Question for my visitors – Do you want to be sent away?

Main question below in bolded paragraph. Thoughts/why post and ask lead up to that:

In all my recent surfing, I’ve been checking in on what others say about running a blog. I’m far from being happy with what I do on this site, as there is more I want to post, more original content I want to produce, and more features I’d like to get working. As my spare time allows, I do these things. But when I have limited time, I just work on keeping interesting (to me) things going out on the site every day (although I know I fail that often).

So in my reading about being a better blogger, I find this article (quoted in large part below) in which the author says links from a site should remain in their own window/tab, and most certainly not open a new window or tab. When I surf, I much prefer staying on a page and having extra links open in a new window or tab, so that is how I’ve set up my site. Apparently, that is considered bad form.

This brings me to my question then – when I link to other sites in my posts, should I make the links open new browser windows and tabs (as happens now), or should I leave them in the same window and make visitors open up in new windows/tabs any links they want to see without leaving my site?

Please take the time to make a brief comment on this post and say which you prefer. I’m already considering changing to no-new windows posting, but I’m not yet decided.

Want to tick people off? Have your links open new windows. Have users click to a number of links on your blog so they now have 8 or 9 windows open. Make it difficult to browse because the back button can’t be used to browse because every link is a new window. You’ll have people unsubscribing from your blog in a New York minute.

Your blog is not going to become all things to all people on a niche topic. If that’s your goal, you’re setting yourself up for failure.

Be a success by sending your audience to what’s of value to them. That’ll guaranty they’ll keep coming back to you for more.

[tags]Send visitors away, Blog link practices[/tags]