A commenter on my blog recently blamed closing down her blog on her readers abandoning her. She said that was the only reason she gave up on her blog.
I believe the theory that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Blogs are not immune to that theory. Her readers didn’t just abandoned her. Something happened to drive them away.
While I don’t have the facts in her case, it got me thinking about what bloggers may be doing to lose readers.
It’s true that there is more competition than ever among blogs. Readers have tons of blogs from which to choose. With the vast numbers, it’s natural that there will be some attrition as readers have more blogs to read.
However, let’s address the issue of what causes readers to leave and not return.
What Drives Readers Away
In 34 Reasons Why Readers Unsubscribe from Your Blog, Darren Rowse discovered some interesting information when he asked his readers why they unsubscribe from a blog’s RSS feed. Here is a sampling from the top of the list:
* Too many posts (the post levels are too overwhelming) – 37
* Infrequent Posting (or the blog is effectively dead) – 29
* Partial Excerpts Feeds – 25
* Blog Changes Focus (too much off topic posting) – 23
* Too many posts that I see elsewhere (Redundant, Repeated or Recycled News) – 19
* Uninteresting Content – 16
* Irrelevant Content – 13
* The Blogger’s Ego – Too much self promotion – 11
* Low Quality Content – 11
As I reviewed the list, and have studied this issue for many years, I find that the main reasons readers turn away from a blog revolve around content, expectation, and value.
Poor Content
Content drives a blog. It is the heart of a blog. When the content is poorly written, uninteresting, redundant, irrelevant, doesn’t match the title or the intent, duplicated from other blogs, lacks originality, lacks authenticity, lacks consistency – just lacks – people lose interest. It’s boring.
With all the competition out there, why should readers read boring blogs?
Too Much Too Fast
Called Feed Fade or feed burn out, many are simply overwhelmed by the volume many bloggers produce. Even those with multiple bloggers are shrinking back the number of posts released per day as people are just inundated with too much information all the time.
When your blog content is competing with itself for attention, flooding reader’s feeds, it’s really easy to skip all that stuff today…okay, maybe I’ll read it tomorrow…or the next day…as the published posts pile up on top of each other. Soon, it’s just too much. Instead of taking the time to go through dozens and dozens of unread posts, they will just delete your feed from their list.
Negativity and Abuse
There are very few bloggers who survive on negativity and abusive blogging styles. It’s an art form and specialized skill that few of us can do let alone keep up for long periods of time. In general, while people are attracted to the sensational, the masses are fickle.
However, a blog that began with style, grace, and a consistent writing form, which offered information, intellectual stimulation, and was enjoyable to read, and then changes the tone to angry and resentful, can turn away readers if the tone persists.
If your blog turns negative, whining, condescending, angry, and abusive to yourself, your readers, or other people and things, it exhausts your audience. A tired audience is a gone audience.
Advertising and Self Promotion
If a blog I enjoy reading decides to add ads or add more ads, I want out, don’t you? I want to read blogs for their information, not for their monetization.
Many people are turned off by ever changing ads and the increasing number of ads on blogs. So many, you have to plow through the ads to get to the content.
When a blog becomes focused too much on advertising and too much on ego and self promotion, readers will lose interest very quickly. Readers want to know that you put them first, not the almighty dollar.
Interests Change
It’s normal to have attribution due to reader’s interests changing.
I blog about blogging. Once people get the hang of this blogging thing, I don’t expect them to hang around my blog. There are much more interesting subjects out there worth pursuing. It’s natural.
It’s also natural for your interests to change, thus your blog content may change, which may drive some readers away as you’ve moved away from what kept them interested in the first place.
Again, it’s part of the process, and hopefully, the changes you make in your content will attract new readers to replace those who leave.
Fails to Meet Expectations
In “When Good Blogs Go Bad” by Problogger Darren Rowse, he analyzes why he was unhappy when a favorite blog changed from original content to blogging for money.
I was surprised by my anger towards this blog. I felt that I’d almost been manipulated or that something underhanded had happened without me actually realizing it. Here was a blogger who had once been known as a thought leader and as someone who had built a reputation by providing useful content who had seemingly sold out and cashed in on his influence.
When a blog changes its writing style and intent, the reader can feel manipulated and leave.
If your blog sets expectations and then changes them, the value of the blog is now gone. The readers will go, feeling a bit cheated. They will most likely not be back to see if you’ve cleaned up your act.
Not Enough to Hold Their Attention
What draws in the most visitors to your blog? Do you have a popular attention-getting blog post? Several of them? Do they deal with related subjects? If this is what brings people to your blog, you’ve found something that your readers are interested in.
If you don’t have, or continue to supply, similar and related subjects to your most popular posts, then what drew them there in the first place isn’t enough. They will go elsewhere as they’ve seen all the good stuff you have on your blog.
On Thursday, I will continue this and give you some ideas for how to keep your readers.
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