Does Your Blog Stink - parts 3-5

We started with reasons one and two here, and  Steve Remington has posted parts 3-5 on  Why My Blog Stinks which we'll summarize below.

Reason Three: Being Longwinded:  "One of the biggest mistakes bloggers make is posting extremely large articles," says Steve. It is great to have lots of content but break it up and spread out your articles into several separate ones.

People on the Internet are in a rush. They tend to scan instead of read in detail. Make it easy on them. Emphasize each key point with its own post so they don't get lost! It's also easy to refer to your previous posts, as most bloggers often do, when they are short and to the point, instead of meandering five page monologues.
"What's the rush to say everything you know is less than 2 weeks?" asks Steve. What do you think you're writing, War and Peace?

Reason Four:  Not Posting Regularly and Consistently: When you post regularly and consistently, you'll have regular and consistent readers.  "Keep that posting consistent and even, and make sure it is regular," recommends Steve. "Posting 4 or 5 times a month will cause you to lose readership and your blog will become stagnant."

We've all seen blogs that start great and then sloooooooow waaaay dooooown (and we stop reading them).

Reason Five: Not Having A Voice
Many business bloggers have a hard time taking a side and voicing their opinion. Often they sense it as unprofessional, but there is a professional way as well as unprofessional way to voice your opinions. "Bashing your opposition may not go over well but sticking to your side of the issue and backing up what you have to say with facts is a professional way to do this," says Steve. "I honestly believe one of the largest mistakes business blogs make is trying to make everybody happy."  You can't make everyone happy on controversial issues, so don't try. "Staying on middle ground is not a good way to go because in the long run you don’t make anybody happy, you appear to have no backbone, and your voice is not legitimate," warns Steve.

Hmmm, should I insert my opinion on the Pope, abortion, gun control, politics, etc. here? Of course not! Those would be offtopic here. On topic opinions is what we're talking about!

Time for a reality check – do my blogs stink? Well, except for slightly reduced posting frequency while finishing up this book (yes, this is a slightly hacked excerpt), looks like they pass the tests.

Thanks for great series Steve!