Speed Bumps and Road Blocks
My wife recommended adding my blog to the BlogCatalog the “Blogger social network”. Registration was a simple process, really just a matter of some login information and my blog URL.
As with Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools, BlogCatalog requires that you verify the ownership of your blog. The easiest for me is adding a META tag, all I need to know is what tag to add.

“In order to verify blog ownership, BlogCatalog requires you to place a BlogCatalog Widget, link or meta-tag on your blog.”
Where is the META tag that I’m supposed to add? I can’t find a mention of the META tag on this page, nor in their help section. The rest of this page is dedicated to adding a BlogCatalog widget to my blog, which I don’t want to do.
It’s clear that BlogCatalog wants me added to their social network of bloggers (i.e. helping them grow) but how about returning the favour by not “requiring” me to add a BlogCatalog widget? I say “required” because although I’m sure there’s a META tag I could add, I can find no mention of it on the BlogCatalog site apart from this one-liner.
This might have been a Speed Bump, but it quickly turned into a Road Block. Instead of merely giving me pause, I can go no further. A day later, I received an email from BC stating that my submission was denied because I failed to prove ownership.
And thus ends my experience with BlogCatalog.
This omission is so glaring, it almost seems purposeful. Have they specifically left out META linking information in the hopes that I’ll take the most clearly defined and explained approach – adding a widget?
In Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things, Norman discusses exactly this phenomenon. When a quick read of the page gave me no additional information, I felt like they were hiding it from me on purpose and I chose to become frustrated. In turn, my focus narrows and it’s even less likely I’ll be able to find the information I’m looking for due largely in part to my emotional state.
I’m a pretty laid back guy and don’t usually state things so bluntly, but here goes: Don’t piss off your potential users.












