7 Things I Hate About Blogging
OUCH – I have this massive kink in my back. I don’t know if you’ve ever had one of those but I can barely move. Plus, my head feels like Mike Tyson’s punching bag. So that doesn’t help.
Anyway, I thought it would be totally cool to gripe about blogging today. I’m not usually one to complain, but I think you’ll get a kick out of this if you’re a blogger too.
Here’s 7 Things I Hate About Blogging…
#1 Endless Plugins & Widgets
It seems like every month there’s a new widget that needs to be installed or updated. In fact, last time I checked, I had to update like eight. I don’t even know what half of them do, so I just click buttons and pray.
On the other hand, I have favorite widgets that are like best friends to me. I think It’s a mental illness bloggers develop over time.
#2 Zombie Links
It doesn’t happen as much as it used to but every once in a while I’ll find a dead link sitting in a post or e-mail somewhere. I sit back and wonder how many thousands of people clicked and then forever disappeared from my blog. Then I move on, muttering to myself in my sleep.
The positive side is that I now triple check every link I share. Compulsively. It’s like that nagging feeling that you left the stove on before you went to sleep… or maybe that’s just me?
#3 Bzzzt… “Roger that, we have 404 here…”
Along those lines is my 404 page. It’s that page that pops up whenever you type or click a link that has been lost on a website. I see this booger more than anybody who visits my blog so I have a bigger bone to pick with it than most.
I asked one of my buddies if he could set the permissions on it so I could write something cool there, but I think he’s slogged with programming Better Networker or something. Poor guy.
Page not found…
#4 Gosh Darned Teepos
Yeah, I wrote a whole blog post about typos a while back, but I have to vent again. These things are worse than the trebbles in that ancient episode of Star Trek. They pop up everywhere if you don’t torch them on site.
Lesson learned:
1. Always proof read once more.
2. After, you proof read “once more”, do it again.
3. See step one immediately.
#5 Viagra Comments
I absolutely love chatting with you but some people still don’t “get it”. They try to leave a gazillion links to porn sites or Viagra. They try to shove their opportunity into my eyeballs. They leave one syllable comments that make no sense. And, they usually sound like they’re robots, which in some cases they probably are.
Kizbit83vbzxy says:
Nice article, I learn so much from you. You get better over time. Along same lines
I do this with (insert link here) and I find that (insert link here) works better.
Here’s a list of odder things that are way cooler than ur blog:
(Add twenty-thirty links in list form, right here)
#6 The Search Engine Octopus…
I swear I need a hotline to Raymond Fong and Ferny Ceballos because these guys know everything there is to know about SEO. I mean, I know more about SEO than most people I bump into at Starbucks, but there’s always a boss level question hanging in the back of my brain that needs answers now.
#7 Passwords For Passwords…
Oh my sweet (insert your deity here). I recently switched laptops because my trusty Mac Powerbook G4 was slowing down and refused to eat his PC Vegetables. I swear it took me 5 hours to install the programs. It took me another 2 hours to track down 87 passwords I need to get on with my average day as a blogger.
What about you?
What “gets your goat” about blogging these days?
Spark a conversation by leaving a something you hate about blogging below. We’ll whine together so we get it out of our system and get on with our respective lives tomorrow.
Your friend,
Jason Better The “Better Networker”
P.S. This article was inspired by a sweet article Jim Yaghi wrote on Better Networker called, 10 Things I hate About Crappy Network Marketers. I think you should check it out. That guy is more than a PPC genius, he’s an awesome writer too.
P.P.S. This is totally something you should share on Twitter.
50 Comments
Adam Goldman on January 18th, 2010
I’m glad to see that after
not beeing for a while,
Things havent changed.
Your posts still elavtes
me every time!
Yeah keeping a business blog
it’s not at all easy. Just when
I thought I’ve past the deadliest
curve on the learning-curve, BAM.
A slap right to the face. Another
blogging aspect I know nothing about.
I guess it’s a love-hate relationship.
I love learning but sometimes it
simply “gets” you.
Here’s to a better blog my friend!
Adam
[Reply]
January 18th, 2010 at 1:04 pm
Adam man,
I know how you feel. I’m a
certified learning addict but some things
are like thorns on the rose…
[Reply]
Ilka Flood on January 18th, 2010
Good Morning Jason,
I hate some of the same things you do. Especially when someone leaves a spammy comment. Don’t know why people do that. There’s no point as they’re going to be deleted anyway 
Another thing that bugs me is, that since I have a ‘template’ theme, I can’t really design my blog the way I would like. I’m afraid to mess with the Style Sheets, so I pretty much have to leave it as is.
Having to update the plug ins all the time is no fun either. I pretty much do the same thing you do…hold my breath and pray that nothing will be messed up once I click the ‘update’ button.
[Reply]
January 18th, 2010 at 1:06 pm
Hey Ilka,
I know, right?
Every time you update… you have
to kneel and hope nothing goes bonkers!
[Reply]
John Rothstein on January 18th, 2010
Great post Jason. This one resonates with me and you must have been reading my mind. Or you were looking at my blog recently and found my 404 page issues. Or you heard or felt my desperation when my laptop stopped working the other day and I could not bear the thought of spending 5 plus hours installing programs and finding bits of paper with cryptic passwords that I can’t even remember or figure out what they. Thankfully it was just a new laptop battery that was needed. Now if I can get over a recent bout of writers block, I am going to be okay!
John Rothstein
[Reply]
January 18th, 2010 at 1:06 pm
Hah John,
I totally relate to you. Man, I wish there
was a magic pill for these technological ills.
[Reply]
Willie Plasencia on January 18th, 2010
Jason,
Not all plugins have to be updated.
To blog is to err at times…
Oh yeah, what irks me?
When I think that I wrote a great post and all I get is a few measley comments.
Pisses me off!!
Your fan,
[Reply]
January 18th, 2010 at 1:07 pm
Willie,
I think we’ve all been there. I mean, why is there
so many comments on this post when my last one
was completely ignored?
Thankfully, over time it only gets easier.
[Reply]
Dwayne Huggins on January 18th, 2010
Hi J
Erm, let me see.
Updating plug-ins is annoying.
Worse than that is when you group update and there is 1 rouge plug-in which isn’t compatible with your current wordpress setting so it messes up the other plug-ins. This causes the site to not function as you want it to. Then you spend time sorting it all back to normality again.
That’s all I can think of for now. When I think of them I’ll let you know
Dwayne
[Reply]
January 18th, 2010 at 1:09 pm
Revenge of the rogue plugins!
Dwayne,
It’s kinda like that “Facebook Share” one
right now. That’s the last one I want to mess
with because it’s so cool but apparently has issues
with some versions of wordpress.
[Reply]
Mark Bullock on January 18th, 2010
Thanks Jason,
Another great one. My biggest peeve is the useless and unitelligent comments people make. I wish there was a way to block some of these people from being able to post their unrelated opportunity on the blogs. These only “cheapen” the look of all our hard work and mar the content that we took the time to write.
As for the updates, I am with you and Ilka – cross our fingers. Most of these are something that we will never use either.
I would love to have that direct line to the SEO gurus as I am probably one of those people you bump into at Starbucks.
Thanks again, Mark
[Reply]
January 18th, 2010 at 1:10 pm
Hey Mark,
Yep, that would be a big one. I’ve sometimes
not unapproved comments that were totally
insincere. It bleeds right through.
I don’t know why people bother with those.
[Reply]
Derek Alvarez on January 18th, 2010
Broken links for sure!
Updating plugins on multiple blogs gets tedious, too!
Those are mine…
I wonder if you know about the “Broken Link Checker” plugin?
That helps me catch them pretty well.
[Reply]
January 18th, 2010 at 1:11 pm
Derek,
I gripe about plugins and you recommend
more!
Haha…
Love it man.
[Reply]
Mitcehll Dillman on January 18th, 2010
Whoa there Kemo sabe,
Who put salt on your Fruit Loops this morning?
I thought I’ve been in a slump…Now Jason Better’s crying like a teenage prom-queen who just found out the braces won’t come off til after the big night.
What’s up with this…?
I thought you were supposed to get up every morning with an outlook like Christopher Columbus, just about to discover the New World.
There, there little guy. Mommy will kiss it and make it all better soon enough. Just buckle down and bare it, why don’t ya…Nobody told me this was gonna be easy.
Wait a minute…They did. They all seem to be selling everyone on how easy it is to make ungodly amounts of money working Online!
I wished they’d just put a sock in it. This is just like any other business. There’s no such thing as a free ride. If you want your computer to start spitting out money, you’d better go back to sleep, cause you’re obviously having another one of those dreams…
Now buck up soldier, get a grip! Nothing in life worthwhile ever came easy, just ask Lewis and Clark? You think they didn’t have a few set backs? Get over it.
Your supportive buddy,
Mitchell Dillman
[Reply]
January 18th, 2010 at 1:22 pm
Hey Mitchell buddy,
Thanks for the knock on the noggin.
Hah, yeah.
I think I must have absorbed some drama queen juice
from the tube last night. I have to stay away from that
thing.
Especially the news.
[Reply]
Derek Alvarez on January 18th, 2010
“I gripe about plugins and you recommend
more!
Haha…
Love it man.”
Nice. I didn’t catch the irony until you pointed it out (LOL)
[Reply]
Dana Prieur on January 18th, 2010
I haven’t created my Blog yet! I’m just waiting to finish my e-book. Blogging sounds a little more complex than I thought.
I hope the kink in your back goes away Jason, I usually get those when I’m stressed!
Put your feet up and relax a bit, and don’t worry about us, we know how awesome you are at responding back!
Dana
[Reply]
January 18th, 2010 at 7:04 pm
Hey Dana,
It’s one of those things that takes
two minutes to learn and a lifetime to
master. Very rewarding too.
I hope I didn’t scare you away from it. 
[Reply]
Colin Bunston on January 18th, 2010
Jason,
I really appreciate this article on discussing things that sometimes we don’t want to face.
Plug-ins and passwords really get me. But the endless passwords on so many sites and tracking and keeping it organized.
Its kind of similar to my gazillion bookmarks that I almost lost out of stupidity. Would be a major bummer to go back and try and find all these great sites like yours and re-bookmark.
Colin
[Reply]
January 18th, 2010 at 7:06 pm
Hey Colin,
Bookmarks are another thing. I remember
when I used to bookmark absolutely everything…
Now I only have a handful of favorite sites… but I also
link directly from my desktop to the sites I use with
shortcuts too.
Helps a bundle.
[Reply]
emil st quentin on January 18th, 2010
Hi Jason Cheer up man. You are normaly full of beans but today it seems that you are full of sh.. could it be that you have forgoten just how fortunate you are . Think about it for a minute And now that I have finished moaning , thank you for all the great stuff you have shared with me over the past months .Best Regards Emil P.S. Do you remember what it was like to work for a boss, who cares if blogging is sometimes a bit of a pain
[Reply]
January 18th, 2010 at 7:07 pm
Hey Emil,
Hah. Thanks for the cheer. 
I think I got a little carried away here.
[Reply]
Harold Hutchinson on January 18th, 2010
I solved the frustration of keeping up with passwords and registration information by opening a Wordpad document for each password/website. I make notes here of any support contacts and issues related to the password.
I file the individual password folders under a group folder called Passwords. This makes it easy to open up a file while you are trying to access a website who’s password you forgot. It’s also useful for keeping webinar schedules here.
[Reply]
January 18th, 2010 at 7:09 pm
Harold,
You’re much more sophisticated than I am.
I have a chewed up looking piece of paper
and a book where I keep everything… but it
seems like every day I’m losing something.
I think your idea is best.
[Reply]
Linus Ruzicka on January 18th, 2010
Jason,
I have some Viagra that I want to sell u, sell yo, sell u form my porn site in Siberia.
It’s rally good stuff that all man neds in lyfe to enhanse your “manhood” sise.
viagra….blah blah blah…
sorry, couldn’t resist
Linus
[Reply]
January 18th, 2010 at 7:10 pm
Linus you crack me up…
I’m amazed by how many of those
Akismet blocks.
I love that plugin.
[Reply]
Dee Light on January 18th, 2010
Whew Jason,
I finally quit laughing (at the reality of your blog) long enough to leave a comment here. They say truth is stranger than fiction well its funnier too—I mean lets face it, its better to laugh than throw the computer out the front door or hire a contract on some of those annoying spammers.
My pet peeve is that when I have my best ideas(after a dry writing spell) I am might be in the car in heavy traffic trying not to get killed by some road rager and the mini recorder or course is either on the counter at home—next to where my keys were so I wouldn’t forget it—or its in my purse (good luck with that) or by the time I’ve pulled over (safety first) grabbed it and turned it on I have forgotten the whole thing except a few words—grrrr.
Or the other scenario from this insomniac is I’ll get a brilliant piece about 2 or 4 in the morning after I have finally fallen into drug like sleep. Yeah the notepad is on the nightstand next to the bed but its a similar scenario to the one above.
I wish the Creativity Gods would just give me the time of day when I should be ready to take dictation.
Its allll good & FUN. That’s my committment for 2010!
I LOVE your writing. You inspire me to be myself and help me by bringing up the ordinary stuff in a funny way. Thanks!
(wow that was more than I thot I’d write—sheesh)
[Reply]
January 19th, 2010 at 9:41 am
Hey Dee,
Your stories remind me of some
of my own experiences.
I have a recorder that I sometimes
use… but like you… that darn thing is
never handy when an idea pops up.
After years of struggling for ideas… now
I force them.
I grab my brain like a lemon and
squeeze all the idea juice onto paper.
No more insomnia.
Well so far… although I’ve been told
I sleep with my eyes open and talk
a lot.
[Reply]
Peter Grimes on January 18th, 2010
Jason,
Loved the post but I am just a little bit concerned about my computer security right now. How on earth did you manage to hack into my PC and observe me in action blogging? I find too at times that I reappear from the bowels of Wordpress to find a few hours have passed on by.
[Reply]
January 19th, 2010 at 9:43 am
Hey Peter,
I know, right?
You check a post or comments
and the next thing you know
…hours have vaporized.
This is more dangerous than it looks
when you’re dealing with deadlines.
A constant threat to the success of
the serious marketing blogger.
[Reply]
Chris Owen on January 19th, 2010
Whoa, I didn’t expect to see this from the 6 day a week blogger.
I have some “hate” moments myself. Last week I posted a page on my wordpress site that said refer to this video below for step by step instructions. 4 days later I noticed I forgot to add the video.
Another good one is when I open my admin and it scatters across the screen. I have to refresh a time or two to get it to show up right.
I placed a blog yesterday on my site called “Lex Luthor on Playing to Win”, and I placed a picture of Lex in the blog. I did something wrong, and the picture came up three times. It took me an hour to get rid of them. (it was a plugin issue from update)
I can keep going but now I feel the need to go recheck for teepo’s.
[Reply]
January 19th, 2010 at 9:45 am
Hey Chris,
A lot of it is tongue in cheek. I
love blogging, but there’s always
those little things that get ya.
Like forgetting your password on
a groggy morning.
Or like your plugin issue…
Man, those get ya every time.
[Reply]
Yo Le on January 19th, 2010
Hey Jason,
I’m with you on the plugins and typhos. Must be a perfectionist thing…
Seems like every time I log into the admin there’s a new number by the plugins.
It’s fun to grip once in a while isn’t it?
- Yo
[Reply]
January 19th, 2010 at 9:46 am
Sure is Yo,
Oh man…
I think the more of a
perfectionist you are the
worst it gets.
[Reply]
Michael Cole on January 19th, 2010
Hi Jason,
I was surprised at #3.
I thought it was one of your posts that detailed how to set up your 404 template in WordPress.
Oh well, they say memory is the second thing to go.*
You go to your dashboard, click “edit themes”
Look to the right and under Theme Files click 404 Template.
Find the error message and change it to something productive or entertaining.
People will end up on your error page one way or another, might as well put a message there.
Michael
*I can’t remember the first*
[Reply]
January 19th, 2010 at 9:49 am
Hey Michael
404 pages…
Yep, the idea was that I would
change that like weeks ago.
However, as it turns out the permissions
aren’t set so I can’t till my programming
dude gets a second to switch them.
I could do it myself but for some reason that’s
the only password I don’t have on file.
Talk about embarrassing.
I need to check with Mr. Programmer again
to see if he forgot about me entirely. 
That guy is seriously overworked.
[Reply]
Rebecca Geiger on January 19th, 2010
OK! YOU MUST “waaatch” (speeling error) Big Bang Theory!
They made a “trebble” refference in the show.. That totally made me giggle.
As for passwords I heard what you can do is get a keychain usb jump drive and place a text file named “garbage day schedule” or some such exciting file name and place all of your passwords on there.
Save as a html file so that all the links are active (make sure you links are dead for login and then in brackets (either the password hint or the actual password)
I my own way. I have the min saved in an email that no one knows about and is never used for anything other than storing and then I have a hint for each password.
At the end of each quarter I print them and file them amongst all of my important paperwork (instructions for audio equipment)
I also have them saved as an text file and saved on my jumpdrive that is attached to my key chain (ha ha) that has a password to protect it.
I also thought that there is a dead link checker:
I think this one works:
http://validator.w3.org/checklink
A jing video for your entertainment (actually it shows you where your 404 page is and that you can edit it) though it depends if you have permissions to do so. http://bit.ly/6g6iou
BTW.. I can’t help you with Viagra comments as I don’t use that stuff
[Reply]
January 19th, 2010 at 2:55 pm
Hey Rebecca,
Now that’s cool. Thanks for sharing this
with the group. I learn something new
every day.
As for Big Bang Theory… the only episode I
remember offhand is the one where one of them
falls for the other’s mother. lol.
I don’t watch much TV but it was on. Hilarious.
[Reply]
Rebecca Geiger on January 19th, 2010
Weird.. I left a long comment and that one didn’t show and the “ps” that I added after did.. weird…
[Reply]
January 19th, 2010 at 3:04 pm
Rebecca,
It was the link. I have to approve those
manually.
[Reply]
Sion on January 19th, 2010
One tool that myself and a lot of other network marketers are using to manage passwords is Mitto – http://mitto.com.
It’s free, safe (according to McAfee and the thousands of users that use it) and easy to use.
[Reply]
Dee on January 19th, 2010
Jason,
You have SUCH a cool group here—-a community—-a village—-a tribe. I have blog envy. Thanks for the password tool tip—needed that.
And as for
“After years of struggling for ideas… now
I force them.
I grab my brain like a lemon and
squeeze all the idea juice onto paper.
No more insomnia.” yeah you are leap years ahead of me (can’t imagine the Great J-Man having writers block) but I’m running as fast as I can.
The comments here are just too funny. This is my therapy.
Thanks!
[Reply]
January 20th, 2010 at 9:32 am
Dee,
I used to think writer’s block
was a myth… then I ended up
suffering from it.
Horrible, horrible thing.
Other than squeezing the idea out
one thing that causes block in me muscle
tension. It affects your thinking too.
So relaxation techniques, like meditation, or
even a massive can work wonders too.
[Reply]
Judith Sherman on January 20th, 2010
I hate adding a plugin that I like and have it mess up my hosting so I have to remove it. I have my favorites but not all will work on the template I choose or the hosting I’m using so I have to remove it and go without it. Oh well, I figure out how to go around it and get the results I want anyway.
[Reply]
January 20th, 2010 at 9:40 am
Hey Judith,
I think we’ve all been there on the
customer side of technical woes.
I messed up with some hosting last
week and I paid the bill twice. Then
when I asked for a refund or at least a
credit on my hosting plan, they looked at
me like I was a little green goblin or something.
Or at least that’s how I felt through the e-mail
contact.
[Reply]
Jason, I don’t have any gripes yet still to new but at least this is a good heads up for me in the future. Thanks.
[Reply]
January 18th, 2010 at 11:14 am
You’re no fun Richard.
C’mon. There must be something
that gets to you?
Yeah, I like blogging more than I
let on, but there’s always a few little
things that seem to pop up from time to
time.
[Reply]