With it being a four day weekend I'm sure many of you will be taking the time off to not only spend time with family or scoff hundreds of Easter Eggs but also to spend time working on your blog. While you could spend hours writing and photographing posts, you might find yourself wondering "What's the point when people aren't returning to my blog?" After reading this similar post about the issue by Corinne from skinnedcartree (an amazing blog with really great blogging advice and tips) it got me thinking about reasons why I will follow a blog and reasons why I will immediately exit.
They Can't Figure How To Follow Your Blog
Getting people to follow your blog on a site such as Bloglovin or on social media, is almost a guaranteed way to get people to return to your site, but if they can't follow your blog then they're likely to forget about it and never return. The best way to combat this is to make sure your follow buttons are all clearly displayed together on your blog and that all of the links work. As you can see all of the buttons to follow my blog on various sites are clearly displayed both at the top of my site and also on the right side bar, you could also add a widget like my instagram widget to give a taste of what else you offer.
It's Hard To Leave A Comment
I like to interact with the blogs I read regularly and that often involves leaving a comment and disusing the subject of the blog post. But there have been so many times when I read a really great blog post and want to comment on it, only to either struggle to find where to comment or for it to be complicated to comment. If commenting takes more than a couple of minutes to do the likelihood is that I won't and I will immediately leave your blog. So if it's not clear on your blog where to comment (at the end of a blog post is always a good place) or your commenting system is timely asking readers to enter their name, email address and website every time they want to comment, then maybe you should consider a change. I personally like to use Disqus, a commenting system that is very popular among bloggers as it's very easy to use, install and have conversations.
Your Layout Makes Your Posts Difficult To Read
We live in a world where we have become accustomed to getting our information in easy to consume bites, 6 second vines and 140 character tweets. In comparison big chunks of text can be scary, so cater to your audience by separating your writing into easy to consume paragraphs.
Photography Is Everything
Similar to my last point but with Instagram and Tumblr being so popular these days we are obsessed with photography. The sad but true fact is that the majority of people will skim read your text and mainly look at your photography, so if it's not up to scratch you will fail to engage your audience. Don't be fooled into thinking that you need a fancy camera to take good photos though, all you need is good lighting and the right set up. If you want to see how I take and edit my blog photos I've done a post on that here and also another post on the best blog photography props.
Your Content Is Not Engaging
You may be posting seven days a week but you may only be gaining views from new readers as people aren't returning to your site, the reason for that may be that your content just isn't engaging. I believe strongly in quality over quantity, so spend time on your posts and ask yourself whether your post would be something you would want to read. If you're still not sure what your readers want to see perhaps run a poll on Twitter or look at your most and least popular posts in the past, to help you see what may be popular in the future.
Please take this kind of post with a pinch of salt and bare in mind that I'm not claiming to be the Holy Mother of Blogging, one I may like may not be someone else's cup of tea. I like to think though that there's always room to improve and in all honesty I could probably use some of these tips myself. I'd love to know your thoughts and tips, even if you stumble upon my blog and decide to never come back I'd be intrigued to hear why.
Have a lovely Easter!
Eleanor xx
Getting people to follow your blog on a site such as Bloglovin or on social media, is almost a guaranteed way to get people to return to your site, but if they can't follow your blog then they're likely to forget about it and never return. The best way to combat this is to make sure your follow buttons are all clearly displayed together on your blog and that all of the links work. As you can see all of the buttons to follow my blog on various sites are clearly displayed both at the top of my site and also on the right side bar, you could also add a widget like my instagram widget to give a taste of what else you offer.
It's Hard To Leave A Comment
I like to interact with the blogs I read regularly and that often involves leaving a comment and disusing the subject of the blog post. But there have been so many times when I read a really great blog post and want to comment on it, only to either struggle to find where to comment or for it to be complicated to comment. If commenting takes more than a couple of minutes to do the likelihood is that I won't and I will immediately leave your blog. So if it's not clear on your blog where to comment (at the end of a blog post is always a good place) or your commenting system is timely asking readers to enter their name, email address and website every time they want to comment, then maybe you should consider a change. I personally like to use Disqus, a commenting system that is very popular among bloggers as it's very easy to use, install and have conversations.
Your Layout Makes Your Posts Difficult To Read
We live in a world where we have become accustomed to getting our information in easy to consume bites, 6 second vines and 140 character tweets. In comparison big chunks of text can be scary, so cater to your audience by separating your writing into easy to consume paragraphs.
Photography Is Everything
Similar to my last point but with Instagram and Tumblr being so popular these days we are obsessed with photography. The sad but true fact is that the majority of people will skim read your text and mainly look at your photography, so if it's not up to scratch you will fail to engage your audience. Don't be fooled into thinking that you need a fancy camera to take good photos though, all you need is good lighting and the right set up. If you want to see how I take and edit my blog photos I've done a post on that here and also another post on the best blog photography props.
Your Content Is Not Engaging
You may be posting seven days a week but you may only be gaining views from new readers as people aren't returning to your site, the reason for that may be that your content just isn't engaging. I believe strongly in quality over quantity, so spend time on your posts and ask yourself whether your post would be something you would want to read. If you're still not sure what your readers want to see perhaps run a poll on Twitter or look at your most and least popular posts in the past, to help you see what may be popular in the future.
Please take this kind of post with a pinch of salt and bare in mind that I'm not claiming to be the Holy Mother of Blogging, one I may like may not be someone else's cup of tea. I like to think though that there's always room to improve and in all honesty I could probably use some of these tips myself. I'd love to know your thoughts and tips, even if you stumble upon my blog and decide to never come back I'd be intrigued to hear why.
Have a lovely Easter!
Eleanor xx
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I love reading all your lovely comments so please feel free to comment or give me feedback! I don't mind if you leave a link to your own blog as I love finding new blogs and if I like your blog I'll follow you!