Blogging Tips: Why Isn’t Anyone Reading My Articles?

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Why Isn’t Anyone Reading My Articles?

by: Ronovan

“I must stink as a writer! NO one is reading what I wrote.”

 Irate Man Cartoon

 

Admit it, you’ve felt that way. You may have even actually used stronger language. Go ahead and think about it while I close my eyes and ears…their sensitive you know.

 

 

You have a following for your site and you usually receive a decent amount of traffic and people who like what you write. Then BOOM! Nothing happens for one of your articles. What happened?

 

  1. They didn’t feel your article title
  2. The article blurb they saw in the preview didn’t grab them
  3. The image associated with the article turned them off
  4. The subject wasn’t what they were looking for
  5. You posted at the wrong time
  6. Your writing/content layout needed work

 

Step 1-Bait ‘Em (Grab their Attention)

Just like with a novel at a store or online that first impression is what counts. You need a grabber title along with an appropriate image that is inviting to the reader that matches the title and subject matter if you use an image at all. My advice is to use an image if possible.

 

Step 2-Hook ‘Em (Make them Click More)

You have their attention to read your first few sentences in the preview. Make those first lines count. I have my ways of doing it, and keep working on improving them all the time. Remember it changes depending on the type of article you are writing as well. But you have less time to set that hook and make them click more than someone with a novel in a bookstore does.

 

Step 3-Be Aware/Relevant

I wrote an article called ‘10 Forgotten Male Solo Artists of the 1980s’. Barely any views or likes came of it. I knew I was pushing it with it. I knew it wouldn’t go over well. Why did I know it? Because my readership is interested in writing both how to and reading things I come up with in this crazy mind of mine. I spent a lot of time on the article but I did so because it was fun for me and was just one of the pieces I was putting out for the day. Yes, you can put out material just for fun. Was it informative? Yes, there were bits of trivia, and the video for each year.

 

Just know that when you put something out there that is out of your normal content that you may not receive much success, but don’t be afraid to try it. They’ll come back as long as you don’t keep putting out what your site has been traditionally about.

 

Step 4-Check Your Content

You wrote a relevant piece keeping in line with your site’s theme and still nothing happens. Compare your article with others. Was it useful information? Was it overly long? Were the paragraphs bulky/too long? Did you have too many images?

 

Have a friend read it and give you feed back. Just don’t give up on the article. I’ve had articles where I’ve tried to be too funny in the beginning and that turned people off. I had one very nice article that increased in views once I took out all of these unnecessary images. I had put a lot of time into it but I realized that’s not what my readers wanted to see.

 

I’ve reworded paragraphs to make them flow better and cut other paragraphs into two separate paragraphs or even made bullet points out of the content.

 

Step 5-Know When to Publish

This should be the Step 1 but it is a little bit of an odd one. Some people just look at the times of day to publish. You’ll see different opinions. I like to publish when people have just settled in at work and have checked messages and have a few minutes of free read time.

 

Other things to keep in mind:

  • Holidays
  • Summer weather
  • Sporting Events
  • Popular TV shows

 

I know that on certain holidays, like this past Mother’s Day in the US that my traffic would drop. I didn’t freak out. I know that Father’s Day is coming up in the US so again, traffic will drop for that Sunday. Know your viewers, where they are from, and you will help your understanding of why things happen. There might be some religious reasons traffic drops off and not just on Christmas Day. I know I have readers who come from every walk of life.

 

These have been some tips to help you with your content but mainly to help you understand and not freak out when your traffic drops off every now and then. It’s going to happen sometimes. But if you maintain the trust of your readers you can trust them to come back and more to follow.

 

© Copyright-All rights reserved-RonovanWrites.wordpress.com-June 12, 2014.

 

25 thoughts on “Blogging Tips: Why Isn’t Anyone Reading My Articles?”

  1. Hi, I read your articles even if I don’t comment on each and every one. That said it really depends when you plan on atracting readers to your page. Some may still comment on articles long Archieved once they discover your blog.

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    • 🙂 Thank you. I can generally see the number of views an article receives. If it is low then I change it up a bit somehow and the views go up. But you’re right, I have old articles I am surprised that I see are viewed and even ‘liked’.
      Thank you for commenting. 🙂 I like your honesty about things.
      Ronovan

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    • Maybe I should take this article down. If it’s making people think they are bad at writing. It wasn’t my intent.
      I love your writing.
      I apologize
      Ronovan

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    • I hope you this doesn’t make you think you write badly. I fear that might end up being the case for some readers. It’s not the message at all. It’s just lay outs and timing. Maybe I need to redo the article. I don’t want people to think I am insulting them.
      Much Admiration
      Ronovan
      Still love your name.

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      • Absolutely not Ronovan…it was actually just a list of possible things that as a blogger you are doing wrong or could do better to get more viewership…it is not a negative piece in any way….every blogger would love that their work to be read and appreciate feedback when that doesn’t happen there is a possibility you feel maybe this isn’t your thing as I said in my latest post ‘none of us are too proud to accept help from a genuine source’ thank you. Ronovan.

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