Why does your Blog not have Quality Traffic?
Posted by: James Lewitzke in Blogging, BusinessAre you upset that your website isn’t getting traffic? I’ve come up with some reasons why you’re probably missing out.
Your Content Sucks
You don’t want to admit it, but this is likely a reason why you’re not doing to well. While you may think you have just written a great blog post, many of us are highly biased in favor of our own content, and in turn have a subjective viewpoint on what we write about.
In order to whether what you are writing is truly “good” or not, depends on who reads it, and what comments hey may make on your site. Other bloggers will definitely link to your site if they like it well enough.
You’re Not Marketing Properly
See an earlier post I made about how to effectively network with those that have similar-minded interests as yours to gain some more insight.
Instead of using strategies like “link building” or SEO, if you decide to just have something other bloggers want to link to, the marketing aspect should take care of itself. Remember, hyperlinks are there to navigate through the web, not for whatever “perceived” SEO benefits you *think* they may have.
Your Site Design Sucks
Whether its due to the colors you choose or just usability issues, Website design can turn away up to half of your potential visitors.
One other point to keep in mind here is that your site may also have a wide variety of visitor-types. For example, there is a large percentage of the elderly population online, thus considering things like text size, flashing lights, etc. may turn some of them off, because they may have trouble viewing the screen, or controlling the mouse effectively.
You’re just being Lazy
This is the probably the biggest reason. You know you want to write that extra blog post, or comment on a few other blogs, but deep down, you realize you just don’t feel like taking care of the problem.
You’d probably rather be doing something like playing online games, or chatting with friends all night. But remember, in order to have a great, high-quality-traffic site, it takes a great amount of time and dedication. It reminds me of the 10/90 quote:
“Everything in life is 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent perspiration.”
Honestly, my most recent post kind of sucks. I hate to admit that, but I just couldn’t find the inspiration that normally goes into a post. I know we’re not supposed to admit the problem is with us … but I find holding myself to an impossibly high standard is a good thing. Makes it a little harder to come up with something, or at least more stressful, but if somebody is going to complain, I’d rather it be before I hit the post button…!
I’m mixed on the theme. I’ve put a lot of work into customizing it, and it’s really the first one I’ve had that really looks good - my main site is kind of shameful - but it’s also slow to load. Especially on dialup … turns out people still use that.
I am being a bit lazy, though, in trying to market it. I have a good excuse, though: this big yellow thing showed up in the sky, and Seattle has been freakishly warm lately.
Hang in their Forrest
I know how difficult in can be to find blogging inspiration. In fact, I think I came up with a WT thread about it at one point.
One of the reasons I, for the most part, gave up on Toptenlisted.com was because it was too difficult to think of a “10 reasons….” or “Top 10 Ways…” List every other day, the inspiration just wasn’t reaching me.
I also feel the same way about website design. It sucks when you put all kinds of work and hours into custom coding, special layouts, etc. only for it to not satisfy as many users as you could have. I guess you just have to ask yourself “Will putting all my time and resources into a new layout be worth it, for my users and my site’s future?”
I like your point on laziness, although here in Wisconsin ATM it’s freezing cold, no more than 10-15 degrees a night, so I’ll have to wait before I can become that lazy
Well, I don’t think my content sucks. I think I’m good at marketing, at least my pageviews seem like their going up. But the whole networking with other bloggers is the hard part. On blogs that are like my own I have a hard time trying to come up with good, worthy comments, so I don’t just waste their comment space.
Last but not least, I am not lazy.
That’s exactly my point, Steven, we all don’t think our content sucks. Truly “good” content automatically generates organic backlinks via networking, word of mouth referrals, etc.
One other thing to keep in mind here though is that this is really only *one* way of calculating a content’s “worth”. For example, you may have really well-written list like “5 reasons why bloggers suck”, and although it’s really good, many people probably won’t link to you because you’re insulting them.
Getting organic backlinks means you’re content is useful to other webmasters, not necessarily your intended website audience. But then again, there’s a website for just about everything out there, so like mentioned before, you just have to learn how to network properly.
And, I think I believe you when you say you are not lazy
James,
I think that blogging is a full time job. It’s just question of time, when you can live from it… I’m trying to put on a blog about solar energies and I have full time job. I’m quite tired and not motivated to blog post every single day. That’s why I changed a theme of my blog to magazine style theme. Like this the first time visitor don’t see imediately that the posts are not updated every single day…
good luck….
To a degree, I think you’re right, vladin. For some people it is a full-time job. It really is an issue of self-motivation, and finding the right amount of time to do it in. I don’t think its possible to completely do both (full-time blog and full-time work at the same time. It really does require your full attention.
But then again this is only for those that are dead serious about blogging, and don’t have any other sources of immediate income. It’s probably possible to blog a little bit on the side, and still have a great blog, as long as you do everything correctly.
Good luck to you too with your solar site.
I need to get my ass back into gear in making my site. It’s going stagnant.
Yes, get in gear, pronto! Pronto!