The other day, I came across a wonderfully written blog post after clicking a link on Mastodon. But the trouble was that I seemed to be the first visitor to that blog, even though the post had been published in May 2023. But it didn’t end there.
I always find it sad to discover a well-written blog post over a few months old that has captivated me but generated no comments or likes. It’s like it’s been cut adrift, floating around in the deepest, darkest part of the blogging world, where few venture.
Yet there are blog posts I lose interest in after only reading the first few lines that have hundreds of likes and lots of comments.
Not all of those likes will have been generated by people who read the post, and I call many of the comments dead-end comments that fail to ignite any proper discussion.
What are the clues to an unwelcoming blog?
I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the blogger whose post I’d found via Mastodon. I wondered how they feel when they see other badly written posts that have generated lots of likes and comments.
Of course, just because a post has no comments and nobody has clicked the like button doesn’t mean nobody has read it, but how must that blogger feel when they see that their post hasn’t generated any engagement? Do they feel sad or cheated, or do they not care because they wrote and published the post just for themselves?
Looking more closely at the rest of the blog where I found the post, I did find some clues as to why nobody seems to be visiting and engaging with it.
For a start, none of the 15 posts had been categorised. They were all uncategorised. One of the posts was password-protected, so you could not see the contents unless you knew the password. And there was no information about how to obtain the password.
None of the posts had tags attached, meaning they would not appear on any search results page.
Although there was a ‘Contact the Blogger’ page, the ‘About the Blogger’ page contained only a photo. Who is this person? Where in the world are they located? What do they blog about? What are their interests? Why do they want you to read and follow their blog? All you can do is guess the answers to these questions.
Their first post was published in January 2019, meaning, on average, they only publish 4 blog posts a year. Not a lot, you may think, but I’ve seen blogs that publish one post every three months do well.
Imagine my delight when I checked the other 14 posts and found one with a single comment. Somebody had discovered this blog before I had. Somebody had visited, looked around, liked what they had found, and left a lovely comment. But this blog was lifeless, like an uninhabited planet; there was no response to the comment. Whoever was here three years before I arrived had left empty-handed.
The overall look of the blog was clean and simple. No fancy menus or widgets to click, so it was more of a place where visitors could hang out and engage. Yet, the sheer fact that there seemed to be nobody there had probably put visitors off from following and engaging.
I tried contacting the blog’s owner, but my words bounced back as an echo in this deserted, uninviting place. Maybe they only check in to their blog every three months. We’ll wait and see, but I think I’ll prepare my spaceship and visit another new blog where I hope I find some inhabitants who want to engage with more than just themselves.
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Hi Hugh,
Great post! I am going to take a look to see if I am not doing any of the items you mentioned.
Blessings!
That’s great to hear. I do hope this post will be of some help to you.
Hi Hugh,
I used to be concerned when people didn’t comment. Now, I hear it’s trendy not to comment! LOL! I heard Google users want information, not a community. Considering this, your community is rocking!
Janice
Hi Janice, I’m shocked that it’s considered trendy to no longer engage in blog posts. That’s the first time I heard of that. Maybe that’s why many bloggers only leave non-engaging comments on blog posts?
Hugh you’ve done a great perspective of the POV of any potential reader visiting a new blog for the first time – it’s what I always try and imagine with all my posts to make sure they are inviting and don’t set a bad first impression.
A part of me felt this was inexperience, various rookie mistakes we all make as we figure out WordPress, but then you mentioned a post way back to 2019 and then I feel it comes across as ignorance on the side of the blogger.
When you provided an introduction talking about a “wonderfully written blog post” I felt a bit of empathy, and could even relate writing something that at least I thought was good and not getting any response.
Those feelings of is “anyone out there”, “is this actually any good” all came flooding back in those early days when I got zero comments. Reading your perspective though – no responding to readers, an odd sounding site layout, a random password protected page makes me feel they’ve brought it on themselves.
Thanks for this wonderful post, I love how this reads as the story and the humour comparing a blog to an uninhabited planet.
James, thanks for the great feedback.
Yes, the first post on the blog I mentioned was published in January 2019. And since then, he’s published a further 14 posts. Not many, but enough to keep him going. I’m guessing he may just rush in and rush out again. Given he only publishes once every three months (on average), he may never log on during the rest of the time. But I couldn’t help but feel that he must have seen that one comment I spotted while visiting his blog.
I agree that blogging has a long learning curve, but I generally find that those who don’t want to learn don’t last with their blog for more than a year.
I don’t know if the blogger concerned has had any of those feelings of ‘Is anybody out there?’ Unfortunately, he’s made his blog a remote place, but for some reason, he keeps trying to get people to visit him by publishing posts.
I’ve had no reply to the ‘contact form’ I completed on his blog, but I may have visited when he is holidaying from the remote world he seems to live in.
“he keeps trying to get people to visit him by publishing posts.”
That comment made me think, and with your description that it’s a remote place made me wonder if he’s essentially using the blog as a personal log, but hasn’t set it to private?
I do write things intended for no one else, but then again I don’t publish them!
I’m not sure he wants his blog to be personal, James. Otherwise, why would he promote the post on social media (where I found the link to the post)? I agree that setting a blog to personal can be tricky if you’re not sure how to do it, but sharing your posts on social media makes me think he’s keen to promote his posts and wants visitors to read them.
Ah right yeah you wouldn’t be sharing it on the socials. Makes me think of a guy on Twitter whining about his page views, and I’d decided to not visit him again after he didnt reply to a long comment I left!
I see that happening on blogs to. I know of one blogger who only ever replies to comments with a ‘thanks for sharing your thoughts,’ even though the comments he is responding to are crying out for engagement. I’ve seen a dramatic drop in the number of comments he now gets on his posts.
Not sure if I’m thinking of the same guy, but if it is I know what you mean – the frustrating thing I find is I find his posts are written really effectively to generate engagement, and you get the ‘thanks for sharing…’ type response!
That’s the one, James. Usually, his replies are, ‘thank you for your perspective on this subject.’