11 Pointless Blog Posts that Waste my Time

Hi, this is my first time here, and I cannot stop to post this comment: if I blog about my cat puking on my carpet this morning, but I’ll give an iPhone to the reader who can guess the exact hour it happened, am I excused, even if I’m not John Chow? ;)

Please don’t get me wrong. I like your article, and I subscribe to almost all your points here. However, if we try to write only about original topics, we’ll end up with little to no content at all, because as you said, there are 800 millions blogs out there, so the odds are favourable to the fact that our next post’s topic was tackled before by at least one other blog. Filtering noise has become a real challenge these days, and each blog reader tries to sort it in the best way possible.

Anyway, you’ve just got a new subscriber ;)

@Simone, sure you can’t write solid posts all the time but because I had so much backlog I was finding blog after blog with 20+ posts where not a single post gave me any real value, and that really is just a waste of time imo.

I think it’s worth every blogger taking a look at their recent posts and just asking themselves how useful those posts are to their readers. If everybody just focuses on getting out 1 or 2 really good articles each week then I think we’d all be better off.

Darn! I was just considering implementing “off topic Sunday”! And.. I’m tempted to put forth unfounded speculate that Google had a noticable shift in algorithm within the past two days. (I think they did, but I can’t think of anyway to make this sound interesting or really support it.)

On the off topic: I started BigBucksBlogger precisely because I became fascinated with blog conversations about SEO, getting traffic, social media etc. I didn’t want to full my knitting blog with that stuff. I am a bit tempted to do “off topic Sunday”, flagging it clearly so anyone on readers can just see “OFF TOPIC!” :)

@Lucia, Hehe I think that’s a great idea. To reiterate, as long as a blog continues to provide good content (which yours does, I keep finding myself stumbling your posts!) then it’s fine to have off-topic stuff thrown in as well. What I find time wasting is when a blog just has nothing but fluff to post.

My blog is about ME… and not about the READERS…
so if you don’t like those post by bloggers in the world who only cares about themselves(like me)… blame the world… for not having a
- One centralized government who is really in control
- One scattered internet built on a completely centralized search engine which knows EVERYTHING about you and every information possible
until then… live with it and bitch about it how you see things you don’t want to see.

I LOVE the example for #7! That drives me nuts too about many of the SEO bloggers. I actually stopped reading a lot of SEO blogs for that reason because #1 it was irritating and #2 I felt like I was just some outsider looking into their secret clubhouse instead of feeling like part of the community.

That might be good SEO, if you’re hoping to get links from the SEO superstars, but its a pretty bad social networking strategy if you’re one of the thousands of readers who aren’t or don’t want to be in the clique.

12) These are my blog stats.

I subscribe to a few blogs which seem to want to keep me up to date each week or month with their visitor stats (or worse, blog earnings). To me, these are the equivalent of cat pictures. Nobody cares but you.

@Mgccl, If your blog is about YOU, and you blog about yourself, then I doubt you go off topic do you? My niche is Internet Marketing, Business, Blogging etc so the kinds of posts I have outlined in this post are the kinds that often crop up in that niche. I am not discussing personal blogs.

@Christine, Yeah it is weird how it’s SEO more than others. The podcasts are full of it too. I was listening to a superb podcast Beginning SEO - http://podcast.neo1seo.com/ and this was great at first but by about episode 50 I just stopped listening because it became more and more of this boring chatter.

@Jeff, Actually those are my favourite types of posts and I actually think they are very valuable to blogs in the “make money online” niche because the chances are that other readers are trying to do the same thing on their blogs so it’s cool to compare. However, I can see how they would be meaningless in other niches.

Hey Glad I came across your blog - this one definitely caught my attention. Nice one I got to say.

Might just link to it ;-)

Thank you for stopping by.

@Warrior, thanks to you too, well not sure if I should thank you actually because after my mega purge yesterday that led to this post, I then saw your post and subscribed to your blog! :D

Great post! I feel exactly the same, and in fact was looking for an automated means of cutting through the clutter. Perhaps best to approach it from both ends. In any case, you’ve inspired me to subscribe so now I’ve got 1 more blog to read each day. Thanks :-)

@Jeff, lol sorry :)

There is an automated way to cut through the clutter. CTRL-A, “Mark as Read”. unfortunately I just can’t bring myself to do that in case I miss something really good.

Caroline,

Nice post, I don’t have the time to keep up to date with your blog let alone the other few hundred that I have growing each day. I actually find myself skimming a lot these days (except yours of course - as long as you keep within the 2 page limit :)). Sometimes I don’t even expand the post from the intro bit, so a blogger has that one paragraph to entice me to read more.

I do think the humorous posts about ones cat are absolutely hilarious though. It’s these kinds of post that make my day, but that is because I’m a bystander probably and well my personality :).

Sometimes you can get information overload and you need a few little funnies thrown in to ease the pain.

Emma

@Emma, Yeah I like cat ones too but I have three blogs that give me that fix and I only check them when I have time - they don’t form part of my ‘work’ blogs so I can separate them and get my funny fix when I want do, rather than when it is forced upon me.

Thanks for the reminder that I needed to update Wordpress. I didn’t blog about it. :)

Darren Rowse had ran a series in August called ‘31 Days to Building a Better Blog’:

http://www.problogger.net/archives/category/31-days-to-building-a-better-blog/

Perhaps instead of doing one of the offending 11 activities above, and aspiring blogger could do one of his 31 activities instead.

Can I add another? Blogs whose feed re-publish so they turn up as unread, like this one just did. You can’t just ignore it in case there was an update :-(
BTW - you’d hate my main blog :-) but it’s really mostly my personal learning journal and is focussed on my research interests, so not the kind of blog you mean.
My work blog is a different matter with total focus and no personal posts. I strive to keep that professional.
I keep my feeds in folders and mark uninteresting blog posts as read if they don’t grab me. I guess I read about half of yours :-)

@LindaH

Do you think it re-publishes every time the blogger does an update to the post. I sent Caroline a load of typos shortly after I read it so maybe that was the reason? :)

@ Emma
Yes, that’s it - it’s one of the main reasons that bloggers should double check before publishing posts or use a browser like Firefox with a built in spell checker.

@LindaH, yup sorry about that - I corrected some typos. I’m not sure how that affects the RSS feed. Mind you I subscribe to my own feed both via RSS and email and I’ve not had a second one published after I edited something so not sure what’s going on there.

Perhaps we could add a 12th….

Writing pointless whinging posts, that moan on about other blog’s posts wasting your time, and then pretty much do the same to your own readers.

Oh and just to get more coverage for your own hypocracy go and submit it to Sphinn and no doubt have a few friends vote you up.

Here is a suggestion, don’t subscribe to so many blogs, or start culling the ones that you take offence to.

POV.

Actually, I think describing posts that shouldn’t be written is useful on this blog which is a meta-blog about blogging. This blog’s readers may actually want to know some general categories of posts that won’t reel in traffic on any blog, anywhere and they also want to know which posts may repel traffic. For example, a post announcing nothing more than the fact that you upgraded WP will bring in zero traffic and possibly repel readers.

On my knitting blog, a post with this content would be nothing more than whining and would drive away traffic.

I agree with most of these, but not #6. Adding commentary isn’t the same thing as not having anything of value to say. If someone’s subscribed to my blog, that means they value *my* opinion on things - so why make them look through a (potentially huge) list of comments on another blog post (which they may not even see without extra posts linking to it) to find my views?

Even a “have you seen this? ” post may be valuable if an item of news hasn’t been as widely seen as it should be.

(But yeah, I’m fine with the rest :)

@SEO-Squid, thanks for your feedback, it’s all appreciated, good or bad. I knew I would upset people with this post but that’s just the way it goes. Sorry if you feel offended.

I’d like to think I had ‘friends’ at Sphinn but alas I don’t. I was really excited that this post had gone hot - first one of mine to do so.

Btw, I edited out your link. Your opinion is valued, your penis enlargement endorsement, not so much :p

@Lucia, Yes exactly. I probably should have made it clearer in the original post that I was talking about just this niche, but I have my head so far buried in the niche that I didn’t really think of any others.

@Jon, Yes that is very true. I brought this one up because I read a post which quoted another one but didn’t really add anything to it - just kinda reiterated the same point of view of the original author. If I was going to do that I would add that to a link roundup post, rather than publish a complete post just to agree with somebody else.

I like what you’re saying. Sometimes you just have to avoid the temptation to write and remain silent until you have something worth writing about. That can be a challenge. I also write about online marketing, and there are so many opinions and perspectives on a given topic, it can be quite difficult to say anything that’s really new. Lately I’ve been spending more time developing post ideas than actually writing them. This may cut down on my output, but maybe these days less is more. I hope so, anyway.

@Brad, yeah you raise a good point there. I am still in that place where I am trying to post daily and I guess many other bloggers are too so they’re just doing their best. If I got to the point where I just didn’t have enough content for daily posts though, I hope that I would reduce the posting than put out filler posts.

“Warrior, thanks to you too, well not sure if I should thank you actually because after my mega purge yesterday that led to this post, I then saw your post and subscribed to your blog! :D”

Thanks Caroline. I bookmarked your blog :-) I DO NOT use RSS feed - hate them!

I think you have a valid point but you are a bit harsh as well, Internet Marketing has been over flogged in too many ways, so you will only find a few bloggers who are setting the pace with original useful content.
Another thing we are all different some people don’t take themselves too seriously and therefore wont think writing or reading something humorous in a serious business article is uncool.

@Ayopeju, Yes you are right, I was a little harsh. In all honestly the main reason for that was to stir up a reaction and draw some attention :)

Hi Caroline,

I’m just about to switch from Blogger to Wordpress this week. I’ve been working really hard on my new blog design and it is looking wonderful. I certainly intend to let my readers know when the site will be moving because the DNS has to propagate and it could take 24-48 hours, during which time they may not be able to access my blog.

I think that is the reason people post that kind of thing - they do not want their readers to drop by and find the site isn’t there. I know one blogger who lost 25% of their subscribed readers during a move because they did not tell anyone they were moving.

You also want to let them know in case something goes badly wrong and they stop receiving your feed. ;)

I value my readers - as do most bloggers - and I want to make sure they are aware of important goings on in the life of my blog. Once I have moved I’ll let my readers know and people will drop by to take a look and they’ll probably comment on the design. I’m looking forward to those comments - I want to see what my readers think. ;)

Just thought I’d present a different point of view on point number 4. I agree with most of the others, especially point number one. I felt like stabbing myself in the forehead with a fork when those blogrush posts kept turning up. ;)

Cheers!
Snoskred

What only 11… I personally don’t get bored I move on.

Caroline, this is a great post! Although I have been guilty of some of these, I agree that they are pointless. You are not being too harsh at all. My favorite pointless post: when someone posts to apologize for not posting for a while. I hate that! I wish they would just go ahead and tell me something interesting. I don’t need to read the apologies.

@Snoskred, Yup you are right. In fact several of the types of posts that I mention here could still be valid posts - but in the right quantity. The key point that I want to stress is the signal:noise ratio. If a blog is posting great content and then has to let readers know of an impending change, that’s fine. But when a blog has nothing to say but fluff, that’s a different matter.

@Pat, Yeah I can’t believe I missed that one! I saw quite a few on the blogs I purged that day.

I do agree that people really should stop posting the same stuff all the time, it’s so annoying to just come across the same content day-in day-out.

Be aware of the fine line that should be drawn between being deliberately provocative to to stir up a reaction and draw some attention, and becoming a blog troll. Then step over it anyway.

D*mn! There goes my brainstorm for Kitty Sez I Haz Puked
Blog!

You know what else I dislike about other bloggers?

People who make lists with 11 items with their likes and dislikes about other bloggers and then pass it off as gospel. ;)

I just realized one thing about my comment and no offence is intended. I have a tongue in cheek manner of writing and I must say, I think that some of your points are valid, but most points are as debatable as they are subjective.

@Hari, No offence taken. The post was designed to provoke as well as to inform, and it has certainly done that. Some of them were a bit of a stretch but I wanted to get a decent number in there :)

I had a good laugh reading your post. I know you are being serious. Your points are all very valid. I found it humorous that someone was brave enough to post about them. Good for you. I whole heartedly agree.

Beau

@Beau, hehe thanks :)

I dont think WHAT you blog about is as interesting as HOW you write about it.

I’ve seen “Pointless Blog Posts” type topics on many Blogs. The fact that I’ve seen this type of post before doesn’t stop me from reading yours. You have your own spin on it which still makes it interesting for me to read.

There are probably hundreds of thousands of websites out there pertaining to current events. Does that mean you pick just one and never visit the others? No because the news will be unique on each site.

I do agree with this post, but I have to disagree as well. Still a great post.

Cheers!

@unTechy, yes that’s a good point, but even on good blogs if you’ve got a lot to read and see a less interesting looking post, aren’t you tempted to skip it?

There certainly is a lot of the same kind of content going around. Once a story breaks there are so many people trying ot get on the bandwagon, and everyones blog starts to look the same. I think people should write more about how the events effect them rather then just reporting the facts

Hi!

What do you think about Apple Iogo? >:)

Wordpress Has Just Been Released

I agree I dislike these post as well, but people eat them up. I get tons of traffic from people visiting from the Wordpress blog.

@Steve, yeah there are some blogs that position themselves as being the reporters of news but then many other blogs try to report the same news too and thats where the avid blog reader gets so much repetition.

@CandyShopGirl, Hmm I’m a PC person so I wouldn’t know :)

@LGR, Your blog is a webmaster blog so that kind of post is probably far more fitting on your blog than many others.

This all sounds pretty reasonable, and should come naturally. Sometimes I feel bad about being in my fourth month and having two pages worth of posts … I try to make each of them good ones, even if it means there are less overall.

Even if this doesn’t change the world, it’s nice to read some vindication, that readers actually notice the signal to noise ratio.

@Forrest, yes I think some people have missed the point of the post and think that you should never publish these kinds of posts. It is indeed the ratio that is most important.

Btw, I love your blog! Some gorgeous pictures you have there.

Thanks! I’ll settle for being a good photographer and a bad developer … you can’t win them all. But I’m touched you like the photos. ;-)

I think you might need to instal SpamKarma and maybe Bad Behaviour :-)

Caroline,

It seems to me that you managed to stirr up the pot a bit with your post. I have personally been guilty with a couple of these and I must say that seeing it from another persons perspective makes one think. :-)

However, even though I do agree with some of your objections I don’t with others. After all, when something grabs my attention that is of value to ME I read it. If not I keep browsing my RSS feeds.

So far that has been working a treat for me. Admittedly it does take time but I also see it as part of my networking as reading a good post in my reader makes me click through and comment.

As bloggers we have to do what is right for each one of us and if that is blogging about the cat and the business it’s ok - just don’t expect me to read about it either. :-)

Monika

@Monika, Oh yes good and stirred! But this post caused a large increase in traffic which then lead to a permanent increase. I class this as my most successful post to date :-)

One of the points I was trying to get across was that I fear many bloggers are hurting themselves by forcing out daily posts that are of low value to their readers. When this continues day after day the reader is left wondering, why am I reading this blog? I think bloggers need to take the time to look at their posts and ask themselves what value they are providing to their reader. Some fluff is ok, but not too much.

I got you Caroline :-)

And I totally agree. I also stopped posting too frequently as of late unless I do have something to say that I believe is of value to some people.

I have seen a lot of trash on blogs in recent history and it seem that everybody keeps rehashing everybody else’s stuff. I suppose I also did this at times, but I’m much more conscious of not to overdo this either.

I also think a good way to judge whether our post is of value is to look at the comments section. The more, the better or else the more controversy. :-)
Monika

Hi Caroline,

Your post is an excellent antithesis to its title.
Here’s a housekeeping trick (it works just like lifting the rug and sweeping the dirt under it…)

Download Google Desktop. Let it get running good and hot.
Fire up your Feed Reader. Assuming it’s web-based, load as many links in new tabs as you can manage. Don’t bother reading them, just let Google Desktop sniff ‘em.

After you’ve done that, you can delete the links willy-nilly or mark them as read.

Afterwards, just use the Google Desktop to search for whatever topic you are in the mood for!

Cheers,

Mitch

@Mitch, My reader is offline actually, I use FeedDemon. You’re not the first to suggest that but really that’s a case of throwing the baby out of the bathwater. Since writing this post I have continued to purge. What I tend to do is look back through the last 20-30 posts. If I didn’t get any value, I unsubscibe.

Everyone from time to time wants to go off topic :) If it doesn’t happen to often, it can help build your personality in the eyes of your reader.

Whew, my heart skipped a beat. I thought “anything on beer.pizza.tech” would be on the list somewhere.

Honestly, I don’t agree with number 6. Bloggers converse with each other via their blogs, that’s just how things go. Darren actually did so with your statistics post, linking to it and providing insight of his own to go with it. Surely you must see no problem with that.

@Roman, yes that’s true, I do it myself. But I try to make sure that I put out lots of quality information too.

@Shawn, Yup in hindsight if I was to rewrite this post now I would get rid of 5 & 6 and replace them with…

“Advertise here” and
“Thanking my Sponsors”

I used to visit John Chow’s blog a lot, but as of recent I have really cut his blog off. I dont see much value in his post. He very well knows of his celebrity status and the fact that he can get away with it. His blog title says Make Money blog and contents are filled with Restaurants he visited, or some entertainment place, or welcoming new button sponsors.

I wouldn’t excuse him. Honestly.

Visual Studio 2008 RTM just came out and is on MSDN Subscriber downloads. There!

Wow, what a tedious spacewaste you are.

I reFeed as a feed reader, and I love it because I can add my own plugins so it does whatever I want it to do. The main one I couldn’t do without is one I wrote myself, to keep track of the blogs whose posts I mark as “good” most often and show them to me first. I also have a little script I run every once in a while that shows me the blogs with posts I never mark. I delete those every month or so!

Hi Caroline,

I’m a UK business blogger too.

I liked your 11 points - good blog fodder!

However, if you look at any community we always comment on or gossip about what other people say or do. So it’s probably human nature to do it when blogging.

Bloggers seem to split into several types - ah now there’s a good post… I must go and write it now! And they attract different types of readers.

Before blogging I subscribed to email newsletters and invariably the same problem of getting almost the same email about the latest launch of something was highly annoying. Until I realised that it was only certain people who sent rubbish launch emails — and I quickly unsubscribed from them. The same applies to feeds - watch them and if 20 of them pretty much say the same thing, make comments on Seth Godin, John Chow, Darren Rowse or other high profile people unsub from all except one.

Jim

Hello! You wrote this entry even before I started blogging! Thanks A LOT for the heads-up..

From time-to-time I have the need for some irrelevant rambling just for communicative purposes. And yes, most of them are included in your list above.

Instead of flooding the entry (hence the subscriber’s RSS readers), I set up a small announcement section on the sidebar to write those things. It’s very useful and effective, without compromising the overall theme (corporate satire) of my blog.

Black Zedd’s last blog post..What’s Wrong With My Speech On Career Advice?

Totally agree with the points that you made, as I’d rather have a blog post ’shout out’ at me than go and read a ‘what’s happening with my dog rosie’, some people do really annoy me.

The one that totally frustrates me though is a really off-topic post that has just no relevance to the context of the blog at all. Say it’s an education blog and they’re writing about blogging to the bank etc, I think to myself “what is the point and is anyone of your student readers actually going to buy it?” - probably not.

But sometimes I just have to read what they wrote, lol

Nick - road2blogging’s last blog post..Road 2 Blogging’s Tuesday Links