Photo by coscurro of Freeimages.com
A while back I wrote about a famous brownie recipe that turned out to have been stolen and renamed. Although I had thought that this particular story would be of little interest to anyone outside the food blogging community, I ended up getting quite a bit of traffic from a mention on a site that I’d never heard of called Get Off My Internets, or GOMI. The site is dedicated to calling out bloggers for bad or annoying behavior on their blogs and social media accounts. In this case, the naughty blogger in question was the one who had misappropriated a very unique brownie recipe from another blog. (Go on, read the whole “Slutty Brownies” story; it’s fascinating!)
The tone of the GOMI ranges from wickedly funny to plain old snarky, and can make for an amusing read if you’re not the blogger in question. Considering that many bloggers track their traffic as I do, you probably wouldn’t be able to help reading about yourself if you knew you were being discussed.
I decided to spend a little time on GOMI to find out the reasons (other than outright theft) why particular bloggers get singled out for extreme dislike. After lurking in the forums for a while, I think I’ve picked up a few things that irritate the lively GOMI crowd. I’ve used that knowledge to make a helpful how-to list for all you bloggers and blogger hopefuls out there.
The Seven Deadly Sins of Blogging
1. Make a living from your blog, then complain about how much work you do.
Because everyone who’s out there working at Macy’s or McDonald’s really wants to hear about how your job is so difficult. Especially the part where you have to deal the stress of taking photographs, getting swag, going to neat places, and eating fine food.
2. Use your small children to drive traffic or get advertising.
Got a corporate sponsor? Put some logo t-shirts on the kids and get them to pose for photos. Don’t feel like writing a post on your blog topic? Fill it up with artful snaps of the children, preferably when they’re covered in something visually interesting, like mud.
Who needs a bath when you could be posting all those shots on Instagram?
3. Use annoying catchphrases or nicknames.
Rachel Ray is famous for “Yum-o,” and Emeril’s famous for “Bam,” so why should you restrain yourself? Every paragraph can use a touch of “Amazeballs!” or “Fabulous!” You get bonus points if your native language is English but your catchphrase is not.
Also, don’t call your spouse “Bob” or something pedestrian like that. Opt for something clever like, “Mr. Perfect Brownie.”
4. Air your bizarre/racist/bigoted/sexist views freely.
Do you hold a special hatred for those of a different national origin, skin color, religion, or sexual orientation than you? Then make sure that you provide your opinions on all of the major news stories of the day. Do you believe that aliens abducted you in order to teach you how to make a ham sandwich? Share! After all, your readers need to know your opinion on absolutely everything, even if you normally blog about DIY tea cozies.
5. Write purple prose.
Why write, “I made some pancakes this morning,” when you could write “As the gleaming orb of dawn rose quietly into the aqua sky, I stirred the trembling batter, cauterized each cupful in a sizzling pan, and finally served each pillowy round with a delicate drizzle of pure maple syrup.”
6. Glom on to a social cause without actually doing anything.
First, make sure that you write about a tragedy as if you really, truly understand what the victims or their families are going through. At the same time, focus on how it makes you feel, because that’s obviously what’s most important. Second, use cause-related hashtags freely, even if you’re not actually accomplishing anything, because what counts is that you’re totally “involved.”
And finally, the deadliest sin of all:
7. Cross the line between having your readers look up to you, and showing your readers that you look down on them.
Why write original content when you can put up four or five sponsored posts in a row? Better yet, don’t bother to post at all for a while, except for existential complaints about how hard your life is (see also #1). Because who cares what the rabble are reading, so long as you’re getting paid?
Congratulations! Now everyone hates you. Hopefully, you’ve already made a large pile of cash from selling out, and now you can stuff some of it in your ears to drown out the cries of derision echoing from your comments section- if you were brave enough, foolish enough, or masochistic enough to leave it on.
But We’re Not Like That, Are We?
I should hope not. I’ll freely admit, however, that I do wander off from brownies occasionally to share my questionable viewpoints on blogging in general. Oops!
Anyway, let’s hear from all of you out there. What’s a deadly sin of blogging that I’ve missed? Do you agree or disagree on the ones I’ve picked? (You could also point out that another deadly sin of blogging is to blatantly fish for a comment by asking a question at the end of a post. Or is that supposed to be a best practice? I can never remember…)
Have a Happy (and hater-free) New Year!
-Katie
P.S.
Dear Visitors from GOMI,
I’ve read quite a few times that you think no one credits you for ideas, but you got credit in the first paragraph. If I’ve earned a GOMI, then at least I’ve earned it honestly. 😉
Julie @ Texan New Yorker
Awesome post, I really enjoyed it! I will add one more, that is specific to food blogging: don’t denigrate a certain food culture or sub-culture, whether that be something broad like all Indian food, or something more minor like Tex-Mex or New England clam chowder. If you don’t like Indian food, that’s fine – you don’t have to cook it and feature it on your site. But maybe remember that you might have readers who are Indian, or who love Indian food, and they won’t think of you very highly, and may dismiss your site altogether if you denigrate it. (I read something like this on a food blog a few months ago – the blogger just outright denigrated “food from Texas” and well, since I’m from Texas I found it… off-putting).
I think another one is – when you make a mistake, own it. You don’t have to feed trolls, you don’t have to respond to outright rudeness, but I firmly think we should all have enough cajones to respond to constructive criticism, especially from our regulars. Bloggers who ignore that leave me with a bad taste in my mouth. And please, have enough integrity to actually apologize when you do make a mistake.
-Two Cents
Katie
Wow, I haven’t run into the first one but once, and it was someone from up north talking about southern food. You picked the perfect word: it was indeed off-putting. I think it shows a lack of willingness to learn about something new to you, which is not a trait I would want to see in a blogger I follow.
I totally agree about the criticism/mistake thing, too. For example, I moderate comments to avoid the spam that sometimes slips through. One time, a reader pointed out a mistake in my recipe. I could have made the comment disappear and fixed the recipe without anyone (except the commenter) knowing. But I would have felt weird about that, so I let the comment go live, responded to it, and fixed the error. It wasn’t fun, exactly, but I’m glad someone told me about it so I could fix it.
I like your two cents! Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
Jennifer
Ha, this is sooo funny. I stumbled upon GOMI a few years ago when I was googling a blogger who really annoys me.
GOMI is my nightmare. One one hand, I’d love to get big enough to end up there. On the other hand, OMG! I’d hate to be so annoying as to be featured there.
#3 is a big thing for me. Sometimes when I’m reading a “mommy blog,” mommy is super careless about what she’s writing about the kid. I just know it’s something the child wouldn’t want to see on the interwebs when he or she is old enough to read. That bothers me a lot.
Great post 🙂
Katie
Oho! Someday you’ll have to whisper to me the name of the blogger who annoys you. 🙂
And as for being featured on GOMI… scary thought, right? Sure, I wanna be popular with lots of traffic, but not for all the wrong reasons.
CakeSpy
I’m sure I annoy plenty of bloggers. I think that’s just because I’m from NJ originally and we Jersey folks can be abrasive sometimes. But I have to say, this made me laugh out loud at points. 🙂
Katie
You? Abrasive? Where? You must be saving it up and then posting all that “abrasiveness” under a pseudonym or something, because I always think of you as one of the sweetest bloggers out there!
Karen H.
Ha! I thoroughly enjoyed this post. I am not a food blogger nor an active Pinterest recipe user but even I notice the rampant plagiarizing within that world. It’s crazy!
Katie
It truly is! Thanks for coming by- loved your Christmas post!
Martha @ I'd Rather Be Reading
I have to say, I definitely get annoyed by bloggers who seem to post nothing but sponsored posts. It makes me wonder how they really feel about brands/companies and whether they just give glowing reviews to get more swag. Maybe that’s just my cynical side talking, though 😛
Happy SITS day!
Katie
Sponsored posts are a sore spot for many. I write sponsored posts occasionally, but I try to be very careful to choose brands or products that I actually like. I have run into blogs that are entirely sponsored posts, and I wonder who reads them. Some people say bloggers are like journalists, and should not dabble in advertising, but I kind of think that bloggers are more like radio DJs- you tolerate their sponsored plugs because you find their unsponsored content entertaining.
Keisha | The Girl Next Door is Black
This is funny! I never knew a site like GOMI existed.
Congrats on your SITS day!
Eva
This was a really fascinating read. I will say as someone who works with war refugees in the Middle East it does infuriate me when people talk about issues without actually doing anything about it. It’s almost as bad as the bus loads of people who come into the refugee camp just to “observe” and then go home with some awful pictures they took from the windows. Or the men from various nationalities who march into my ladies only area where the women can take their scarves off their heads and talk about what’s going on in their lives while we create beautiful scarves to help them buy medicine for their kids. These men are demanding to know what I’m doing that’s helping these women so much. They never seem to understand why that’s upsetting and frustrating.
Katie
Wow, what a fascinating story! I can imagine that it must be incredibly frustrating. Thanks for your thoughtful comment! Do you share about your work in the Middle East on your blog?
Jean Lynd
Interesting to think about how to not annoy ppl. I know the basics, but there were some new ones for me. Thanks for sharing & happy SITS day, late!
Katie
I had never even thought about a lot of these until I saw there was a whole website dedicated to calling out this kind of thing.
Sammie
If you really want to annoy a blogger, who is desperately trying to make a big bale for themselves, make a comment that is honest and polite about a recipe they’ve posted. They will hound you on social media & get all their suck up chummies to do the same.
I believe in polite constructive criticism and recently asked openly for some regarding a cake I had made.
Apparently not everyone one is like this! Should you have a polite opinion regarding a recipe keep your head down and don’t mention it. When ambitious people are clawing their way to the top they will tread on anyone who doesn’t think the sun shines out of every recipe, sponsored post, idea and thought they’d ever had. If you put it in the www then you should be realistic about criticism. Not necessarily on the blog post but on social media promotions – especially if said person is very opinionated in their own right.
Great post made me chuckle and realise how people get worked up about the smallest of things. Big picture people!!!
Katie
It can be very tricky to criticize, even politely, on the web. Once, I called out the practice of buying large numbers of fake followers on Facebook, and some people went nuts over it. Believe me, I kept my head down and went quiet for a good long while. As a food blogger, I get the occasional criticism, but it’s usually because I was unclear or omitted something in a recipe. I don’t mind that sort of thing, because then I can go fix it. So far, the worst I’ve gotten is that someone said I had damaged hair! 🙂
Maria
Couldn’t agree more with your comment about kids. I’m always put off by food bloggers that talk more about their kids than the actual recipe in a post and assume that all their readers have their own children (“get your little helper to stir the mixture” etc!)
Katie
You make an interesting point! I will add to this that as a food blogger who frequently works with brands I have often been “encouraged” to include videos, photos, and personal stories about my children. Some assignments require photos of your kids- and I always turn those down. It’s a tricky line to walk to be personal without oversharing, and to reflect the reality of your life (having kids) while respecting the reality of others (who might not have kids). I love my family, and don’t mind mentioning them from time to time, but I try keep the focus on the food as much as possible.
Pooba
Yes yes and yes! I’m sure I’m guilty of at least one of these sins but I wholeheartedly agree with you!