Traffic is down all over. It’s not just you. No one is reading your blog, and no one is reading anyone’s blog. The reason is that so many people wasted readers’ time. Too much junk. Too many marketers trying to capture everyone’s attention and failing. And far too many vague stories without real value.
No One is Reading Your Blog
But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t write. It means you should write better. It means you should be more specific. It means you have to tell stories to a very specific group of people you hope to serve. That’s what’s next. Well, one of many details of what’s next.
What Not to Do
Should you shut your blog down? Not if you don’t have any other ways to earn the attention of others. Should you move your writing efforts to someone else’s website like Medium or LinkedIn or Facebook? Not exactly. Sure, share an article there sometimes, but don’t give up your home base.
How To Get People to Read Your Blog
First: don’t. Get them to read a specific article, something you’ve invested time in, and something you feel will deliver some value. But then what else?
- Design each post like an important article. That doesn’t mean write extra long posts. It means to think of it as if the post will stand alone, will be accessed by someone who won’t actually ever land on your website, and who is plucking through this post as if it’s standalone.
- Make every post extra-readable. From the design of your site to the layout of your post, be super crisp. Use larger fonts. Use bullets and subheadings and graphics to break up large banks of text.
- Be brief and concise. As best as possible, get right to the point. People want their information and they want to get out.
- Write to SOLVE a specific need. This post tries to help with “how to get people to read my blog” types of challenges. Make every post a specific solution.
- Give people actionable information. You can write about ideas all day, but without something to do, people will stop reading.
What Else Can You Do?
People will read if you give them something of value. I’ve found that you can give away a lot of your best ideas in a blog post and it won’t break the bank. People will still hire you. They still need what you know. What else can you do?
Video. Record videos. Upload them to YouTube, and post the embed of that video on your blog.
Podcasts. Record a podcast show and post the embed of that audio on your blog.
Profiles. Write about the people you serve. About them, not about how great you are for working with them.
And so on.
Don’t quit. Just get better. And if ever your company wants to get better at reaching people and driving more value, get in touch.