Comments on: Blog Tip: Be consistent

By: colbert

colbert — Mon, 13 Jun 2005 03:11:59 +0000

going static on design and style will keep out the confusion from search engines , imho

I’m trying to do that too…. Following in the footsteps of leaders like Engadget and Gizmodo

By: Mark Tosczak

Mark Tosczak — Mon, 13 Jun 2005 00:09:59 +0000

Cary – That’s pretty good thinking. I often deliberately place the key link at the end of a post when I want to make sure that someone finishes reading what I have to say before they go flitting off to some place else.

I guess I think that stickiness is overrated. Look at Google — the whole site is designed to send you some place else, but people keep coming back because it does that so well, it’s useful. That’s how I think a good blog is: You’re never going to really capture a majority of a reader’s online attention, so I’d rather keep someone coming back to me because the links (I hope) are good, then worry too much about keeping them on my site for a long time when they’re checking in once a day or whatever..

That said, I’m not currently trying to make any money off my blog, and if I was I might be more concerned about trying to keep people hanging around. You’ve got a good theory about this — I hadn’t really thought that much about this issue before. I’m in the middle of a redesign of my blog, so I’ll have to add this to the list of things to think about.

By: Danger Stevens

Danger Stevens — Sun, 12 Jun 2005 21:06:35 +0000

That’s good thinking Cary, I really like your strategy. I feel that it might be best both to have inline links and then a summary of the links at the bottom of the post, but that is too time-consuming to always be possible.

By: Cary Miller

Cary Miller — Sun, 12 Jun 2005 20:33:51 +0000

Mark, I’ve actually been wondering about this…it seems to me that a link that is basically some text in the middle, say, of a paragraph, is probably less likely to take your readers away from your site, than a prominent link at the bottom that says, “Read More at:…”

My thinking (and of course I may be way off base!) is that once a reader is invested in reading a paragraph, (ie, they’re a few sentences in) they are most likely not going to click a link built right into a sentence, because they want to finish what they are reading. They know they can come back to the link when they finish.

However, if you place a link literally as the last thing in your post, I would think that human nature would say “alright, where do I go next…Oh, right here on this handy link!)

The first way, in-line linking, seems like it would be more likely to keep people at your site, because by the time they reach the end of the post, assuming the post is more than just a short re-hash of what’s at the other end of the link, there’s a good chance they won’t even need/want to follow that link anymore, and instead continue around your blog.

The second way, particularly if your post is just a quick sum-up of something else, seems like it would almost deffinitely draw your reader away, to learn more about the subject.

Anyway, that’s my theory, but I might be completely full of hot air!

: )

By: David

David — Sun, 12 Jun 2005 19:38:02 +0000

Great stuff. I am going to work on these things a little more on my own blog.

Always love when there is new content on Problogger.

By: Ray

Ray — Sun, 12 Jun 2005 19:18:06 +0000

eckes – Darren obviously advanced posted this on behalf of Jon – ie thats why the author name is different. He said he’d do this for a few posts of those who didn’t want to be added as authors on their own behalf.

Great tip by the way Jon.

By: Mark Tosczak

Mark Tosczak — Sun, 12 Jun 2005 17:03:40 +0000

I’m not convinced that it makes any difference if your consistent or not in where you put your links in a post, so long as it’s clear to the reader where the link goes and why it’s relevant to your post. Using the title attribute in the link tag can be helpful in that regard; in most browsers it’ll give readers a little pop-up with the title info.

By: Cary Miller

Cary Miller — Sun, 12 Jun 2005 16:19:52 +0000

Since my blog is fairly new I’ve been thinking about these issues a lot recently. It took me a while to figure out where to put links (chose in-line over the end of the post, hope that doesn’t backfire on me,) but I’m still trying to figure out whether I want to us italics for publications…is that the standard? I seem to remember that from my old English 1A class.

Good post for those who are just starting out, becasue let’s face it, it would suck to have to go back through ALL of your posts an change them!

By: Heat

Heat — Sun, 12 Jun 2005 11:08:11 +0000

Eventhough i’m not a pro-blogger, nor planning to be one in the next 2 years, i’m trying my best to achieve a professional look and content of Infinity Graphid Designs, that post gave me a kind of compass in order to get even better…

Thanks,
Heat

By: eckes

eckes — Sun, 12 Jun 2005 11:00:36 +0000

o use the correct author name on your posts