The Secret Reason Nobody’s Reading Your Blog

There’s one reason people aren’t reading your blog that no one will tell you about. But I will.

The blogging secret no one talks about

Sure, you can find all kinds of important tips to attract more attention.

• You need to make it easier to find, use eye-catching subject lines, write for your audience and not for yourself.
• You need to stop using white on black, or 8-point font, or anything else that makes it hard to read.
• Above all, write on a topic and in a voice that will make readers want to read more.

But here’s the thing no one is telling you: blogging is different.

It’s not like writing for social media.

One good post or tweet and I might follow you on Facebook or Twitter…because hey, I won’t see everything you post anyway. It’s not a huge investment of time.

If I’m going to follow your blog, though, I’m planning on reading a fairly long-form post on a regular basis and giving each post enough thought to learn from it. When you blog, your writing has to be good enough and your content has to be substantive enough to convince me to make that commitment.

It’s not like writing for print.

Blogging may not be social media, but it is social. When you post a blog, you should think, “Who will find this useful, or informative, or entertaining?” Keep that audience in mind always. Don’t write anything for posterity: write for right now.

Even when you’re writing to work out an idea for yourself, do it “out loud,” so your readers can follow each step…and join in with you. And when they do, by commenting on your post, feel complimented and answer back. Every comment. Every time.

Blogging is different.

Blogging takes the skills of a writer and an editor, but also  a good interviewer’s interest in a guest, and the pleasure a hostess takes when she introduces her guests to one another.

Creating a great environment for a select group of people. That’s the secret. (Just between you and me.)