Sunday, February 05, 2012

MY BLOG PROMISE TO YOU

After going through Google Reader and unsubscribing from about 25 different blogs that at one time I must have loved, I've realized there are a lot of things I really don't like about blogs that either try to go big time or are big time. Because I don't like these things, I imagine there are a lot of you out there that don't like these things either.

So here is my promise to you:
  • I will never add music to my blog so that when you open a window on your browser you're assaulted by what I think are awesome tunes (but if I ever lost my mind and one day decided to do this any way it'd likely be Kelly Clarkson or Florence & the Machine, just so you know).
  • I will never have ads on this blog. The only thing I will try to sell you is my husband's free iPhone app.
  • Along those lines, I will never pimp out my sponsors ... unless at some point I actually do something that warrants sponsoring. Like humanitarian work. You know, things that matter.
  • I will not inundate you with products that I've only used because some PR person convinced me that my readers absolutely need to know about said product. Remember, I come from a PR background - I know the tricks. If I'm telling you about a product I love, it's because I use it and I really, really, really love it. Not because some company wants me to.
  • I will not have more giveaways than content because it drives traffic to my blog. In fact, just so we're all aware right here and now,  I'll never give you anything.
  • I will not fancy myself a photographer and post photography tutorials with pictures that are largely out of focus. 
I'm sure there are a hundred other things that bugged me about these blogs, but you get the point. I realize that some people take blogging a whole lot more seriously than I do, but I just can't imagine they have deluded themselves into thinking that any of this is actually good, quality content. Can they?

10 comments:

  1. All I can say is Thank you for just being you :) Plus I enjoy your blog - it's calming in the seas of blogs with so much going on.

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  2. Thank you! I've quit quite a few blogs lately because of those reasons.

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  3. It seems to have gotten much worse since November. There was one blog that I unsubscribed from that had more giveaways, product reviews, and pictures of other people's stuff than anything they'd done originally. I get commercials on TV; I don't need them in my reading.

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  4. Thanks! That's a huge compliment in my book.

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  5. I am sure there are going to be people who think my post is very controversial and mean, but it had to be said. :-)

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  6. "In fact, just so we're all aware right here and now,  I'll never give you anything."

    I love you

    I have a higher tolerance than most for ads and product reviews, as long as they seem honest and at least tangentially related. What really gets me is when someone starts posting more about 'how to monetize your foobar blog' and 'how to attract readers to your foobar blog' than they actually post about foobar. Um...trick number one: to attract foobar readers, write about foobar. The whole blogging about blogging thing just seems so...well, I'm thinking of a dirty word, but I'll just say 'insular'.

    (not that I'm saying this post was bad...just that it's sort of a useless thing to have as 90% of your content)

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  7. Insular is a really good word for it as I've noticed a lot of the offenders seem to run in the same circle, if that makes sense. I feel like they're enablers of one another. If one person has a post like this, next thing you know the other six do and then your feed is cluttered with this stuff that has nothing to do with why you started reading in the first place.

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  8. Linda Roos12:01 PM

    YES!
    This is exactly why I read very few blogs nowadays.
    This is also probably why my blog will never be "big time". I'm ok with that.

    Thanks for putting it in writing! :)

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  9. Jenny2:44 PM

    Snicker.  I love you.

    You should explain why you will never do a giveaway.

    I will never do a giveaway because I am bad about going to the post office.  I mean well, but it's like a family curse, we are all like that.

    ;)

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