Suzanne Carillo

While trying to develop a readership on my blog I’ve noticed I may gain a new follower one week only to quickly lose them the very next.

I try not to take the rejection personally but inevitably I feel I have failed that reader and I wonder why they left. What did I do wrong?

I started to think about all the reasons I stop reading a blog to better understand the reasons that reader dropped me.

Top Ten Reasons I Stop Reading A Blog:

1.  They post too often.

I know this goes against the grain of what many of the larger bloggers practise. They post daily and some of the biggest ones will post 5 or more times per day.

I’m sorry. I don’t have that much time in the day to commit to reading everything they have to say and let’s be honest, they’re saying too much. I think the maximum one should post when blogging is once/day. Please note: this does not include other social media. Go to town on FB, Twitter and Instagram.

2.  They don’t post often enough.

This is a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” scenario. Honestly though if they only post every 3-6 months I will have most likely forgotten or lost the connection I had with them in the first place. I believe the minimum a blogger should post should be once per week if they want to keep their readers engaged.  Of course holidays and vacation are exceptions to the rule.

3.  They are constantly slogging merchandise or promoting companies products.

I get it, everyone wants to make some cash via blogging, I’m not immune to that.  However if the blog feels like it is 95% advertising and 5% personal input I am not going back. I am exposed to too much marketing already.

4.  They have too many large multi blogger giveaways.

You know the ones I’m talking about.  You have to enter 50 blogs on 5 different social media platforms,  and promise your first born child…yeah those ones. I hate them. I don’t care if you might win $1000 cash. Trying to remove myself from all junk that gets delivered after I’ve entered and unsubscribed to all the blogs and websites I didn’t even like in the first place is way more hassle than it is worth.

Also I don’t like blogs that have giveaways all the time. It is boring non-content and feels like they are trying to buy followers.

5.  They don’t write enough.

There are some really great blogs out there that have beautiful photos, gorgeous people in them and the writing is horrible or non existent. Writing something authentic from the heart creates a personal bond with the reader. I want more than just pretty pictures and basic information. I want to feel like I know that person.

6.  They have no sense of humour.

If they can’t laugh at themselves, make jokes or just generally smile once in a while I won’t be sticking around for long. Life is too short to be so serious all the time.

7.  They don’t stimulate or entertain me.

I need a blog to either challenge, inspire, entertain or enlighten me in some way otherwise I get bored and move on.

8.  They don’t interact with their commenters.

If I have been commenting on another blog regularly and they have never visited mine or bothered to comment back often I grow frustrated and will stop visiting. It feels like I’m always trying to be their friend and they simply can’t be bothered.

9.  They are vapid, inauthentic and simply trying to inflate their readers.

You know the ones I’m talking about. They leave comments like this,

“Loved your post! Please come and visit me!”

These are people that have never visited you before and have no intention of visiting you again. They are a living breathing “spambot”.

They make ridiculous comments that have nothing whatsoever to do with the post.  I liken it to them to vandals signing their name on an bathroom wall only to prove they were there.

I ignore these comments and I never follow their blogs.

I feel deeply about rewarding people for authenticity and just as deeply about ensuring I’m not encouraging those that aren’t.

10.  Their blog/style hasn’t grown or changed over time and they no longer appeal to me.

We all change. What we liked last year might not be what we like this year. Blogs that don’t move forward to change with the times become stale and repetitive.

I also read some other suggestions ( bad titles, boring posts, unfocused, posts are too long)  another opinion (poor design, long paragraphs, inconsistent photo sizes, read more button, only personal posts, not on Twitter)  as well as these suggestions which are a bit more personal (too many blogs to read, interests have changed, blog focus has changed, grown apart, unfocused blogger) as to why people stop reading blogs.

I realize that for someone to want to follow my blog something must resonate with them and this simply is not always the case and possibly why I lost that follower in the first place.

What about you? Do you agree or disagree with the reasons I choose to stop reading a blog?

What are the reasons you stop reading a blog or won’t follow them to begin with?

Please follow and like us: