Do you remember your first blog post?
The rush of hitting publish and then waiting for people to come read it? And then nobody did.
It sucked, didn’t it?
If that’s your daily blogging reality it’s really hard to keep going. If I had a dollar for every towel I almost threw in when I first started!
It just seems like no one cares what you’re saying and then you go read someone else’s blog, which naturally has 280 comments that day, and you feel about 2 inches tall.
It’s terrible, I know, I had a first blog post that no one read too.
If you’re tired of feeling rejected by the world and that no one is listening to what you’re saying, you’re not alone. This is the #1 issue for 90% of the bloggers I work – you’re in good company.
What do you do about feeling alone and ignored by the masses?
1. You Go Out and Meet People
The biggest reason no one is reading your blog is because no one knows it’s there. It seems like you can publish something and then people will just show up, but blogs ain’t no field of dreams girl. You’ve got to get out there to get known.
You can do this through social media or by commenting on other blogs that have the same target audience as you. This sounds so simple but you know what? Most blogs don’t make it and most people don’t do the simple things over a long enough period of time to really grow their blog.
Once you get to know other people online in your niche, you’ll feel a whole lot less alone and receive valuable positive feedback from others. This interaction provides the reinforcement you need to keep working on that blog!
Next Action Step: Make a schedule to comment on a certain number of blogs each day. Be realistic so you can maintain this long term. if that number is 2 then cool, comment twice. It’s better than going for 10 a day a burning out. Next add in some social media time each day on the platform you like best, Twitter or Facebook are good places to start. And if you missed last week’s post, be sure to check out some great social media tipsto make the most of your time.
Total Blogger Ninja Move: Once you’ve been networking on social media and getting to know other bloggers through commenting, really consider going to a niche specific blogging conference. Meeting in person is about a million times better than anything online. You’ll meet so many new people and really forge some amazing bonds of friendship.
2. Create Goals Other Than Traffic
I once read somewhere that HITS (traffic hits to your site) really stands for How Idiots Track Success. Now that may be a bit harsh, but really, what does the traffic really mean anyway?
Getting clear on your blog goals helps you focus in on what you really should be focusing on improving and that’s often not your traffic.
Unless you’re trying to make a full time income purely from ads (which is super hard by the way) traffic isn’t as important as you might think.
If you are blog and don’t have a service or product to sell then you’re really after engagement, right? Getting 20 comments on your blog post is a lot more fulfilling than 200 views with no one taking the time to say hi.
High engagement also signals to brands that you have a dynamic, interested group of readers which is very important when they are scouting for prospective ambassadors or reviewing your site for product reviews, etc.
Next Action Step: Figure out why you’re blogging in the first place. Do you want to make a side income, maybe even a full time income? How is that going to look, are you going to sell something, provide a service? You don’t have to have thousands of visitors to your site everyday to make a living with it!
Maybe your blog isn’t about income but it’s a place to reach out and connect with other people who have interests similar to yours. If that’s the case really focus on the first part of this post and get out to meet people! Once again, it’s those relationships that will keep you going, not the traffic.
Total Blogger Ninja Move: After you decide what your goal is, decide on 5 actionable steps you can take to get yourself closer to that goal. If you want to write an ebook, what’s the first thing you need to do to actually make that happen. If you want to work with a certain company, start talking to them on Twitter.
Figure out your direction, decide the steps and start walking!
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