Last week I published a post on moving the discussion to conversion. Thinking about that post and associated comments a bit earlier, a related thought crossed my mind – What is no one answered your call to action?
What if no one ever bought, no one ever registered, no one ever clicked? What if all you ever got from your blogging was the satisfaction of knowing an audience of readers thought your blog was interesting – interesting enough to read and comment occasionally, but not interesting enough to heed your call to action.
Would you still post? Why?
Or.
On one of my blogs, I hardly ever get comments or feedback but I know that people are visiting my blog and getting information from it. But I still post because I’m interested in the topic more than anything else.
Why?! Well I do because it’s who I am… I’m not sure popularity was ever a prime motivator in my life. And I surely don’t envy A Listers. Imagine having people troll your archives like it was lord of the rings and quoting you back to yourself out of context. I just blog because I’m a geek and before that I was a writer. If someone does it just for fame power and money they’re definately in the wrong business lol.
An excellent topic. Of course conversion is the purpose for any form of communication we engage in for our businesses. But is there ever a magic bullet?
I think that one reason why a blog *might* fail is that the person investing their time in the endeavor might be discouraged by lack of conversion and give up … prematurely.
Quick story — when I first opened shop, I sent out a few mass mailings to announce my services. I had a meager response and was discouraged to say the least. So, I stopped investing all my time and money in direct mail. Then, a few months later … and in some cases a couple of YEARS later, I got requests for proposals based on those mailings! People had tucked them away in their desk drawers much to my surprise.
I think if you’re not interesting and people aren’t reading your blog, if you aren’t growing your audience over time … then you might have to face facts that your efforts are being wasted. But if you ARE, then I’d say hey, hang in there, be consistent. You must be present when the timing is right for your customers, and who knows when that will be?
Ok, how sad that my comment is longer than your entry. Sorry! lol
That is why I am happy a decent amount of my blog is for my own personal sanity, and not for my readers.
If they comment, I love it, if they don’t that is okay too.
My favourite thing is comments though. It validates that I have found something of interest and really makes my day.
David, I too really enjoy getting comments. Maybe it’s ego, maybe just basic acknowledgement. Regardless, getting comments is a reward of sorts for blogging. Beyond that, comments make a blog and post more valuable.
Take ProBlogger for example – Darren has a very active audience. Most posts he publishes solicit a good deal of feedback. Seeing that feedback makes you want to contribute. The comments add to the value of each post by progressing the basic conversation. Each comment adds something to the basic post…most of the time anyway :-)
So, thanks to all for commenting and making each post better!
Taugnee, with this sentence…I too commented longer than my post :-)
– “I just blog because I’m a geek and before that I was a writer.”
Presicely :)
I blog because I enjoy posting my thoughts on the web. While I do try to make money from them as well, it is really secondary.
I consider it more a fun, productive hobby than anything.
It definately helps keep me sane as well.
I also started blogging because I thought I could make money from it. Now, I am just happy that I get people reading and making comments. My blog over time kind of jumps everywhere, has lost a bit of focus, but I have met a couple of people through it and have gotten some encouraging emails from people.
Just waiting for that book offer…
ha ha, how wonderful for those to whom this situation is purely hypothetical!