How NOT to blog: The "Matt Cutts" syndrome

A successful blog can and should include many things, including:

1. topic-relevant information
2. important and relevant breaking news
3. related how-to's
4. related resources and utilities
5. opinion pieces

What a successfult blog should NOT include:

1. personal information no one cares about
2. what you did on your last vacation
3. important people you met (name-dropping and social-climbing)
4. "cute" stories that no one except your mother and/or your spouse gives a damn about

In about two out of three blog posts lately, Matt Cutts seems to hit all of the Don'ts and none of the Dos. An example:

How can I put this politely, Matt?

NO ONE CARES!

If you have nothing to say today, DO NOT BLOG!!!

Seriously. You'll thank me. The world will thank me. Even your mother will thank me.

 

nice post, I'd have to agree with you

Any tips on making a tech blog that features mainly programming tips into a blog with regular readers?

 

I am not sure how you came up with your "NOT" list but I disagree with it.

Web logs are journals, and as such they can (and most do) contain personal and '"cute" stories.

If you search for the top blogs, they tend to be the ones with more personal details, including every one of your 'NOT' points... People like to read other people's life stories... Why do you think we have soaps running for several decades?

I think you are trying to cast blogs into what you think is 'correct', but it won't work.

I don't believe blogs, or web sites have to conform to a set rules.

 

I'm sure you're right for most blogs, but Matt Cutts doesn't fit in the most category. He is looked at as a Guru, he has people regularly returning to find informative information, not meowing

 

One problem is that you're targeting a niche audience - do programmers typically read blogs?

If I were going to do one, I might want to make it a bit more general - make categories for programming, web scripting, Windows tweaking and troubleshooting, Linux tweaking and troubleshooting, etc. Broaden the base a bit without diluting the content by using categories.

 

Because of my new job, I'm becoming a quasi-expert in spam. Think there's any value in writing about it?

 

It's his blog and his rules.

He doesn't need to increase number of visitors, nor the click-thru percentage, not any other d**n business ratio.

 

No doubt the majority of high school kids, the MySpace crowd, and the terminally stunned will agree with you.

On the other hand, I'm offering an opinion about how to blog without irritating potential readers with average IQ or above.

You choose - it's your blog and your audience.

 

Eh the blogs that I return to are about people's personal lives. But they have to be living an interesting life.

i.e. extremely rich 3rd world country homo, whore, hollywood whore, etc.

 

Yes. See my previous reply and add this as another category. I'd probably read it.

 

[my stress]

Thanks for not putting down everyone else who does not follow what you think is right.

I would be so elated should you be willing to share your source for your "majority", "terminally stunned" <sic> statement. I can learn from You, and abandon my foolish misconception that they are not below average individuals.

From my stunted and inferior research I found nothing of value but a few morsels of opposing, but surely incorrect research, which follows -

Although majority or 68.1% (Perseus Blog Survey 2005) are female, and 94.3% are between the ages of 13 - 29, I could not find reference to their intelligence [SIZE=-1]quotient [/SIZE]anywhere. Furthermore statistically speaking, where 41.8% is above 20 years of age, it is hardly a landslide for high school kids. This of course is no proof, as my IQ diminutive, and such simple additions boggle my stunted mind.

Additionaly 83% of respondents characterized their entries as personal ramblings whereas 20% said they mostly publish lists of useful/interesting links ([/FONT]Vigéas, F. B. (2005). Bloggers' expectations of privacy and accountability: An initial survey. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 10(3), article 12.).

Of course, there has been a recent, and surely full of mistakes, research done by Northeastern University (Blogging Success Study 11/2006) where they point out the key elements of of a successful blog -

Additionally for blogs to be successful, they recommend (noting the last point)

 

Don't use facts Libertate!!!!!!!

OK Fact: Todd Sanfield is hot and has big wangchungs

 

Okay... and? None of that counters what I said in the original post here. I don't want to hear about the latest cutesy thing your cat did, or what he typed on your keyboard, or that hilarious noise your budgie made, or what your 2 year old child did with his mashed potatoes... save it for your diary. And the fact that 80% + of people use blogs for that purpose doesn't impress me at all - that's the very thing I'm complaining about.

I'm not sure how you missed that...

 

Uhhmmm... Sorry. I am too stunted to see the correlation between you depricating everyone who ... oh never mind.

Ok. So you don't like all the lousy, self indulging, self exposing blogs.

Nor do I. But a lot of people do. Some revel in others joy, misery and tribulations.

It turns out, most of these blogs die within the first 12 months (which you already knew from the research). So feel the joy knowing that drivel you just (forced at gun-point, I am sure) read, will be dead next year around.

Just don't go calling people names, and imply that somehow they (we) are inferior. It makes you look less believable, and obscures your valid point by venom...

 

Minstrel, I do agree with your Do's and Don'ts as a general rule for blogs. People will post what they want to post though, nothing much we can do about it.

As for Matt's blog... just don't read any of his blog posts filed as "personal" if it bothers you so much.

 

A thesaurus was not meant to be used on every other word Libertate. You are trying to sound intelligent, but it's just coming across as illegible.

I would suggest you master the 5 cent punctuations before graduating to 5 dollar words!

 

I am not sure how this relates to the topic, but thank you for the constructive criticism. If you point them out, I would be happy to correct them.

 

Definitely. Spam plagues everyone. If you could offer posts on how to reduce it, your blog would be a hit.

 

frankcow, I just had a look at your blog (and I love the name, by the way... A Complete Waste of Time )....

Personally, I find the blog theme really hard to read (green and light grey on black), though I liked the content (and subscribed via Bloglines). You might give some thought to making it a tad easier to read.

 

that's excellent feedback, thanks. As I start to add more regular 'for reading' content vs 'for programming' I'll give serious consideration to the theme. I guess I was going for too much of a *cool* factor at design-time