Blog readers are loyal and expect good writing

... kind of confirms what already thought but good to know

Darren on ProBlogger did a survey last week about why people unsubscribe from blogs. I found that the #1 and #2 was in direct opposition to each other rather amusing

#1 Too many posts (the post levels are too overwhelming)
#2 Infrequent Posting (or the blog is effectively dead)

I scan-read about 30 blogs and "newsclipper sites" a day. To me, a newsclipper site is sort of a lazyman's blog that depends more on the editorial skill of the blogger to pick and choose articles to reference rather that his writing skill. In some ways, I've found I rely on them more.

I've outlined my reading style before, I don't use a reader but drive my feed from an "ordered list" in my bookmarks, so I'm never counted among the subscribed. Of the 30, about 15 are scanned daily, 5 are picked from those I read once or twice a week, and 10 come from either cross-links, a few social sites like reddit, or -mostly- the newsclippers.

I cannot recall ever putting a blog or newsclipper in my bookmarks for a trial run because I found them in a serp. It's always from links, trackbacks, blogrolls, or commentary. I can generally tell if they are likely to make the cut within 3 days but will adjust my reading schedule to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Top killers:
Frequent use of linkbait.
Frequent knee-jerk reactions to issue-du-jour.
Fluffing of sponsors
Overly verbose.
Too many writers.
No comment count (you're in jeopardy, graywolf)

Not telling me a link is to a video. (We pretty much killed this with PDF's, why do you assume that videos are any less of a PITA?)

Frequent posting of videos as standalone threads.

Need to meantion verbal diarrhea. The social marketing blogs that blog about social marketing ( a lot of offenders post here) make me yawn.

Those just toss the credibility out the window and get the heave-ho from the RSS feed list...

[ducks]

Overly verbose
>verbal diarrhea

I'll acknowledge that there is a dilemma in blogs that is similar to webmastering ...to draw your new(bie) readers, you need some eyecandy. Once they become regular readers, they want white space, even starkness. I've often mentioned that the underground has degenerated into communicating by grunts and nods, this isn't really that much of a joke. Once within familiar territory, you don't need all the cues.

So, imho, blogs need to cover the bullets first then expand upon them downstream if they are dying to burn up some keystrokes.

(Note that TW gives members the option to turn off ads, that was a direct attempt to address that bridging issue.)

No comment count (you're in jeopardy, graywolf)

actually I'm conducting an experiment, which I'll disclose when it works, or quietly put back if it doesn't. But you're the second person who complained, so out of curiosity you check the number rather than subscribe by email or use an RSS solution like co.mments?

as mentioned above, i've left sage and any sort of rss solution in preference of a manual 'reading management' system. seems i prefer the control of pull rather than accept the slightest whiff of push.

depending on the topic, mix of comment participants, and time of day i may revisit to see what/who i've stirred up.

experiment
if you were a banner whore, i'd say you were flogging pageviews by maiming ui. it works.

the other person who commented about my removing the comments was also RSS free. Usually it takes three data points to establish a trend, but I don't think I need to wait for the third in this case.

I AM a trend. Just ask anyone.