Your Blog Sucks! Low Subscribership and No Comments

In our final chapter of "Your Blog Sucks" Week on Source Blogger, we're going to analyze what's keeping your blog from achieving a consistently increasing number of subscribers. In addition, we'll try to solve the mystery of why your traffic is not commenting. 

Why does my blog need subscribers?

Your blog has an audience. Your goal is develop a strategy to target this demographic and expose them to your blog. You have spent months preparing for this visit. Not only will you satisy the reader's desire for useful, relevant information, but you intend to impress them with other interesting and intriguing content from your blog archives.

What makes a blog so accommodating to a potential follower is the means by which he/she can subscribe. Either through RSS or eMail, your readers receive a very valuable service. And it's all free.

The debate rages on... 

At this very moment online, dozens of blogs, forums, and blogging communities are in a fierce struggle over many of the barometers from which blogs are measured. For every opinion in support of Google PageRank, Inbound Links, Alexa Rank, Blog Subscribers, Organic / Inorganic Traffic, etc., there is an opposing view. 

Many of these benchmarks of determining a blog's efficiency can unfortunately be manipulated, but should we simply dismiss them altogether? What other means would you propose to assist bloggers in assessing the integrity of their blog?

Source Blogger supports the position that one of the most vital criteria in evaluating a blog is subscribership. Does this mean that your blog can not survive without a large number of subscribers? No. But, it does mean that there is a barrier between your blogging efforts and effectively creating a loyal base of followers.

Subscriber Tendencies 

Your blog is not a newsletter that gets tacked on a bulletin board. A blog allows your readers to interact with you, other commentators, and other readers. (It also may demonstrate to advertisers how your readers perceive you.) 

As opposed to your non-recurring blog traffic, What is the likelihood that your subscribers will :

1) Read your next post 

2) Comment on your next post  

3) Reduce your bounce rate due to higher pageviews

4) Explore your advertising, leading to sales conversions

5) Link to your posts  

6) Join your social marketing network(s) and blogging communities 

7) Share your content in social marketing networks (Digg, Reddit, Mixx, Twitter, Facebook, etc.) 

8) Willingly provide backlinks back to to your blog

It's very likely, isn't it? 

Why your traffic interaction is low-to-non-existent 

If you are just joining us. This is the final installment of "Your Blog Sucks" Week. Many of the reasons why your blog is facing challenges has been outlined in great detail previously in the week. (As well as many other articles from the Source Blogger archive of past articles.) 

Since this week was a progressive tutorial at addressing and acknowledging barriers to your blog's success, we recommend you thoroughly read each article in order and in it's entirety.

Those that are considering becoming a blogger or are very new in the blogging industry, please do not become discouraged. Yes, blogging is very competitive and the failure rate is high. But, you can make it.

The reason you choose Source Blogger is because you want a competitive advantage over other bloggers. You need the tools, resources and instruction that do more than simply introduce topics and condense them to 150-250 words. That is the job of other blogs. 

Source Blogger does not write for search engines. We write for you. Some articles are very long and detailed. We know that. But, we also know that you want value. You want it made easy, practical, and relevant to you. In return, we ask you to join the growing, Source Blogger community. You are home here. We speak your language.

Hey, your readers are here! They think your blog sucks. They want to comment on your posts and become your loyal, faithful subscribers, but you are preventing them. Let's see what they said is preventing them, shall we?  

Reader #1:  "The incessant references to the amount of money you are making on your blog leaves me feeling queasy". 

With your focus on being how you are going to "capitalize" on their every visit, your relationship will never grow with them. If they have clicked your text ads, bought an eBook, or used your referral link, enjoy the revenue. Much of your future traffic may become defiant toward allowing you to earn money.

Reader #2: "Over a month's time, I responded to two of your articles. I spent some time formulating my comment and was anxious to hear your response."

You don't respond to your reader's comments, input, or suggestions. If you ignore their feedback, what steps will you ever take to improve your blog?

Reader#3: "How do I subscribe to your blog? I don't see the standard RSS icon or field that allows me to enter my e-mail. And nope, not even a Google Friend Connect Button."

Say it isn't so! Up to this point, you've sabotaged your efforts for subscribership. Resolve this now.

Reader #4: "Your last post was written 3 weeks ago."

Added subscribership  equates to added responsibility to please your subscribers. Your subscribers look forward to your blog updates. Let them wait too long and they may think you have abandoned them. With many blogs having a lifespan of 4 months, ask them if they've ever become a loyal subscriber only to see that blog disappear. Go ahead, ask 'em!

Part of what makes you a successful blogger is being on the cutting edge of trends. As an ongoing strategy, make a point of reading other blogs and material from social networks. Locate the demand...supply it...first!

Reader #5: "Why are some of your posts so completely out of character for you? You don't normally blog about this stuff. I'm confused."

You got caught didn't you? Source Blogger knows what happened. You got that email from PayPerPost, ReviewMe, Smorty, SocialSpark, LinkWorth, etc. to do a paid post. Over the last month your readers have been treated to articles about automatic door openers, home security systems, and the benefits of regularly scheduled automobile maintenance. Unfortunately, this has NOTHING to do with your blog topic. Is it worth confusing your traffic over this?  

Reader #6: "I'm not sure if I want to be your first subscriber. Is there a reason why others have not subscribed. Plus, I'm shy, I don't always want to be the first to comment to an article."

You have no subscribers and your posts have no comments. Your Alexa Rank is 500k. If others haven't subscribed or commented to your blog, why should anyone else? Take that subscriber feed button down! Do you really want the world to know you are your blog's only subscriber?

Reader #7: "I'd subscribe, but you never asked. Do you really want me?"

You'd be surprised at the power of "asking for the sale." This approach works. Request your readers subscribe. Remind them you make it easy for them and it's always a free service. Reward them with an eBook. Explain to them why they should subscribe.

If you can't explain why they should, then they won't.  

Reader #8: "Your blog is "NoFollow"? Plus, your spam blocker is preventing my comments from posting. And I have to wait for you to moderate my comment?"

Please read: Is It Pointless To Leave Comments on a NoFollow Blog? NoFollow vs. DoFollow

Weekly Recap on Source Blogger

"Your Blog Sucks" Week was a landmark week on Source Blogger. We hope you have had some opportunity to follow along with us. Now the work begins. We've gotten some solid input from your readers, commentators, subscribers, and your fellow bloggers to point you in the right direction.

Let us know what you changes you've made, if any.

Ok, next week on Source Blogger... we'll take a short break from the week-long themes to catch up other exciting new content that has been waiting to publish. Following that, we still owe you Google PageRank week. In addition, we are developing another week-long theme around generating blog traffic.

You won't want to miss a single article! Make today the day you subscribe to Source Blogger!