The Conversion Chronicles blog mentions that web users hate coming across PDFs while browsing, and that’s certainly true for me.  I liken it to the experience of coming across a giant chunk of meat or chicken in my soup. (Should I put down the spoon and reach for a knife and fork?) The PDF format breaks readers’ flow, explains Conversion.

Let me add something here:  If you’ve found the perfect example of a concept you’re trying to get across in your blog post and that example just happens to be in PDF form, you can still use it.  You attribute the statement or the example to its proper author, and faithfully quote the excerpt – just leave out the link.

There’s one of the Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design that I’m not sure I agree with.  Conversion says it’s bad practice to set up links in such a way that they open in a new browser window. The reason behind Conversion’s aversion to links in new windows? "Most current operating systems have miserable window management", and readers, according to Conversion, have trouble backtracking to your blog post, anyway.
 
That hasn’t seemed to be a problem for me, and, far as I can tell, my readers seem to have no trouble returning "home" to my blog post following a romp in other windows.  (Try that following the link above, and let me know how that works for you, OK?)

The most important website mistake Conversion mentions is one I’ve also mentioned in my Say It For You blog posts, one that really is a big mistake for websites and especially for blogs – failing to answer readers’ questions. "Users are highly goal-driven on the Web," says Conversion.  "The ultimate failure of a website (ditto for blog posts, I’d add) is failure to provide the information users are looking for."

Above all, in each blog post, first tell ’em valuable information on exactly the topic they searched on.  That way, readers are reassured they’ve come to the right place.  Then, go ahead and tell ’em why YOU are the right guy, the right gal, the right company to provide what they need! Stay on topic, not off on a tangent. As your readers enjoy their soup, they should have no need for a knife and fork!

 

Fear of flying is a complex psychological issue, airsafe.com tells us. "It’s an anxiety disorder.  Fear can come about well before a person even gets to the airport, and some of the elements of flying fear have little or nothing to do with the actual risks associated with the flight."  Fear of heights plays a role, fear of the unknown, concerns about turbulence, and even concerns about being dependent upon technology.

It’s interesting that when I read a blog by David Meerman Scott about Fear of Blogging, it sounded to me like an alternative version of the AirSafe blog! Meerman Scott says that, every day, he runs across fear of marketing on the Web.  This fear, he adds, leads businesses to ignore blogs and refuse to participate.  Yet, he says, all the people who go on to have experience with blogging and other social media tells him that their earlier fears were overblown.

One of the main fears many business owners have that may prevent them from starting blog marketing is, according to Scott, "Fear of people saying bad things about us" (The equivalent of people being afraid of turbulence in a plane, I wonder?) In my own Say It For You blog posts, I’ve often calmed this very concern. 

First of all, you can set up your blog platform so that you have to approve readers’ comments before they go "live" on your blog, if that makes you feel more "protected".  But keep in mind that one of the goals of any business blogging effort is to create "conversation" between the business owners and the audience.  So what you really want to do is invite comments and questions, even negative ones, and then address any concerns as soon as they appear. 

Meerman Scott has had blogophobes confess to fear of looking silly or being afraid their blog posts won’t have anything important to say. I’ve had business owners embarrassed over their lack of computer savvy, afraid to admit they don’t understand blogging software. (This is the equivalent of fear of dependence on technology to keep one safe while flying.)

Meerman Scott advises blogging among trusted colleagues to "get the hang of it".  The reason clients rely on professional ghost bloggers like me is they can take advantage of blog marketing without having to overcome those twin fears connected with technology and with writing.

The most interesting fear described in David Meerman Scott’s  WebInkNow  blog was "fear that it does not work in our industry". "I’ve heard them all", he says, meaning the misperceptions that "blog marketing does not work for mutual fund managers, lawyers, dentists, politicians, Singapore-based software companies, Canadian blood donation centers, Florida real estate agents, churches or rock bands…"

From a business standpoint, fear of blogging can be a fearsome business mistake.  Comprehensive research developed by Universal McCann shows 73% of online users read blogs.  In the time it’s taken you to read this far into my blog post, thousands and thousands of new blog posts have been introduced, some of them by your competitors.

Experience brings mastery, Meerman Scott concludes.  To which I offer a second:  Just get going! There are no monsters in the closet, and the cure for blog phobia is simply – blogging!