Dec 16, 2010 Posted by Judith in Blogs & Blogging, Musings, WordPress Tips

You Know Your Blog Sucks if…

Now be honest… Does your Blog suck? No, really — honest!

Increasing numbers of newbie “Bloggers” who think their Blog will produce “additional income” — not based on any reality; just because they think so — are now popping up like “Web designers” did in the 1990s. Very few had skills or had any solid knowledge — some software, a “solution” or “system” and easy schmeasy — all the way to the bank! Not.

What I find amazing is these folks are intent on making their riches based on what they are willing to do, spend and learn. They’ll only make the effort on their terms — and they expect to reap the rewards similar to the rare Bloggers who work at their craft 12 hours a day for years to make the big bucks.

What’s up with that?

So how do you know if your Blog sucks?

You have nothing unique to offer over the thousands of sites already active on your subject of choice.
unique adjective:
having no like or equal; unparalleled; incomparable
Unless you have a plan, an angle, a different USP (unique selling proposition) than the hundreds of thousands of sites already covering your topic; your Blog sucks.
You think by putting affiliate links and AdSense everywhere, and I mean everywhere, visitors to your sucky site will click on them and you’ll get that four-figure paycheck so you don’t have to work for the man. Guess what? The majority of folks have “ad blindness” and find too much advertising annoying. If you are not prepared to write reviews and “how tos” about the stuff you are promoting — your Blog sucks.
If you are using other author’s articles or scraping content feeds from other skilled and hardworking site owners — oh yeah, your Blog sucks.
If you don’t have a great looking non-generic WordPress theme that you’ve worked hard to make your own, that you’ve learned how to use to best display your content in a visually appealing manner — your Blog sucks.
If you don’t have clear and intuitive navigation — navigation that should be all about site visitors (not purely in existence to keyword stuff) — yep, your Blog sucks.
If you find yourself thinking “I don’t like to write”, “I can’t write”, “I don’t have time to post” without a doubt — sorry, your Blog sucks.

I know… this isn’t very “musey” of me. But you know what? I’m am growing weary of being expected to help folks who don’t want to help themselves. I really don’t like being paid to be ignored — something about that is just wrong.

Advice and direction is provided only to be told, that “my way” takes too much work (or cost, or time, <insert excuse here >) to make the necessary efforts to reach our stated goals. So we ignore what is the reality of what is required and still think our Blog is the best thing since sliced bread. And that we will make boat-loads of money.

Yeah, the economy sucks — so everyone is running to “easy” income online. Hey, where is that? I’ve just celebrated my 16th year in business and haven’t found that area on the Web yet. What the H. E. double-toothpicks am I doing still working 10 hour days, 6 days a week??!!

Stop it! There is no easy income!

Those who surmise I sit on my couch eating bon-bons with my laptop in my hoodie-footie P.J.s want my life. (Yes, a recent contact stated that was their goal — “just like you…”) Be careful what you ask for!

I don’t like bon-bons, I don’t have hoodie-footie P.J.s (although with the cold weather in Mississippi this week — that sounds tempting) and my laptop is on the great room table for me to work until 10p at night so I don’t have to be locked up in my office and can have some semblance of a home life.

That’s what it takes to live off the Internet! But guess what? For me, this comes easy because I was raised with a work ethic. A Father who taught me I could have anything I wanted — if I was willing to work at it!

Those who work on their niche, different, exclusive, individual, lone, one, one and only, onliest, only, particular, rare, separate, single, solitary, solo, sui generis, uncommon, unexampled Blogs to make them great looking, filled with useful information, that is updated regularly — are those that stand a chance over time of producing some level of residual income. Yeah, some level — over time.

So if anyone wants a Blog that doesn’t suck, ask these questions…

Have you researched your topic to find an angle no one else has tapped into and is your Blog niche something that you know well and are passionate about?
Are you willing to work at aggressively improving your writing skills, being active on Social Media and answering site e-mail and comments for as many hours a day are necessary to reach your goals?
Do you understand that this is an ongoing learning process that never ends?

If you don’t answer the above questions with a resounding “YES!” your Blog sucks — go work on your resume.

At your service,
Judith

2 Responses to “You Know Your Blog Sucks if…”

Brad Gosse says:
December 17, 2010 at 6:39 am
Great post Judith
I always get a kick out of the bloggers who launch their blog with a single “Hello World” post and more adsense ads than content.
One thing I realized early was that if you want people to share your blog content it works better if you don’t have advertising. Advertising is something you should add when you have enough traffic to monetize.
If you’re not delivering value with your blog posts you are missing the boat. I have heard countless people say to me they think they could be a blogger because they heard it makes a lot of money.
If I relied on my blog to pay my bills I’d be living in a cardboard box.
Judith says:
December 17, 2010 at 10:14 am
Hey, Brad:
Thank you for your kind words and input…. That’s when I know a Blog is really going to suck — when they are more interested in how to add advertising than how to produce great content.
The article was actually a bit of therapy for me! Now that I’ve vented I do feel much better and am back to being the usual goodhearted “muse” that enjoys her job. ;-)