7 Deadly Sins Bloggers Who Blog About Blogging Make

Normally, most “mistake lists” target bloggers, in general.

Today, Source Blogger is taking you a step further by focusing on the “7 deadly sins bloggers who blog about blogging make” – many of which, admittedly,  I continue to make as well.

Source Blogger is a “blog about blogging.” This niche/category is very saturated,  very competitive, and for the most part, very misunderstood. It takes a great deal of marketing, networking, and promotion to set yourself apart. Much of the competition is global – with many blogs from the U.K., India, and the Philippines all competing for notoriety.

Let’s get right into these “deadly sins” as it is a lengthy list – but, one you will enjoy and most likely relate to.

1) Too many article about coding and plugins.

As bloggers, this behind-the-scenes aspect of presenting our blogs and offerring a welcoming, integrative environment is one that cannot be avoided.

But, concentrating your site’s content solely on this aspect is turning away readers. Part of the appeal to blogging stems from the “ease of use” and “low barrier to entry” not tweaking and re-tweaking code.

On the bright side, at least we know who to come to when we need a favor!

2) Too Many Lists (“Drive-By Blogging”)

Lists are an excellent method to ensure that the reader is clearly absorbing all of the concepts in your post.

But, it’s a list.

You wrote: “Write Quality Content”, “Write For People, Not Search Engines”, and “Write In Your Own Unique Voice”.

That all sounds good, but what the heck does it mean? Where is a clear breakdown of all this advice?

Blogging is truly an applied science. The difference in impact of one blog to another is not that it failed to acknowledge someone’s list of what to do.

“By the end of your list, your reader felt lost, alone…  and probably needed a hug!”

3) Too Many “How-To’s” and Tutorials

Does a day go by, as bloggers, where we are not reading a “How To?” But, must every article on your blog be in this format?

I know, I know… you read somewhere that these were typically the most enticing articles for socia media / social bookmarking purposes and even search engines.

Unfortunately, unless I am looking for how to do something, there is not much of your personal commentary left to engage a reader – there is no balance – just one big instruction manual! (And oh, how we hate those!)

4) Discussing Earnings

I am 100% in favor of bloggers receiving compensation for their blogging efforts.

But, keep it to yourself. Earnings cannot be verified and are often displayed in a fashion that may lack integrity and/or credibility.

How much money you make has nothing to do with my potential to make money. Perhaps I’ll never make a dime.  And to make matters worse, I now feel like less of an active participant on your blog…  and more like a sales prospect. The whole “experience” has suddenly been cheapened by your true motivation.  Thank goodness I held off signing up for your “exclusive newsletter”.

5) Name Dropping and/or Desperate Attempts At Inclusion

Anyone in and around Blogging, Social Media Marketing, Internet/Affiliate Marketing, and Making Money Online knows exactly what I am talking about.

We’ve seen it in blog posts and in Twitter tweets.

Blatant attempts at wanting to be named/listed among the industry elite is pathetic and sends up a red flag to your peers regarding your personal integrity. Just stop it.

6) You’re a copycat.

If you see another blogger blogging about “How To Make Your Blogger Blog SEO Friendly,” you do the same. If you read an article about “How To Add Sexy Bookmarks To Your Template, you do the same. If you see a blogger write about “Best Twitter Tools for WordPress, you… well you get the idea.

What I find horrifying is when this coding was originally copied wrong or just wasn’t very good to begin with.

a) You copied the original HTML/CSS code (from another blog) and offered it to your readers.

b) In the original blog, the code was modified based on the feedback and input from readers who were having problems and notified the blog’s author.

c) You never updated your code with the new improvements.

d) An unsuspecting reader performs a fatal installation. What are you going to say as consolation? You should have backed up your template first?

The point here is do not offer anything of a proprietary, technical nature unless you are personally using it yourself.

And that goes for concepts as well. Let me give you an example:

Backlinks and ‘DoFollow’

Sure we all have an opinion on this, but what are you telling your readers? Have you fully investigated the impact making your site ‘DoFollow” will have on one’s search engine visibility and PageRank? Have you mentioned to your readers what the cost of having a “blogroll” is? Until then, do not merely “regurgitate” what you heard as fact elsewhere.

It’s important to have a complete understanding before you serve it up to unsuspecting readers -  the best way would be living it and applying it to your own blog.

We owe it to our readers.

7) Competing With the Huffington Post, TechCrunch, Mashable!, Gizmodo, Endgadget, Gawker, etc…

I like your blog for its original content. Original content does not come from your constant linking to these other blogs to “read the rest of the story here.”

In my opinion, there are two types of bloggers who blog about blogging: I affectionately call them either “nerds” or “geeks.” Out of this “nerd” group, we may not have an affinity to read a constant barage about what Apple, Google, and At&T is doing. Plus, you seem to be doing a lot for these well-recognized, established sites – what are they doing in return for all that link love?

Well, there it is! The 7 deadly sins. What do you think? Have you noticed other aspects of blogs and bloggers in this niche/category that also deserve more attention?

The goal is not to be critical of this group, but share observations in a positive manner in order to bring awareness.