The other day I posted about the biggest blogging fear I see as marketing coach: the fear of writing poorly. Today I’m going to talk about the other side of that fear; everyone will read what you write.
Scaremongering or making your prospect feel the pain is a valid technique in marketing. When the prospect feels pain they are more likely to purchase the solution to help them overcome that pain. You’ll see this technique used by copywriters and those selling writing services all over the web. They’ll amplify your fears and turn them into swords and then slice you with them.
Okay, let’s take a deep breath. If you’ve been blogging for some time I need you to stop and leave a comment right now, and I need you to tell us how many people read your first ever blog post. I’ll share mine. 36 people read my first ever blog post. It took a month for those 36 people to find that post and read it.
There are approximately 7 billion people in the world. I don’t know any blogger who has had 7 billion views on one post. Just because people are online and chatting, it doesn’t mean they will read your blog post.
Just because you’ve written an evocative article that will change the lives of the people that read it, it doesn’t mean they will read it. Even if they do they may not act upon your advice and share it with everyone they know.
Just because you are publishing content online it does not mean it will be seen and shared. If you’ve built it, who cares? Now we’ve established that very few people will read what you write (unless you are real-world famous), you can get on with writing blog posts and working out things like who your audience is and what they really would like to read.
Do not be scared of not publishing because everyone will read it. They won’t. Yes, a post may go viral but guess what… that takes a tremendous amount of time, effort, relationship building and a dash of fairy dust. Even with all the right things in place, the post may still not be read by more than a few hundred people.
Your posts will not be read by everyone. Trust me. I’ve been blogging for a very long time across multiple platforms and I’ve one site that gets tremendous traffic, but still I still have posts that are read by 36 people.
When you read articles advising you that your post has to be perfect before you publish because everyone will read it, you need to do a couple of things.
- Print the article
- Screw it into a tight ball
- Pitch it into the bin
Blogging is not like a printed article or magazine. You can go back and edit it again and again until it’s perfect. Blog posts need to be marketed and promoted to get more viewers, and even then you may never get 7 billion views per post.
Not everyone will read what you write and the fear of that happening is an irrational fear used to sell you something.
Be strong, hit publish and start writing your next post. What’s the worst that happen? You have to edit a typo and thank someone publicly?
Yours is an interesting perspective. I thought everyone who blogged wanted as much exposure as possible. It seems counterintuitive that someone would want to limit their readers. Thanks for the information.
LOVE! this article was so reassuring because I don’t know anyone who isn’t a bit terrified to hit the publish button. even if it’s not your first post, there will be some content you write that you know is going to stir up some controversy. I recently relaunched my blog and I told myself that for it to work and be 100% authentic I had to be ready to voice my opinion, even on the difficult topics AND be ready to hear about other people’s opinions. In response to Zach’s comment, I agree that a lot of people love traffic and exposure but personally, it should be the bonus. Blogging or writing is so therapeutic to me and is one of my few passions. You should write with the same effort and love for 1 person as you do for 1000. Writing like that and making great content will get readers to come….with a little promotion help of course 🙂 great post!
Yeah, I think about this all the time. I also think about the people I’ve been associated with who I would draw negative thoughts from and scuttle the blog once more.
My first blog was fiction only!l, and some of it was read. Most of it was it garbage.
This previous incarnation of my current blog was read a little bit, but I wasn’t speaking to the right audience. It was hard to not be me.
I believe this incarnation should be right, but we’ll see as time passes.
Thanks for writing this, I have a lot to think about and keep in mind
Hi Matthew, I know where you’re coming from, I find it hard not to be me at times 🙂
But here’s the thing, we’re writers whether we like it or not (or even feel comfortable with that label) and the more we do something, the more we learn about it and grow. I hope your future blogs are exactly what you want them to be x
I’m not sure if anyone read my first blog post other than a couple of friends and my boyfriend! Now, I’m less worried about the quantity but rather the quality of readers – and thanks to your challenge I’m just getting on with writing and publishing and sharing.
Hi Sarah,
So glad you put this one into perspective. So many people will either procrastinate or even worse, not even write a post. New bloggers do need to see this.
Even pro-bloggers write and most people will skim through the post and then leave a comment.
The great thing about writing a blog post is that we can always go back and tweak it. I know many bloggers that do!
-Donna
Hello Sarah! Great post my friend! Now to answer your question? How man y people read my first article ever published?? I hope none LOL I actually never should have published it, but we all have to start somewhere Right?
Now this article right here is one everyone should read,
Thanks for sharing
Chery :))
Awesome encouragement for a newbie like me! Thank you!