Architecting Your Blog to Keep Your Readers Happy

I was recently sent a comment from a reader saying that they were about to subscribe to my blog, and would I install a comment subscription plugin asap.

At first I was a bit taken aback, I’ve never had anyone ask me to extend my blog for them with new plugins or feature. This started me thinking, have I ever dropped a blog because of the way it is configured, and the answer is yes, here are my turn offs, what are yours?

Register to comment

You want feedback through your comments section, but you expect me to register, confirm and then login before I can join your conversation.

No way Jose, you have to remove all barriers to entry to make people comment, this just makes me sad and away I go.

Partial RSS

I don’t care that you are trying to up your impression count for your advertisers, when I ask for an RSS subscription I want the full monty to read at my leisure inside of my feed reader, I don’t expect to be propelled back to your site after the first 500 words.

I have clicked on unsubscribe a couple of times when this tactic eventually wears me down.

Pop-Up email boxes

A new fad has being doing the rounds to have popup, pop-over, pop-under and pop goes the weasel email newsletter signup boxes appear after a couple of seconds on blogs.

If I want to subscribe to your newsletter, give me an incentive, an ebook, a course not an dodgy flying box in front of your content. it makes you look spammy.

No RSS subscribe button above the fold

I’ve found a new blog, the content is excellent and I want to read more, don’t make me hunt around your site for an RSS icon, make it big and bold above the fold.

We are lazy, we know what we expect, join the herd and do as everyone else does please.

Lets Have A Rant!

What are your bette-noirs about blogs?  What makes you unsubscribe or stop reading a blog, let’s make a list in the comments (which I am happy to say you can now subscribe to).

Is there anything else I am not doing which which really annoys you, seriously let me know, I have a hoop ready to jump through all you need to do is ask.  Readers are a precious resource for a blogger, they are your customers so to speak give them what they want.