3 types of posts I hate to read the most and how to improve them

Despite the fact that we are bloggers, you must agree with me that we are also readers. It’s the truth that we read every day, from other friends’ blog posts to feeds, news, and forum posts to gather information and knowledge so that we can make that knowledge become experience and share it with our readers.

Although there are many good blog posts that I love, there are also some exceptional very bad blog posts that I really dislike. I have list three types of blog posts that I hate to read below. This is my personal feeling and of course, you’re welcome to share your own thoughts.

Long, hype and vague post

The first type of blog post that I really dislike to read is the long and vague post. Some bloggers, especially new bloggers who are stepping into blog world, they write too long and vague post, almost like an essay that we usually read when we do a peer review in high school and college.

I’m so sorry but this kind of post doesn’t add any value to me, as the readers. Long post really makes it attractive because it seems you really throw off some effort to write long post here. Some posts that I read have sections which make it easy to scan and I really appreciate that those bloggers have thought about readers when they write their post.

However, to this type of post, all I do is skimming to the end, say something nice to the writers and that’s it. And I have a reason for that. Your post is too vague and I can’t take anything out of it. Let’s face it yourself. You can write better posts if you break down those points and bring into them more details.

For example,  most bloggers know they should do blog commenting, blog guest to increase traffic but how they should comment, what can they make it so that commenting becomes more addict to their readers? I believe if blogger pay more attention to this, newbie would not have to immerse in all of the hype information and can figure out the more quick way to make things work for them.

So how to fix this type of post:

• We should read the post again when we finished reading it. Put ourselves into the shoe of readers and think what do they think when they read this post. Does this post bring any value to them? Is it too vague? Should we add some more examples, some more steps to make the post clearer?
• Ask an editor or peer how the post look like if you have someone to ask for. They surely will add a lot of comments to make you improve in the next writing.

Poor formatting, full of errors post.

The second type of blog post I really, really hate to read is post with text only, post with no formatting, full of grammar errors and no sense of humor.

Someone said reading is the driest work to do. It’s particular true with this kind of post.

I don’t really remember how many times I have to shut down Firefox tab, nod my head for this kind of post. Reading is hard and these posts are making it harder for me. In this case, I often wish the writer could have done a better job in:

• Proof read his post carefully. Use Word, Open Office or any programs that has spell checking to check the spelling and grammar errors before you publish it.
• Use sans-serif font which makes post easy to read. Follow thetypography rule that you must maintain the font-size to leading ratio. What that means is your font-size needs to be proportional with the line-height. Use the online tool such as Typetester to make sure the font is readable then you can them to your website.
• Use funny images to illustrate your post. You can’t imagine how astonishing I am when I am reading a blog post and then a funny picture appears. People say “A picture says thousand words”. I think it’s somehow true. If you can use images to explain things, go ahead, that makes things easier to read.

Unscannable post

The third type of post I do really hate to read is post that aren’t scannable

How much time do you devote to read other people’s posts a day? How much time you devote into a post?

We probably don’t have much time to read because we have another work to do. We’re busy with families, friends and with our own work so posts that are scannable are highly appreciated.

I have found these tips particular helpful in making the post more scannable

• Use headers. Nothing more excellent than headers because they divide your post into each section and allow readers to grab quick glance at the content of set of paragraphs before actually reading it.
• List, list and list. List makes your post extremely scannable. List breaks a paragraph into distinct points, allows you to give examples in those points and list makes the post look nice.
• Use image. An image says an thousand words. If you can give an image as an example, that’s would be so excellent.

It’s your turn to talk

That’s it. That’s my feeling I want to share with you when I read other people’s blog. How’s your feeling, then?

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