How often do you spend time during your week reading blogs?
While I spend most of my time writing blog posts, I do love it when I get a chance to grab a coffee, sit down and read a few posts from some of my favourite bloggers.
My list of favourite bloggers is quite large, and that list seems to grow weekly as I find more and more blogs that I love to read.
All is great until I boldly go where I’ve never gone before.
I click on a blog link that catches my eye, thanks to the catchy headline, and there it is – the dreaded POP-UP AD!
To me, pop-up ads, usually in the middle of my screen, are like fingernails on a chalkboard. There couldn’t be anything more irritating to me when I’m trying to read a post on a blog – or any website for that matter.
Don’t get me wrong. I am NOT against having ads on a blog. After all, I’ve got ads on my blog. Most blogs do. Ads are what help us pay to keep our blogs running. Yay for ads!
Just not pop-up ads. Ads that are “in your face” ads. Ads that “laugh” at you as you scramble to find that “X” that will relieve you of the unsightly ad. It’s always there…somewhere.
It was after reading…or should I say, TRYING to read, one particular blog post last week, that I decided to ask my readers/followers “When you read a blog…what are your pet peeves?”
You see, after trying to read this particular blog post that was about a topic that was of interest to me, I became so frustrated by the pop-up ad, I promptly stopped reading mid-post, and left the blog.
Never to return.
I don’t even remember the name of the blog I was visiting.
Even worse, in my opinion, is a similar sort of pop-up which asks a reader to sign up for a blog newsletter. I’ll be the first to say that I love following my favourite blogs’ newsletters, however, I really, really dislike when those sign-up boxes pop-up in my face when I am browsing a blog. No offense to those that have one, it’s just one of my pet peeves.
I admit, it is a good tactic. I’ve signed up to my fair share of blog newsletters just to get that darn sign-up box out of my face.
But…do you know what I dislike even more? When I go back to that same blog and it doesn’t remember me from my last visit when I DID sign up for the newsletter…and there is the same sign-up box asking me to sign up again.
Arrrrrrrgh!!
On a side note…I really need to start a newsletter. It’s on my “to-do list” for 2016. You can be certain you won’t be seeing any pop-up boxes when I do start one. Of course, I still hope you will sign up for my newsletter!
So….back to you, my wonderful readers. You answered my call out and told me exactly what your blog pet peeves are.
Apparently, it’s those nasty pop-up ads that bug you the most:
Crowdsourcing Poll! When you read a blog…what are your pet peeves? Anything else that bothers you? #socialmedia
— Canadian Blog House (@CanBlogHouse) December 2, 2015
I loved the responses I received, especially these ones on Twitter.
Sarah, from Journeys of the Zoo, wished I had added another option. Sadly, I was limited to 4 thanks to Twitter.
Christine is not a fan of grammatical errors. I have to agree with Christine on this one. I’ve left sites due to horrible spelling, grammar, or language.
Emily from A Pop of Red does not like those autoplay video ads. They’ve made me jump out of my seat a few times too, Emily!
Patrick would have voted for all four choices if he could have. Plus he added one…and it’s a good one.
I received a few more responses via private messages from those not wishing to go public with their pet peeves. Each one is something, I have to admit, that bothers me as well.
- Not responding to reader comments/questions/emails
- Too much advertising on the blog or a cluttered sidebar
- An outdated blog design/poor layout/unprofessional
- Takes too long to load
- Bad links
- Slide shows that make you click through to see whole post
- Social media buttons that are difficult to find or non-existent
- Contact information difficult to find or non-existent
- No social media sharing buttons – need to make sharing easy
So what about you? What your blog pet peeves? What makes you leave a blog?
