This guest post is by Ramcel Gatchalian of Meek Watcher.
You wake up one day and check your mobile phone for any new email notifications. There are none. Surprised, you quickly turn your laptop on and glanced at your latest blog post comment status. You can’t believe it. No comments whatsoever. Zero as in zip, zilch, nil, nothing.
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Your blog is turning into a “ghost town” as far as I can tell. People just pass by, leaving no trace. The worst part is you have been blogging for several months now and it has been the same ever since.
“So, what seems to be wrong?” you ask yourself. Well, you may have honed the skill of silencing your readers. And just how did you refine this flair? Let’s count the ways.
1. You don the cloak of invisibility
You may have published a number of articles and achieved traffic of some kind, but unless you relentlessly promote your blog you will simply be a little spark in the blogosphere. No matter how great your content is.
2. You don’t extend any invitations
It may sound silly, but people usually won’t do something if you don’t ask them to. In fact, even if you turn out the best article you can craft, if it hasn’t been written to actually inspire interaction, people will have no reason to comment. So why don’t you invite them to comment on your blog, literally?
3. You don’t tickle their fancies
Readers love to think—especially if they find your article interesting, relevant, and engaging. It encourages them to wear their thinking hats and add their thoughts on the subject matter. If you don’t entice conversation and close your topic with a few questions, then why are you expecting answers?
4. You are such a party-stopper
Why, oh why do you force your readers to register or log in to your blog? Do you think they find it fun to type valuable insights in that comment box of yours, only to hit a message that says they’re not signed in and they need to register? You wasted their precious time—something that cannot be brought back.
5. You just give them a reason to leave
Readers came, but felt lonely since nobody was commenting. Why should they be the first? It isn’t fun to go to a party with no people at it. And you are not a DoFollow.
Something to muse about
Now that you came to realize these “talents” of yours, are you ready to go to the next level? I hope not. Let’s go for an open session: how can you counter these pitfalls? If you are a budding blogger, what advice you can give to bloggers who are in this situation?
Luck is only important in so far as getting the chance to sell yourself at the right moment. After that, you’ve got to have talent and know how to use it. —Frank Sinatra
Ramcel Gatchalian is a blogger who writes about Blogging and a food critique on his Food Blog. Checkout his blogs where he shares his finds about blogging and how he can tease your food craving.
