Tag: Blogging Stats

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Want More Blogging Success? What Happens When You Find It.

Published on by Hugh W. Roberts97 Comments

This is post number one hundred and four this year. It was meant to be my one-hundredth post, but life got in the way (I’m not going to bore you with the details), and my Wordless Wednesday post from a few weeks ago earned the honour of being post number 100.

When you think about it, one hundred and four posts in ten mouths seem like an awful lot. Am I overwhelming readers with too many posts, or do you want more? I’m averaging nine monthly posts, which appears to have become a good balance.

If you asked me, ‘Am I publishing too many posts?’ I’d respond, ‘Do what feels best for you.’ However, we should never forget our audience, so there’s no harm in reaching out and asking. Without you (my audience) reading these posts and engaging with me, this blog would be like arriving on a barren planet. And nobody wants that.

I’d be interested to know how many posts you have published in 2024 and if you’re happy with that number. Let me know in the comments.

Let’s discuss other blogging topics

Did you see my recent post about whole blog posts being shown in emails? No? It’s titled ‘WordPress: Excerpts Are Working Again!‘ It’s worth reading if you only want an excerpt of your posts to show in email notifications and want visitors to visit your blog to read them. Reading posts by visiting a blog is a much better experience than reading them by email, especially since some blocks do not appear in emails, making posts look odd and broken.

There are many reasons to encourage visitors to visit your blog, one of which is that they are more likely to engage with you if they are on your blog (rather than reading from an email). Furthermore, visitors can explore your blog, catch up on posts they have not read, and check any links. This brings me nicely to the subject of engagement.

Are you engaging or comment spamming?

As regular visitors to my blog know, I am passionate about engagement in the blogging world. Recently, I came across an alarming article stating that engagement has decreased to an all-time low in blogging. How sad is that? However, when you look at some blogs with low engagement or, conversely, blogs with numerous non-engaging comments, it is evident that this is happening.

Here’s an example. I recently discovered a writing challenge blog and wanted to get involved. But when I checked out some of the comments left, I knew that participating would not be worthwhile. With lots of non-engaging comments such as ‘Nice one’ and ‘great attempt” being left on stories, nobody wanted to engage with one another. It was a barren planet. I left with a heavy heart.

When I publish a post, it’s the engagement I crave. So when I publish a short story or piece of flash fiction, I look for feedback beyond being told it was a great story. Engaging feedback is critical for all of us to improve our writing.

Do you agree? Do engaging comments help to improve your writing?

Take action if you want engagement

This may seem like a shock-horror move, but I’m now marking comments such as ‘nice’ and ‘beautiful post’ as spam. Leaving short comments all over the blogging world is like leaving spam everywhere. We all know how spam can cause frustration and diminish the enjoyment of blogging.

One main reason readers do not leave engaging comments is a lack of time. However, many who offer that excuse leave non-engaging comments everywhere. They spend the time they could have used to leave an engaging comment, posting numerous non-engaging comments everywhere. The flash fiction challenge I mentioned earlier seems to confirm this.

Some bloggers believe that nobody will leave comments on their blogs if they don’t comment, so they leave short, non-engaging comments everywhere. Honestly, that’s a crazy thought.

Before I finish discussing engagement, I want to reassure everyone that they should not feel obliged to leave comments on any of my posts. I won’t be upset if you don’t comment, but I will mark comments as spam if they are those pesky, non-engagement comments I mentioned. One engaging comment every once in a while is worth a thousand non-engaging comments.

I don’t know about you, but it makes all the difference if somebody wants to engage with me and does so in a way that proves they’ve read the post and are interested. Do you agree?

Please preview your posts before publishing them!

Did you know you can preview your posts before publishing them? It seems that some bloggers do not know they can do this. From seeing upside-down images to posts with a terrible and hard-to-read layout, there is no excuse for anyone not to preview their posts before publishing them. It’s so simple to do.

Before publishing a post, click the little ‘laptop computer’ symbol at the top right of the page on which you are drafting the post. You will be able to see a preview of your post as it will look on a desktop computer, tablet, and mobile phone. Plus, and this is fantastic news, WordPress has now moved the ‘preview email’ option to the same menu for how your post will look in an email.

Image showing the preview post and email option on WordPress.
Always preview your posts and WordPress notification emails before publishing them.

Thank you for making that option more accessible to find, WordPress.

There is no excuse for sloppiness in ensuring your posts and WordPress notification emails are at their best for your audience.

Finally, how are your blogging stats performing?

I’m delighted that my blogging statistics have rocketed this year. I’ve surpassed last year’s total number of visitors and views to my blog. But to make things even better, 2024 is on track to be my best year ever (in the ten years I’ve blogged) in terms of viewing statistics and engagement. I believe this disproves those who tell you that you must publish posts every day for your blog to be successful. You don’t need to force yourself to blog every day.

A blog’s success depends not on how often it publishes posts but on the quality of those posts.

Thank you to everyone who visits my blog, reads my posts, and engages with me. Without you, Hugh’s Views and News would never have reignited my passion for writing and engaging with others.

How are your blogging stats this year? Tell me in the comments section.

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Blogging Simplified: It’s Easy, Isn’t It? Things I’ve Learned

Published on by Hugh W. Roberts104 Comments

How obsessed are you with your blog stats and blogging? And what essential points have you learned about blogging?

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How obsessed are you with your blog?

When I first started blogging in 2014, I was obsessed with my blog stats. I checked them almost hourly to see if anybody had visited my blog. We all know that wonderful feeling when somebody clicks the ‘like’ button, or better still, when somebody leaves a comment on one of our posts for the first time.

It didn’t matter what that comment said. Even if it was, ‘Great post,’ it made my day. How times have changed!

Taking the advice of other bloggers

When another more experienced blogger and somebody who had been blogging much longer than me told me that most of the hits my posts were getting were probably from people who didn’t stay more than a few seconds on my blog, my whole blogging world began caving in.

Even worse, that blogger told me that many of those who hit the ‘like’ button probably didn’t even read the post. What?

I was so deflated that I thought, ‘Why bother?’ It wasn’t until another blogger told me to stop obsessing over my blog stats and to put the energy of stat-watching into writing blog posts that I took that advice.

More trouble

A few months later, I found myself in trouble again. ‘Concentrate on the comments rather than how many people have visited your blog or how many have hit the ‘like’ button,’ another blogger told me. ‘Most importantly, don’t forget to visit, read and leave engaging comments on other blogs.’

But I took that last bit of information to heart and soon found myself spending all my blogging time reading and leaving engaging comments instead of writing posts. I was following over 500 blogs and I believed I had to read and comment on every single post.

Blogging guilt and stress crept up on me, and I thought I’d upset people if I didn’t read their posts and leave them comments, or, even worse, people would unfollow me if I stopped reading and leaving comments on their posts. After all, they were reading and commenting on all my posts.

Once again, I found myself on the edge of packing in blogging. I was going to delete my blog and find something else to do that was more fun and enjoyable.

How do you find the right blogging balance?

Thankfully, I never deleted my blog, but I know of bloggers who have done so, some of whom came back and started afresh. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work out, and some of these bloggers went on to abandon their blogs for the same reasons they left blogging in the first place.

Finding a balance between writing blog posts and reading and commenting on other blogs can be a significant task. Thankfully, I found it.

I know some bloggers who balance blogging by reading as many posts as possible in as short a time as possible. They’ll often leave short, non-engaging comments on all those posts. It works for them, but not for me, but good for them if that’s what works.

What works for some won’t work for others.

Then there are the bloggers who reduce the number of blogs they follow without worrying that they’ll probably lose followers in the process (and they will), giving them more time to write. Good for them.

Why do bloggers suddenly stop leaving comments?

I’ve lost followers because I cut down on the number of blogs I followed. Now, I’m following around 75 blogs, all of which I’m interested in. That gives me more time to write, more time to read and more time to leave engaging comments on the blogs I follow.

I no longer get comments from people who always used to leave me comments, however, the fall in non-engaging comments is something I’m delighted with.

Some bloggers seem to have disappeared from the blogging world while others are still around, but have lost interest in what I have to say or no longer have anything interesting to add in a comment. But there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s not worth worrying about.

Are you more of an engaging or non-engaging blogger?

Someone once told me that a non-engaging comment indicates that the person who left it does not want to engage with you (or anybody else). This is usually because they’ll say they don’t have the time to engage. All they want to do is say, ‘Hello, I visited,’ before moving on quickly. They may not have even read the post.

And then there are the bloggers who leave comments like ‘Subscribe to my blog!’ or ‘Nice’ without saying anything else. Do they want to engage, or are they simply number/follower-hunting? I often wonder how would they react if I left them an engaging comment on one of their posts.

Of course, blogging isn’t only about engagement. Many people blog just to express their thoughts online. Some bloggers do not respond to comments. Some bloggers simply thank people for leaving a comment without engaging with them, even if the comment they’re responding to shouts, ‘I want to engage with you!’ thus taking the person who wants to engage down a dead-end.

Many bloggers want to engage, yet I’ve heard from some bloggers who say the comments section of blogs is a waste of time and should be removed. I don’t agree with that, but if a blogger does not want to engage then there is the option to turn off comments.

How often should you blog?

I’ve learned the only answer to this question is – ‘blog as often as you like without feeling obliged to publish something.’

It took me a while to find that I’m happier publishing two or three posts weekly. Any more than that, and I find I’m forcing myself to write posts, which makes blogging less enjoyable. Sometimes, I may only publish once a week.

I do not want to get myself feeling stressed because I haven’t got a post ready, so my advice is not to blog to any schedule of when you’re going to publish posts. If readers are interested in what you write and publish, they’ll read your posts regardless of how often or when you publish and sometimes that could mean days, weeks or even months after the publication of a post, so don’t close comments off to force your audience to read your posts within a particular time-frame. Blogging should always be a leisurely activity.

I also witnessed a drop in the quality of the posts I publish when publishing more than a few times a week. For me, quality is much more important than quantity, but it may not be the same for you.

I also tend to stay clear of blogs that publish more than once daily as they tend to bring an overwhelming feeling that I don’t like. Once again, it’s about finding the perfect balance that works best for you.

Blogging! It’s a fascinating subject, isn’t it? I could go on, but it’s now over to you. Can we discuss blogging honestly without fearing upsetting other people? What do you think? Let me know in the comments section. Let’s discuss blogging.

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