6.5 Ways to Irritate Your Readers
One of the things I routinely write about here at the project is how reader appreciation is basically customer service on the Internet. For example, when you lose a reader, you lose a customer.
I’ve also compared a blog to a store and mentioned some items every blog out there has to sell.
Adding onto my analogy of readers as customers, I thought I’d expand on a post written by Daniel Sitter over at Idea Sellers (a blog I highly recommend subscribing to) entitled 6.5 Ways to Irritate Your Customers. In the spirit of the original post (with readers as customers), here are 6.5 ways to irritate your readers.
1. Lie
Bes Zain is often the one on the project who writes about bloggers who blog without revealing monetary interests. Bes’s argument is simple: if one blogs about something without revealing a financial conflict of interest, is it lying?
In a rather disturbing poll, Darren published that only 35% of bloggers disclose affiliate links. Another 32% are on the fence.
I’d personally be irritated if someone was writing about a product without disclosing a financial interest. It’s deceitful, and I might even go as far as to call it fraud if the reader purchases something.
2. Cheat
The best way to cheat your readers is to set up a fake contest, assign a fake prize, and then pick a fake winner.
As Simonne so elegantly wrote, Ashwin Khanna will forever be known as a cheat in the blogosphere.
When readers are cheated, not only do they become irritated, some behave rather badly.
3. Over-Promise
One of the big problems with making promises is over-extending on these promises. I’ve written about a situation where one might get into blog debt with readers and other bloggers.
It does irritate readers when one promises and doesn’t deliver. But if one is open about it and doesn’t just try to sweep it under the rug, I feel the readers will understand.
Bes also writes some ways to fulfill promises to the readers.
4. Ignore Them
One of the first posts I wrote about on the project was about being lost in the conversation. Nobody likes teaching to an empty classroom, so why would a reader like interacting with a blogger who gives no attention?
5. Know Nothing About Them
One of the great things about MyBlogLog and Gravatars is that a blogger is given a glimpse of who that reader really is. Often times I like exploring my readers and figuring out where they’re from and what language they might speak. It’s very interesting how many people visit the project with English as their second language.
One of the ways to get to know more about your readers is to interact with the readers as a community. Bes’s interview with Jeff (Jeffr0) has a lot of interesting ways to form a community around a blog. A lot of community-building is on the blogger’s shoulders, but if the community takes off, it’s worth it and you get to know a lot more about your readers in the process.
One other way we try to learn about our readers here is to interview them and investigate them for Readers First awards.
6. Take Them For Granted
When a reader walks out that virtual door, do you care? Is it okay as long as you are still getting that monthly check and the feed count is still rising?
Treating readers as expendable items may be good for the short term, but I highly doubt it’s good for the long term.
In the case of the readers sticking around, is it survival of the most loyal, or the most stupid? Remember, it’s easier to escape from a sinking ship before it’s sinking.
6.5. Set Prices Too High
And how do I compare setting prices too high to reader appreciation? Simple. Make the barrier to entry too tough for the readers to enjoy your site.
Here are ways you can set prices way too high for reader:
- Place too many ads on the site.
- Require registrations before a reader can comment.
- Offer a partial feed.
- Charge to have no-follow removed.
- Make the reader jump through hoops for a contest.
Conclusion
I want to thank Daniel Sitter for taking the time to write his post on 6.5 things to irritate your customers. It really got me thinking about what really irritates me as a reader.
Please feel free to add your own things that “irritate” you as a reader in the comments.
Snoskred says...
Unfortunately Google with their slapdown antics means that a lot less bloggers will be disclosing in the future. I’ve made the difficult decision to make some changes to my own site in this regard recently - I wrote about it in this post -
Is Google The New Terrorist?
I think disclosure is one area that it depends on who is writing it. Me personally I will review websites for free as well as for money. What is the difference between one I do for free and one I do for money? Nothing other than I get paid. I’m going to be totally honest and say what I think whether I am being paid or not. If the advertiser does not like that, they won’t pick me as a reviewer. I’m going to give positives as well as negatives. Whether it is a paid or free review, I’m going to spend roughly the same amount of time writing it - most of my reviews take at least a couple of hours and I tend to put screenshots or images in if I can.
When it comes to products, it has to be something I already use, something I love, and something I think my readers will love too.
I find in reverse, when I am the reader - I always appreciate it when I can tell a blogger has put a lot of time into a review. You can tell the difference as a reader. I don’t mind if someone doesn’t disclose on every single post as long as they have a site wide disclosure. I certainly don’t mind a blogger making money out of their blog. They spend time and effort writing it and I get immense enjoyment from their efforts so I am happy for them to get paid.
BUT.
There is a line which should not be crossed. That line is drawn differently for each reader. Things which will make me unhappy include -
- posting several paid posts over 24 hours with content in between that looks like it was written just to go in between the paid posts.
- posting about things which I feel are unethical - gambling sites, lap band surgery, plastic surgery.. there’s a few more I can’t think off right now but I know them when I see them
- posting glowing reviews but reading between the lines a reader can tell this poster has never even heard of this product until 15 minutes ago, they’ve never used it, and they’re writing about it purely for the $$$
- Making unforgivable spelling mistakes. I once saw a blogger refer to Sydney as “Sidney”. Ironically the paid post was from the Sydney tourism board! I know because I saw the opportunity on one of the sites I belong to! If you are being paid to post, you darn well better make sure you spell the name of the thing you’re talking about right. I don’t want to hear about you wanting to get on a plane to Sidney - there are no planes to Sidney. And hopefully you’ll spell everything else correctly. We all make mistakes but you’re being paid so make an effort!
Anyway, those are my thoughts. A thought provoking post, obviously!
Snoskred
Daniel Sitter, Idea Seller says...
I enjoyed reading your interpretation of my article and the way you applied it for your readers Ronald. Well done. Since all of us who blog must attract and develop relationships with our readers, your adaptations are right on point.
Thank you for your recommdation for Idea Sellers. Make it a great day!
Ronald Huereca says...
@Snoskred,
You bring up an interesting point. Google is likened to the teacher that punishes the entire class for the behavior of a few students. If Google is punishing those who openly disclose the same as those who don’t disclose, then what is the point of disclosing? One question you could ask yourself is, who does disclosing (or not disclosing) actually benefit?
The one time I did a paid review, I actually warned the admin of the site that it would be a negative review. I went ahead and wrote it and the site hasn’t done a paid review since.
Anyways, thank you for the compliment on the post. And thanks for weighing in and bringing a unique perspective.
@Daniel,
You’re welcome. You produce some great stuff over there. I used to work in retail, so I’m very familiar with customer service and customer relations. It was a bittersweet experience and sometimes I miss it.
Sue @ TameBay says...
Re. disclosing affiliate links: this can get annoying. I was reading someone’s blog the other day; he’d mentioned a book, and he’d linked Amazon. Then afterwards, he’d written something like “yes, that’s right, that’s an affiliate link. If you click the link and buy the book, I get a few cents. Get over it.”
Personally, I’d assume that *anyone* who links Amazon does so through their affiliate scheme. It’s so easy to join, why wouln’dt you? And the few cents you get for selling any one item is hardly going to push you to recommend something you didn’t already like. So great big defensive disclaimers are hardly necessary. Likewise the “advertising” label that some sites seem to need to put above their, uh, advertising.
Ronald Huereca says...
@Sue,
I agree that there can be “too” much disclosure. What about just having a monetary disclosure page and let the readers who are interested read that, and the rest can skip it?
Sue @ TameBay says...
Ronald: the “monetary disclosure” page is an interesting idea. To be honest, I think it depends on the topic of the blog.
I’ve had a personal blog since 2001, and back at the beginning, I and many others were concerned for the “purity” of blogging: i.e. that no monetary interests would ever come into it.
I contrast that now with TameBay which deals with eBay and other aspects of ecommerce, where the common assumption seems to be that we will monetise the blog, take advertising, take paid reviews, and so on. And that’s because almost all our audience are involved in ecommerce themselves in one way or another.
It’s all about reader expectation, but that has to be in context, and some groups of readers would think you were an idiot if you *weren’t* making money from it! Our advertising rates are linked from the main page for all to see, so I don’t think we’re fooling anyone into thinking those banners are there out of the goodness of our hearts