The blogosphere is filled with bad practices. Many bloggers engage in dubious exercises to wrestle relevance from other bloggers. The 'smaller' bloggers are bullied by their bigger counterparts; leaving no room for them to survive. The blogosphere is perceived as the survival of the fittest and hence, many bloggers fight tooth and nail to ensure their head stay on top of the water. Many do not see blogging as a career; instead, they see it as an opportunity to hit and run by invoking every black hat technique at their disposal. They carry out their mischief at the expense of the dedicated bloggers.
The blogosphere is polluted and Google, the search engine giant is always on their toes, spending millions of dollars on their engineers to ensure sanity amongst publishers in order to weed off the bad eggs. But then, some of these bad practices are carried out ignorantly to the extent that the perpetrators believe they are doing the right thing.It is difficult to distinguish the genuine bloggers from the crooked ones as search engines rely on their robots to penalize defaulters. Sometimes, the genuine ones are victims of Search Engines' anti-scam bots and policies.
In this article, I will be listing some blogging etiquettes. While they are not mandatory, I would advise you always abide by them in order to have a peaceful coexistence in the blogosphere.
BLOGGING ETIQUETTES THAT WILL ENCOURAGE A PEACEFUL COEXISTENCE IN THE BLOGOSPHERE
1. While copying, always acknowledge the source:
Once upon a time, there was famine in the animal kingdom. The tortoise had no wings but needed to fly to another land where there is food in abundance- so he hired two birds. One bird would hold one end of the stick with its beak, the other will hold the other in the same manner while the tortoise( who couldn't fly) would hold the middle of the stick with his mouth. That way, the two birds could propel him as they flew to the land of plenty- Magnificent! ... But something happened during the course of their flight! The birds received praises from onlookers for a brilliant idea which was tortoise's. Tortoise felt very bad and furious and as he opened his mouth to shun the onlookers and tell them it was all his idea, his mouth lost grip on the stick and he came down crashing- breaking his shell.
Most bloggers get infuriated when they see their ideas (softwares, images, musics, being copied without being acknowledged as the source.Severally, I have seen my articles (which took me many sleepless nights to complete) duplicated on many blogs and news site with only a handful of the sites linking back to my blog-it is really heart wrecking considering the time, energy, resources it took for those articles to be written. The tortoise was lucky enough to survive the crash- not everyone would continue with blogging after seeing that their efforts are not being recognized and acknowledged. Courtesy demands that you acknowledge the source of your post(If you must copy) by including a clickable link to the source of the post.
2. Always respond to comments:
Learn to say, 'thank you' when your post is complimented. Always respond to questions and inquiries. This will establish a mutual relationship and build trust between you and your visitors. Comments can also be used to assess your blog's performance. Listen to your visitors' complaints and make adjustments where necessary. Also take time to visit and comment on their blogs too (If they are not spammers).
3. Do not spam:
When you go on rampage posting your links on every blog you come across, it becomes offensive. While commenting on blogs to gain backlinks is not a bad idea, common sense demands you leave relevant comments; your comments should be related to the blog post. Do not leave comments about dogs on a blog post that talks about ' How to repair a phone'. Many engage the services of bots to deliver their spam comments on several blogs. The bad news is that google's search engine bot will surely detect such comments and this may have severe consequences on your SEO rank.
4.While guest posting...
Some people engage in guest posting with a bad motive. These set of people put up crappy articles in the bid to include their links in the posts. They pay more attention to adding their links to their posts rather than writing quality articles.I have been a victim too and I did not hesitate to delete all the crappy posts from someone I made an author in my blog. This is is not healthy for the blogosphere and should be discouraged. A good blogging etiquette requires you to write quality guest posts just as you would while writing for your blog.
5. While advertising on your blog...
Do not cluster your blog with a lot of adverts as it will impede the usability of your blog. Place adverts where necessary and always use the right sizes. I have had terrible experiences while navigating through some sites. Sometimes the adverts are so big that they block the whole screen such that visitors will have to struggle through the pages to get the contents they are looking for. Most visitors end up hitting the 'back' button to escape from the annoying which will have a negative impact on your bounce rate.
6. Avoid annoying pop-ups:
Some pop-ups are just too irritating. While it is a good technique to use pop-ups especially while seeking for subscribers, moderation is necessary while applying them. Some sites have annoying pop-ups on every single page you open. Some pop-ups are designed in such a way that the 'close' button are almost invisible. This could be very irritating that sometimes I feel like smashing my device. Make your site as simple as possible and minimize the use of javascripts and popups as much as you can. This is a good user-friendly practice and will go a long way in making your site load faster and improve the your site's bounce rate.
7. Write in comprehensive language and manner:
Finally, communicate with your readers. Write in simple and comprehensive English. There is no point writing ambiguous and bombastic grammar that will leave your readers sprawling in awe. Be descriptive as much as possible and make use of paragraphs when necessary. Most importantly, use good punctuations. Sometimes I run out of breath trying to read an article that has no punctuations. If you are not too good in writing in English, you can always seek the assistance of your friends to help proofread your article.
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