Stilettos and Trackbacks

Hello, readers, we’re back with the WTF.  Apparently I’m stirring a lot of controversy… hmm.  That’s just fine.  Keep it coming, I can take it!  I actually feel just a little bit badly about this one, because Wayne seems like such a likable guy.  But, he admits it himself, he has a bad blog.

Run, Wayne, Run!

My first impression of Wayne’s blog was, “Well, this isn’t bad…” and then I started browsing.  And, well, it kind of IS bad, but good at the same time (is that even possible?).  Wayne has picked out a bland, yet hip background (from the limited choices on blogger.com), and his page is easy to navigate and very readable.  He even writes well!  Kudos, Wayne.  One more thing to add to Wayne’s list of positives: he uses images in his posts, and they’re actually relevant to what he’s writing!

Alright, enough with the niceties.  Wayne, I’m glad you’re staying fit, but no one cares about your running hobby!  Nor do they expect you to explain to them why you failed to run at any given time in your life.  One of the most important things in a blog is the content.  Please refer to our post about keeping your readers interested with good content.  It makes me mad to have to tell you that your topics suck, because your writing is really good.  You have a good blogging persona.  So, that being said, your topics obviously suck because you don’t get any comments.

Your labels are hysterical, but in a bad way.  Hope you don’t mind me borrowing this:  “Labels: landscaping, shrubbery, trees” from your post titled, “Why I didn’t run this weekend…”, or this:  “Labels: muscle soreness, prairie dogs, running, trails” from “Ice baths, prarie dogs.”  (By the way, you spelled Prairie wrong.)  Are you expecting someone to come to your site (which is about running) and do a search for Prairie Dogs or Landscaping?  Wouldn’t you find that a little odd?  I know its redundant, but your labels should be more generalized, like “running, Chicago, sponsorship” if you went running in a marathon in Chicago, that sponsored something.  If I want to hear your thoughts on that particular race, I’m not going to search for shrubbery.

The thing that cracks me up the most is that you have a Stat Counter on your site, yet you get no comments.  This leads me to believe that one of two things are happening here:  a) you have the counter because you’re hopeful that people will visit, but they’re not, or b) you actually DO have visitors, but they never leave comments because you have nothing interesting to say.  If the latter is true, I have to wonder (possibly aloud) why the visitors come back at all…?  I would like to know, just out of curiosity, how many visits you get daily.

Here are the other problems:

- No RSS Subscription options.  Again.  I’m seeing this as a trend among bad blogs.  We need to light our torches and take to the streets, hunting down the owners of incomplete blogs everywhere!  Who’s with me?   Anyone?

- No Search box.  You know, to search the content on the page?  Ugh, does anyone else feel like I’ve said this all already?  All this repetition is annoying me.

- No Contact information.  Wayne, how can I ask you those important questions about my running schedule if I can’t get in touch with you?  I mean, you don’t have to leave your cell phone number or anything, but an email address at least would be incredibly useful.

- No Social Bookmarking, no links to other sites, no links to other blogs…  To get recognition, you must give recognition.  It really is that simple.  I have to tell you that you did a good job with linking to other information sources, though.  But, these sources aren’t blogs, and they aren’t going to recognize you.

-  While the background is hip and interesting, it’s also way too common.  You aren’t going to stand out from the masses with a faded montage of dots.  

-  You don’t post often enough.  This could be another reason why your blog isn’t seeing any action.  Posting 3-4 times a month is not going to benefit you.  If you want to be a good blogger, you have to be dedicated, and post 2-3 times a week at least.  If someone reads your blog and finds it interesting, they’ll only come back a few times before forgetting about you.  If you don’t give them new content, that is.

Wayne, fix your blog.  It needs some love.  

Alright, folks, that’s it for this week.  What did you think of Wayne’s blog?  Not as bad as last week’s, but still bad.  Who’s ready for me to pick on a Real Estate blogger?  Any suggestions of who should be the first?  If not, I think I’ll go visit Posh’d and see what they suggest…

Go ahead and shoot me your ideas on some crappy blogs that I can make fun of. If you want to be anonymous about it, you can email me. If you’re brave, leave it in a comment.

Looking forward to next week’s WTF…

Erin