It can feel like you are a ghost when your articles get zero likes and low engagement. This is something that many writers have to deal with unfortunately and some never understand why it is happening to them. I have been writing since 2020 and learned a lot during that time. Here are my thoughts on this topic.
1. You don't have a strong brand presence yet
Articles that perform well, tend to be written by writers who are already established. When you are established you have credibility. It can take weeks or months at the very least before you have some sort of brand that people can recognise. If you have just started writing and you are not well known by anyone yet then you don't really have the reputation to go along with the words that you are writing.
2. The content that you write is off brand
You have to write in your element and stay on brand if you intend on growing your following. For example if you are not known for building products on ProductHunt then don't write an article about it because you don't have the experience or proof to back it up. If one day you do become good in that area then you have just given yourself credibility to write that article.
In another example say you are well known for creating marketing products that help people grow on Twitter. And then you write an article about how to create CSS Art. If you have never talked about it before then people are not going to associate you with it and you are likely to get low engagement.
3. The topic is boring and not well known
If you write an article about something niche that is not popular and nobody is talking about. Then you can't be surprised when nobody reads it. You see search terms are important when it comes to generating ideas for articles. If it is a popular topic like JavaScript frameworks or building a website then it is highly likely that many people will be searching for information on it.
You can't expect people to be excited about something that is not going to help them generate money, find work or keep them interested.
4. It is a copy and paste generic topic
Holding someones interest is key to getting noticed. There are so many blog articles out there already it is almost impossible to be unique. However if you choose to write a topic that has been talked about so many times lately that it has become repetitive. Then you just become another me too person and it is unlikely that people will want to read the same content over again in such a short space of time.
5. All text and no media content
Let me first start by saying that you don't need images, gifs or videos to make your articles interesting. However if all of your articles are going to be big blocks of texts with lots of paragraphs then it is going to look unappealing and too long to read. So many people have short attention spans if you put a big block of text in front of them to read they will loose interest fast. Social media and its quick dopamine hits has made this really prevalent.
6. You have a small following
This one is quite obvious. If you barely have any followers then of course you are unlikely to have a lot of people reading your content. When you grow and become more popular your articles will perform much better.
7. Your posting schedule is bad
Timing is everything. Remember that we all live in different time zones so your articles are likely to perform differently depending on where you live. I have posted some articles in the morning which started to perform quite slowly. But as the day progressed the views and engagements started to increase a lot. Don't forget that people are busy too they are not going to be looking at your blog 24/7. Give it some time maybe even a few days for your article to get out there and then the engagement will rise.
If you choose to post an article right before you go to bed then it is possible that it will get lost in the search results and pushed down the rankings by articles that get posted the following morning when people wake up again.
8. You have a poor writing style
This is an area that you can fix overtime and with practice. The more you write the better you will get at it. Using an app like Grammarly will improve your writing style as well as clearing up any spelling mistakes. Good writers know how to engage with their audience this is why their books sell in the millions.
9. Your articles have a beginning but no end
Writing is basically the art of storytelling. There needs to be a beginning, middle and end to the content that you write. So for example if you are writing about an experience that you had or something that you learned then the audience is expecting there to be a resolution so they know how it ended and how they can relate and learn from it.
10. The article never left your head
If you have something to say then say it. It's no good talking about what you are going to write and then not actually doing it. Nobody can read your work if its stuck in your head we are not mind readers. This is a problem that many aspiring writers have. Instead of actually writing that article they just put it off indefinitely and create excuses for themselves.
Tough love but nothing will change until you take action.
Final Thoughts
I really hope that you enjoyed reading this article and learned something from it. As a content creator and technical writer I am passionate about sharing my knowledge and helping other people reach their goals. Let's connect across social media you can find all of my social media profiles and blogs on linktree.
Peace ✌️
Top comments (17)
you forgot point 11: you didn't write a catchy clickbait title
I wrote a similar article some time ago: 5 Tips for successful blogging + 1 to build a solid personal brand. ;-)
I agree a lot with writing quality content and especially about Storytelling and liked the tips about scheduling , but personally I really disliked and disagree with point 3 The topic is boring and not well known
The web is full of posts about Imposter Syndrome, Array Reduce, or How to build React Clones of something - new posts about those every single day, and somehow they make lots of views. But do they really make a difference?
Maybe a very technical niche post with just 10 views made the day of desperate devs struggling to find documentation or solutions to a similar problem, or your technical tutorials about AWS CDK will get you the next job - could you say the same for the next acclaimed post " Use console.log like a pro" ?
I think the main point is understanding WHY we are blogging:
when we know why are blogging we can also decide to care or not about views and likes.
I disagree with point no. 3 because covering a niche topic gives you a higher chance to be the king of that niche (with room to grow in the future). If you cover a popular topic, you‘re just another drop in the ocean. It‘ll be hard to find you between all the noise (= the other articles in that space).
Depends on the niche. I have seen people write about topics that mostly only excite them but they fail to convey what exactly the product is or how to use it. Then they wonder why thier article has low views and no comments.
It takes time though. Possibly years in some cases. Blogs on topics like Kernel development or Assembly Programming would attract very few viewers just for the fact that most of the developers dont know anything about them and most importantly, dont "want to know" anything about them.
I think it‘s important to pick a niche with potential to grow.
These are not prerequisites they are tips. Anyone can write figuring out how to write better articles and reach a bigger audience is something that you learn along the way.
I didn't have a lot of these when I first started and I used to have a low following and still posted.
Loved this!
Thank you glad you found it useful.
Thanks!
love the article Andrew!
I aim to please I hope it helps you a lot.
Thanks!
No problem there is more to come.
Oh, #10 is facts.
Hey I'm 10 all the way. But then I have no articles no-one is reading because well 10 ... ;-). My head is busy though.
got a whole lot of #10 for sure.. nice write up