Mistake by bloggers

Hi guys,
I wud like to know your views on this.
A common mistake done by a major share of bloggers are the number of posts featured on the index(first page) of their blogs.

I find that many bloggers do not make it a point to trim down the number of posts, while also confusing an reader with too many topics. Blogs by default keep 5 - 10 posts per page on a blog's front page. As a result, all the posts are dumped in front of the reader who is confused. A major share of readers just drages down the scroll bar to the last topic and only scans his eyes through the posts.


To overcome this, go to your dashboard, click SETTINGS, then click FORMATTING and change the number of topics to be displayed on the first page to either 2 or 1 (depending on your post length.)

This way , you can push the user to click the archives or previous posts links and browse through the entire blogs(or topics that only interest him) thereby ensuring a 100% effective participation. This is even more important when you have Google Ads featuring on your site.

When the user clicks on a particular previous post, it is out of his interest in then topic. So, if the Google Ad also features genuine contextual advertisement, it is likely to grab the users attention and generate a click!

If it had been the front page with 24 posts, the Google Ads would have just diluted down, and would have made just another "browsing user" and not a "genuine user".

 

I keep 1 post on the frontpage. Do u ppl think i should add more posts?

 

I completely agree with the suggestion and i generally practice this from long.... and it works.

 

i think 1-2 posts(again will depend on the length of posts) will suffice, when u have the menu on the right hand side panel.

 

Nice info and fully agree with you.

This can be done easily for beta version of Blogger. But How to do it in Normal blogger??.

 

Great point. Still, it depends on the lenght - If you're only showing an excerpt on the front page, i think the optimal number is 5. If whole posts - 2 or 3.
+rep for the_fox

 

Yeah, I have to disagree and say that 5-10 works the best for me. However, I can see how a fewer number would work for certain blogs.

 

How about placing posts few lines on the first page. I have put summary for last 10 post on my home page.

What do you about this idea?

 

I think it depends on how long your articles are. I actually like one or two good quality posts and then a really good organised category segment.

 

Hi there! Thanks for the post.

 

I used to have 10 full posts on my front page due to the length of my right-sidebar (I have a three column sidebar) but changed it to five when I realised how far down people had to scroll.

The problem I now have is that when people arrive from Newsnow to a single page post, the sidebars are way longer than the post giving it an untidy and messy feel.

It's a difficult balance I think.

 

good point there - i'll keep you posted.

 

I have enough posts so that it covers the length of the sidebar...which is 5

 

Here's another mistake(hmm...debatable) i found commonly ignored by even professional bloggers(only blogger.com/blogspot.com) - To leave the links section untouched!

Hmm...i think they are lazy to edit the code, probably busy typing in their posts.

But i think this is something that will tear down your profile - to that of a newbie.novice

I've seen the links category to be - Google News , then two dummy Edit - Me, Edit Me links !! how sad - It only take a while to edit it.

Just goto the template and find a code that reads like

<a href="http://google.....">Google News</a>
<a href="http://....">Edit Me</a>
<a href="http://....">Edit Me</a>

Now, just replace the Edit Me text to the website name , and...
Replace the http://... to yuour favourite site's webaddress.

So, inorder to place a link to howstuffworks.com the code will look like,

<a href="http://www.howstuffworks.com">Learn how stuff works</a>

A small finger raised, a few clicks and it's a whole new face lift for your blog.

Disagree? Ask your readers

Cheers !

 

I agree with Tyler Banfield,

 

this would go for wordpress too right? having 1-2 post on the front?

 

I think that maximum should be 5, on the other hand 1 is not enough.

 

It depends on the article length. If you have short articles it's fine to have around 6-10posts, if they are longer I think that something like 4 (so visitors see what kind of articles you write) would be the best.

 

1 on the frontpage doesn't help your SEO efforts and is really annoying to read.

 

Google likes looking at my 10 posts on my home page.