Seven Reasons Why No One is Reading Your Blog

Blogging is definitely a labor of love. You spend countless hours reading, researching and writing material. You spend even more time creating a site layout and dealing with a wide array of technical issues. It can be extremely disappointing to do all this work and still see no increase in traffic. Fortunately there are some steps you can take to turn things around. But first you will need to get to the root of why people are not coming to your blog in the first place. Here are some of the most common reasons why no one is reading your blog:

1)     Your content is poorly written. When writing your blog posts, make sure they have a consistent theme. Unfocused blog posts can very quickly turn into rambling if you are not careful. Make sure you check your posts for spelling and grammar.

2)     Your blog posts are too long. In the beginning, it is tempting to try and cover every single point and counterpoint in one massive 2000-word article. But if your posts are too long, your readers will get restless and go elsewhere. Try to keep posts at 300-500 words. If you want to go more in-depth, consider doing a blog series.

3)   You are not getting enough comments. Having a good discussion will foster a sense of community and elevate the level of discourse. A reason for the lack of comments may be your readers' lack of interest in your material. If that is the case work on your content so that it provides value to your target audience.

4)     You make it too hard for people to comment. In this case, people actually do enjoy your content and want to comment on it, but there are so many obstacles that they give up. Many bloggers have installed complicated registration systems that visitors must complete before submitting comments. Most people hate them and will not go through the extra trouble just to leave a comment on a blog post. While it is understandable that you want to prevent trolls and spammers from invading your site, there are much better security options available. Consider installing a comment management system like Disqus or IntenseDebate.

5)     Your content is not safe for work. If people do not feel comfortable going to your site during the day because your language or images are too explicit, you will lose a considerable amount of traffic.

6)     You are not promoting your content. It is not enough to create a blog and post content on it. You must let people know that your blog exists. If you are not on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, then you are missing out on a great opportunity. Send out links to your articles. Make sure you install a "share this" widget on you blog so that your readers can easily send your material to others.

7)     You do not post frequently enough. When starting a new blog it is important to write a new post every single day. Once you develop a following and your blog has been up for a few months, you can scale it back to every other day. If you write content once in a blue moon, your readers will lose interest and seek out other blogs that are updated more frequently.

By Eric Rice

Lone Wolf Inc, LWI