Go ahead, don't stop by to read or say anything, just move alone..er, along

It might seem like a strange topic to write about – but the reality is that all blogs, lose readers from time to time.

Usually the readers just silently disappear – you might not have even known that you had them so losing them goes unnoticed – however occasionally you hear about it either with the reader sending you an email.

Losing Readers Sucks

Whether it happens silently or in a public way – losing readers sucks. Not only that – many bloggers take it personally and get quite depressed about it. Like me…

A few thoughts on how to lose readers well:

1. Don’t let it Impact your Self Worth

Losing readers = failure in the eyes of many bloggers.

Your worth as a blogger and as a person does not come from what you achieve or what others think about you – if you fall for looking at life this way you’re in for a fall at some point or another.

2. Listen to Critique

The key is to attempt to strip back some of the negative stuff and try to take an objective look at the core of what they’re saying. This is far from easy to do, particularly when the person leaving your blog as a reader does so publicly and unfairly- however there have been a couple of times when I’ve learned important lessons from these types of interactions.

3. Open a Conversation but Don’t Get Into Mud Slinging

One of the hardest things to decide when someone else writes anything negative about you is whether to engage with them in conversation – and whether to do it publicly or privately.

My approach is to try to engage with the person writing about me – but to only do it to a point that is constructive. If the person is not willing to engage or has their own agendas behind it and is not willing to be constructive I don’t engage them any further.

On whether to do it privately or publicly – again it comes down to whether it is going to be constructive. For example if the person has said untruths about you or has said things that can be cleared up with some clarification – I generally try to reply with a comment that politely clears up the errors in what they’ve said so that others coming across the post have a chance to get the full story.

This has not always been greeted with civility.

4. Acknowledge a Reader Life Cycle

One of the most important lessons that I’ve learned over the last 7 years of blogging is that it is rare to have a reader stay with you forever. Readers move on for a variety of reasons and many of them have nothing to do with you or your blog:

• Some readers leave because they have zero interest in your topic
• Some readers leave because they don’t have time to read
• Some readers leave because of their level of knowledge on a topic 
• The list goes on – readers will come and go.

5. A lesson from a Buddhist monk

 “When someone attacks you with anger and hatred say to them:

“Thank you for your ‘gift’ – but I think you can keep it for yourself.”

It is easy to take on the anger of other people and to wear it as a burden of your own but it is usually unhealthy to do so. “

Life is too short to get drawn into the anger and bitterness of others.

Bottom of Form