We’ve all been there. You have the perfect blog post idea. Blood, sweat, and tears went into creating the most amazing content you have ever written. Finally, you hit the publish button and you feel good! Except, no one is reading what you wrote. Feverishly you refresh every hour or every day checking your website stats only to find no one is reading your content.
Unfortunately, this happens often and this has happened to me. Yes, it is discouraging but everyone goes through this in the beginning. Here are 5 probable reasons no one is reading your blog.
Here Is Why No One Is Reading Your Blog
1. Communication
Ask yourself. How many times this week have you promoted your content? If the answer is once, we have identified problem #1. For some strange reason, people are afraid to promote the content and the things they actually work hard creating. Fear of failure, fear of judgment, fear of everything takes over and they just want to promote in a vacuum. I am here to give it to you straight. No one is reading your blog because you are not communicating with people you have new content.
Sharing it on Facebook once is not enough. Sharing it on Twitter once is not enough. Be proud of your work. New content should definitely be shared with your email list community, shared on social media several times and shared around the clock. I’m not afraid to share a new blog post from this week on Twitter and in the next tweet a blog post from 2 years ago as long as it still provides great value.
Create a solid promotion plan you can replicate every week and stick with it whenever you publish a new post.
2. Consistency
No one is reading your blog because you are not consistent. They do not know when to expect new content from you and therefore; they are not emotionally invested. If you post a new blog post every now and then, your audience is probably struggling to take you seriously.
Consistency shows commitment and lets your audience know you are extremely passionate about your subject area. If you publish and promote a new blog post every Tuesday, soon people will expect to see new content from you at those times. When you show consistency, you also build anticipation and people are waiting to see what you will do next.
Example: I love Podcasts. One of my favorite shows is The Read. Crissle and Kid Fury consistently release a new episode every week either Thursday or Friday morning. They are so consistent I’m often checking my phone throughout the day on Thursday wondering if the new episode has been released.
Because The Read is consistent, I’m going to THEM to search for new content vs. randomly seeing a new episode has been released. Consistency breeds commitment and anticipation. That’s exactly what you want potential readers to have about your blog.
3. Confusion
Is the purpose of your blog clear to your readers? Another reason why no one is reading your blog is that your message is unclear. When you market to everyone you market to no one. If someone scrolls across your blog and they can not see where they fit and how your content will help them it’s likely they will not stick around. And worse they will have no reason to return.
Get extremely clear on who your blog is for and who it is not for each time you create a new blog post. Also, don’t compare. Comparison is the thief of joy. If you are too busy comparing yourself to others it will be impossible to focus on your niche and create the best content possible for your readers.
It is easy to fall into the trap of looking at what other people are doing and trying to replicate it for your blog thinking this will bring you the same success. Unfortunately, when you do this your content becomes forced and inauthentic.
What you should do is focus on the types of things your readers want to see and the type of content they really want. As I mentioned in my Blogging Brainstorm Mind Map, are there questions your readers consistently ask you? Answering those questions is how you will stand out to your readers.
4. Content
Now it is time for you to be brutally honest with yourself. Does your content suck? Like seriously, are you proud of the information you published lately or are you just posting new content to say that you did? If not, that is the main reason no one is reading your blog.
I’ll be honest as well. There was a point in 2017 where I was a little lost on where I wanted to take Textured Talk. I had not blogged in months and I felt the pressure to post anything to sort of prove to the world I was still a real “blogger”. Do you want to know what happened? Those blog posts were terrible. I struggled to write them for weeks and as a result, they are also some of my lowest performing posts.
Improve your content in order to provide REAL value. Figure out a hack, help people become better at something, inform people on something that could transform their life or save them money. When people come to your blog they are either coming for inspiration or information. Give them a little of both. Once you improve the foundation of your blog, which is the content, people will begin to read your blog consistently.
5. Community
Finding your tribe and community online is one of the best things you can do as a blogger. No matter what you think there is an audience for EVERYONE. One way to build a personal community as a blogger is to share more of your experiences and engage with your audience when they ask you questions. Your community will be the most loyal readers you have as long as they continue to see value in the content you create.
If you haven’t built a tribe of loyal readers, creating a Facebook Group or an email list is a great way to get started. Don’t wait around for people to magically scroll across your blog because that never works. Bring your content directly to the people who are the most engaged with what you are creating. Email new blog posts to them. Share it directly with them in your Facebook group.
And of course, share it on social media with your followers. IG stories is a create place to build a loyal community by showing your personality.
What ways do you promote your blog posts consistently right now? How could you improve? Comment and let me know!