What Frustrates You The Most About Blogging?
Whether you're a seeker, slacker (hi!), yang kee, cash-quester or ray gun robot, you've got expectations for this whole blogging thing.You could be happiness incarnate, but expectations can still be an irritant; especially when they fail miserably in the "jibes with reality" department (even if your name is blog).
I know what my frustrations are (and in an upcoming post they shall be revealed), but I don't know all of yours. So, an open question to all bloggers: what frustrates you the most about blogging?
The 500 people a day who use my contact form to say:
ReplyDelete"U R CuTe :) i HOpe we cAn B friendz."
Errr....no, that's not going to happen. Using correct capitalization is a pre-requisite to my friendship.
Grrrrrr!!!!
Kumiko
xo
What frustrates me the most about blogging is folks who don't think about other folks when they ask for things. :)
ReplyDeleteHi Kumiko,
ReplyDeleteNow there's one I don't have to deal with. :) I wonder to what degree personal charisma/physical attractiveness will factor into blogging "success" in the future. I hope video doesn't kill the blogging star.
-j
Hey Liz,
ReplyDeleteHaven't quite figured out if you're speaking in general or specifically, but agree with you to the Nth, regardless.:)
-j
What frustrates me the most about blogging is people from mybloglog that constantly contact you saying join my community when they have never even been to yours or made contact with you other than the join my community message.
ReplyDeleteSmall gripe,but its mine.
Steven Wilson
Yo Comedy+,
ReplyDeleteYes, indeed. That's why many people dread the idea of being Dugg, for instance. Anonymity + audience can result in some seriously vile comments.
-j
Hey Steven,
ReplyDeleteI hear you. MyBlogLog offers so many examples of how *not* to self-promote that it's almost inspirational.:)
-j
umm.. good question there John! What frustrates me the most?... well so far i cannot say i have a lot of frustration nor anger towards any aspect of blogging, in fact i enjoy every single thing i do.. but i'd say what i hate the most is content teft.. like finding your article, one you worked hard to write.. on another site, without credits or anything, that's kinda bad! But appart from that, not much! :)
ReplyDeleteI just got this and I swear it's real:
ReplyDelete"hi ms kumiko,
i dont wanna ask anything about internet, i just wanna say that i really2 adore you!
you are so georgeus! japanese are so beautiful :)
i'm a fan of you now! visiting your blog is my daily must to do now :)
piss and love from indonesia."
I can't publish this on my own site and I hate making fun of other people's English abilities, but the laugh I got from the last line definitely balances out all frustrations from blogging!!
Kumiko
xo
Yo Jon,
ReplyDeleteI'm not surprised that you don't have a lot of blogging frustrations - that great attitude of yours has to come from somewhere.:)
And content theft, yes. I've seen some serious top-blowing over that one.
-j
Hey Kumiko,
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine having to put up with the kind of stuff you do, but you're right, that last line is comedy gold. :D
-j
What is it with that content theft? I found something of mine on another site (although I did get credit and it linked back to my page) -- but the author submitted it to Digg under his blog name.
ReplyDeleteMy frustration is the ups and downs. One day, 800 things I want to write about but know I won't be able to be alone at the computer for another 36 hours; next day, total silence in the house and nothing to say.
Piss and love from Minnesota.
The lack of discussion.
ReplyDeleteReally!
How many times do any of us Comment and say "I disagree!" Sometimes the whole PC post and comments get me down. Fight it out, talk it through and have light placed on a different view point.
Ok, my 10 cents worth. LOL
Be safe...
Hi Two Knives,
ReplyDeleteYeah, sadly splogs/scrapers can be mighty lucrative if done right. I was just reading about a guy who was making 5 figures a month with nothing but spam until Google busted him. o O
On inspiration, I'm tracking with you. It can be developed and trained, but it could be argued that that takes all the fun out of it.:)
-j
Hey Lora,
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's hard enough to find good debate in traditional media; usually it's just theater (i.e. more heat than light). In the blogosphere, even getting to "theater" level is something of an achievement.
-j
Hi John,
ReplyDeleteYou Said:
"I hear you. MyBlogLog offers so many examples of how *not* to self-promote that it's almost inspirational.:)"
I have found it awkward to make contact with people on MyBlogLog and to let them know about my Blog and now my new Website without feeling like it is self-promotion.
But when I stopped making any contact at all the people coming to visit slowed down nearly completely.
How can one make contact and yet not have it only appear that it is self-promotion?
Especially for us reclusive, di-social types.
-Xinfinitum-
Yo Xinfinitum,
ReplyDeleteGreat question.I hope others will jump in on this one, but here are a few thoughts:
Self-promotion is necessary for any business and any successful blog. It's not something to avoid, but rather something to do well.
What is good self-promotion? A good place to start would be a post from Liz Strauss ("Me Strauss" up there) right here. I'd recommend checking out Liz's whole site while you're at it.:) Here's one from me on the subject as well.
How to make contacting others into good self-promotion? Consider this:
If someone makes a funny comment, why do you check out their blog? If someone says something intelligent, or insightful; again, why do you check them out?
I'd say it's because they just aced self-promotion. They offered something of value to a conversation which gives us an idea of what their blog might offer. They didn't have to ask us for anything - certainly not to visit their site/join their community/etc.
That's just one example. Anyone else have advice on self-promotion? There are some seriously talented people around here.:)
-j
Xinfinitum,
ReplyDeleteI generally use Mybloglog to check out other blogs that I may be interested in reading. I usually check out members of blog communities I belong to. I don't feel like doing that is self-promotion because I'm really just looking around. Usually I spend time at sites that interest me, and my site might interest those that I visit. If not, they don't have to come back.
I will also latch on to the authors of funny comments on other sites. I've found some great stuff by reading comments.
I guess that's what John just said.
True TK, but your response won't get a "Too Long Didn't Read" reaction.:) Thanks for that.
ReplyDelete(by the way, I just got an IM from my partner: "piss and love from downtown")
Thanks for the insights John and TK.
ReplyDeleteI will check into the links you provided.
Regards,
Xinfinitum
You're more than welcome, X; thanks again for you thoughts and questions.
ReplyDelete-j
I left a comment on kumiko's blog about this just today. My biggest annoyance, which isn't even to do with my blog are the "fan club boys" that post useless comments on every article. The big blogs have it all the time. I don't have the readership for it yet.
ReplyDeleteYou see it on Chow's site all the time. "Way to go", "You did it again", "Wow, just awesome", etc, etc. They have nothing to say and it is all fluff every time.
The big blogs have had the success to0. I guess that is just what happens, but I find reading the comments annoying sometimes.
Yo Neil,
ReplyDeleteThat's a tough one. Most any blogger of sufficient popularity is going to get a number of, shall we say, "blog groupies". Although their constant applause may annoy some of us (depending on personality), in the end we're basically just being annoyed by human nature.:)
Indeed, even though many of us don't see much value in those kinds of comments, they're still doing a lot for the blogger. Besides the positive feedback, they're providing ongoing social proof that their blog is alive and people are listening. In other words, they're part of that blog's success.
-j
Great response John.
ReplyDeleteFantastic!
Way to go!
Wow, just awesome!
( :) Just kidding around. LOL )
-Xinfinitum-
Yo X,
ReplyDeleteHa, I quite agree. That's not much of an issue around here, though.
-j
That's the best thing about fustrations. When theyn get my goat enough that I want to say something I find I've written something that get's my readers going "amen brother" like I just scratched an itch. I could probably do so more often but I'm too lazy (if I were a trich man I'd pay other people to blog for me).
ReplyDeleteMy pet hate is spammers and other site abusers. I think I up set them when I described exactly what I think should be done to them by angry gorillas. Got called a War Lord for that one...
...and google's captcha system that times out the cache before you can type a message. I don't like that at all.
Hi Matt,
ReplyDeleteYes indeed; it's always nice when someone can articulate exactly how we're feeling about something.
On the spamming issue - it is way too profitable right now. There's so much content out there that isn't being seen, and it's so easy to set up automated scraper sites complete with comment spam bots to take advantage of it. It is indeed a worthy target for ire. Thanks for you thoughts.
-j
Hey John,
ReplyDeletewhat I meant in that first one was general I get regular demands nnd expectations from people who don't me and outright say they don't read my blog . . .
Meanwhile, I wish I could get over here more often. It's a great place to find my sanity. I have no idea why it keeps choosing to hang out here. But I thank you for keeping an eye on it when it does.
I don't like it when people leave "great post" with nothing else as a comment. I find it embarrassing.
Liz
I know, Liz; what are we supposed to do with "great post!" comments? Bow, maybe. Monologue-applause loops are boring.
ReplyDeleteAnd personally, I'm quite happy with how often you come here.:) Your sanity is safe with me.
-j
Why, ask me a question from out of left field of course!
ReplyDeleteI knew that . . . you speak Unique. Most folks think it's a dead language.
Speaking of left field questions: Did you notice that meme that was going around about why or why not people displayed their RSS subscriptions? Will you address that issue sometime, please? I'm unimpressed with the other responses.
ReplyDelete-j
No, seriously, are thinking that I read other blogs? :)
ReplyDeleteNo I haven't that meme. You're going to have to point me to what you're talking about or leave me here confused where I will eventually start crying. (My younger, older brother said I turned on the tears like a faucet but that wasn't true. He'd pick on me. I'd feel bad and cry. He'd get in trouble. I'd feel bad and cry. He's the one who had me trained to a whistle. -- It's sad really. What was that I was saying about my sanity earlier?)
Aforementioned meme can be found here. I was actually hoping someone would tag you with it, but it looks like noone did (maybe they knew better).
ReplyDeleteI actually have a small team of sock puppets who appear when anyone cries around here, so turning on the tears isn't necessarily a bad thing (depending on your stance toward sock puppets).
-j
I think about it, but to tell the truth, if you told me you were going to write a blog post about the feed count button alone, I would look at you and ask who were you blogging for?
ReplyDeleteAnd then you make it a meme? Those guys didn't ask me, because it never would have crossed their minds to ask a girl that question.
If I were to edit out the unnecessary words . . . how many words would be left? How does this question or the answer really benefit a reader? Okay it's a two minute decisions up or not -- decide. This is not a topic on which we need to have a meeting.
A meme??????????
This is why I was hoping someone would tag you. :D
ReplyDelete-j
As you would say, "o O," you wanted me to put an h1 header that said, "What a waste of bandwidth. Let's have a conversation about which typeface is prettier."
ReplyDeleteI only had the vaguest idea of what you might say; but I knew I'd like it.
ReplyDeleteI was right.
o O
I found out this week there's such a thing called a "Liz rant."
ReplyDeleteI had no idea.
Me either, Liz. What a pleasant surprise. :D
ReplyDeleteSo I tell you it exists and you immediately go find one. I have your number . . . and it's 321.
ReplyDeleteThe stars did align quite well on this occasion. All I had to "race" to was my feed reader. >:)
ReplyDeleteI've had a conversation with the stars about lining up where you're concerned . . . and also with you feedreader. It now comes covered with hearts and flowers. :)
ReplyDeleteThere are numerous blogs that I follow but recently that list has become much more lean. I am tired of seeing so many bogus posts. It's a total waste of my time to sort through them all.
ReplyDelete