Does Your Blog Look Like A TV Dinner?
Instantly I am sure that you know where I am going with this. Does your blog like a TV Dinner? Before we go into depth about this, first let’s recap what a typical TV dinner is.
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The outer box or packaging of a TV dinner – The packaging or the box of a TV dinner showcases and misrepresents the food item inside. Commonly there is a glorified picture of the food product that looks very appealing, tasty and yummy!
The inside of the TV Dinner box or packaging – Well, as we all know, the contents inside the box are much much different than what is advertised outside the box. TV dinners are not what they appear to be on the outside of the box. Long story short, most TV dinners are simply gross.
What do TV Dinners have to do with your blog?
Everything! Come on, did you really put it past you to think that Garry Conn wouldn’t write a post that compared a TV dinner with a blog! You should know me better by now!
Many blogs that I stumble upon are very much like a TV Dinner. They make their blogs look real appealing, tasty and yummy! But, when you start to dig in and view the content, suddenly your pallet screams for some water to wash the nasty taste down.
First impressions indeed are very important. Fine! We all know that. Bloggers must have a cosmetically appealing blog. Blogs have to be attractive, they have to stand out from the crowd and they have to be attention grabbers! But when the attention is captured by way of your blogs appearance, then the level of quality in your content kicks in next. And if your content is similar to the quality of a typical TV dinner, you’re not going to retain readership. Thus, your blog will not grow.
It’s All In The Delivery!
All blogs advertise a message. Whether you purposely craft that message or not, your blog indeed does deliver a message. Skillful bloggers know exactly how to advertise a message on their blog. However, there aren’t many bloggers who can execute their message and deliver the goods in their content. Am I right or am I wrong? I think I am spot on!
What Can You Do To Not Make Your Blog Look Like A TV Dinner?
Here are a few off the top of my head suggestions on how you can prevent your blog from being perceived as a TV dinner.
- Back up what you say. If you’re blog is about teaching others how to make money online and if you attract people who want to learn, you better show them what they want. Otherwise you’ll be perceived as an idiot and a noob. And for the record, idiots and noobs typically don’t get a lot of long term traffic. A few blogs run by idiots and noobs do get traffic, but majority of their traffic are also mindless idiots and noobs.
- Don’t treat people as objects. People have beating hearts that pump blood through their bodies. They eat food, have families and friends and they have personalities. Don’t treat people as objects. We’re not just another object that will make you money!
- Don’t mislead people. If you’re going to write about a topic and advertise the message that you’re an expert in this topic, you kind of need to really be an expert in your topic. If you run a popular SEO blog, don’t refer your readers to programs that will get them banned in search engines. That is stupid. “Hi, I run a popular blog that will teach you how to rank well in the search engines, yet… I participate and promote a service that will get you banned in them”. What’s that about? But… if you visit most of the popular SEO blogs, you’ll find that they participate in and promote programs that could cost you your rankings in the search engines.
- Don’t offer unresearched advice. Second common upcoming type of blog that is increasing popularity are WordPress Tip style blogs that offer various hacks, tips and tricks with WordPress. I often stumble upon quite a few of these sites looking for content related to what is being advertised and the content is absolutely shocking and extremely and dangerously misleading. If you’re not an expert in your topic and advertise yourself to be AND provide unresearched advice, the only thing you’re doing is spreading more and more of this ignorant blog funk that floats around the blogosphere.
TV Dinners are gross, they don’t taste good at all. They are cheap and very unhealthy. And most important thing to remember, they advertise something that is completely different from what is inside the box.
Don’t run your blog like a TV Dinner! Just some off the cuff advice from me to you. Take it or leave it.

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11 comments
Excellent Comparison Garry. I have my own list of such blogs that I loathe. Very well written.
Garry’s weekly rant
I love them! And by the way- you’ve hit the nail right on the head. You’d think that these bloggers would know better but alas, this is the downside of our business.
Are you talking about me?? LOL Actually that dinner doesn’t look too bad, but I guess the it really all depends on how it tastes. Right?
No really, very cool comparison!
What a great analogy.
As always you hit a home run with your direct commentary in #3 & #4.
And this quote is worth the whole read !
“ignorant blog funk that floats around the blogosphere”
As I digest another great post from you, I’m struck by your thought process it follows my line of thinking quite often. When my blog grows up I hope it’s just like yours. I’m justa saying!:)
Hey Garry,
I have only owned the blog ryanshamus.com for about 4 months and have been busy writing lots of great content. I can back it up with examples of my income, and I write my articles from experience. Like you said, many bloggers pretend to be something they are not and eventually, they get found out!
Keep up the good work
Nice comparison. You don’t tend to get TV dinners here in the UK (I eat just about anything in front of the TV anyway!) , but I doubt that means there not bloggers who can be compared to them!
Man and I actually love TV dinners, it means us moms don’t ALWAYS have to cook. hehe. So what should a blog look like? Not a tv dinner so what else is there? A buffet, fancy restaurant or a drive-thru. Okay but on a serious note, nice thought, hadn’t thought about it like that.
Another thing about TV Dinners is after eating them more then once you kind of get tired of them and can’t eat them any longer. The problem is picking out the TV Dinners from the good stuff.
This is a great post Garry. I love the comparison to a TV dinner
-Mike
You’re cracking me up Garry! It starts funny and then gets serious. I agree with your points completely. Yeah, some SEO blogs are pretty brutal and have no problem literally destroying their competition. Anyway…are you gonna eat that dessert?
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