What I Want in a Blog

I'm currently subscribed to about 30 blogs in Google Reader. That's a lot to follow, but I don't read every post on every blog. Why not? For starters, I don't have that much time to spend reading blogs on a daily basis. I'm not interested in every post in my RSS feeds, and I don't read some posts simply because they're not useful to me.

Here are some things I look for in blogs, what I like and don't like. It's the difference between visiting the blog once and coming back to read every post.

Post enough to keep me interested and not much more

I generally prefer shorter posts. They take less time to read and the faster I can learn from them, the better. The other thing I look for is how the post is written. If there's a list or it's broken into parts, I'm more likely to read it even if it's more text. I can easily see what that post is about and read what I want from it. I don't need to dig through a block of text for one useful tip. I tend to skim long posts anyway, so I'm essentially reading a short post.

Frequency is also a factor in if I subscribe to a blog. I don't care if a blog posts once a day, a week, or a month as long as it's somewhat consistent. I like a steady stream of updates. Blogs that post multiple times a day are great, but I don't find their posts nearly as useful to me. Seeing 20 posts from one blog over the course of the day can be a turn off and I might unsubscribe.

Make your posts easy for me to read

Write descriptive titles and include relevant images. Break the text up into sections or make lists. Include links to what you're talking about so I can read more information about the topic. Use bold and italics and change the font size to make your post visually appealing.

Include the post's publish date

Nothing bugs me more than a hard-to-find publish date (or author for group blogs). The internet changes all the time, and new information is always available. I want to know how old the post I'm reading is. An old date won't put me off reading a post. I just want to determine if it's still useful (software updates and responses to news items, for example).

Think about the layout

I prefer stream-lined designs. I don't want flashy banners, auto-play videos, or background music. (I'll click the video when I want to watch it--no worries.) Don't crowd ads and posts together. Make sure the color scheme doesn't interfere with text readability, and please make sure the text is big enough to read. Nothing makes me leave a site faster than the likes of size 8 pink text on an orange background. Or worse--white text on a busy background image.

I like blogs that are reader-friendly. They don't bombard me with too many posts too fast and so I can actually enjoy what I read. The color scheme makes sense, the layout is organized, and there are enough updates to keep me interested.

These are my thoughts. What do you look for in blog posts? What makes you subscribe to a specific blog?