by: Carol Bryant, BlogPaws' PR Manager
“Stop right up and don’t read my blog!”
Would you ever consider making that a headline for one of your pet blog posts? Akin to a carnival barker imploring folks to “hurry hurry, step right up, and check this out,” your blog should be inviting, easy to use, simple to navigate, and rich in content.
There are, however, at least eight ways you can get people to stop visiting your pet blog. Using these time-tested tips, your pet blog is least likely to be visited. Here’s how:
Make it hard for me to find the comments box: I keep current on a variety (over 100) of pet blogs, pet websites, and pet news sources in my Google Reader, with Google alerts, RSS feed, and emails. If I am taking time out of my day to read what you have to say but have a hard time finding the comment/reply option, don’t expect me, aka your reader, to comment. Knowing I am unable to interact with you, I might not return. Make it easy for me to find your comment/reply option.
Keep the load time at its absolute maximum: We’re all moving at the speed of light these days it seems. If your blog post/title catches my eye, but once I click to get there, your load take takes what seems like forever, I might not come back. Google has some great tips to speed up your load time.
Post content
sporadically or rarely: Do you like getting your news now and then or do
you like to stay
current with what’s happening? Most of us like up-to-date
information. Once your readers know your blog exists, take time to nurture and
craft a blog post with regularity. Even if you decide to post once a week, don’t
stray from that. Consistency breeds loyalty.
Ignore Social Bookmarking Sites: Though they aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, ignoring social bookmarking sites might keep a contingency of readers away. Sites like Digg, StumbleUpon and Reddit are all viable options for submitting your best posts. Monitor your analytics to determine which of these sites help increase your blog traffic.
Don’t worry about SEO: If content is King, SEO is the queen. I love the quote, “SEO, when done right, should never interfere with great writing." This was written by Rand Fishkin for SEOmoz.com. BlogPaws conferences feature sessions on SEO and its importance for pet bloggers. Write first, SEO optimize after, but ensure you have a plan in place.
Ignore Your Readers: Don’t engage with people and neglect reciprocating on their blogs to ensure minimum repeat visitors to your blog. Seriously, the first word in social media is “social”—it’s a two-way street. Talk to your readers, visit the blogs that visit you, engage with your audience. Content is king but interaction rules the online social media universe.
Make a super busy and overcrowded blog: Bells, whistles, and colors, oh my! Engage your inner creative self but keep in mind that people want something when they visit your blog. The least of their worries is how colorful or how densely packed the appearance of your blog happens to be. In fact, less is more. Streamlining a layout is the new norm.
Don’t join the BlogPaws community: With nearly 2,000 members, BlogPaws has become the premiere voice for pet bloggers and microbloggers. We engage with one another, share insider info, ask questions, and help each other on a daily basis. Joining the BlogPaws community is free, easy, and like any relationship: You’ll get out of it what you put in. Trust me, my career changed because of BlogPaws.
What are you doing to
keep traffic coming to your pet blog? Bark at us below in the comments.
As a new blogger this is very helpful thanks! And a reason why I joined Blog Paws. I have encountered some of these issues and they do make me not want to come back.
Posted by: Sandra Townsend | 01/14/2013 at 08:40 AM
Welcome to the pack, Sandra. Happy to assist and we have a great community where we chat and help each other as well.
Posted by: Carol Bryant | 01/14/2013 at 10:48 AM
This could also be twisted into ways of getting more readers! For example point 3 (Post content sporadically or rarely) could be twisted so you post regularly to gain readers...
Posted by: Emily | 01/14/2013 at 12:04 PM
This was great!
We clicked on the "speed up your load time" link and there a a very simple way of testing your load time by just entering your URL. Very cool!
We also checked out Digg, Stumble Upon and Reddit...set up accounts and entered links for today's posts.
Questions for those of you who use Digg, Stumble Upon or Reddit -
1. Do you enter links to your daily blog posts every day?
2. Or do you use it more to share other things?
3. If you share your own blog posts, do you enter your links by hand or do you have some magic automation gizmo?
Thanks!
Glogirly & Katie
Posted by: Glogirly and Katie | 01/14/2013 at 01:53 PM
Yes "ignoring your readers" is the best way I believe to get people to not going back. I hate it when I don't recieve responses on comment that I put on other people posts, and after 6 or 7th time commenting if no one rights back I don't follow anymore. There is no nead to follow a blog if the owner of the blog doesn't communicate. Great post by the way!
Posted by: Francesca Villa | 01/15/2013 at 12:25 AM
Love it!
I can't tell you how many site I see without sharing buttons. And Captcha - stop with the Captcha.
Another thing I see ALL THE TIME is that people don't have their Twitter sharing button set up with their Twitter ID - they're missing out on connecting with the people who are sharing their posts.
Posted by: Kimberly, The Fur Mom | 01/15/2013 at 03:59 PM
There are a few I can think of....one is to talk down to your readers...
Visiting those that visit you are key...
I try to respond to comments as often as possible but sometimes I just can't. When I am too busy I will at least respond to those comments that ask a direct question, thank me for something or those who leave a comment that has more substance.
Another sure way to lose me is to put too much "gibberish" on the blog. I don't have time to decipher an alien language......sorry!
Posted by: caren gittleman | 01/15/2013 at 06:29 PM
Nice list! One of my goals this year is to try and be more involved in the BlogPaws Community.
I've been ignoring the Social Bookmarking Sites.
In the past I've put some time and effort into Digg and Reddit and I've found that unless you are extremely involved in the community and become a power user or know a power user you don't see much activity back to your blog. Don't get me wrong I have received substantial traffic from Reddit, Digg, and another site called Fark, but it was more due to luck then my community involvement.
On the other hand I have seen substantial traffic from StumbleUpon from my efforts. If I were to recommend concentrating on any one of these social bookmarking sites it would be StumbleUpon.
The only other problem I see with these social bookmarking sites is the waves of traffic you do receive do not seem to stick around for very long.
GloGirly & Katie
1. From what I recall you are not supposed to submit your own links to the sites. I think links were supposed to be found naturally.
2. Yes, I think the ideas was to share other pieces of content you truly enjoyed.
3. I'm not sure about any gizmos for submitting content.
@Carol, what experiences have you had with Social Bookmarking sites?
Posted by: Colby | 01/16/2013 at 03:07 AM
One of my biggest pet-peeve is having trouble finding the comment button, or box. Is it at the top? Is it a tiny, tiny text that I need to click? Is it labeled in a word that I am not cool enough to get? My second pet-peeve is when I have to sign up, do a test, squint my eyes to figure out the words I need to copy just to post... drives me away.
Thanks for sharing these points, I think they are all true.
Posted by: Wagthedoguk | 01/22/2013 at 07:34 AM
Great post title. Yes, please say no to Captcha, posts as long as War and peace, and anything that hurts my eyes.
Posted by: Layla Morgan Wilde (Cat Wisdom 101) | 03/01/2013 at 08:49 PM