Why Aren't People Reading Your Blog And What To Do About It

So, you finally did it. You held your breath and took the leap into blogging. Everyone said that having a blog was an important piece to building your platform and so you set one up and started to publish posts. But after a few months, you face the cold reality that the only people reading your blog are you and your spouse, and you give your spouse the benefit of the doubt that they are actually reading your blog.



So, what's the problem? Why aren't people reading your posts. More importantly, what can you do to change reality and start to find readers for your blog? Here are some practical issues for you to consider:

You're speaking in a vacuum- Let's face it, you can have a million dollar sound system and if you're speaking to an empty auditorium, all that technology is pretty much worthless. The same is true when you talk about blogging. You can have a lot of well written posts on the best blog platform, but if no one sees your posts, all your technology isn't worth much to you.



What to do about it? Simply, you have to find an audience. You can do this through effective marketing. What are you doing to let people know you have a blog? Try these tips for marketing your blog:

Tweet your new post title and shortened URL 3 or 4 times the day it goes live.


Highlight a person, website or tool and send the link to the person in the blog. Chances are good they will share it with their followers.


E-mail people in your network and ask them to comment on your post. Most people are willing to help a new blogger get started.

You make it too hard for people to find your blog- Are you relying on people to come to your blog each day to see if you released a new post? If so, you are making it too hard on yourself. You need to make it easy for people to find your post when it comes out.



What to do about it? You need to lay out breadcrumbs that lead your readers to your new post. If you don't you'll never have a steady readership. Here are some breadcrumbs you can set up for your readers:

Set up an e-mail subscription for your readers. By setting up a service like Feedburner, you can give readers an opportunity to get your new post delivered right to their e-mail inbox. This increases the likelihood that they will read your post because you made it convenient for them.


Syndicate your feed. If you have a Facebook, Linked-In, GoodReads, Ning or a plethora of other social networking sites, you can automatically burn your post to those platforms. Usually, you have the choice of burning the title, a teaser, or the whole post along with the link to the post on your blog.


Let your newsletter subscribers know you have a new post out. In fact, if you have any other communication list, let those people know about your new post.



Your writing is full of technical problems- Most people will overlook the occasional typo or editing error (unless the reader is an editor), but most people will only put up with so much before they make the decision not to return to your blog. There is too much info out there for people to put up with technically poor writing.



What to do about it? You need to make sure your writing is solid, as entertaining as possible, and accurate. Each post needs to:

Be proofed for common errors. Spelling and grammatical errors need to be kept to a minimum. If this is a problem for you, consider securing a second pair of eyes to check your work.


Be checked for accurate data. People read blogs for information. If you give out a constant diet of bad information, you will betray the trust of your readers which may be an almost impossible thing to win back.


Be written from original content. As a writer, you should know the dangers of plagiarism, so don't let this enter your work. If you use it, give credit.



Your blog posts have no star power- At the beginning of your blogging career, there is wisdom in reaching out to others who can bring their readers to your blog. If you try to create a blog without reaching out to others, you are taking a long road to blogging success.



What to do about it? Simply, you need to find ways to highlight people with an established follower base to encourage them to share your posts with their readers. Here are some ways you can do this:

Engage in a Q&A with an expert in your niche. Not only will that person likely share the post with their followers, it will also bring credibility to your blog as a source of quality information.


Invite a guest blogger to submit a post. Most bloggers and experts are looking for ways to market themselves and your blog can be another piece to their marketing plan. In return, you get the benefit of knowing that they will most likely share your blog with their followers.


Write a review. Whether it's a product, a book, or a cool resource, reviews not only give your readers important news they can use, but the creator of the product that you're reviewing will jump on the chance to send people to your review. If you write a review, make sure it's truthful. If you lie just to get someone to send you traffic, you will hurt your credibility and the review may backfire on you.



Spend time on your title- Like the cover on a book, your post title can be the most important factor in whether someone reads your post or not. A poorly worded post title can ensure that no reader ever gets past the title.



What to do about it? Rather than go into a lot of detail on this important factor in the success of your blog, let me point you to a post I wrote a few days ago that covers this issue in detail: 7 Tips For Writing Titles That Will Cause Readers To Click On Your Post.




There are other things that you can look into when you try to find out why your blog is not drawing the readers you had hoped for by now. But these tips should be a solid starting point to get you on the road to a well-read blog. Remember, building a readership takes time and commitment. Keep chipping away at it, follow these tips, and you should see your readership continue to ramp up.



If you want a great resource to help drive traffic to your blog, check out Shelley Hitz, A Step-by-Step Guide to Guest Blogging. I've read it and you can read my endorsement on that page. While you're there, check out her Q&A interview she held with me. I share my experiences writing my books and a whole lot more.



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Tony Eldridge is the author of The Samson Effect , an action/adventure novel that Clive Cussler calls a "first rate thriller brimming with intrigue and adventure." He is also the author of the Twitter marketing book, Conducting Effective Twitter Contests .