You don't have to look very hard to see what my major theme is on this blog.
Of the posts I've written, fifteen have been labelled "Writing."
On my sidebar, where I have the label cloud, Writing and A-to-Z Challenge have become so big that they overshadow all the other labels. They're like monsters, glutted on the gore from all the posts they've been tagged in, while all the other little labels starve.
Actually, I try not to let my labels starve. I love labeling posts, but I try to only use labels that I think I'll use more than once.
I find it very annoying when I'm reading a blog where the author tags almost everything he's mentioned in the post. So you see labels like "peanut butter cookies," or "Rolling in the Deep by Adele," or "ICAN'TBELIEVEIFINALLYGOTTHEJOBI'MSOHAPPY."
Now, I like to click on the labels after the posts to see more of what the author's written on that subject. So when I click on "peanut butter cookies" and there's only one post for that category... it makes me a little frustrated.
If you only ever did one post about peanut butter cookies, then what was the point of labeling it??
Not that I'm especially interested in peanut butter cookies. It's more the principle of the thing.
Also, blogs that don't use labels at all frustrate me a little.
It means that I will most likely leave your blog faster because I don't see anything to hold my interest. But if you'd labelled a post "blogging" and I clicked the label and found ten other posts in that category, I'd stay longer and read them. And if I liked them, and I liked your writing style, I might follow your blog or leave a comment.
There's also the related posts plugin which I'm debating whether to add. The only problem I can see is that sometimes when scrolling down the home page (on other blogs) it takes a while to load. I don't know if it's worth it. Any ideas?
Oh yes, and L is also for Lauren. My name has a few different interpretations, but the one I like best is "of the laurel or bay tree; symbolic of honor or victory."
In Other News:
You can now follow Word Art on Google+!
How about it? Do you use labels on your blog? Why or why not?
Should I get the related posts plugin? What do you like or dislike about the related posts plugin?
Does your name start with "L"?
Let me know by commenting!
I have a label cloud, too! I must say, I'm guilty of only have one or two posts per (some) labels. It's because I'm a new-ish blogger, so I haven't posted everything I have in mind yet. I started a "TV" label, for instance, because I plan to do a semi-regular TV post once the challenge is over. So maybe some of the other blogs you visit are in a similar situation as mine? After all, you've got to start with just one post labelled "Peanut Butter Cookies" to get the ball rolling!
ReplyDeleteFunny. I do label stuff that I don't write about very often but I do it because, when I go back to my blog and I want to find a specific theme, all I have to do is search by labels. That was my logic and I thought me pretty clever... it seems not so much =)
ReplyDeleteFrom Diary of a Writer in Progress
@Daisy - Love the label cloud! Yes, I totally understand when that happens with newer bloggers. I have a couple of labels with only one post in each category, as well. :)
ReplyDelete@Gina - ah, don't put too much stock in what I say. If it works for you, do it. :) It is handy to search for what you've written using labels. I'm just slightly OCD, so I like to keep things organized. :)
I use labels. Even the ones I don't think I'll use again. The help in web searches, so, if I'm mentioning something that could be a search term, I'll label it, even if I don't think I'll ever talk about that thing again.
ReplyDeleteNow, if only I could get my label thing to show back up on my blog >:(
I do use labels and just recently put up the side bar to show all of them. I probably use some labels that I'll never use again. I don't put much thought into it I just label it what ever I think fits it best.
ReplyDeleteI fully agree with you on this. I also try to only use labels that I will use again. And I ask myself, would someone clicking on this specific label want to read what's in this post? Because I've seen a post where the person is talking about a book they read and mentions somewhere that they read it on their Kindle and then labels "Kindle". And I remember thinking, if I clicked a "Kindle" label, I would want to read about Kindles, not this book.
ReplyDeleteHi, sorry, but I don't use labels. When I go to a blog, if the first three lines don't grab me, I leave it at once. :) That is why I read yours. :) Thanks for the interesting post. Best regards to you, Ruby
ReplyDeleteNice post. I never really thought about this very much but I do try to label my posts in such a way that if I want to link to a group of things that are connected, I can do it easily. It is odd when people label everything they've written, maybe they could just create a blank post and write it all in the labels instead... :)
ReplyDeleteNikki – inspire nordic
I never thought to use labels, maybe because I don't tend to click on them on others' blogs. Not that I'm not interested, but I don't normally have time. I also tend to make a very quick decision on whether to follow based on one post (and maybe the About Me etc). I realise though, that just because I don't do something that doesn't mean no one does if that makes sense. I might start doing them now! I agree though, sometimes you see labels that seem a bit random or tenuously related to the post and I think, is that useful?
ReplyDeleteI never really payed that much attention to labels - although I am sure that I will now. Personally, I enjoy the related posts plugin - I use it on one of my blogs and use them a lot on others'.
ReplyDeleteAlso, my name is Lisa.
Dif-tor heh smusma
- T'Laina (vibrant-oxymoron.blogspot.com)