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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Brilliant storytelling in this post Hugh. I am still laughing out loud about the lone planet. Lol :) x
Those bloggers who don’t engage and never seem to get any visitors or engagement reminded me of a lone planet, Debby. Nobody goes there because it’s not a very inviting place, even though it’s been there a long time.
You are so right, and entertaining at the same time. :) :)
After reading your post and all the comments, forwards and backward, I must admit that I have nothing more to add that will be of value that’s not already mentioned above. Only recently I started to receive comments, and I will always respond to any comment left on any of my blog posts. A blog is not a one-way street, mingle with your blogging friends, ask them questions, respond to them, and open up your blog for more interaction.
Thank you for sharing your links with us at #276 SSPS Linky. See you again next week.
That’s excellent advice; thank you, Esme. I only wish all bloggers would respond to the comments left on their blogs.
Thank you so much, dear Hugh. Your post has inspired me to get on with it and overhaul my categories. I have only categorized by month/year. However, after reading your post and thinking about it from a new perspective, I have to do a much better job placing posts in more descriptive categories. “March 2015” doesn’t say much about the content. Huge appreciation! Thanks, Hugh! Cher xoxoxo
You don’t need to have many categories, Cher. But you can also have sub-categories, so the category photography could have a sub-category of Wordless Wednesday.
That’s a great idea, Hugh! Here I was thinking, oh dear, I need to do some serious category creating, but having sub-categories under photography would be perfect! Thank you, Hugh! Cher xoxoxo
I have been working hard to make my blog user friendly, inviting, engaging, and also focus on SEO at the same time. I feel like I have put in so much, but I am still not reaching many people at all. I do agree, it does feel quite defeating when I spend weeks writing a post (I work full-time and have kids so I only work on posts at night), to only get a couple comments from blogs that reached me through visiting theirs. I don’t mind engaging with other blogs, but it makes me wonder if they truly liked the content, or if they were just engaging to engage. Thank you for the thoughtful post, I’m glad to know my blog is not the only one that doesn’t get much traffic. Hopefully, not for the reasons listed though.
For a start, I’d recommend you check the link to your blog and Gravatar, as when I click them, I only see the following.
So, as you can see, visiting your blog is impossible unless visitors have the right links. Once you fix them, you may see an upturn in visitors and engagement.
I think there are a lot of reasons. For me personally, I like pictures. If blog posts are hard to respond to, I usually won’t, even if I like the blog. I think they have to be user friendly. Sometimes there are blogs that just are too difficult to leave a response to, or to add a simple “like”. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I get overwhelmed with emails daily, and I simply don’t have the time to fight with difficult blog sites. Often times because I do not have the time, I hit “like”, but not all blog sites have that option.
I agree about those blogs that don’t make it easy to leave comments. I have that problem when trying to leave comments on the Blogger platform. No wonder blogs on that platform don’t have a very good engagement rate.
With regards to being overwhelmed with emails, are these email notifications about new blog posts? If so, it sounds as if you’re following too many blogs and need to cull some, especially if you’re not interested in the content they publish. That always helps.
Thanks for the tips. How do you build your own following without following others though?
A follow for a follow doesn’t work. Unfortunately, some bloggers who follow you will unfollow you as soon as you follow them back. And there is no way of knowing that they have unfollowed you. Following blogs that do not interest you will simply waste your time.
Just follow blogs that publish content that interests you. Leave engaging comments on their posts. Other bloggers who read the comments will see your engaging comments and may visit your blog and follow you.
Joining in with blogging challenges and prompts also helps. The hosts will invite you to leave a pingback to your post that will appear in the comments section of their post. Other participants will click the link to see your entry for the challenge and may follow you if they’re interested in your published content.
Good to know. Thank you. :)
You’re welcome.
I am so glad you wrote about this topic, Hugh. Blogs with no visible menu, tags, and an About Me page are not my cup of tea. Also, the same with blogs that are password protected. I’ve seen blogs that have an appealing appearance and beautiful content but lack clear navigation.
I’ve tried to help a few new bloggers by suggesting how important it is for readers to be able to find their way through their blogs.
I feel joining in prompts will help bloggers become more well-known, though I understand prompts are not for everyone. Also, it takes time to build an audience, and commenting on other blogs is the best way to let others know you are legit and have common interests.
It’s good to hear that you have tried to help other bloggers, Eugi. I remember when I first found a blog post that contained blogging tips. I felt like I’d found treasure. But I know some bloggers don’t like taking advice and will do it their way. Good for them, but we can all but try and help where we can.
Participating in prompts and blog challenges certainly helps gain traffic and readers. I’ve had a lot of success with participating in both. Although I no longer engage on other blogs as much as I did, I only put that down to no longer commenting for the sake of commenting, especially when I felt obliged to comment. That was a bit of a fool’s game, given how it wastes so much time. Now I only read and comment on the blog posts that interest me, and only comment when I have something of value to add.
Good advice on commenting, Hugh. We can only do what we can do,
I think that the saddest thing is doing everything right (category, tags, etc.) but still not getting much access at all. 😅
That’s true. I guess when that happens, it’s more about the lack of engagement.
I agree! But it also means that if we stop engaging with other bloggers, the traffic drops, which is also sad. 😅 Ideally, I don’t want to rely on engagement to get traffic. The best is Google bringing traffic, but for that, our SEO has to be very good, which is also very difficult. 😅
I find that finding a good balance of both helps. Well, it seems to have worked for me.
I often scratch my head in the blogging world, Hugh. I see other bloggers who put out what I call “fluff” and they have thousands of followers. It took me ages to get to 100. I learned early on not to play the comparison game when it comes to numbers, though. No good comes of it! It is a shame when you want to engage with someone and they make it difficult to do so, or they don’t respond to thoughtful comments.
I agree, Michelle. For many bloggers, the numbers are important to start with, but so is the hard work to gain and keep those followers. I firmly believe that blogging and engagement go hand in hand with each other, but some bloggers seem pretty happy with not engaging, which makes me wonder why they don’t mark their blogs as private so that only they can see them? Maybe they don’t know how to, so that’s probably why some blogs have the feel of an uninhabited planet.
Not that I don’t make many of those mistakes, but I have run into unfriendly blogs. Visiting other planets is a brilliant analogy!
Thank you, I’m glad you think so. I see all of our blogs as planets circling WordPress. The further you go out, the darker and uninviting it is.
I agree, Hugh. To me, a blog is as much about engagement as writing the blog itself. I look forward to reading posts and engaging with the writers, and engaging through my own blog, too. I do wonder about the motivation of bloggers like these and I know of some who don’t tend to engage much. The strangest encounter I had was someone else in the HR arena would not only not respond to my comments but would delete the ones i left. Ultimately I stopped following him. His posts may have been relevant, interesting and well written, but his behaviour was just rude. If you don’t want comments, change the settings
How strange to remove your comments from posts, Brenda. I’d have done the same and unfollowed that blog. I must admit that I have removed comments from posts, but only those that were rude or unprofessional or one-worded comments that have you scratching your head (and I know that you’d never leave those types of comments).
No. I don’t think I could 😆. He didn’t have any comments at all so I’m thinking he did it with everyone. I guess he was a good example of blogging for himself. But I just feel he’s missing out on so much of the full experience- but his choice in the end of the day.
Are you having a good holiday weekend? Working today – not a holiday up here 😒
Which begs the question, why doesn’t he just switch comments off? I guess he may not know how to, but I can’t help but think he will drive many visitors away if he doesn’t engage with them, especially if they have questions about his posts. But, as you say, it’s his blog and his choice, so if he’s happier running his blog without any engagement, so be it.
Yes, it was a lovely bank holiday weekend; thanks, Brenda. And the last one before Christmas. That’s a frightening thought.
Not for me. We have our September weekend in a fortnight, then I have a week in October
So Scotland has bank holidays in October? Wow, I had no idea. There was talk of moving one of the May bank holidays to October, but it never happened.
Not quite – just school and college holidays – mid-term
We do have bank Holidays in September… but theyre all different. I’m off 11th, Edinburgh is likely to be the 18th and Glasgow will be the following week.
I have three themed blogs and I am a member of another blog where I post about music. What I have discovered is that my armchair travel blog gets quite a lot of action, my animal blog has the interest of one or two people, but at times my poetry blog has one comment but no other likes or views. I guess poetry has taken a back seat in the blog world but I keep posting. When I post about travel, food, or music on the blog where I am a member there is always a good response, go figure. I hope you have a good week ahead,
I’m surprised your poetry blog gets hardly any engagement, as I know several bloggers who write poetry and get lots of engagement. Do you follow any other poetry blogs? And do you promote your poetry blog on your other blogs?
When I post on my poetry blog I always pass that on to Twitter and Facebook. I follow quite a few other poetry blogs. I also post my poetry on other sites so I get some readership no matter what.
I’m glad to hear your poetry posts are getting some attention. I know of a blogger who runs a weekly poetry challenge. She gets many responses and has built up a great poetry community there. If you’re interested, check out her blog at https://colleenmchesebro.com/
Please let me know the links to your poetry blog and your animal blog. Also, I love your armchair travel blog and following. May I suggest you add the links of your other two blogs to your travel blog so others will take notice. I have a poetry blog, as well, and run a weekly prompt for those who love poetry.
Strange goings-on in the blog world it seems, Hugh. I see a lot of this with bloggers who respond to challenges, yet they have little engagement. Many of these are bloggers who link and run and don’t leave a comment on the host blog. When I’ve visited, there is little engagement and evidence anyone is reading. A lot of work for little “payout.” Thanks for sharing.
I wonder if all these bloggers are interested in are the numbers, Terri? Linking and running may seem like a free marketing tool for them. But given they have little engagement on their own blogs, it sounds as if all they are doing is filling in time – some of which they could use much better if they engaged more and got to know hosts and other bloggers.
Some bloggers have admitted their blogs are just personal diaries to share thoughts and pictures. That’s fine, but why bother linking? At some point, with such little engagement on their blogs, others won’t bother reading. Sad.
That’s true, Terri. Sadly, many of these blogs disappear without anyone realising they’ve gone.
How odd. As you said, it makes you wonder what their motivation for continuing to publish a blog is when they don’t receive any involvement at all – and they must wonder why.
You would think at some point they would seek out answers and tips on how to improve traffic.
Maybe they have, Paul, but I fear they’re not engaging with anyone who visits their blog or in the big wide blogging world. Yet they continue to publish four posts a year and promote those posts on social media. It’s a ‘scratch your head’ moment.
Yep, I’ve had a few of those since I started blogging! Goodness know how many you’ve had!
Quite a lot, Paul. I could write a post about it. In fact, I may even do so.
It is interesting that a well-written post is not part of a frequently checked blog. That doesn’t make sense to me. However, also that’s why there is no interaction. But how nice of you that you contacted the blogger.
I thought it only right that I contact the blogger to say not only how much I enjoyed reading their post but also point out a few things that may help generate more engagement and visitors, Erika. That was over two weeks ago, and I’ve heard nothing so far. I fear I am falling on deaf ears.
Of, course, it can be possible too that they are advice resistent. Would be sad, since you really have profound tips for improvement from experience.
Thank you. I like to think so, Erika. But I know that some bloggers don’t like taking advice.
You may be right! At least, you tried it and did your best. Everything else is not up to you anymore.
Enjoyed your assessment of the quiet, uninhabited blog. I do enjoy comments that lead to discussion, but some comments are just a brief compliment.
Thank you. I’ve always wondered why people don’t click the ‘like’ button and leave it as that if they’ve nothing to add that will engage in a conversation or discussion. After all, that’s what it’s for. But it’s like they have to say something for fear of the host thinking they didn’t visit.
That’s so true and I have made so many friends among the people I have met here at wordpress 💜💜
Same here, Willow. I’ve just trashed a comment from somebody on this post who just asked me to go and check out their blog! There is no engagement about the contents of this post in their comment, just a demand that I check and follow their blog. If only they’d read this post.
I really dislike that ….I never demand anyone read my posts…. I so rude to do that. I often check out other people’s blogs anyway but not if I am asked or worse told too!
💜💜
I get them almost every day, Willow, often with a link included to their blog. I usually mark them as spam. They’ve no interest in your or my blogs. All they’re interested in is numbers or (in really bad cases) trying to get you to buy something you don’t need.
Yes I have noticed that , it is most weird I think ….. I never buy anything or even visit those sites just delete.💜💜
I my first year of blogging, I barely had views, let alone likes and comments. But, I visited every blogger who liked a post and I replied to every comment. When comments turn into conversations, it’s the best feeling.
I think 99% of us have little engagement and views during those first few months, Dan. But visiting other blogs and engaging helps in getting people to check out our blogs. When somebody new leaves a comment on my blog, I don’t check out their blog immediately, but if they continue to engage with me (without telling me to visit their blog), then I know their blog will be worth checking out.
Great comparison to an uninhabited planet. Your observations are right on target
I’m glad you think so because I felt I was on a deserted planet in the far reaches of space when I visited that blog.
I’ve written a few pieces before that I published that were primarily written for cathartic reasons and were too difficult to engage in conversation about, but I’d never thought to turn off comments for a post. It’s not something I would want to do very often, but it’s a good option for the rare cases like that.
Setting up a WP account can be incredibly frustrating, especially if one isn’t tech savvy. It sounds like this person had the writing potential, but perhaps not the know-how or maybe even the desire to keep it going.
I know that I’m doing a couple things right, but when I read your blogs I’m reminded of (or learn about) what I could be doing better.
I’m not sure they didn’t have the desire to keep their blog going given they are still publishing blog posts. Okay, they’re only publishing about four blog posts a year, but they’re also marketing their posts on social media. I think they’d given up on marketing the posts on social media if they’d had lost the desire to blog.
I’m still learning about blogging. And with WordPress constantly updating their platform to keep up with changes, there is always something new to learn about. Just imagine how dull it would be if everything stayed the same. I’m glad of the changes and I’ll keep updating readers with what they are.
Onwards and upwards.
That is a sad state of affairs really isn’t it Hugh . Why have the ability to write good post but not entertain your visitors. I love visitors and discussion 💜💜
Comments that spark conversations where a blogger can reply with more than with a ‘thank you’ are the best, Willow. I was entertained by the post I found on that blog, but from what I saw, nobody was there to engage with. I don’t want to follow a blog where the art of conversation is not present. Engagement is as important as what content we publish.