You probably have no intention of actively doing anything that would cause you to lose your readership for your blog or other information you post on your website. Yet, you may not be aware that some of the things you are or aren’t doing are making that happen. A few of the best ways to lose your readership are listed below:
1) Not listening to your readers
Your readers are THE absolute biggest key in maintaining and keeping your blog exposed. Without your readership, no one would share your posts. No one would like your posts. No one would comment on your posts.
You need to make sure that your blog is easy to navigate, is reaching everyone how it needs to, and that users have a way of letting you know what is missing, or what could be improved upon.
The majority of online survey software (KissInsights, for example) is very easy to install and navigate, both by you and your readers. Look for tips or ask for opinions on the questions you should ask in order to receive the maximum responses, and then take the plunge. Not only will you most likely hang on to your current readers, you may pick up some new ones, as many people actually enjoy responding to online surveys.
2) Not keeping your website current and fresh.
Have there been times when you neglected to update your website and post new material? If this has happened, even if there were legitimate reasons for it, you owe it to your readers to explain as soon as possible why the updates and new information were delayed.
You don’t have to go into a lot of detail, just a simple explanation will do. Your readers will appreciate your honesty. Then, just make sure it doesn’t happen again.
3) Poor proofreading and editing practices.
No one wants to read a blog or informative article that is full of grammatical and spelling errors. Even if your content has a personal tone, you still want to make sure that it is grammatically correct.
4) Keeping your readers “out of the loop”.
If you are providing information or writing a blog that invites opinion or opens avenues for questions, but you don’t provide your readers a way to do that, they may feel as though you don’t really care. Ask readers constantly if they would like to post comments or questions- engage them.
5) Not hosting guest posts
Sure, everyone loves your blog. They come there to read your point of view and what you have to say. But sometimes readers will get bored- and one of the fastest ways to lose them is to not switch up the voice that’s on your site.
There’s plenty of places to find guest authors (My Blog Guest, for instance) and you can screen the content that could potentially go on your site. Don’t be afraid to accept guest posts- it can help propel your brand and give different (and useful) points of view to your readers.
6) Having a crazy interface
Your blog should be unique, yes, but it shouldn’t make someone’s eyes pop out of their heads. Your interface should have an easy navigation and should have categories in the navigation bar. Don’t use crazy colors, don’t have annoying flash. It should be easy on the eyes, and easy to find what you’re looking for.
If you want to retain, and even possibly increase your readership, then you want to use these guidelines as a checklist, and make any changes you need to.
31 comments
All very good tips, but I don’t think guest blogposts are always necessary. Sometimes a single writer can keep things interesting by mixing up posting style and format. It also depends on how interesting your own writing is. If your writing is already keeping people coming back, there may not be a need to mix in someone else’s writing.
I agree- I think that tip is more in line with bloggers who can’t necessarily take the time to branch out or write as often as they would like. Thanks for the reply!
Hi Jennifer,
I agree with the most in your list, but I have one more point and that is when the author or writer only are interesting to get so many comments as possible, then can they lose the readership. I love to read the comments to see if they can also come with something new and interesting regarding the article, but I stop visit a blog when it is full with shit comments who only is 3-5 words like; good article, great job, thanks for this.., bl.a. bl.a. Quantity before quality comments.
You are right there are lots of useless and spammy comments on blogs that tick off readers. Apologise if you find a few on this blog too, I am working hard to disapprove such comments here:)
I agree- I even appreciate some negative comments when writing because it opens up the door to seeing a different point of view. There’s nothing worse than the “great story.” comment. I mean, if they came to read it, of course it was good, but can they open up the conversation?
Thanks for the comment!
Valid points, especially the first one that you should always listen to your reader and their demand.
Right- need to keep the readers happy 🙂
very true.. listening and obliging to what readers want is a must… that is how you can keep them interested
I’ve tried RSS ads but haven’t had that much luck, but it’s definitely worth looking into for many blogs.
I agree with you on those points.Besides you should maintain a neat and professional template and not throw in too many ads.No readers like too many ads.
Indeed readers like professional blogs with less advertisement
Haha, perhaps putting more ads will get more revenue fro the ads? 🙂
Yeah, I hate going to a site and not being able to tell what is advertising and what’s actually part of the blog. Thanks for reading 🙂
I think the interface should be very human readable and also auto customized for mobile phones… A lot of people are doing searches on mobile these days..
yup- it’s very common to have mobile sites with a completely different design, and only the necessities on the screen.
Thanks!
Thanks!!
Hey Jennifer,
I think that you don’t necessarily need to have guest posters on your blog if you can provide diverse and correct content a couple of times per week.
But not having a storyteller talent and not knowing how to write your content in such a way that it will be appealing to the user, might get you 0 subscribers in no time. I’ve seen lots of people who really know what they are talking about but don’t know how to express themselves.
One other point that you also mentioned is proofreading, many grammatical and meaning mistakes can make your posts unreadable thus giving the visitors no reason to subscribe or even worse giving your readers the reasons to unsubscribe.
Keeping website with unique and updated content is good way to stay top in the ranking so far.
These are indeed a great checklist to go through to make sure we do not drive our readers away! Good sharing!
All great tips, I for one have a huge pet peeve on websites who can’t update on time. Sometimes I wonder how certain websites still retain readership when they constantly are apologizing for meeting a deadline that they set themselves.
-Jean
Well for the past couple of months my posting frequency has decreased from like 15 a month to 3-4 a month. I wouldn’t say I lost readers but the traffic on my blog has considerably dropped. I think getting them updated is really important because sometimes they expect something and for them not to meet that expectation means a lot.
oh ya Jennifer I think if you mislead people with our content will lose our readership also.
You make some great points. But when things get hectic people tend to loose site of these thigns and just try to throw content up I think it would be better in times such as these to outsource if you can’t do it alone. I tnever hurts to get some help.
You don’t need guest bloggers to run a good blog.
The biggest reason why bloggers lose readers is their inconsistency.
I would take 1 & 5 seriously..5 is very imp to build relations .
Hi Jennifer,
These are all great tips. I agree with you that a blog post that has lots of grammatical errors urges me to stop reading that post and go visit another site. The tips you stated will surely be helpful especially for new bloggers out there.
Thanks for sharing these tips with us!
you don’t provide your readers a way to do that, they may feel as though you don’t really care.
These points to be consider for blog success. Listern to your reader, interact with your reader, update your blog regularly are important factor.
Great post Jennifer. I definitely think losing your readership is the worst thing that can happen to you. Posting often and valuable content will make sure you don’t lose it.
I guess I could be guilty of at least 3 of these mistakes. I still feel I am getting there tho’
I think general articles will transform a blog in a boring and even into an uninteresting one. The blog should bring new information, have a personal style and be intriguing.