Nobody comments on it, nobody bookmarks it on Digg, nobody tweets a link to it…. it’s almost like it was never written.
If so – here’s a few questions to ask yourself about the post to help you learn why it might have failed and to help you improve for next time:
- could the title have been improved?
- did the opening lines of this post draw readers in to read more?
- could I have added an image to give the post a visual point of interest?
- could I have added a question to draw readers into discussing the post?
- was the topic relevant to my readers?
- did I promote the post to other bloggers or my network?
- did I publish this post at the right time (of day or the week)?
- could I have called my readers to perform some kind of action?
- was this post useful – did it fulfill a need or solve a problem for readers?
- did the post have sufficient depth? – could it have been more interesting with examples, illustrations, opinions, stories, quotes etc?
- was this post unique or just a rehash of what others are writing?
- did the formatting of this post help readers to read it easily?
- was the post concise or could it have been too long winded?
Of course it is also worth saying that sometimes posts just don’t have the success we hope they will and that there’s no real reason for it. Conversely other posts which we don’t think will really work can soar like eagles!
That’s the way the cookie crumbles some days!
Further Reading: Many of the above questions are fleshed out with tips on how to make them a reality in my series – How to Craft a Blog Post.
