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5 More reasons that less is more in blogging

August 31, 2007 |

The old saying “Less is more” applies to blogging in many ways. You will hear a lot of copy and design bloggers telling you this for many different reasons. The words ring true with so many of the standards of blogging out there today. Here are 5 more reasons that less is more when it comes to blogging.

#1: Less is more in the way you plug your site

A link in the sig and on the profile will go a long way. Theres no need to pitch your posts or your feeds on other sites. Focus on being a good citizen in each of the communities that you are a part of and the traffic will come. Once someone gets to your site, then start the pitch.

#2: Less is more when it comes to your theme

Ad serving is fine. I don’t have any problems with any of the major ad servers that don’t cause pop-ups or anything to annoying. But a cluttered theme drags down loading, takes attention away from the reading and in the leading cause of ugly on the internet.

#2.5: Less is more with advertising and monetizing

This obviously stems a bit from #2. Like I said, ad serving is perfectly fine and legitimate. But too much has many negative effects.

• It annoys your readers
• It murders your credibility
• It slows the heck out of your site
• And above all Clutter your theme. (see number #2)

If nothing else, think of it this way: Your visitor is more likely to respond to and click a single and noticeable ad rather than one of dozens of distractions.

#3: Less is more when it comes to the time you spend at your site

You can’t spend all day at your blog approving or replying to comments, touching up your theme or even writing posts. Sometimes it is necessary but it is better to do things in one big spurt and then come back later on. You could be sucking up resources if you are signed in working or linked in your ftp client. If you suddenly get the inspiration to post an article but you’ve been at your blog all day, consider these options.

• Write the post in a text editor and post it later -This is good to do anyways because it allows you to think more about your content
• Use Google Docs and Spreadsheets to write the post and post it straight from Google with your XMLRPC (Wordpress rules)
• Write a heap of articles in WP’s editor and set them to auto-post at different times.

Another thing to remember is you have to get out and experience things, interact with people and stimulate your mind in order to have something interesting to talk about. You can’t do that from behind your WYSIWYG editor.

#4: Less is more when using your own resources for rich media

Youtube and Vimeo along with other similar sites are not just there for people without hosting.

Just because you can host your own podcasts, music videos and mp3 players, it doesn’t mean you have to. Even if you have the space and bandwidth required to do it, you are still using server load that you don’t have to. Increasing the amount of bytes gobbled up by each and every visit and, thereby, increasing the chances that the next viewer gets the dreaded Connection Was Reset or NO CONNECTION error. Outside hosting is fine and often necessary.

#5: Less is more when you are explaining things

It is a very good skill to be able to break things down for people. But you don’t always have to do it. It can actually make people feel dumb if you overdo it. The last thing you want to do is insult the person who is taking the time to read your thoughts. It is perfectly fine to assume your readers are already familiar with some things. If all else fails, you can always link to another post that explains the basics of your idea and move on with your analysis.

Tagged : Top Fives, blogging

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