Why is no one reading my blog?
A few ad hoc thoughts on writing a blog. With some ad hoc thoughts on use of social media thrown in for good measure.
Forget all the nonsense about gaming search engines, do you have something worthwhile to say, will people wish to read what you have written?
There is only one simple tip, and you can forget the rest.
Write interesting, informative stuff that people will wish to read.
The rest of the so-called tips, forget it.
No, do not try to spam various counts, ratings, rankings etc. Easy enough to do, the only person you are fooling is yourself.
Do not use to plug a product or service, it is the quickest way to turn people off.
A corollary to to that, be honest.
Have zero tolerance to trolls, never engage, never feed trolls, block and report for spam.
There is nothing wrong with genuine disagreement.
Do not use automatic re-posts, sharing of your blog, They look as though posted by robots because they are posted by robots.
Always take the trouble to post manually. If you cannot be bothered to take the trouble, why should anyone take the trouble to read what you have written?
It does not matter what your readers want, it is do you have something worthwhile to say? If yes, then people will read it, they will pass to others to read.
The best writers write because they love writing and wish to be read, not because they are writing for an audience. Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho was once asked, why people love his books. He said he did not know, and if he did and wrote for his readers, he would write badly.
Grayson Perry made the same point in this year’s Reith Lectures. There are those artists who aim at a commercial market. So long as they are honest with themselves, that is fine. But those who are creative, also tend to have the commercial success too.
We see the same in music. Those who aim at a market, churn out rubish, a commodity aimed at a shrinking mass market. Those who are creative, compose and perform what they love, are far more interesting.
Above all, do not write to increase web traffic. Write because you have something worthwhile to say.
key words
Ok, I have written something worth reading, why is no one reading it?
You have written something worth reading. Then what? How does anyone know about it?
Forget all the nonsense about search engine optimisation. Instead focus on key words.
In wordpress tags, in twitter hashtags.
Examples are best way to illustrate, and if you click through the links, you will find the wordpress tags.
If you have a twitter account, you can see how these work by re-tweeting.
Within minutes of my writing on wordpress, any blog post will have a like, and that has occurred due to the tags on wordpress, not due to any use of social media.
Add in social media, and could see thousands of visits to any one page!
One article, many months after publication, is still generating tens of hits every day, hundreds every week, and that is unique hits, ie only counted once, visit many times, still only counted as one hit.
This article on pubs, my first article on Medium, had 5,374 views in less than 24 hours, of those 3,576 have read, ie 67% thought worth reading; 8,856 views in a little over 24 hours, 5,972 had read, ie 67% still thought worth reading. As the numbers continued to rise, 28,624 visits in first five days of publication, the percentage reading also rose.
Looking at statistics for six articles on Medium, percentage read ranges from 68% to 100%. One is 74%, two over 80% and two 100%.
external links
Bad advice often given, no eternal links, and it is generally rare to find external links.
Why, is your blog so bad, you fear readers will leave and go elsewhere, that they have to be held prisoner, as that is how they are made to feel.
Nothing is more annoying than reading about something, then having to go off and search for it yourself.
A very interesting talk was given recently by the editor of The Guardian (Australian edition).
Yes, The Guardian has an Australian edition, taking on the evil Murdoch Empire in its home territory.
The point she made was few know or understand how to use digital media. I agree, I could count on one hand: Paulo Coelho, Imogen Heap, Amanda Palmer, Steve Lawson …
The point the editor of Guardian Australia was making, was that they do link to external sources for the very reason I am making. She is the only person beside myself I have seen make this point. But she also added, people visit their pages because they have these external links, as they know they will find a more comprehensive coverage, and they do not have to go off looking, as the work has already been done.
Recently I looked on the Lincolnshire Echo and on the BBC for news about a pub in Dunholme, planning consent had been granted for demolition. I found what I was looking for, The Lord Nelson, also mention of a local action group. But so irritating, I then had to search for information on this action group. The work must have already been done, so why not pass on to readers? Why not provide a link?
You do not keep the reader captive, you simply annoy the reader with no external links.
If you are going to write about a coffee plantation, then it helps to have a link to more information. Or if you are reblogging, have the courtesy to link back to the original post, do not try to pass it off as your own. And if you are going to re-blog, add some added value.
Reblogging, some hate it, others love it. I do not see a problem, if you wish to be read, then be pleased if someone reblogs. But in turn, they should have the courtesy to link back to the original, not pass off as their own.
Another important point to be made, which is invariably overlooked, social media, social networks. Social means interaction, network means many to many. It is not broadcast, one to many.
context
Context can be important.
This image http://twitpic.com/dk1upq was re-tweeted over 100 times within less than 24 hours of being posted. It had been seen nearly 900 times in less than 48 hours.
It may have caught the mood of the moment, it may be because at least one person, Mark Thomas, who re-tweeted, has a large number of followers.
going viral
Going viral, is often used interchangeably with large numbers, the two are not the same, although it is true, the former may lead to the latter and you are unlikely to achieve the latter without the former.
Going viral: several people see, read and like, they each in turn pass on to several people, they in turn pass on to several people and so on. If the chain involves one person, passing on to one or more person, then it has gone viral.
Plot the visits against time, the curve will curve upwards, eventually it will plateau out, then decline. Or note the visits every hour or every day, the following hour or day will exceed the preceding hour or day.
Mike Dawes playing his guitar went viral.
The big mistake he made was not to make this song available for download on bandcamp. Do the sums, 2,409,718 visits on youtube, charge $1 a download, assume 10% paid for a download, he would have made $240,972, or if only 1% paid for a download $24,097. Or maybe had an album or EP on bandcamp. Not sums to be sniffed at.
I raised this with Mike at the time, he said, talk to his record label. My response was, change your record label.
I am pleased to see that three months later, he did put something on bandcamp, The Impossible 2.0, name your own price, and linked to a video. Of the money raised, 10% of (less bandcamp/paypal deductions) to go to FAB (Food, Aid and Building) project in Kenya.
Martha Payne with her excellent blog NeverSeconds, did not simply write about schools meals, she also raised money for a school kitchen in Malawi, via Martha’s Meals.
net savvy
There are two ways of looking at the net.
Old School, a danger, must fight at all costs. If you are a Big Record Label, then criminalise anyone who may share music, at a stroke alienate and criminalise all your potential customers.
New School, go with the flow, recognise the net offers new opportunities.
Bandcamp is a must for artists. Record labels fail to tell their artists about bandcamp, for obvious reasons, they may question why they need a record label.
If you really insist on being on a record label, to avoid the label unsigned artist (as ridiculous as calling a slim person unfat), then check out Any And All Records. They promise to do nothing for you, and in return expect nothing from you. When they were founded, Any And All Records were the world’s fastest growing record label.
With bandcamp can listen to entire albums on-line in reasonable quality mp3 128, can download in mp3 320, or better still non-lossy compression FLAC, which means studio quality downloads are possible. With a single click can share.
The Way of the Bow, is an audio book on bandcamp. You can listen as often as you like, free downloads too (limited to 200 free downloads per month).
Why, you may ask, would Paulo Coelho give this audio book away free (you can make a donation to kids he supports in Rio)? You may ask a similar question, why make his entire back catalogue available for download at 99 cents per e-book?
Simple, Paulo Coelho is net savvy. If you like, you may then go to a bookshop and buy a book, you may recommend to your friends.
He had a publisher in Russia, his publisher dropped him, as not many books sold. A book, or maybe books, were pirated. He has since sold over a million books in Russia, When he travelled on the Trans-Siberian Railway (the opposite direction to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn when he returned to Russia from exile), he was mobbed at every stop like a rock star. He describes one aspect of the journey in Aleph.
Paulo Coelho had only sold a few thousand copies of The Alchemist in Russia, his publisher was no longer interested, until a pirate copy was posted on the net, sales then became millions!
In 1999, when I was first published in Russia ( with a print- run of 3,000), the country was suffering a severe paper shortage. By chance, I discovered a ‘ pirate’ edition of The Alchemist and posted it on my web page.
A year later, when the crisis was resolved, I sold 10,000 copies of the print edition. By 2002, I had sold a million copies in Russia, and I have now sold 12 million.
When I traveled across Russia by train, I met several people who told me that they had first discovered my work through the ‘ pirated’ edition I posted on my website. Nowadays, I run a ‘Pirate Coelho’ website, giving links to any books of mine that are available on file- sharing sites. And my sales continue to grow — nearly 140 million copies world wide.
Let’s try a little experiment, listen to or download The Way of the Bow, if you like, recommend to all your friends. Let us see what happens.
Steve Lawson did a tour in the States. He recorded the tour, and decided to release as a set of albums. Old school impossible, new school he releases on a memory stick, and through bandcamp. His blog is a must read.
Imogen Heap is releasing her latest album Sparks aka Heapsongs, as a deluxe box set. A blog lets you watch her progress as she pulls the box set together, mini-blogs were associated with each song on the album.
Leanpub is offering writers something similar to what bandcamp offers for sound.
Medium is offering a publishing platform for writers to publish articles.
In other words, new tech, the internet may be disruptive, but it is offering new opportunities to those who wish to grasp them, who are prepared to take the risk.
We have people who bemoan their ill luck, say others are luckier than themselves. No, life offers us all opportunities, it is that those who are prepared to take the risks, are the ones perceived as lucky.
The typewriter was a disruptive technology, as was the gramophone, as was the radio.
Another little experiment. What can you see, if anything, in this image? http://twitpic.com/dilxiu If you see anything, then please send to others, ask them to do the same. But please do not tell.
