we come to your blog TO READ and if something covers up your words, we CANNOT read. Now, if you absolutely must have those stalkerish share buttons, fine. But make sure they don’t cover-up text and if they do and you don’t know how to fix the problem, hire someone to fix it or DON’T USE THEM!
Autoplaying Videos/Ads
Let’s be real: sometimes we’re cruising our favorite blogs/websites when we shouldn’t be, whether at work, a child’s first, never-ending band concert or a funeral. 😀 And we don’t want a damn ad for the upcoming episode of the Real Housewives of Timbuktu to broadcast to the world or our boss that we have wine cooler taste in TV shows. So to recap: I am PRO-CHOICE videos, meaning I like it when I can CHOSE for MYSELF as to whether I want to watch your video and WHEN.
My Way or the Highway Bloggers
Bloggers are opinionated people. In fact, that’s why most of us blog, even if it’s not our core reason or focus. But most days, whether we do it with a smile or a raised fist, we share how we feel about things from the mundane to the really important. And that’s okay. I like passionate people. I like people who inspire me, educate me, challenge me, etc. But I also get extremely frustrated with those who believe the way they did something — from raising kids to getting out of debt to finding Mr or Mrs. Right or losing weight — is the ONLY right way. And they condescend and ridicule anyone who it doesn’t work for or does it differently. My friend and fellow blogger, Rebecca Jo, had a great post about this, although her experience was in-person vs another blogger.
My caveat, of course, is that we all have certain non-negotiable philosophies/beliefs or core values. For me, people with proudly racist viewpoints are gonna get the finger and I ain’t gonna feel bad about it either.
Clique(ish) Bloggers aka Mean Girl Bloggers
Blogging is fun but it is also terrifying. You’re putting your thoughts out into the world for it to dissect and judge. And it will. If you are fortunate, you will find a tribe of fellow bloggers (and readers) who welcome you, even when they don’t agree with you, because no one agrees with someone 100% of the time. But sometimes, you run into bloggers who act like we’re back in high school and they’re sitting at the cool kids table with no seat for you. I don’t expect all bloggers to like me or be interested in what I write because I don’t like every blogger I meet or enjoy what they write, but it doesn’t mean you get to act like a Queen B because you think you’re better than me and everyone else.
Talk to the hand, bitches.
Blog Responsibly, My Friends
Just like being a superhero is a big responsibility (according to Spiderman) so is being a good blogger. I’m honored to be part of this humongous, diverse community and so grateful to the many friends I’ve made through blogging — you’ve made it so much fun. While I wrote in jest (to an extent) about my pet peeves, I do believe it is important to differentiate between intentionally annoying people (i.e. writing a controversial think piece) versus unwittingly pissing off your audience because you bombard them with ads that slow down your site, etc. Whether you blog for fun or profit or both, it’s always smart to take a step back and look at your blog from a visitor’s perspective.
What are some of your pet peeves when you visit other blogs?
Tanya
lol! I’m not a fan of titles that say something to the effect of “How I Retired Early…and You Should Too!” I already should on myself too much these days to have someone else should on me too. 🙂
With you 100%! Should is one of those words that irritates me, although I imagine that I’ve used it before. LOL!
The “social media sharing buttons that follow you and are covering up actual content” is super annoying, I agree.
My biggest pet peeve with blogging are bloggers that still use “Captcha”. Whyyyyy??
For the love….
If it is that much work involved to leave a comment, I am not going to do it.
Oh my gosh, I completely forgot about how ANGRY I get when it’s hard or frustrating to comment on somebody’s blog. I want to make it as easy as possible for people to comment, ya know? There are lots of good plug-ins to help minimize SPAM that don’t require the commenter to jump through hoops.
Videos that autoplay are the worst… On blogs AND news sites. I hate that! (And they’ve definitely gotten me in trouble in inappropriate places. Lol.) I just had to double check my blog to see if I’m a big offender. I think I’m alright mostly, although there are certainly some opinions that I’m quite unwilling to bend on… lol. But I THINK we mostly agree on them! (Maybe not the great dog vs. cat debate, LOL.)
Cliche-ish bloggers can be super discouraging. Sometimes it makes me a little sad to see a group of folks I closely follow all mention one another or share posts without me being included, but I really believe that the people that *I* follow don’t do it on purpose. There are SO many of us and it’d be impossible to list all the greats 🙂 I try to take those kinds of things with a grain of salt and a “good for them!” attitude. But yeah… there are also some petty folks out there that I try to avoid!
Glad to be a blog-friend of yours, though! I hope you never feel like you can’t sit at my lunch table!!
I’m weird because I almost always prefer to read versus watch my news so it really irritates me when their videos automatically play. Your blog is fine, Audrey! And I love bloggers who share honest opinions, even when I don’t agree with them, and only get annoyed with those who condescend others for doing things differently than they do because their way is the ONLY way to do or think about something. That makes my head explode. I’m so grateful that we are blog friends too, Audrey. You’ve always got a spot on my lunch table too!
all of these T, ALL.OF.THESE.
or pop ups with SUBSCRIBE HERE! when i’m just about to start reading…i just close the whole thing.
i also leave when the blog gets way too political; always ranting about something. i get the world sucks – we live it every day – so when i read blogs, i dont want to read about the things i’m trying to momentarily escape!
The subscribe pop-up drives me crazy, especially when I don’t know you yet. You might not be cool. I might not want to read your future posts. Wow me, than maybe I’ll subscribe! 😀
Political posts don’t super annoy me, although there are days when I want to escape too. Other times I seek them out because I need place to vent. LOL! Blogs that are nonstop ranting, though, do annoy me since they also seem to enjoy playing the victim.
Oh my word – I just love this post. Its like you’re reading my mind.
it’s a shame because there are a lot of blogs that I always love reading, but I just CANT with all the pop up stuff – or the ones that somehow, in the middle of reading, pull down from the top & then mess me up where I’m at reading. SO IRRITATING.
I always say, give me the normal, down to earth, girl next door blog – those are the ones I care about anyways – not the one who is doing the 100th post on the same advertising product over & over again.
The pop-up stuff really drives me nuts. It so annoying and frustrating. The first time I ran across that kind of ad it confused the heck out of me. I didn’t know what was happening! I’m not big on sponsored posts either. I like posts where people share things they use, bought or their wish lists quite a bit but the canned sponsored posts don’t appeal to me at all.
Laughing way too hard at “wine cooler taste in TV shows”. However, I agree with all of these! I think one of my biggest pet peeves is a dark background with neon font. I just can’t read that and it bugs my eyes! I actually just went through and updated mine to make it more streamlined.
Dark backgrounds are really difficult to design properly. In theory, they sound beautiful but they do bother people’s eyes and can be quite harsh, especially when you add a neon font.
I did a post similar to this a while ago! I hate all of these things…especially the my way or highway bloggers!
They are simply the worse. And it’s sad because sometimes they have valid points and information but that attitude just drives me nuts.