Don't you just hate those social media articles that sound so interesting by title but the author or platform makes it so difficult to read them that you give up before you even find out what they promised to tell you in the title? You know. They're the ones that promise:
"25 Ways to Save Money with Coupons"
"Sixteen Things You Need to Know to Live Through a Heart Attack"
"Why you don't want to eat that vegetable you think is good for you!"
"How to Get the Most Out of Your Workout"
But when you click over to read the article, you find one line of text and one picture with an arrow ====> you need to click on to get to the next picture and line of text. You're a bit annoyed, but you click over...and over...and over...and over...and over...until you are only 1/4 of the way through the article, you haven't read the most important part of the article that was previewed in the social media link/picture, and you decide your time is worth more than the promise of the information you thought you would like to know.
If you tell us you have "12 Easy Ways to Blah Blah Blah," don't make us jump through fire and water to find them. We'll feel you lied to us or at the very least, what you have isn't easy or worth it. In fact, sometimes it's not even that easy! There are articles I've found my way to where I saw the first line of text, a bunch of ads, pictures of celebrities in various stages of undress, weird slimy animals and a few graphics I couldn't figure out what they had to do with the subject matter or website theme. Or worse yet, I click through the entire 25 pages of article piece by piece and NEVER find the picture or piece of information it advertised! And I'm thinking..."Liar Liar Pants on Fire! "
How many of you have continued on to read the entire article? How many times will you click to read an entire article? For me and most people, that number is probably three or four. NOT 16! There is something far too annoying about having to click through 20 pages of one line of text with a picture to read an article that should have taken up a normal blog post!
This is akin to the annoyance and frustration you feel when being forced to endure a pop up subscription notice before you are granted the ability to see whether or not you'd even like to read the ONE article you were curious about. And it's like trying to read a blog post while having to wade through endless ads and pictures of things you hope your toddler isn't around to question.
There must be some purpose for these sites as so many of them are constructed this way these days, but I dare say most people (if they are at all like me) wouldn't waste their precious time on them unless we believed that within the webpages of that article held the answer to eternal life. This is NOT an effective way to disseminate information or gain followers to your blog.
Now most bloggers or website articles don't adopt this incredibly frustrating method of communicating their message, but some do come close. If you want people to read (and understand) your message, please don't clutter your page with ads, pictures, arrows, miscellaneous graphics, and pop ups. Don't be surprised we don't comment if you require us give our name, rank and serial number to create a "profile."
If you truly want readers, make it easy for us to read and understand your message. If you want comments, make it EASY for us to do that. The older I get, the less patience I have for frustration and the more I value my time. After all, I'm not getting any younger.
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