I'm a rebel. Always have been.
When someone gives me advice, my first reaction is to say, "No!" with all the self-empowering force of a 2-year old who has just learned the word, and then throw that advice out the window.
Now that I'm all grown up and (somewhat) mature, I've learned to ignore my first reaction and actually consider the thing people are telling me. Is it actually useful? Do I want to do it? Are they right? Typically, I'll try it out and then decide for myself if it's worth doing.
In the case of blogging, I've accepted, and even sought out, more advice than I can possibly remember at the moment. But there are a few things that I soundly reject and I'll tell you why.
When someone gives me advice, my first reaction is to say, "No!" with all the self-empowering force of a 2-year old who has just learned the word, and then throw that advice out the window.
Now that I'm all grown up and (somewhat) mature, I've learned to ignore my first reaction and actually consider the thing people are telling me. Is it actually useful? Do I want to do it? Are they right? Typically, I'll try it out and then decide for myself if it's worth doing.
In the case of blogging, I've accepted, and even sought out, more advice than I can possibly remember at the moment. But there are a few things that I soundly reject and I'll tell you why.
Blog Advice That's Not For Me
1. Every Post Must Have Pictures
Ain't nobody got time for that! Honestly, though, I did this for a while, and it was awesome, and pretty, and I got more hits than I have since. But it's a lot of work and takes this from a fun hobby to a chore. I don't want it to be a chore. So now I only add pictures if I want to.
2. Full Posts Should Be Displayed on the Main Page
Some people think it's easier, because they don't have to click through to read the whole post. I think it's a pain, because I'd rather choose which posts to read and just browse the titles and first couple paragraphs. When you've got one post that's 10 pages of pictures, it makes it hard for me to find the other posts. So I present my blog in the way I prefer to read. Besides, how many people actually visit my homepage? Don't we all use Bloglovin' to get there in the first place?
3. Reduce Your Archive Size
Usually by eliminating dropdowns. I understand the logic: it takes up less space, yada yada, but I need to be able to find stuff. Maybe your other readers don't go back through old posts and maybe I'm the weirdo, but sometimes I decide to write a post similar to someone else's and I want to find their post to give credit. If your archive isn't easy to use, the likelihood of you getting your due credit is much reduced. I keep my archive in the standard format to make things easy for me (Yep - I use it all the time when I want to reference my own old posts) and my readers.
4. Avoid Paragraphs at All Costs
I like to read, so why wouldn't other people? Maybe you do, maybe you don't. If you don't, I'm not sure how or why you've gotten this far through the post. But I don't think any of us should feel bad about writing in paragraphs when it's our natural style and it's what we prefer to read on other blogs.Bonus: Blog Advice I'd Like to See Used More
Search Box!
Why don't people have these? You know that thing I said about digging through your old posts? If your archive is not user friendly or I don't remember what month it was, I can just use the search tool to find it. Give yourself some credit - your old stuff is pretty good and chances are I will probably want to look at some of it again one day.
I guess the general theme here is: I want to blog the way I'd want to read it. I'm not going to try to please everyone else if the end result is then something I personally wouldn't want to read. Hopefully everyone else is doing the same thing.
For the most part, I'm happy to live and let live, but it always gives me just a tiny jolt of irritation when someone says, "You CAN'T..." Uh, yeah. I can. Watch me.What advice do you refuse to follow? What advice do you wish everyone else would?
