Friday 2 September 2011

Blogs & Bloggers

Having a blog does not a blogger make

Courtesy of blog4students.wordpress.com
There are blogs, then there are non-blogs! I find it strange how often I come across non-blogs. After going to all the trouble to start one, then using it for really ridiculous things

Let me elaborate:

Going through quite a large number of WordPress.com 'latest posts' today (Hell, i needed a break from the heavy stuff of the past few days, fixing computer bugs, working on 3 web site layouts, drafting the first several series of customer information articles for graphicline.co.za, Absorbing more Drupal, writing an article for Graphiclineweb blog, and so on...), I came across a surprisingly high percentage of these non-blogs.

Here's a few examples (and I am not including URLs - they don't deserve to get traffic, it will just encourage the 'authors' to continue with this nonsense.

  • Example 1: A post which reads "Want a street legal TRON Light Cycle?" OK, that's the quick teaser seen on the list of latest posts at WordPress.com. Go to the blog post. Want a street legal TRON Light Cycle? that's the entire post, plus a link to a website. OK, fair enough, the author may have thought whatever the web page was about was worthy of sharing.
    A quick look through a few other posts - the same format in every case. Just a brief cryptic statement, and a link to a web page.
    That is as far is I went. If the blogger had taken the time to tell viewers a bit about what the web page was about, AT LEAST SOMETHING to hold attention, I would more than likely have followed the link.
    This was one of an uncounted number of similar nonsense items. Perhaps I looked at 60 or 70 of similar crap. 
Basically this is just a poor attempt to generate traffic for the website. It counts as SPAM. Guess what - I blocked all these type of rubbish generating blogs, so I don't get tricked into visiting the site. One less possible source of traffic, one less possibility of traffic to the targeted website.

Yes, I also use blogs to generate traffic to my website(s). At least I give the viewer some motivation to go to the website. Judging by the amount of traffic the graphiclineweb blog is getting these days, the number of clicks on links to graphicline.co.za that result, it has been a success. People are returning to the blog, often. And graphicline.co.za is doing pretty well without resorting to desperate spamming.

Tweets - not blog posts

This type of post is a Twitter tweet, not  a blog post. That's what Twitter is for, short sharp and catchy statements in less than 140 characters!

Artefacts!
Photograph
  • Example 2: A link from the summary list to a post. The post contains a photograph. Nothing more. OK, I have no problem with photo blogs. There are some really cool photo galleries created on blogs, and there a some I return to regularly.
    But surely if one expects to attract visitors to a photo gallery, an effort will be made to place good photos, in an appealing manner.
    This post, a 280pixel x 240 pixel image. That's just a large thumbnail. And not even good resolution, heavy artefacts, low quality jpeg. Fine, a poor thumbnail can lead to a decent image - this one, no larger image, the thumbnail just open itself in a new window.
    WordPress.com even provides some really great themes for photo blogs, that present photos at their best.
    Oh, of course there are links to a commercial websites!
 More Spam. and in this case, there were a whole bunch  of similar thumbnail posts!


COME ON Bloggers or should I say SPAMMERS. Make some effort. I know you want traffic to the sites you link to. Give viewers a reason to visit your website, not just a pointless phrase, or a crummy image.

The occasional single line phrase is fine if it is catchy and serves a purpose, but the emphasis is on 'occasional'

My own blogging:

I write several blogs, this one among them. graphiclineweb is a tech blog, and the content is plain language tech information. It is intended to draw visitors, hold their attention, and send them to graphicline.coza. And It Works, amazingly well. In fact it has become so popular that while I originally intended for it to be relocated to my graphicline domain around NOW, it has developed a following, and it's own 'character' so it will remain where it is, kindly hosted courtesy of WordPress.com

This blog 'sharks' is a different concept altogether. It was never intended as a traffic generator. I never really expected more than the occasional accidental reader, from close friends and acquaintances. That it gets a few hundred views a month is astonishing.

My mission statement for this blog "my place to be sarcastic, critical, rude etc etc, is what it is all about. Some people go to a pub, and share their irritations with others over a beer or something similar. I used to do that too, back when there were good reason to go to pub, good cold beer, pleasant company, attractive and friendly BARMAIDS!, BARMAIDS!!, oh yes BARMAIDS!!! Oh by the way, did I mention BARMAIDS!!?


The trend these days is barmaid-less pubs... at least in my locale... Boring! 'Political Correctness' has no place in my life... "Barperson" - bugger that, there are barmaids and barmen...

So I put my gripes on this blog, and if someone wants to read them, that's great. If no-one wants to read them, that's fine too. It really makes no difference. It's my place to moan, complain, be objectionable, etc etc...

But at least it has CONTENT... not one sentence idiotic statements hoping to drive traffic to a site selling rubbish!

That is the thing about blogs. There's an opportunity for everyone, for every occasion, for every purpose. Even just to entertain oneself (is that what verbal masturbation is?). And apparently some morons find it another way to create SPAM.



2 comments:

  1. Not quite... verbal masturbation is what people like malema do when telling everyone how fantastic they are. Politicians do it a lot. So do 'professionals'. You know "how great I am, slurp..."

    ReplyDelete