You’ve got a blog that you are proud of that has great content. You update faithfully, you are interesting, you are doing everything right but you still can’t seem to get any traction. Why? You may be working against yourself. You want a blog that promotes itself, one where your readers take it upon themselves to repost your posts, they comment, they promote etc., but you may be making it difficult for them to do that. Here’s 3 ways you may be making life difficult for your readers.
1. You make it difficult for people to follow.
You want your blog to be in front of as many eyes as possible and the easiest way to do that is to provide options for them to subscribe. If I find an interesting blog, the first thing I do is throw it in my Google Reader feed so it’s always there. If you don’t have an easy way to do that like a FeedBurner button, I typically won’t bother. Some people may prefer to get your blog in email form sent to them everyday, do you have an option for that? If I had to actually visit all the blogs I read, I probably wouldn’t read 90% of the blogs I’m interested in, there just isn’t time to hit all those sites. I rely on RSS to keep me informed so make it easy for me to subscribe. You should have clearly marked “Subscribe Here” buttons anyone can see with not too much trouble and it’s in your best interest to make sure your readers can find them.
2. You make it difficult for people to comment.
I realize that spam is a problem and steps need to be taken so your com-box doesn’t become some kind of internet landfill but there should be limits! You can’t be so afraid of spammers that you discourage community. If I want to leave a comment you should ask for name, email, website and possibly a Captcha and nothing else. Don’t make me go through a multi-step registration and log-in process to say that I appreciated your post. Sure some spam may get through but that’s the price you pay, better that some spam gets through but your readers find it easy to comment than you stop all spam and half your real comments.
3. You make it difficult for people to promote you.
I read your post and loved it! I want my friends to read it because I know they will love it! I want the world to read it and bask in the glory that is your wisdom! But if doing that requires more than a click or two I probably won’t bother. There are tons of plug-ins available that make it easy to retweet your post, send it to my FaceBook page, Digg it, Reddit it, or any one of the dozens of social sites out there, get one and put it on your page. Let your readers do the hard work of promoting your site in places you can’t.
You’ve already done the hard part! The reader is on your page and likes what they see. If you will put these items into action and make the social aspects of blogging simple you will see an uptick in traffic and you will begin to see the rewards you want for your blog.
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