34 Reasons Why Readers Unsubscribe from Your Blog

I can understand the top two, however, finding that sweet spot can be tough. I’ve unsubscribed because of too many posts to keep up with, but I never have because of infrequent posting. The third one doesn’t bother me, as part of the reason I subscribe is to know when the site is updated. Generally, I still visit the actual site. If I’m not interested in going to the site to finish reading, the site probably isn’t that great anyway.

It seems odd at first that too many posts can turn off readers, after all, “content is king”. However, I find I’m much more likely to unsubscribe from a blog with too many posts than one with too few.

I think there are two reasons: 1) Reading blogs can take a lot of time, and you almost feel obliged to read every single article posted and 2) Posting quality can suffer if it’s too often.

dont be on both extremes (“too much” and “infrequent” posts).

I never expected too many posts to even be on the list, not to talk about being #1..

I guess it’s about the tool you’re using, according to the latest statistics more and more people are using Google Reader, which in a first view shows you all the new posts from your subscribed sites, I guess that if 2 blogs have posted 4 times a day, it gets a bit overwhelming and messy for the reader.

I use Firefox Live Bookmarks so I’m not really affected by this.

Another good reason to relax and post less, but with value.

Allen.H

Who would have thought that too many posts was a problem. I suppose that is too many low quality posts in particular… The fastest blog i subscribe to is techcrunch which seems to put out 4-10 posts a day, i quite enjoy knowing there is always something new to read… keeps me distracted from my real work :-)

Very interesting compilation. Of course, the #1 issue (posting too often) is a clear advantage when it comes to building deep archives, so you have to take the bad with the good, I guess.

Well I have to say I didn’t expect too many posts to be the number one reason! It does make sense if you think about it, but I just would have expected something like uninteresting content, or low quality content to have been up there.

I guess now it’s just a case of finding out what your optimum number of posts per day/week is…..

Wow, what an interesting list!!

I too, am wondering where that “Golden Middle” is for posting! I have at least one post per day – sometimes two, and rarely three….

To few? Any more would seem like too much!

#35: Lists that are longer than 10 items.

Please unsubscribe me.

Generally speaking I won’t unsubscribe unless it is obvious that the blog has died. But we should remember that most bloggers go through a lull period where things like writer’s block, burnout, bad health or the real world can get in the way of our blogging. I believe in cutting people some slack and giving them the benefit of the doubt.

Some folks probably start pruning their list simply because it is getting too large or unwieldy. I subscribe to literally thousands of blogs and if you use a filter like I do that is built into most good newsreaders (like GreatNews for example), then it’s really not necessary to prune the list so often. After all, subscribing to a feed costs nothing and we have everything to gain.

I don’t believe any of these reasons. I do all 34 things and I have more than 100,000 subscribers, according to WordPress.

Oh, and I’ve had several CEOs tell me they love my link blog and I posted 98 things to that so far today (and 1,800 in the past month).

Translation: do what you love, put stuff up you’d love to read, and the rest will fall into place.

Oh, and I’ve learned over and over again that people who say they are unsubscribing never do. It’s just a threat to try to make you feel bad.

I never knew that too many posts per day would kill my readership. I always used to consider that more posts = more readers. Maybe you should ask your readers “What is the optimum number of posts per day”

I was actually planning to make 50 posts a day by recruiting paid bloggers for my blog. But it seems it will only brought negative effect to my feed subs as it’s on the point 1…. :-(

Don’t forget this is reasons for unsubscribing, not reasons for choosing-not-to-subscribe-in-the-first-place.

The difference? If I wander onto a new blog and see outstandingly interesting content, I’ll subscribe. It has to be outstandingly interesting, cos I come across several new blogs every day but if my feed is going to stay manageable, I can’t subscribe to more than one new one every few weeks. (And prune unwanted ones every few months).

If the content isn’t extremely interesting, I won’t subscribe in the first place. So you won’t see me leave. That’s why content-related reasons are relatively low on the list.

Here’s something that’s happened to me a few times: I subscribe to a techie blog, but find that many of the posts are entirely personal. (I just unsubscribed to a Drupal blog cos of unending photos of the blogger’s new baby!) What can the blogger do about this, apart from keeping two separate blogs? 1. Use categories properly, and 2. Offer two distinct feeds. Don’t offer a combined feed as well; it just causes confusion.

Hi Darren,

Great post.

A sequel – “why people do and don’t comment on blogs” might also be interesting.

How very valuable to make that list! Hopefully the people who offered their comments [mine included] can absorb their own advice when it comes to blogging.

I think the breakin’-it-down-Barney-style rule of thumb for any Blogger [Article writer] would be to ask the question, “If I wasn’t me, would I stick around for this?”

Thanks for your value.

Samsara