8 Things I Don’t Give A Crap About (And Neither Should You)
There’s a ton of stuff that goes into creating something great online, marketing it well, and profiting from it in some way. It’s what this blog is about (hence the name). But, for all of the important stuff like this that you should care about and focus on in order to be successful, there seems to be an almost equal number of things that, well, you just shouldn’t give a crap about at all.
The problem however is that a lot of these are things that people DO care about and DO focus on. Sometimes a lot. In fact, some of the big important people who write big important blogs about this stuff even recommend that you do.
What this means is that there’s a lot of people wasting a lot of time and effort on stuff that really just doesn’t matter. To show you what I mean, I have put together a list of 8 things that I personally don’t give a crap about at all. And really… neither should you.
And away we go…
1. Blog Post Length, Article Length, Or Content Length Of Any Kind
Various gurus of various related industries (SEO, blogging, etc.) will tell you that there is some ideal length you should be shooting for when you write blog posts, articles, and create content of any kind. Off the top of my head, I can remember seeing recommendations for this ideal length being 250 words, 500 words, 600-800 words, NEVER more than 1000 words, and so on and so on.
Basically, pick a number between 1 and a billion and someone has probably suggested that it’s the ideal length for the content you create.
There’s a few reasons these people makes these length recommendations, but the top two usually are:
- You reader’s attention span. Meaning, the attention span of most of your readers/potential readers is (supposedly) short, and therefore your content should be short as well to both compensate for this and comply with what they (supposedly) want.
- SEO. The thought here is that search engines have a preferred length of content per page, and having too little or too much will (supposedly) hurt your chances of ranking well.
This all sounds wonderful and everything, but guess what? I don’t give a crap.
I pay no attention whatsoever to the length of the content I create. Never have, either. And I think the people making these strict recommendations for content length are either greatly misinformed or mildly retarded. And the people who actually follow these recommendations? You’re just wasting your time and possibly hurting the quality of your content in the process.
Seriously. Writing with the intention of reaching a very specific number of words is dumb. Going back and editing your content so that it is within a specific word range is dumb. Purposely making a piece of content longer than it should be because it didn’t reach your goal number of words is dumb. Trying to shorten a perfect piece of content because it ended up being a bit longer than some guru recommended it should be is dumb.
Getting my point yet? It’s all dumb.
Sure, people on the internet do have short attention spans, but they have even shorter “crappy content spans.” If your content sucks, they won’t read it no matter how short it is or how close to the “ideal” number of words it was.
But if it’s good, they’ll read it no matter what. 500 words, 5000 words. Nobody cares as long as it’s good. That’s the only requirement, really. Make it good. As long as it’s good, it will be read no matter what length it is.
And please don’t misinterpret that as me saying people won’t care if something is longer or shorter than it should have been. They’d definitely care about that. But if it should have been that long or should have been that short… it’s perfect. Don’t go changing it because you heard someone say it would be better if it was longer or shorter for whatever idiotic reason.
That’s just… dumb.
I’m not just guessing here either. I know this from experience. I regularly create content that is 1000 or more (sometimes a lot more) words, and my readers read it and like it and subscribe to it and tell their friends about it and digg it and do whatever else people do when they come across great content. Why? Because it was great. They give even less of a crap than I do about how many words it was.
For entertainment purposes, and because I know people love real life examples, I just did a word count on the longest single-paged piece of content that I can ever remember creating. It has a ton of links, ranks amazingly on all search engines for all of its goal keywords, and is extremely well liked by everyone who comes across it (never gotten a single “I hate this, it’s too long!!!” email in my life). Do you know how many words it has?
About 16,000.
No, that’s not a typo.
So to all of the gurus who have said flat out that you’ll be doomed if you write something with over 1000 words: take your recommendations and shove them up your ass. I’ve gone 16 times over that “maximum” recommendation and it worked out as perfectly as it possibly could have. It’s a pretty extreme example, sure, but it proves my point nonetheless.
And for SEO? Yeah, there’s actually some truth to it in a certain context (another post for another day), but in the context of these silly recommendations, it’s just so unbelievably insignificant that even giving it a second of thought is just plain pointless.
In the end, the only thing you should be focusing on when you write is writing something great. As soon as your focus starts to shift towards length recommendations and the number of words you’re writing, it starts to shift away from just writing something great, and there’s a damn good chance that this will unknowingly affect the quality of that piece of content.
Want my personal “content length” recommendation? Whatever length makes your piece of content as perfect as it can be for the people who will be reading it, THAT is its ideal length. Making it any longer or shorter than that should be avoided at all costs. Gurus be damned.
2. Keyword Density
Ah yes, keyword density. One of the true keys to SEO… in 2001.
Today, or even the last 5 years? Nope, not at all.
Sure, one of the many things search engines take into account is the body text of your page, so it makes sense that your goal keywords for that piece of content should be used there.
But, as I very politely mention in the SEO Flowchart To Awesome Search Engine Rankings, your goal keywords should end up being used organically in your body text, not purposely. If they weren’t, you either picked the wrong goal keywords for this piece of content, or you’re a shitty writer.
Not to mention, focusing on keyword density tends to lead to you looking and sounding like one of the countless dumbasses who repeat words over and over again unnaturally in a pathetically hilarious attempt at reaching some magical keyword density numbers. You know, as though it actually matters or will help in any significant way whatsoever.
And, let’s pretend you live in some magical fantasy world where keyword density does significantly matter to search engines. Do you honestly think you’d rank amazingly and then get a ton of visitors and none of them would mind that you just used the word “mortgage” 14 times in a sentence with only 15 words? Dumbass.
So no, I don’t give a crap about keyword density. I do some basic keyword research, create the best content I am capable of creating, and my goal keywords get used throughout the content all by itself. How many times? Don’t know, don’t care. I don’t go back and count or run the page through some keyword density analyzer. I just create something my readers will love and do my best to get it seen by other people who’d love it too.
And it all ranks just fine. In fact, better than fine.
3. Blog Comment Reciprocation
Ohhh, here’s a touchy subject.
You know when you have a blog, and someone comments on one of your posts, and you see they have a blog too, so you click their name, go to their blog, check it out for a couple of minutes, and then comment on one of their posts to return the love?
Yeah, I don’t do that. I just don’t give crap.
I just have better/more important/more productive things to do than fake interest in someone else’s blog just because they commented on mine (which in some cases is just them faking interest in my blog in an attempt to get me to go to their blog and leave a comment faking interest in their blog which in turn sets off a never-ending time-wasting cycle of shitty comments from people just faking interest in each other’s blog).
No thanks, I’ll pass.
Waaaaay back in the day, maybe I did this a TINY bit (until I realized how completely pointless it was). And these days? No chance whatsoever.
I only comment when I have a legit reason to or a genuine interest in doing so. That goes for all blogs really, not just the blogs of people who comment on mine (and that’s how it should be). My days of faking interest just to be polite and/or make borderline useless friends within my niche and/or return the favor (or whatever else you want to call it) ended years and years ago.
I was very quick to realize that my time is better spent creating awesome content and getting it in front of the people who would like it, not struggling to pretend to care about a post someone just wrote because they pretended to care about a post I just wrote.
Don’t misunderstand me here. I am not saying you shouldn’t ever comment on your reader’s blogs. I’m just saying you should only do it when you have a legitimate reason to or a genuine interest in doing so, and not just because they commented on your blog and you feel obligated to, or want them to keep commenting on your blog so you comment on theirs in hopes of getting them to continue.
And don’t think “ohhh, it’s different for you because of the stage you’re at and I’m still kinda starting out so it’s different for me and blah blah blah.” It has nothing to do with that at all.
Commenting like this is just a big waste of time for 99.9% of the people who do it because it doesn’t actually accomplish anything. It might seem like it should when you’re doing it, but it doesn’t. It’s just another thing distracting you from the much more useful things you could be doing.
4. Hate Based On Nonsense
As creators of anything online, there are different types of hate that we will all come across at some point. Explaining these different types more thoroughly is already on my future posting to-do list. For now though, you should be aware that once any blog or site of any kind begins to get popular, there will ALWAYS be some amount of hate directed your way.
Yup, it’s the truth. And it happens to everyone. No matter how awesome your site is and how many people love it and feel that it is the single greatest thing in the history of the internet, someone will always hate it.
What you need to pay attention to when you reach this point is what the basis of that hate truly is, and then decide how to deal with it. Because when the hate is based on something legitimate, you will need to deal with it accordingly (I’ll explain how in that same future post).
But when the hate is based on nonsense, you need to be able to realize it, and then just not give a crap. Why? Because if you do give a crap, 3 things will usually happen:
- First, it’s going to make you feel terrible. You’ll lose confidence in whatever it is people are hating on (your site as a whole, a specific piece of content, a product, your writing, your credibility, etc.), and that’s NEVER a good thing.
- Second, you’re going to waste a lot of time (which could have been better spent on a thousand other things). Responding to hate that is worth responding to is NOT a waste of time. Responding to hate based on nonsense always is.
- And third, you’ll probably only make it worse.
So, when someone sends you an email, or leaves a comment, or posts something on their own blog, or twitter or wherever else that in some way directs hate at you/your site, stop and think. Is it based on nonsense? If so, the very best thing you can do is not give a crap.
When it’s based on something real, that’s when you need to care. But if it’s just someone being a dick, ignore it.
5. Meta Keyword Tag
Why, in my day the meta keyword tag only cost a nickel. You could fill it with whatever keywords you wanted to and then rank fantastically for all of them on Altavista soon after.
But then, about a decade ago, search engines got smart and made the meta keyword tag count for something between “absolutely nothing” and “nothing.”
It certainly can’t hurt to use it, but it certainly won’t help either. These days I include it when I remember to, mostly out of habit. And even then, I usually fill it with stuff for my own amusement. Like if I write a post on this blog about making money online, one of my keywords in the keyword tag might be “money.”
I then laugh to myself for a second, reminisce about the days when that post would have ranked in the top 10 for the word “money” on a bunch of search engines that no longer exist, and then get right back to doing something that is actually worth doing. Fun times.
6. Reciprocal Link/Link Exchange Requests
On average, I must get at least 10 of these reciprocal link/link partnership/link exchange type emails each and every day, including weekends. No joke. You know what else isn’t a joke? The fact that I literally haven’t even opened one in about 6 years. Forget actually reading them (probably stopped doing that about 8 years ago), I haven’t even opened one in that long.
And do you know the last time that I actually exchanged links with another site? I do. I can even remember what site it was with and how it came about. Do you know what year it was? 2000.
So if I’ve gotten about 10 of these emails a day for the last 9 years, that’s nearly 33,000 of these kinds of emails that have been sent to me which went on to accomplish absolutely nothing for the various dumbasses who sent them.
Why? Because there isn’t any remote chance that anything good can come from exchanging links with the low quality garbage sites that are still dumb enough to send out these kinds of emails. Unless of course you enjoy being associated with bad link neighborhoods, because there’s a damn good chance that will happen.
Oh, and if you happen to be on the other side of this (you’re the one actually sending these kinds of emails), then may God have mercy on your soul.
7. The 948,311 Blogs About This Stuff
Uh oh, probably the touchiest one on this list.
Fine, 948,311 is just a rough estimate of how many blogs I think there are about internet marketing, blogging, SEO, making money online, and other related subjects, but it’s probably pretty close. Truth of the matter is I don’t really give a crap about any of them.
Why? Because there are SO few people saying anything that is new, different, unique, great, or special in any way, and SO many people who are just rehashing the same shit you’ve heard a million times before.
It’s just the same average content you could have gotten from 50,000 other sources of the same information.
Why exactly should I give a crap about them? Even better question: why on earth are you reading them?
Don’t get me wrong here. I’m not saying you shouldn’t bother reading any blogs about this stuff. I’m definitely not saying that. I’m just saying that you’re wasting your time reading anything besides the few blogs that stand out and are truly special.
Because honestly, everything else is just a lesser version of those few blogs.
My personal opinion is that the number of blogs in this niche that fit the “truly special” description can be counted on 2 hands. That would make the other thousands and thousands of blogs about this stuff completely pointless to read and unnecessary to subscribe to.
I know, I know. You “need” to subscribe to all of these blogs to “stay up to date” and “never miss a thing” and “have access to all of the useful information that’s out there.” I get it. I really do.
What you don’t get though is that there really isn’t this constant never ending stream of information out there that warrants this mindset.
All that’s really out there are thousands of blogs about the same subjects saying the same things.
The only difference is that a select few are doing it infinitely better than the rest in that truly special stand-out kind of way. Your job is to read those few and stop giving a crap about all of the others. All they’ll ever do is waste your time.
Want some examples of that select few? Alright… SEOmoz, ProBlogger and CopyBlogger are the first few that come to mind. There’s a couple of others, but I truly doubt I’d get above 10 if I really sat down and put together a list (another future post, perhaps).
Back to my point. If you’re currently reading more than a small handful of blogs about internet marketing, blogging, SEO, making money online and any other related subjects, it’s time to cut back. Keep the few that are doing it better and dump the rest. Despite what you may think, they aren’t actually helping. They’re just taking up more of your time.
8. Making Money (until I have something to make money from)
Yup, I did a whole guest post about this for John Chow, so I’m not going to repeat it all over again here. The take home point of that post was that you shouldn’t focus on making money until you have something that you can actually make money from. Until you have a great site with a nice size audience and a significant amount of consistent traffic, focusing on making money is a useless, distracting, judgment-clouding waste of time.
So no, I don’t give a crap about making money until the second I reach that point. This remains one of the very best tips I could possibly give to anyone trying to make money online.
The Point
Why am I telling you all of this? To let you know that I’ve spent a significant amount of time not giving a crap about any of these 8 things, and everything has worked out just fine.
So if there’s anything on the above list that you currently do give a crap about… feel free to stop with the peace of mind of knowing that it’s not going to hurt.
If anything, it’s going to help.
You’ve just inspired me to quit checking for .50 Adsense clicks everyday, and to unsubscribe from lots of dumb “blogs about blogging/seo” that just waste my time.
In the back of my head, I had had a feeling that the only thing that really mattered was writing content and getting it in front of people, but this post really shot me in the face about that. Thanks.
Well, you don’t seem to have a hard time “creating, marketing, and profiting.”
Great post.
With posts like this I think you can include yourself in that select few you talked about.
I agree with so much here I don’t really know where to start. I’ve been guilty of #1 for sure – trying to keep posts at around 600 to 800 words. Easy to understand how silly it is when you break it down like that.
I’m going to being listening to #7 for sure and its probably going to give me an extra hour of my day back.
Awesome post!
All 8 were great points. A couple of questions if you don’t mind.
You said “And for SEO? Yeah, there’s actually some truth to it in a certain context (another post for another day)” I know you said another post for another day but now you got me wondering what you meant.
What the hell was the thing with 16000 words?
Thanks.
Nice post! I just recently learned about your blog and gonna keep reading it
I love the 1st, 2nd and 7th points on this post. So true! Looking forward to more posts from ya. They should help me grow my blog!
Cheers
Ben: Shooting people in the face is exactly what I aim for here. That and getting you to read way less shitty blogs about this stuff.
Oh, and being crazy obsessed with Adsense (example: logging in every 4 minutes to check earnings) is something everyone goes through at some point. As long as you grow out of it, you’ll be fine.
Matt Harris: Thanks dude. And yeah, I think #7 would give a lot of people a lot of hours of their day back.
Dex: The “truth to it” I was referring to has A LOT less to do with how many words a piece of content has or how long/short it is, and A LOT more to do with what the piece of content covers. Meaning, if it’s super long because it covers so many different subjects, SEO-wise you might be better off splitting it up into some number of separate pages that are optimized for each individual subject.
This doesn’t always mean it’s the right thing to do for your readers though (and that should be put before SEO or anything else for that matter). But if it would make the content better, then it’s the right thing to do. If it would make the content worse, but help a little with SEO, then it’s the wrong thing to do.
Case in point… this very post. Technically each item on this list could have been its own individual post. This is the context where it makes some sense for SEO. The context I’m referring to in this post is just insignificant nonsense.
And the page with 16,000 words was the kind of thing that most people would turn into some sort of ebook and sell. I decided to put it out there for free and use it as one of the key things that puts that site on the map. And that’s exactly what it ended up doing. So really making it free helped lead to the kind of consistent traffic and authority I would have needed in order to successfully sell something in the first place. Win!
Adrian: Very cool. Looking forward to helping you help your blog.