by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
Since 2009, I’ve been adding blogs to my RSS reader and curating and sharing the best content that I could find for writers. That content resides on the Writers Knowledge Base (which is a free and searchable resource for writers with over 30,000 links on it).
In that time, I’ve seen a lot of blog posts. A lot of things have puzzled me, delighted me, and frustrated me. Some of this is random but I’m sharing it in the hopes that it can help some writers here or that maybe I could hear y’all’s take on these things too. Am I the only one who’s seen or experienced this stuff?
White letters and black backgrounds hurt middle aged eyes. The number of sites…even professional publishing sites and highly-regarded authors…that use this theme is extraordinary. Unfortunately, fellow mystery writers are especially fond of white on black. For some, though, white letters on black isn’t mysterious…it’s painful. Because one blog’s content is ordinarily sound, I take the time to copy-paste it onto Word docs so that I can read it before curating it. But I regret the extra time it takes out of my day.
Tumblr posts aren’t fun to share. I have both a profound respect for the content on Tumblr and a profound dislike of Tumblr’s interface and platform. I can list a dozen examples of anonymous or semi-anonymous (first name only) writers there. This makes attributing credit for the writers’ work difficult… actually, I dislike LiveJournal for the same reasons. Hootlet doesn’t pick up blog titles there and I use Hootlet as a tool to share links. Google + won’t show any of Tumblr’s images because of some formatting glitch. It’s difficult to navigate within a site there. It would be wonderful if all these excellent writers would move to a more professional, better-formatted platform…perhaps one that showcases them, their writing, their names, and their covers.
Twitter traffic picks up over the holidays. I always schedule heavily during Easter, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, and Christmas, in particular. Are people lonely? Stressed from family visits? It seems they tend to turn to apps. This makes me a little sad. One year (2010 maybe?) I scheduled a break for myself on Twitter for much of December. My announcement was met by angry emails and DMs on Twitter… and not from folks who simply didn’t celebrate the holidays…from people who somehow relied on links as an important part of their day. The realization of the number of people who needed some form of distraction around that time of year has made me change my approach. Now I tweet more during the holidays.
Partial RSS feeds make reading blog posts much more time consuming and frustrating. And RSS feeds with poor titles and poor lead sentences mean that I don’t click over. Basically, if a reader is interested enough in our blog to subscribe to its feed, they’re saying that they’d like to read our content and would prefer to read it through an RSS feed reader (like Feedly). Creating an extra step is inconvenient for subscribers. If the worth of the content isn’t obvious, it’s too much of a time gamble to open it to skim it. Summary/partial views can be changed to full view through the WordPress admin window under settings/reading or through Feedburner). The only reason I can think of why a blogger might want a partial is if their site contains ads (because RSS means decreased page views). If we really want RSS subscribers to visit our site, we could give them incentives in our posts to drop by—by linking to other content on our site, for instance. Some people seem concerned that full views mean their content will be scraped by pirate sites. This may happen. But, to me, it’s worth the risk instead of potentially alienating subscribers. If you want the best of both worlds, “Partial RSS Feed vs. Full Feed” on the Blog Maven blog by Jeni Elliott has helpful suggestions at the end of the post.
Group bloggers and attribution. Many group bloggers may have no idea how they’re cheating themselves out of recognition or potential sales. Every week I’ll see a post on a group blog that has no byline and no link to the author’s online home base.
Repetitive Titles. Most popular title for blog posts I’ve seen: “What’s in a Name?” I’m trying to come up with an estimate and I want to say that I’ve seen at least a hundred or more blog posts with that title (all, obviously, on naming characters). Many blog post titles, in general, don’t adequately hook potential readers or hint at worthy content to follow.
Self pub may rule, but trad pub draws more eyeballs. Most popular tweets of the year…they’re always on agents. No matter what’s changed, no matter how independent the author population has become…agents still apparently have the power to fascinate somehow. I know that whenever I schedule a tweet with the word “agent” in it, the tweet will have the most click-through traffic for the day.
Blogs without author names are surprisingly frequent. There are many sites where the authors don’t provide their last names. To me, this seems to indicate the insecurity of so many writers. How will they sell their books when the time comes to sell? Maybe it’s best to pick a pen name and then have the full pen name on the site. After all, blogging is branding, ultimately, for many of us.
Disappearing blogs. An oddly recurring event—when a writer suddenly moves to another website or changes the design of their existing website…the site frequently goes dormant in two months. So exhausted with dealing with design or so intimidated by the professional appearance of their site that they can’t produce content for it any longer?
Some takeaways:
When creating a blog, consider readability as a factor for its design.
Consider the blogging platform itself and whether sharing content is easy for our readers. Consider whether attribution is even possible (is our name or pen name prominently displayed? Can a reader easily find us online…Twitter? Facebook? An email address?)
Consider allowing our RSS feed to include the entire text of the post instead of a portion. Or, if we only allow a portion to show, make sure our titles and the first couple of post sentences are stellar.
This, to me, is so important that I’m going to say it again, even though I’m repeating myself. If the purpose of the blog is for branding or as a platform, make sure your name or your pen name is easy to locate. A full name. Or a full pseudonym. Some sort of name.
When participating in a group blog or as a guest poster, make sure our contributions count. Put a short bio with links in the post footer or at least make sure we have a byline under the post title.
Consider using titles that accurately describe our content.
Have you noticed any of these issues online…or do you notice them but they don’t bother you much? Have you done any checkups on your blog to see if you could improve it in basic ways (blog titles, your bio, etc?)
Sound advice and I certainly share your puzzlement over some of the blog formats chosen. But one has to admit that keeping up a blog requires deep commitment and not everyone realizes this when first starting out…
Claude–You’re absolutely right (and here I think I’m looking at it all more as link curator than a sympathetic blogger…somehow my blogger-self falls away when I’m going through the RSS feed). That should probably be one of my takeaways…if you’re starting out a blog, think carefully and do a bit of research. I know there are several things I would have done differently for my original blog. It would have been hosted at my website, for one. It would have had my name prominently in the blog’s title, for another. I would have definitely been more careful about the post titles I chose (for SEO purposes, mainly, but also for higher numbers of people actually reading my posts). And I think I would have tried to figure out earlier what I was actually trying to focus on for the blog itself (writers and writing, but it wasn’t maybe always that clear).
There are a couple of things here in particular I have been struggling with…whether I should include my full name and the focus of the blog. Thank you for these observations.
Marilyn–Hope they help and good luck!
I agree that a blog takes a lot of upkeep. I’ve been at it for nine years now and that’s a lot of hours. To begin with I was The Yarn Yard because that’s my craft business, but I couple of years ago I split the business name from my own so TYY is now the shop domain and nataliefergie is where my blog sits.
I have wondered for a while whether I should keep my twitter name as @theyarnyard but @nataliefergie is owned by a Black Eyed Peas fan called Natalie so there’s not much I can do about that. I have been on Twitter since the beginning and changing the account name might not be a good idea.
I have just set up a Tiny Letter on https://tinyletter.com/nataliefergie as a low-key newsletter. It’s more chatty and personal than my blog and it’s been very well received with 130 people subscribing in less than 2 days. I do think newsletters are under-rated, and am interested in your view about them.
I have to say I hate Facebook and am barely there.
Natalie–You know, if you’ve got a good-sized Twitter following under the shop name, I’d probably stick with it. Otherwise, you could make a change (and I can think of 3 writers I know who had large followings who successfully made a change…one more than once). If you do change to your name, you could choose to have your middle initial in your Twitter handle (that’s what I do) or you could have natalie_fergie, which a lot of people do.
Newsletters are really, really overlooked as promo, you’re so right. I was *very* late to the newsletter bandwagon and I think it was just my reticence to email my readers. But they were signing up for a newsletter I wasn’t sending, so my reluctance didn’t make any sense. I’ve seen my sales jump every time I send out a newsletter. 130 people subscribing in 2 days is amazing!
Agents still rule – check. Will see if I can book some for the IWSG.
We have by-lines on our posts, but not links to our sites – I guess we should?
And really sad more people are checking Twitter over the holidays. That’s when I am least likely to check.
Alex–For the ISWG, I think it looks really good with nice attribution. The hyperlinked names at the end that Blogger provides for author names go right to the “about” pages and I think most of the ISWG bloggers have current information for their websites. :)
Elizabeth – Thanks for sharing what you’ve learned. It’s all really helpful. I know exactly what you mean about making content easy to read. Even if you can increase font size, it’s important for bloggers to make what they write easy to read. And yes, making it easy to find (i.e. solid RSS feed) is worth the effort too. Oh, and mostly, thank you so much for doing this herculean task. All of us benefit so much from your curating.
Margot–Thanks for coming by, Margot! You’re right about the font size…that helps, too. And I enjoy the curating…it’s fun for me. :)
It’s frustrating when you can’t find the author’s name or contact information anywhere in the blog. My name isn’t in my blog title, but it’s right there at the top in my profile. (And since Spunk On A Stick is my speaker nickname, a lot of people find me that way.)
Diane–Your name and bio and contact info is always easy to find!
For the white on black sites you may have luck selecting the text which should at least display as high-contrast. Also, maybe reading in print preview mode would help. Hopefully one of these two would work and save you a couple steps.
Mike–Thanks for the tip! I didn’t think about either suggestion…those will certainly be quicker than copy/pasting into Word. :)
Thank you for the round up of helpful advice! I so agree on every point.
Regarding titles, I learned through experience. I have a series of How To posts that consistently pick up page views because it’s exactly how the writers searches for help: how to stay in point of view, how to write a bio, etc. One of my most popular posts was How to Annoy a Literary Agent!
Ramona–I think that’s *exactly* what writers are looking for. Actionable tips. And the way that you indicated that you had helpful content in your headlines meant that you got more reads.
Interesting stuff. I do think people can start blogging early because they hear they should, but because they do, they make a lot of novice mistakes and then may not go back to correct them. I know I need an overhaul, but HOPE I don’t do these goofs. I STILL though, need to get on top of coordinating my various social media. Twitter still scares me.
Hart–You don’t! Your site always looks good. And Twitter still scares me if I’m not on Hootsuite. Using a filtering program like Hootsuite can help to reduce all the Twitter craziness.
These are great tips! I saw the tweet from Alex and was intrigued–I write for a lot of marketing firms and entrepreneurs and “content curation” is a huge topic this year because content marketing is so huge. But I was pleasantly surprised how much I learned about successful blogging! I read a lot of blogs every day and I think it’s important to have interesting content. I can’t believe how many published authors say blogging is a waste of time because they post blogs and no one reads them. Yeah…you have to read others and network for that to happen. When I mention that, they give me a look like, “You don’t actually think I’m going to waste my time reading blogs, do you?” They’re missing such a valuable opportunity not only to network and promote but to have FUN and meet a great community of writers.
Stephanie–Thanks so much for coming by today. And you bring up such a good point…in addition to these (mostly) design-related issues, a key to discovery is networking. Alex does a wonderful job with that and is such a great part of the community. And you’re right about what bloggers who don’t network are missing…an opportunity to grow and share ideas with other writers.
Reading this makes me realize how much more I would have to do if I really want to be a successful author. The only social media I do is Facebook and I do it to connect with friends. This is quite impressive.
Karen–No, I don’t think you need to expand from what you’re doing. You’ve got a very solid website and have been blogging very regularly for years. You’ve got a lot of people in your network and you’re doing exactly what you can keep up with. Your blog and site is easy to read and the design works. It’s all good!
My first blog, a non-writing related one, used yellow letters on a black background. I still love the look, but when I began my writing blog, I went with the more professional looking black on white. Glad I did. Thanks for the observations.
Ken–I’m so glad you did! I know I’m not the only one with the eye issue because I’ve heard others talk/write about it. Sounds like you’ve got great instincts!
This is why we love your blog! And white on black is not just a middle-aged thing; it’s not considered readable according to most design standards.
I’m trying to use Tumblr because my target audience is there, but so far I’m finding it the least user-friendly and intuitive
Deborah–Thanks! And, oh good…glad I’m not alone in this. :)
Tumblr seems to me to be (mostly) a younger crowd and some *very* sharp writers there. I just wish it were a better platform for them.
Great tips, Elizabeth! I have no idea what my feedburner settings are for my blog, whether I have full or partial set on there. Sorry to look like an idiot, but how do I check that? Thanks!
Oh, and anyone feel free to answer that! ;)
Kathy, I think you sign in to Feedburner, then click “Optimize” and then “Summary Burner.” Hope this helps!
Thanks, Elizabeth. I also click away from titles that don’t convey any meaning, blogs whose format makes my eyes hurt, and anonymous authors. I agree with you wholeheartedly on all these points.
I’m interested in a variety of topics for which I do extensive research, reading, curate and then writing about them from my own point of view or adding to what I collect, so another of my pet peeves is a lack of attribution.
Please, bloggers: when you get inspired, acquire information or quote from another blogger or site, you MUST give the URL and author’s name (if it’s available) for all of your source material. When bloggers don’t do proper attribution, that’s called PLAGIARISM and it’s stealing. Stop it.
Thanks for your site, Elizabeth. Keep it up!
Best to you,
Sally
Sally–An important reminder. If we quote another blogger in a post, full attribution of blog author, title, and URL are vital. That can also help us make sure we’re not accidentally taking something out of context by giving the post author a chance to weigh in.
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge by posting these tips. One of the things that I’m putting more effort into is blogging and like Stephanie Faris mentioned above, learning to network and promote not only my own work but fellow writers/bloggers as well. This is a learning process for me, so I really appreciate the chance to learn from someone who has the experience and has made the observations that you have.
Tonya–Good luck with your blogging! Hope you’ll enjoy the process. The good thing is that all of these things (well, most of them) are very easy to change. The networking is really the best part of the whole process. I’ve no idea if my blogging or tweeting has sold me books…but I know it’s helped me find friends and connect with other writers. Writing can be such a solitary thing, otherwise.
When I first chose my theme I went with a black background, but now I can’t figure out how to change it! I’ve heard people say this before, that’s it’s harder on the eyes– which is not what I want for my readers. But I’ve spent weeks/months trying to switch it and nothing works. I can change the blog background but not the post background. If you have any ideas I’d love to hear them! I use WordPress.com, upgraded with the premium package. I’m hoping you or one of your followers can help a fellow crime writer out.
Sue–WordPress is pretty confusing sometimes. I’m glad Joel knows more about the fonts and can point you in the right direction (he’s not only a writer, he’s also a web designer, so you’re getting good advice)!
Black on white, white on black: both very hard on my eyes. This site, for instance, is strobing right now as I’m typing.
Now, change those to shades of grey, and it gets better. (Yes, my writing site is “white on black” but really, it’s a light grey on a dark grey background. Though I may consider a sepiatone noir theme rather than achromatic.)
Writers who don’t share their names. Lost for words, I am. (Maybe I’m too far the other direction; searching “joel d canfield” at any point in the past 15 years has yielded more results than any sane person would ever want to see.)
I wonder if I can get away with calling Someday Box “a self-publishing agent” ? Boy does it frustrate me that so many writers are still waiting for their art to be picked by a purely commercial industry. Rant rant rant.
That’s what I’m trying to do– change it to gray. Do you know how to do it, Joel?
You’re gonna be fussing with CSS, in most cases. Yours is already grey on grey but it’s still too extreme. (From a visual design perspective I’d also dial back that red; it’s a bit like being stabbed in the eye.)
If you know where to change CSS for your WordPress theme, shoot me an email and I’ll send you the exact code.
If not, or if you’d rather just have it done, shoot me an email and I’ll give you a price.
Hey, Joel–I have astigmatism and gray on gray is hard for me to see. But I also have trouble with the white on black background and black on white. The fix? Lowering the brightness of the monitor. The strobing stopped almost immediately. I vary it according to the room light conditions and my sinuses and how much I had to drink the night before.
“Grey on grey” covers a wide range of shades. If they’re too close, it’s hard for anyone to read.
Good design ensures that people don’t have to change their hardware settings to enjoy a website. That’s one of my goals, anyway.
Probably worse for me today because the sun is shining off the snow on the lake, and our whole house is lit up like the police helicopters are searching for a perp.
If you are a mac user you can use Control Option Command 8 and it will invert the screen colours. In other words, white on black becomes black on white.
It does depend which iOS you are using, I think Mountain Lion and Mavericks may be different. I’m not sure about iPads.
Alternatively go to System Preferences and then Accessibility and you can change it there, and you can also set up your own shortcut eg qwerty or qaz or even chocolatecake.
It’s not just bad design, it’s an accessibility issue for viewers with poor sight. There is a good reason why kindles give the option to take the font size up to a hundred and three.
This is the apple link http://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201899 and it’s dated November 2014, a quick search for “invert screen colours on mac” brings up information of older iOS versions.
Natalie–That’s kind of you to share the link and the tips for inverting screen colors. I appreciate it!
Meg–Ah, and I thought my propensity for migraines had something to do with the strobes. That brightness of the screen does help…thanks. :) (Sinuses and wine drinking here frequently, too. :) )
I also make it easier on my eyes with the old Ctrl + trick, making everything on my screen larger. By the end of the day it really helps.
Joel–My eye strain is awful at the end of the day, no matter what. Ugh. I’ll mess around with the fonts and get into the grays. I do hear that’s a lot easier on the eyes.
Isn’t that stunning? No name. And I see this all the time…not just every once in a while.
Funny thing about those shares on Twitter, though…they won’t get the most *RTs*. But they’ll get the most favorites and the most clicks (according to Hootsuite, which is tracking). So they want to *read* it, just not share it. :)
This is a really good post, puts the food for thought all in one place. My author blog is simple in design, uses my name right up there in the header and the URL. But I don’t post frequently enough, especially when I’m immersed in writing a novel. And my titles usually stink. But I still get signups for a newsletter I’ve only sent out once.
My biggest boneheaded mistake: not properly saving and inserting Instagram photos that were taken as part of a monthlong prompt series that inspired writing prompts. Somewhere along the line 30 photos for 30 blog posts disappeared and I wasn’t aware of it until a couple of days ago. Duh.
So sad that people read Twitter more during holidays. But when I think of what I did hour to hour I realize I checked Facebook a lot in between cooking this and that and while waiting for everyone to show up. But certainly not while they were there!
Meg–I like your blog design…nice and clean. Easy to find everything. And I’d say you’re definitely posting *regularly*, even if you may feel it’s not as often as you’d like.
And..ugh! Sorry about the photos. What a pain!
I’ve wondered much the same, too…maybe they’re trying to fill dead time during the holidays when they’re waiting for supper to come out of the oven? Waiting for guests to come over? Stuck in a really bad traffic jam on their way to see family? But my imagination has gone into overdrive instead, and I can only mostly imagine really sad scenarios!
Yes, yes, yes!! I love reading blogs (although I haven’t made the time lately), and I agree with everything. I’m in the process of combining my website and Blogger blog into a new WordPress site. Your tips come at the perfect time!!
Jill–I think combining my blog and my website was one of the best moves I’ve made so far (a little over a year ago now). Good luck with it!
Very interesting! I do know of a favorite blog–a group blog–that uses white on black. It does hurt my eyes. And sometimes they also use yellow type, which might work ok on the black screen, but not so much when I receive the posts via email.
I’m so thankful for your tweets and round ups! And I swear by your Writer’s Knowledge Base.
Julie–The one that most irks me with its reverse text is a group blog. :( I’d think someone in the group would want to change it!
And thanks!
That is sad about Twitter seemingly not taking a rest. As a society, I think we may see FB and Twitter as family who are obligated to us. :) I’m so introverted that too much exposure to any of it makes me grumpy. :) Lots of good points here and yes I’ve seen most of these.
I’m not sure how I feel about this one. I’ve followed a few authors in blogland that when they become traditionally published, they say they either don’t have time now to blog OR they will blog once a month or when they have time. I kind of feel used in that scenario. They will keep up their FB, but blogging takes too much time. Anyway, it’s none of my business, but kind of sad when writers disappear from their blogs.
Teresa–That’s the way I am, too. I schedule posts for Twitter, but I don’t interact there except on direct messages.
I think FB can take up *way* more time than blogging! It’s definitely sad when writers suddenly disappear from their blogs. There are many that I miss seeing online.
Hi Elizabeth – I agree some blogs I struggle to read .. it’s often a male thing .. though I came across one today. Simple and clean and straightforward to read.
If people are travelling or idling around – then the Tweeting seems to start … I can understand you upping tweeting during holiday times …
Names – I get frustrated with group blogs .. as I don’t know who wrote the post and I’d like to reply to that person …
Blogs without author names irritate …
A new one today – well it’s happened before – a follower doesn’t go anywhere – so that’s the point of joining Friends Connect – I’ll go in and delete soon ..
G+ – I hate .. it’s so difficult to search for the actual blog or blog post …
I’m contemplating not changing from Blogger to WP because of all the hassle and if Google decided to impose their restrictive ideas … life could be challenging – so that is on hold for now ..
I’m not good with FB – but can see things changing as I adapt .. thanks for this – so helpful .. and have a great 2015 – your posts are so helpful .. cheers Hilary
Hilary–I know what you mean about switching from Blogger to WordPress. I put it off for years for that reason. Then I read a bunch about switching over…enough to make me even more confused. :) So I ended up hiring someone to help me switch over so that I didn’t have to mess with it.
I agree with you on the white on black thing…frequently male writers and frequently group blogs.
White on black blog designs are the WORST. It kills me that James Scott Bell’s site is set up that way because I would love to read everything he posts, but I just can’t.
Megan–His is the group blog I’m fussing about. :) Today…it’s no longer white on black. Coincidence probably. But very nice, either way.
Can I put in a recommendation for Squarespace?
http://www.squarespace.com/tour/overview/
It costs $8 a month, for a hosted blog, so you can buy your domain and point it at squarespace and have no hosting fees for wordpress.org
They have online chat for support, and if you email they get back to you within an hour.
I’ve used blogger and wp.com and wp.org and typepad. Squarespace beats all of them hands down. No viruses, no updates to keep on top of, so I spend my time blogging, not tweaking plug ins.
Natalie–Thanks for the link! Sounds like a nice alternative for those of us who aren’t happy with the Blogger and WP options, for sure.
White on black drives me nuts too! I really struggle to read it and have skipped some posts because it’s just too hard.
Group posts without bylines truly are wasting an opportunity!
Jemi–Sounds like there are many of us that are bothered by it. :)
The Dead Blog.
Nothing quite as deflating as finding someone who appeared to be interesting, engaging, witty, well-read, and writing only to see… They’ve stopped.
Not all boats reach the other side. Here be monsters.
Jack–I think the worst is the stuttering start and stop of it all…the apologies for lack of posting, the promise to do better. And then the lack of posts. Almost better to stop it up front with a final post saying they’re shutting down comments, leaving up the content to be useful, and then maintaining a presence online elsewhere (and, maybe, still visiting others’ blogs).
Thanks for visiting my blog today, Elizabeth! And I must apologize for the black background/white letters. I’ve had it for years and actually like it. I’m not sure if I’ll change it.
These are great tips, though, that every blogger, especially new ones, should know.
Chrys–Thanks so much for coming by today! Great interview with Alex. :)
Really good common sense tips in here Elizabeth, thank you. I have to admit that my pet hates are white type on a black background and blogs that centralise all their text. Grrr.
[…] post by Elizabeth Spann Craig focuses on those blogging features or mistakes that irritate her (and most other readers I’d imagine) and turn them away from your blog. […]
I recently updated my list of blogs I follow, adding and deleting. I finally made the decision to drop all blogs that are white on black, or worse, white over a busy image. It’s just not worth the eyestrain.
[…] Observations from Years of Curating Content for Writers – Elizabeth Spann Craig […]