5 Blog Writing Mistakes I’ve Made

by Ben Yoskovitz

How many mistakes have I made since I started blogging?

Do you really want to know? Alright then…here’s 5 blog writing mistakes I’ve made:

Ending blog post titles with periods. Gack! I did this all the time. I debated whether it made sense or not, but apparently it doesn’t.
So let me ask you this question: What about ending blog post titles with other syntax, like exclamation points or question marks? Anyone?
Uber-long blog posts. I still believe there’s a time and place for long blog posts, but for the most part, people have short attention spans, so it’s understandable that you should try and keep posts as short as possible. Perhaps more important is this: don’t ramble. If you’re rambling, go back, slice the post to pieces, cut out the unecessary stuff and make it a lean, mean, discussion-inducing machine. Try taking a very long post and splitting it into multiple posts. And try writing posts at varying lengths; early on I found most of my posts were long. Now I’ve diversified.
Not focusing on 1 topic. Goes hand-in-hand with writing too much. Focusing on more than 1 topic in a blog post is bad on a number of levels: you’ll confuse and lose readers, and it’s no good for SEO and contextual advertising (like Google Ads).
Not tagging my posts. I learned this one fairly early — tag your posts for Technorati. It’s easy enough to do, and it will help people who are using Technorati to find your blog. If you’re using WordPress, I recommend SimpleTags, which is an ultra-easy plugin. Otherwise, try UltraSeeker - Technorati Tag Builder (or your blogging platform may have other plugins to use for this.)
Misusing images. In the beginning I didn’t use images. Then I read some stuff about the use of images and how it can enhance the quality of a blog post and the audience’s interest. Makes sense. So then I started using images. I think I went too far, the images got bigger and bigger, to the point where they overwhelmed the content and became too generic to really add value to the blog posts. I’m much more careful with my use of images now. They’re important, but not always. And I want images that grab people visually and say something meaningful.

I’m still learning. And making mistakes. Everyone is. And that’s part of the beauty of this thing - some people have more experience, some might be “experts” but no one is the definitive guru of blogging. What works for one type of subject matter won’t for another. What works for one audience or community of readers won’t for another. There’s so much variety…which means we all get to learn and find our way at the same time.

And help each other out.

Remember: You still have time to join Blog About 5 Things Week. Write a post on 5 things - any 5 things - 5 ideas, 5 steps, 5 tips, 5 things that irritate you, etc. Link back here and email me!

October 5th, 2006

14 Responses to “5 Blog Writing Mistakes I’ve Made”

#1 Rick Cockrum October 5th, 2006 at 1:18 pm

Good list, Ben.

The technorati tagging has been confusing me for a while. I thought technorati used your category tags as tags and so don’t bother with tags specifically for technorati. Am I mistaken, or does this just make the tag too general?

#2 Ben Yoskovitz October 5th, 2006 at 1:51 pm

I think Technorati does use categories as tags as well, but I prefer to get some very specific ones listed in each post.

Since it’s so easy to put tags in, even if they’re duplicates of the categories, I do it anyway.

I haven’t mastered tagging from the perspective of generating traffic on “key” tags, but I’ve seen some traffic filter through from them…

We would need a WordPress expert to help us out a bit more to clarify categories as tags. Lorelle, are you there?

#3 paul merrill October 5th, 2006 at 1:54 pm

Pix are vital, if you can find one to illustrate your story.

My blog is always a mixture of pix & stories - where the story serves the pic.

The thing that limits me is my subject matter - not everyone is interested how life is different in Africa vs. in the States. But I’m not in it for the money - only for my love of the subject.

#4 Ben Yoskovitz October 5th, 2006 at 2:00 pm

Paul - I don’t look at subject matter as being limiting at all. It may be in terms of generating traffic and making money, but niche blogs on specific subjects that draw people in … that’s powerful stuff.

And you have some AWESOME pictures. People, go check out Nairobi!

I have a friend heading to either Kenya or South Africa soon for a 2-month internship, helping local businesses develop website projects. I’m going to get him blogging too; I think it’s great to see grassroots content come from places where it’s so hard to get real information.

And Paul — you should invite Basil to check out Nairobi (http://www.whereisbasil.com).

Thanks for the comment, keep on coming!

#5 Ted Demopoulos October 6th, 2006 at 3:14 am

I like occasional question marks in blog titles - I think they help draw people in.

Exclaimation marks - hmmm, need to think about that a bit - I see no problem, but I wonder if I’ve ever used one?

#6 Ben Yoskovitz October 6th, 2006 at 11:28 am

Ted - thanks for the feedback.

I can see question marks being useful. Questions naturally lead to answers, which the reader would assume lies in the blog post. It seems like a perfect fit.

Often, people say start a blog post with a question - so why not title it that way?

As for exclamation points - I’m on the fence too. I know I’ve used them but I wonder if they come off as being too “ra ra” and don’t appeal to many readers who might say, “Ben’s ranting again…”

#7 Bret February 26th, 2007 at 2:10 pm

Thanks for the pointer on “tagging” posts for Technorati. I’m still getting started in this area and plan to install the SimpleTags plugin for my blog (www.techtraction.com shameless plug) later this afternoon.

On a slightly related note, I like the way each of your posts include a short list of “related posts” at the end. Is that also a plug in or just part of the WordPress theme you’re using?

#8 Ben Yoskovitz February 26th, 2007 at 7:52 pm

Hey Bret — SimpleTags is good. I’ve also used Ultimate Tag Warrior, which is what this site now uses.

As for the related posts - that is a plugin:
http://www.w-a-s-a-b-i.com/archives/2006/02/02/wordpress-related-entries-20/

I believe that link should take you there.

Good luck!

#9 broc March 14th, 2007 at 3:41 am

i think that you should leave out all punctuation because of the fact that it makes it harder for someone to convey your post title
with the exception of a cleverly placed question marks

#10 Ben Yoskovitz March 14th, 2007 at 10:27 am

Broc - Question marks can definitely be effective. Most other punctuation can be left to the wayside.

I have seen some very popular stories with headlines like this:

How-to: (Insert something here)

But I think generally you’re correct - there’s no reason for the punctuation in there.

#11 CA March 22nd, 2007 at 5:51 am

I must say, I just got hold of a wordpress plugin “jeromes keywords” for tags. It offers a number of advantages - one of which is automatic technorati tagging (do I use that right?)

I must admit that I am still a bit hazy about the whole tag thing in the overall scheme of things.

Having started off with Wordpress in Feb, I have had my share of mistakes - most of them due to lack of thorough research. Permalinks for one - I submitted the sitemap to google with query links.

I have never used punctuations. I have a question about the question mark. For example - for a page with URL - http://blog.somehost.com/index.php/some-article-question?
won’t the search engines recognize this as a dynamic page and not index it?

#12 Bret March 22nd, 2007 at 10:04 am

CA…If it helps, I can relay my experience with WordPress and tags thus far.

I install the SimpleTags plugin for WordPress recommended here by Ben. The plugin is very easy to use. Write a post and the surround key/important words with the SimpleTag (similar to using any other HTML tag but uses different syntax). When you publish your post you’ll see the list of words you tagged with SimpleTags at the bottom. Click on anyone of those words and you’ll get taken to Technorati where you’ll get presented with other recent blog posts with similar tags. For example, if you surround the word “blog” with a SimpleTag, and then click on the link at the bottom of your post, the link takes you to technorati.com/tag/blog. There you’ll see your post and others with the same tag. I think Ben has his tags set up a little different here, but what I described is the general idea. Hope that helps.

#13 Ben Yoskovitz March 22nd, 2007 at 1:26 pm

CA - I’m not an expert in what Google will or will not index - but I wouldn’t worry about question marks in post titles; I’ve heard of a problem with that whatsoever as it translates to the URL and is not liked by Google.

Bret is right regarding SimpleTags. I did recommend it as an easy way to implement tags. I know use Ultimate Tag Warrior. It’s a bit of a beast, more fickle and not as easy to setup. But one of the big advantages is that it creates TAG PAGES on your site.

So let’s say you have a tag called “Accounting” - Ultimate Tag Warrior will create a page like:

http://www.instigatorblog.com/tag/accounting/

That page gets indexed by Google as additional content, and can draw search engine traffic.

#14 CA March 22nd, 2007 at 2:02 pm

Thanks Bert and Ben.

I did use simple tags earlier - but I am not sure I like the idea of sending a visitor to technorati when they click on the tags. Being a recent entrant to the blogging world, I am not sure about the value addition of sending a visitor out of my site.

What I like about Jerome Keywords is that when a visitor clicks on a keyword, all posts within my blog containing those keywords gets displayed.

You can see the feature list here: http://vapourtrails.ca/wp-keywords

I did try Ultimate Tag Warrior too - but as Ben said, it is a beast to configure.

Incidently, Ben, Jeromes Keywords creates TAG pages on your site too.

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