Your blog post just bombed.
4 views in 48 hours.
No reads.
Nothing.
How in the hell are we going to feel good about ourselves as writers when something like this happens?
I have two things to keep in mind.
1. Just Because Nobody Read It Doesn’t Mean It Wasn’t Helpful
So often we think 0 views = bad article.
That’s not true at all.
In reality 0 views probably =
Bad headline
No use of publications
Bad cover photo
Topic that isn’t relatable
I’ve critiqued thousands of articles, and most boil down to the above four problems.
I could write the greatest article known to mankind, but if my headline is “Sunday Musings” then sorry, nobody is going to read what I have to say.
So don’t immediately think your article is bad.
What you wrote might be super helpful.
You may just need to
Make it shorter
Use publications
Write a better headline
Insert more personal stories
Write about something lots of people can relate to
That’s it.
2. If I Started From Zero, Guess How Many Views I’d Get?
Let’s imagine for a moment that Tom Kuegler got all his followers deleted.
Let’s also imagine that everybody forgot who the hell he was.
How many views would he get per post?
Nothing.
That’s the answer.
At first I would get a whole lot of no traction.
What gives?
Is my content bad?
Of course not! It’s the same stuff that got thousands of views just a week earlier.
Why is it all of a sudden getting 1 like and 7 views, then?
Isn’t content king?
No.
It’s not as simple as that.
Lots of great creators get buried underneath mountains of online content because they just started and have 0 followers.
Their stuff isn’t bad. They just got started.
Sometimes it just takes a while for people to listen.
It took me 12 months of steady posting to have my first 10,000+ view month.
So the next time your post gets 0 views, understand something..
This stuff takes time. You aren’t immediately a bad writer.
Stick with it.
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Tom, I swear you've looked at my stats! Patience is hard sometimes, but thank you for the reminder. Writing in niches makes it more challenging to get eyeballs, and as you've said, it's a bit of a juggling act to keep those eyeballs to the end of the article. Thank you for doing these lessons, btw, I read them everyday and often make notes from them.
Thanks, Tom, for reminding us what it's like to start out. And, for letting us know what to focus on. Your honesty is so appreciated. Great motivation. Thanks.