This post is by Leia of HiFashion
I wish someone had given me a crash course on blogging etiquette when I first started blogging! Here are some tips I’ve picked up along the way. Please remember that these are all based on my personal opinion and not all of them are hard and fast rules.
Credit
Always, always, always give credit where it is due.
Pictures:
- If you are using a picture taken by someone else, make sure it’s okay to use it.
- Add a link to where the picture has come from.
- Do not steal bandwidth! Download the image onto your computer and re-upload it using your blog software or an image hosting site.
Ideas/text:
- As with pictures, make sure you have the right to reproduce text. Even paraphrasing ideas is a form of plagiarism, so always inform your readers if you have gotten ideas from someone else.
E-mails
Fellow bloggers love to receive e-mails from their readers. But there are a few things to keep in mind when writing to someone…
- Make sure you remember whom you have contacted and what you have contacted them about. I know it sounds elementary, but we once had an e-mail (addressed en masse) from a new blogger who wanted to be added to our blogroll. A month later, the same blogger wrote us pretty much the exact same e-mail! If he/she had taken the time to check our blog, he/she would know that we had already done so a month ago, when first asked.
- Don’t send mass messages. If you are taking the time to write to someone, make it personal, and address them by name or at least blog name. I know that if something isn’t addressed to me personally, I am much less likely to take it seriously. Also, you are probably less likely to send the same e-mail twice if you take the time to make it personal!
- Give and receive. I honestly don’t mind helping someone out – especially new bloggers – because I know how clueless I felt sometimes when I first started blogging. But sending multiple e-mails to someone asking for help and advice is a little bit too much, especially when it’s clear you just want them to help you with promoting your own blog. It’s fine to ask for help, but make sure you are giving something back, even if it’s just in a small way. That may mean just saying ‘thank you for your time and patience,’ or perhaps mentioning on your blog that someone provided you with valuable advice.
Comments
- Comment back: If someone comments on your blog, make time to visit their blog. It’s nice to get to know your readers. If you have time, leave them a comment, too (you know that warm fuzzy feeling you get inside when someone leaves you a comment? Rack up some good karma by doing the same for someone else!) If they ask you a question, see if you can e-mail them to answer it, or visit their blog and answer it there. I read so many blogs that I don’t always remember to check back to see if someone responded to my question – it’s much more efficient if you answer it in a place that they are sure to see!
- Spam filters: I hate them. If I have to go through a complicated process of filling in a word verification, I often decide not to leave a comment. And I really see no point in having word verifications as well as moderating comments! There are so many blogs that get thousands of hits and comments every day that do not choose to activate their spam filters. I recommend only using yours if you have already had problems with spam comments. Note from Editor: WordPress’s Akismet spam filter is quite effective without using word verification.
- Make comments accessible to everyone. Again, if I am trying to comment on a blog and it only allows comments from certain people (for example, only people with a Google account), it can make me change my mind about leaving a comment at all. I have two Google accounts (a personal one as well as a blog account shared with my co-blogger, Sherin) and I don’t like having to sign out and sign in again or switch browsers just to leave a quick comment. This can also diminish your chances of getting feedback from readers who don’t have Google accounts. Again, I would recommend increasing your privacy only if you have had spam commenters or other problems in the past, but if not, you should allow as many people as possible to comment on your blog.
- Negative comments (giving them). I usually go by this rule: If you have nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all. No one expects you to like or agree with everything you read in the blogosphere. We all have different tastes and styles; it is completely normal to dislike someone else’s outfit or post. That doesn’t mean you have to be hurtful. Constructive criticism and differing opinions are welcome, but there is a nice way to say something and a rude way to say something. If you can’t figure out how to say it nicely, don’t say anything at all.For example: You see someone wearing an outfit you don’t like because you think it’s too revealing. Here are some polite ways to deal with this:
- Don’t leave a comment at all.
- Is there anything you like about the outfit? Focus on that. You could say, “Nice shoes!” for example.
- Do you simply have to mention the short hemline? Try this: “Wow, you are so bold for being able to wear something so short in public! I could never pull that off myself, but it’s great to see people taking risks like that.”
- You may be tempted to say, “Ugh, how trashy. How can you leave the house wearing that sort of thing?” Please don’t say this or anything similar. It’s just not nice. You wouldn’t walk into someone’s house and criticise their belongings, so don’t visit their blog and leave rude comments about their attire or opinions.
- Don’t leave negative, Anonymous comments. If you are going to say something, own up to it. If you are too afraid of saying something that can be traced back to you, don’t say it.
- Negative comments (receiving them). I am lucky in that our blog, HiFashion, has not yet received any negative comments, but these are my thoughts on them.
- A person who writes a negative comment is usually just jealous. I know it’s hard to take a negative comment as a compliment, but if someone has taken the time to let you know how they feel, they must feel quite strongly about the issue.
- If you receive one, you should delete it or ignore it.
- If the commenter has left a name or a blog URL, you can try to track them down and explain that the comment was hurtful. If you receive yet more negative feedback, consider barring their I.P. address from your blog.
- If negative comments cease to stop, address the issue on your blog. Consider disabling comments altogether if the issue really gets out of hand.
Music
I don’t consider it good blog etiquette to force your readers to listen to your music (especially if it is loud or has vulgar language). Keep in mind that everyone has different tastes! If I click on a blog and am bombarded with music, I often close it without reading any further, and I know I’m not the only one who does so. There are multiple reasons why I do this:
- I am often listening to my own music or watching the news while browsing through blogs;
- My internet connection is sometimes slow, so the music comes through in broken bits and pieces, making it very annoying to listen to;
- I sometimes open multiple blogs at once. Imagine if they all played music simultaneously! This has happened to me before, and I assure you, it is not a pleasant experience.
Don’t get me wrong, I love music, and I see nothing wrong with sharing songs with your readers. But you ought to do this respectfully. You can share music by adding a music player which readers can choose to switch on; embedding YouTube
There you have it – my ideas on being a polite, respectful blogger! Do you agree with my points? Why or why not? What would you add to this list?
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Awesome list, thanks for the tips!
This tips are so useful – especially the ones regarding advice from experienced bloggers. I’ve just started out and have shied away from self promotion – resulting in very few blog visits. I’m going to make sure to reciprocate any help or tips. Thanks
what an amazing compilation of blogging info
thanksss xxx
Great tips!
spam blockers like malwarebytes and akismet are great, i can’t live without them’;,
Thanks for the tips, I just disabled word verification for comments on my blog because you’re right, I don’t really need it and it’s just adding a barrier stopping easy commenting on my posts.
Thank you for this, I am brand new to the world of blogging and very grateful for any help/advice/words of wisdom that can come my way!
Thank you for your tips. Very helpfull!
I am also a beginner. And better learn from others than make a lot mistakes.
Love,
FoA
great list! I’m new to blogging and am so happy that I stumbled upon this post. Thank you HiFashion!
Fantastic post. I just started my blog two days ago, and I still have some other questions.
For one, is it rude to drop links even if you do make a comment before doing so? People have done so on my blog, and I find it slightly annoying because they say very little, yet with the link, it feels like they are demanding me to visit their blog just because of a simple two or three word comment. Usually I find myself respecting that blog less–like it can’t possibly have good content if they are just willing to “spam” anyone including a new blogger like me!
Also I do try to comment back on my commenters’ blog posts, but sometimes I end up commenting one on a few days back–is this alright or should I keep to commenting on newer posts?
This is a great post! Thank you. I definitely took some of your tips to heart and made some adjustments to my blog.
Rules to live by!
Thank you for the tips. I’m a brand new blogger, and this was very helpful.
Thanks for taking the time to give us advice!!!
I have to say, I think you need to be careful with the backhanded compliment thing (ie: with the short hemline example). Even if you’re sincere in saying something like that, it can come off as backhanded if you’re not careful with your phrasing. I think that most people can see through that and at times, it can sound pretty catty.
I have never understood why people feel so strongly about the alleged “right” to leave negative feedback on a style blog. I think it’s best not to comment negatively at all, but if you ABSOLUTELY MUST say something, I think something direct and polite such as “I like that top but not with that skirt. I’d love to see you work it in another outfit” or something along those lines will suffice.
This list is really useful.
I’m so glad someone wrote this.
And I completely agree with the music thing.
Ahh.
Great list! I am a pretty new blogger and I found this very helpful
Great tips.
Akismet can be a little overzealous on the spam filtering. For instance it won’t allow any comments made form behind a proxy/firewall which knocks out a lot of commenteres too.
This may be configurable (haven’t looked into using the plug in after it kept me from posting some comments) but something to look out for when considering the plug in.
I’ve been blogging for a few years now, but I really appreciate this crash-course refresher! I seriously need to get better at writing back to my commenters. Thank you.
Great article! Thanks for sharing!! SOo right about the music aspect… can’t stand it to be completly frank ! Especially when I am in my element of reading reading through blogs and pop goes the music ! Not cool! xx Hippie Fruit
Thanks! your advice has confirmed things I had already suspected and reassured me that there is a lot of lovely people out there, who actually want other people to do well, what a refreshing thought! xxx take care.x
Thanks for this post! It is really helpful. =)
Great tips! I started what I call an “experimental” blog a couple years ago and learned so much just by playing around with it. I never promoted the blog, I only got a feel for what was out there and all the opportunities available to bloggers (blogheads as I say). It was a nice way to start out and so now that I was ready to take on a serious project, I felt good about it…just an idea for those out there who are just starting out. You don’t want to put out the wrong vibe right from the start and put people off. I totally get what you’re saying.
Hi Leia!
Thnaks for all the great tips! I’ve just started my own fashion blog so I found them really helpful and have already made some changes (eg. getting rid of word verification on comments).
xx
Alyce
Just what I was looking for! I appreciate your help on this!!!
This was very helpful! Thank you very much.
I love this! Thanks for the great insight!!
Thanks for posting this article. Very good information and very helpful I might add!
Ah, this is a great and informative post that will help many bloggers or even just readers. I think one thing I would add to the list is under the comments section. If you’re going to leave a comment, make sure you fully understand the post and that you actually READ the entire thing, then make a MEANINGFUL comment that relates to the post. There’s not worse than receiving an e-mail that says “new comment” and you get all excited.. and the comment simple says “nice post, check out my blog too.” Meaningful comments are key, no blogger wants a generic comment that was only made to market the commenter’s own blog.
Bonns
Great Tips !!
http://mimiberlinblog.blogspot.com/
I agree with a lot of your points but I’m not really with you on this idea of deleting negative comments or putting them down to jealousy. I think being a serious blogger who wants to approach it with maturity involves accepting negative feedback at times.
Obviously out-and-out name calling (of the kind sometimes seen at Fashion Toast, for example) is unacceptable, but I think once your blog gets any kind of regular readership people will reserve the right to state when they feel something isn’t working or constructively criticise how you’re running your show and it should be taken on board if you want to improve and demonstrate your willingness to accept other points of view.
I visited a blog recently where a reader was making a complaint about a shady sponsor. She’d been promoting their products and advertising their site on her blog but had decided to actually buy a few pieces for herself and realised they were completely sub-standard, so she was warning her readers and saying she wanted to cut all ties. My response was that although it’s a good thing to make her readers aware, what she SHOULD have done is tried samples from the company BEFORE accepting some lovely, hard cash to advertise for them and that it’s probably a lesson for the future. That might be seen as a negative comment but to me it’s well worth saying and I wouldn’t want it to be taken the wrong way or as though it was said out of jealousy.
Thank you for sharing this, i learned some things that i did wrong.
Thanks for the tips guys! As a brand new blogger it’s really nice to come somewhere and get the low down on how to do it properly and ‘politely’ (meaning how not to annoy other bloggers) thanks for the resource
Tikkitiboo + Ahka Blog
I definitely like this article – I am glad that I came across this article when I am just starting out! Since I am just starting out, I particularly like suggestion to disable the spam filter. I’d love to know if there are there good articles to help with ideas for the photography aspect of things.
While you made some good points, I disagree with your opinion on negative comments, especially for fashion blogs. I’m not advocating insulting the blogger but leaving the bad in with the good makes me trust that person more. I read through all the comments on this post and becaue they are all basically complimentary, it makes me wonder what you deleted. Furthermore, sometimes you can learn a lot about multiple sides of a topic from the comments that don’t agree with the blogger. I don’t think being rude or malicious is the answer but opening an active dialogue between readers is to be encouraged, isn’t it?
Hi Ellen,
I definitely believe you have a great point and, yes, I think blogs should be an open and active place for dialogue between readers. However, the IFB team makes it a point to publish all comments whether the comment be negative or positive. While we don’t appreciate rude commentary, we rarely moderate it to the point that it isn’t published unless the comment is highly offensive or malicious. We then make a point to reach out to the commenter to understand more about why they feel the way they do in order to be fair. Thanks for speaking out about this topic, I think it’s an important one.
~Jess
Hi Ellen,
I wrote this article, and I haven’t deleted any comments, negative or otherwise. I don’t
delete comments (except for spam) on my personal blog, either, and I appreciate
constructive criticism. The only thing I don’t agree with is downright rudeness – luckily, it’s rare in the blogosphere!
Great tips I never even thought of! My spam filter is now removed and i’ll remember to comment back on their own page
Cheers! xx
This was a great post and very helpful to new and experienced bloggers, thanks :- )
Great article. Recently I was receiving many negative anonymous ‘asks’ on Tumblr. I was able to track the IP and called the person out and it stopped. While I normally try to avoid that type of negativity, it has been nice to not have to deal with it.
Oh and as a side note, I regularly TinEye my images and do google searches and it is so insulting to see blogs use images from my Flickr without contacting me first! While I appreciate the linkage back, I think many of us know the same feeling — thank you for including this point in the article!
Thank you for advice – great post! It is really helpful!
Thank you! What a helpful article, especially as a new blogger I really appreciate the tips!
Thanks for the great article!Really helpful.
very helpful tip
(also I use youtub embed so people can choose to paly my first singles or not in their decisions I don’t want to force them)
These are all great tips. It’s tough to stay motivated as a new blogger, these are all good ideas to help increase traffic to your blog while maintaining good manners.
This article is worth a re-read time and time again. This is solid blogging advice and as a newbie blogger, I bookmark these pages to keep me focused when I write. Thanks for the valuable information!
Great tips ! well put
This is fantastic advice! Great way to reduce tension, remain composed but approachable, and keep yourself accessible.
Thanks so much for sharing your take on Blogging Etiquette. Great points and super helpful to newbies and as reminders to us all.
Great tips. Very useful. Thank you for sharing.
I couldn’t agree more! I can’t stand to see content that hasn’t been given credit! It’s happened to me several times. Great tips!
This is one for the bookmarks. Thank you for the great insight.