Day 8: Blog Appeal

This is part of a 15 Day Book Blogging Challenge from Good Books and Good Wine.

Previous Posts

Day 1: Confessions	Day 5: Tearjerker
Day 2: Bedtime Ritual	Day 6: Book Shopping!
Day 3: Blogging BFFs	Day 7: Blogging Quirks
Day 4: Book Flinging

Write 15 bullet points of things that appeal to you on blogs.

1. Crisp and Clean Design - I like to be able to see what I'm looking at/for. Color and art is nice and fun, but there is such a thing as too much. On the other hand, there should be some structure and design. Plain text is boring.
2. Organized - Titles are a good description or the post, there isn't a lot of extra junk in the sidebar, images aren't flying around everywhere.
3. Search and Archive - I like having the post archive to go through and a search bar for when I'm looking for something specific. And the search bar should be easy to find, which is typically the top right of the page.
4. Header Design - The header should draw readers in. I'm working on designing mine now, so it's currently missing, but some headers are just too busy and obnoxious which can make the page design look that way. One of my friends had a blog like that. I subscribed, but didn't like going to the actual blog page because it gave me a headache. They just recently changed it, and it looks a lot nicer now.
5. Blog Name - The name should say a lot about you and your blog. I sympathize with bloggers though on this point, because I hate and have a hard time naming things.
6. Grammar - It drives me nuts when people use excessive abbreviations and txt talk. Use full words, and check your English. I know that my posts aren't always perfect. I am horrible at spelling, but that's what spell check is for. If I notice a mistake later, I try to go back and fix it for future readers. Also, missing commas is one of my biggest pet peeves. If there is a pause in a sentence, you probably need a comma. Use a grammar check like Microsoft Word.
7. About Me - Yes mine is missing I know. This blog is a work in progress, and I'm always leery about how much I should put online. But I like to know about the blogger a bit. What credentials do they have? What country are they from? Do we have common interests? It's a lot easier to like the posts if you like the blogger.
8. Images - I love images. A lot of times, I look at the image of a post before the title. If a blog is pretty much devoid of images, I usually won't even attempt to read it.
9. Personality - I like seeing personality leaking into posts. A person's personality can go a long way in helping liven up their writing style. But no valley girl talk please.
10. Personal Posts - Sometimes it's nice to get away from the purpose of the blog and talk about what you've been doing or discovered. I like seeing that. It makes readers relate more to bloggers. But just because you knitted a sweater and like it doesn't mean you have to give step by step instructions in the post. A link is sufficient.
11. Interaction - I hate when I post a question and never get a response. Having interaction makes me way more interested in blogs.
12. Music - I hate it. If I want to listen to music, I'll find my own. If you're posting something that requires music, the reader should have the option of turning it on themselves with the default being off.
13. Animation - Animation for the most part is distracting to me. Small GIFs in posts occasionally are fine, but if I see overuse of animation in a blog, I'll just leave.
14. Chat Rooms - I hate sidebar chat rooms unless they serve a real and needed purpose, which isn't usually the case. If you want a chat, make a separate page for it.
15. Favicon - If I see a blog has been active for a good long time (like a year or so) and they don't have a favicon or have the default favicon when they have the opportunity to change it, it just bugs me. It doesn't necessarily cause me to leave, but it puts me off. It especially makes it troublesome when bookmarking.

That said, I know I've gone against a lot of my own points, part of that is because I'm new at this. If you have any suggestions, I'd be extremely happy to hear them. Another part of the reason is because this blog has only been going since April. I haven't had much time to sit down and design a background, header, and favicon, and I'm currently in the process of typing up the About Me, Policy, and List pages. I've learned a lot since starting this blog, and I hope to learn a lot more in the future.