I’ve been blogging for 10 years or so, the first time for a fundraising event back in 2010. But in recent years I have had moments where I wonder why I bother.
People don’t seem to comment now, and I’m sure most of the people that like posts in WordPress or on social media don’t actually read them!
So I asked this question in one of the freelancing groups I belong to and also on social media, and learned (or was reminded of) a few useful things.
People did click through from social media but wanted to know it would be worth it before bothering – so inserting an excerpt or an overview into the social media post is helpful.
People often came across blogs when researching a particular topic – so making sure that there are relevant key words or phrases in a blog post helps them appear in searches. (SEO (search engine optimisation ie being found on Google etc.))
People do subscribe to newsletters and like to read blog posts from there. I realised recently that I need to be adding excerpts and encourage readers to click through to the posts, so will be doing this in future newsletters.
I assumed that “everyone” has just moved onto podcasts or loves videos, but was pleased to realise that there are lots of people like me out there who would rather skim through an article than listen or watch for 10-30 minutes.
Someone mentioned using their blog to answer frequently asked questions from clients, so they can then provide a link to the relevant article. (And again is good for SEO.)
And someone else said they click on blog posts linked from Instagram stories, so that’s one for me to try.
Conclusion
It seems that people (and by people I mean freelancers I know) are still reading blog posts. It’s just that maybe the way they access them is different now.
(Also a point to note, much of the blogging I used to do was less business focused and more about my own personal development. I often did online courses where others were also blogging, and we supported each other by reading and commenting on blog posts.)
So I’ll be implementing a few of the ideas above to see if that increases the reading and engagement on my blog posts.
If you have any thoughts or tips please do comment here or on social media if that’s where you came across the post 🙂
