9 Reasons No One Is Reading Your Blog

Here Are 9 Good Reasons No One Is
Reading Your Blog
1) You just launched your blog.
Here's the thing, folks: Your blog isn't going to start
getting tons of visitors overnight. Building up your
readership takes time. You need to create lots of content
so it opens up more inroads to your blog via search,
establish credibility as a reputable source of
information, and take other steps necessary to actually
build your audience (more on that in a moment). We never
said blogging was easy -- but boy is it rewarding if you
stick with it.

2) Your blog content isn't optimized for
search.
As I hinted in my first point, one of the reasons blogging
is such an effective inbound marketing tool is its direct
tie to search. Because each blog post you publish is
another page to get indexed in search engines, the more
blog content you create, the more opportunities you have
to get found by searchers. In fact, the average company
will see a 45% growth in traffic when increasing total
blog articles from 11-20 to 21-50 articles.
And the great thing is, these blog posts will continue to
drive results over time , since they'll continue to get
discovered long after they were originally published. But
you'll get much better results if you're following search
engine optimization best practices as you create content
for your blog. If you haven't really given any thought to
SEO as part of your blogging strategy, check out this blog
post for some great blog SEO tips: "Blog SEO for the
Modern Marketer: How to Optimize Your Posts ."

3) You're not promoting your blog.
Okay, so how do you build up audience if no one even
knows your blog exists? Well, are you doing any blog
marketing? You know ... marketing your blog? If you
really want to get your blog out there, you need to think
like a marketer, with your blog being the product.
Promote your blog posts in social media, include blog
content in lead-nurturing workflows, and send a
dedicated email to your list to announce that your blog
even exists. And what about on your website? Do you have
a link to your blog in the main navigation of your site?
Can you include links to posts on other pages of your site
where appropriate to serve as helpful resources for your
visitors?
It's time to think like a marketer, not a blogger -- the
success of your blog isn't only dependent on the editorial
side of things (but yes, we'll get to that soon, too).

4) Your blog isn't optimized for social
sharing.
Speaking of social media promotion, you know you're not
the only one who can spread your blog posts via social,
right? Add social sharing buttons to every post you
publish to enable your current visitors to share your
content, too. This way, you'll expose your blog to the
people in your readers' networks -- in other words, new
audiences you might not have reached otherwise.
You can learn how to create these social sharing buttons
in this post . And to increase the likelihood your visitors
will share your content in the first place, there are other
things you can do aside from adding social sharing
buttons , like including compelling imagery and crafting
attention-grabbing titles. And if you're publishing visual
content on your blog, go the extra mile to improve the
social shareability of said visual content by following the
tips in this post.

5) You're not encouraging email subscription.
Now, once you get these new readers to your blog, you
want them to stick around, don't you? The best way to do
this is to get them to subscribe, particularly via email,
since email subscribers get notifications directly to their
inbox when new content is available on your blog. RSS
subscribers, while still valuable, have the liberty of being
a bit more passive, since it's up to them to check their
RSS reader on their own to learn about your new content.
So, display your email subscription form prominently on
your blog, consider inserting a call-to-action within your
posts to promote subscription, and add a blog subscribe
check box to your landing page forms -- all of which you
can learn more about in this post. Turn those casual
readers into dedicated subscribers and fans of your
content!

6) You're blogging about your products,
services, and accomplishments.
But what about the editorial side of things? Doesn't the
actual content matter when it comes to building
readership? Why yes, yes it does (a great deal, in fact)
-- which is why we'll dedicate the rest of the items on
this list to the content creation piece of the pie.
First things first -- stop blogging about yourself already!
That's not what your business blog is for. For the purpose
of attracting new visitors at the top of the funnel, you
want your blog to provide value to the types of people
you'd ultimately like to convert into customers -- in other
words, your buyer personas. That means providing content
that matters to them. If your visitors know nothing about
you, they couldn't care less about your products and
services right now.
So if you want a place to talk about all your awesome new
products and services, award wins, and other accolades,
start a separate company news blog, and put it all there.

7) Your content isn't valuable to your target
audience.
Let's piggyback off number six a little, since I mentioned
"providing value," but didn't exactly say what "value" is.
In simplest terms, valuable content is content that
satisfies your target audience's needs, interests, or
questions. So how do you know what your target
audience's needs, interests, and questions are? The key is
to start with your buyer personas. So if you haven't
spent a great deal of time thinking about your buyer
personas, that's your first to-do (this guide will help).
By knowing what makes those people tick, you'll have a
much better understanding of the types of content you
can create to appeal to them. And as a result, you'll have
created a destination that will naturally draw in the types
of people you actually want as readers. If you're still not
sure if your content is actually valuable to your target
audience, conduct a quick audit using the tips in this
post.

8) Your copywriting is boring (or just plain
sucks).
Let's tackle the sentiment in the parentheticals first.
Quality content starts with quality writing. And at the
very least, your writing needs to have the basics down
pat. We're talking grammar , spelling (yes, spelling), and
clarity. If you have good ideas but aren't the best writer,
consider hiring an editor. And even if you have solid
writing skills and don't need a full-time editor, make sure
you have someone proof everything you publish. After all,
everyone makes mistakes.
In terms of "boring" copywriting, let's face it -- many of
us aren't exactly peddling the sexiest of products (you
know, like marketing software ). But that doesn't mean
our content has to be equally boring. In fact, truly
interesting and engaging writing is one of the best ways
to make your blog stand out from competitors' blogs.
If I had the choice between two equally informative blogs
in the same industry and one had much more delightful
copywriting than the other, you can bet your buttons I'd
go with the one with the delightful copywriting.
Remember -- your content can still be credible and helpful
without sounding like a stuffy academic paper. Be
conversational and witty, tell stories, and sound like a
human. To understand the principles of irresistible
copywriting, check out this post , and to get inspired by
other brands with awesome copywriting, look here and
here .

9) You're publishing infrequently and
inconsistently.
Here's the thing: Even if you do convert those casual
readers into dedicated subscribers and create high-
quality, beautifully written content, no one is ever going
to come back for more if, well, there isn't more.
Getting people hooked on your content but failing to
publish on a frequent and consistent basis is a great way
to make them lose interest. In fact, in a benchmarking
study of 7,000 businesses , we found the following:
Companies that blog 15 or more times per month
get 5X more traffic than companies that don't
blog at all .

Companies that increase blogging from 3-5X/
month to 6-8X/month almost double their leads.
Pretty convincing evidence that frequency and volume
make a difference, isn't it?
Commit to a publishing schedule, and stick to it (we have a
great free blogging editorial calendar template to help you
out). If time is an issue, start with one post a week and
work your way up. Frequency is key to a successful
business blog and a tribe of dedicated readers.
What are some other reasons your blog might be lacking
readers? How can you overcome those blockers?