I review lots of sites. One thing that baffles me: why do bloggers feel the need to show they have a small amount of readers? I’m talking about blogs that want to be an authority in their niche, have advertising on their site…in other words, it is not a personal blog and the blog leans into having commercial aspects.
Honestly, everyone starts of with zero readers so we have all been there. The point remains that sometimes showing those stats can cripple you instead of help you. This isn’t a discussion about whether the tools should be in place to measure traffic. This is about making those statistics public.
Think about this for a minute. There are some sites that start, hit the ground running and accumulate large readerships quickly. This is not the norm. Most take a considerable time investment to grow. It’s a gradual process. When I come across a site that has a FeedBurner badge that shows 10 readers, I see Adsense on the site and there are Digg/Reddit buttons showing most of the articles have no submissions and add to it there is minimal comment activity, what impression do you think you’re making on the reader? Do you realize what you are saying…without actually saying it?
- You have a very small following.
- If you’ve been writing for a while and still have no traffic, you suck.
- You can’t be making much money with advertising if no one is around to view ads.
- If I advertise on the internet, I’m not going to advertise with you because you don’t have the audience.
- If you want your blog to be commercial what business logic did you use to justify making those stats public? (Exception – a blog being used as an example on how to build a blog from scratch. Those stats are a measurement tool. Most do not fit in that category.)
- You’re a follower not a leader. You followed everyone else using the new tools even when the odds are they cripple you more than help you.
Let’s really think about this. If you don’t have much comment activity (makes sense, few readers), do you think the average person is going to take time out of their busy day to write a comment that no one is going to read? Some will, most won’t. You are discouraging people to comment. You are discouraging people to read your site because there are other more qualified sites…you know, the ones that have people reading them. If you really want to be a top player in your niche, it’s time to start thinking better, making wiser decisions, tapping into some leadership qualities – the main one: realizing what you do today can screw you up tomorrow so you best think about what you do today and how it will impact you tomorrow.
If, five months later, your blog proudly shows you gained 10 more readers what does that mean? At that rate by 2025 you’ll be actively competing with the other blogs in your niche, which is the goal right? You’re writing is great, that’s all it takes to have a successful blog, right?
You didn’t really believe that did you?
My point? Using the new cool “thing” isn’t always in your best interest or even better…if you’re going to use the new cool “thing”, use it to your advantage.
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