Happiness Uncheerful

I follow quite a few blogs, and most of them I like. I follow most blogs I come across, because I know it's nice to have followers. Or occasionally it's because I actually love the blog. Sometimes it's both, for those excellent blogs that don't have the popularity they deserve. However, there are a few blogs that are not at all enjoyable to read (no names of course- this is just my opinion and I would hate for a lovely blogger to get a bad name just because of me). These blogs generally have very few photographs and are unnaturally cheerful.

While Hobbes' suggestion is certainly true, excessively positive people can be annoying as well. Most of the time, when I read one of these such blogs, I start to feel very annoyed at the writer, probably because they're happier than me and I don't like that. Human nature at its best, eh?

So in order for you to make your blog the very best possible, I'd like to offer a few additional things that I hate about certain blogs. If you don't do any of these things, chances are I'll follow your blog if I catch sight of it. 

Changing the title. So, you make a blog, you give it a good name, you get a few followers, etc etc. And then you change the title, and poof, you're nothing more than a pile of ash! Okay. Sorry, that was irrelevant. I was quoting the Hobbit, if that makes it any better. But anyway, my point is that if you change the title of your blog, chances are people will get confused and they won't want to read it, even if your blog is an excellent one. I admit, I did change the address to my blog, which created a lot of confusion, but it's been To Live A Life since 2010, when I first started blogging. Heck, I even got an entirely new blog and didn't change the title! (Of course, that is because I adore the title of my blog. To Live A Life- very poetic sounding, don't you think?)

Leaving incredibly long gaps between posts. I'm sorry, but this is just one of those things that is almost always unacceptable. Unless you have a good reason like you have cancer or a friend or member of your family died, in which case I will express my deepest sympathy and prayers. But what I say is, if you aren't going to be an active blogger (one or two posts a week being the minimum of active) don't be a blogger at all, except if you're special. 

Posting picture after picture after picture. Sure, one or two posts a month that are picture-heavy are fine. But unless you run a blog that's a photography blog, I for one would much rather read what you have to say than guess at it through photographs. 

Posting novels. This ties in with the last one on the list. While it isn't good to solely have photographs in a post, neither is it good to have a post that simultaneously has no pictures and exceeds a couple hundred words. I admit I'm breaking this rule here, but at least I'm putting a page break in (the link that said 'read more', which you have apparently clicked, otherwise you wouldn't be reading these words) so that readers who are just stopping by for a minute don't necessarily have to stick around for the whole thing. Please, put a balance between pictures and words!

Snippets rather than posts. I'm continuing with the series of perfecting a post. If you're going to write a post that's no more than one to five sentences long, please don't publish it. That's what Twitter is for. Strive for the perfect post: not too long, not too short, not too picture-heavy and not too wordy. 

Changing the background. Guilty as charged. I have changed the background of my blog numerous times in the past months. If I were reader and not writer of this blog, I would be quite disappointed. My advice is, find one that looks good and isn't too exciting and stick with it. 

Bribing people to follow you. I mostly follow knitting blogs, so I'm not sure if this extends outside those circles. But one thing I really hate is when a blogger will host a giveaway or contest and say, 'if you're a follow, you get 10 entries' or some such thing. I would much rather a follower be reading my blog because they enjoy it and because it has quality, not because I bribed them. 

And that's all there is to creating the worst blog in the world. If this is your goal, then please, take advantage of my advice and break all the rules. You won't be seeing me in your list of followers.