How to lose your readers without trying

You’ve probably encountered all the great articles on building blog readership and circulation, but you’re wondering why nobody reads your entries. As a service to everyone, I’m providing a short list of things applicable to this weblog that has contributed to the decline of the pool of my regular readers. Yes, unfortunately for me, this weblog is consistently losing regular readers every week. And if you’d like the same trend, I’ll teach you how to.

  1. Don’t write for weeks. This is somehow related to the advice we get from prominent bloggers to “keep your readers guessing.” Yes, keep ’em guessing, but wondering about what you’ll be writing about, not when you’ll write again.
  2. Redesign. A redesign is the blogger’s favorite reason for not writing, maybe next only to “personal issues.” Avoid redesigns when the current one you have works. If you really need one, don’t cram.
  3. Write software. Writing great plugins and applications can really help build traffic, but note that failure to continually improve on them will cause traffic growth to decrease.
  4. Projects, projects, projects. You’ve got great projects left and right, but failure to promote them to your readers is a big mistake. Don’t think twice, just write about them just about the time they’re ripe for picking.
  5. Take photos. Snapping lots of photographs but not sharing or posting them will not help you. If you’re proud of your photography, showcase them!
  6. Plan, and plan even more. A working blogging plan would be great, but sometimes too much scheduling and planning could only hurt you. Just do what you feel like doing, write what you feel like writing.

Reading this piece, I’m sure you notice how unsharp my writing is right now. Not writing does that, and the only way to fix it is to start writing again, regularly. I wish this entry makes more sense. 🙂

4 Responses

  1. You’ve got a point there, Joe. But I’m also referring to readers who are my close friends currently residing in faraway places, and my irregular posting sked has left them without a clue as to when I’m writing again.

    But I agree that the term “building circulation” has a more commercial tone.

  2. Well, if it’s any consolation, i just added your feeds to my Gmail Web Clips the other day, after not having stopped by in many many months. Sometimes it’s not the site, content, or author at all. I think i stopped visiting because i wasn’t using my local bookmarks anymore and hadn’t found a decent way to keep track of things while roaming.

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