How many dead blogs do you think exist in the blogosphere today? Take a guess… A couple of million perhaps…? Try again. According to Technorati and PC Mag, in 2007 the number stood at 200 million! Yes, 200 million! Which means blogs are now officially abandoned more often than red headed step children. More research from Perseus on blogging abandonment behaviour found that 66% of blogs hadn’t been updated for two months. So why is it that the blogosphere represents a mass graveyard of unfulfilled intentions?
The low barrier of entry to the blogosphere is without question a key reason for the high abandonment rate. Anyone can create a free blog within minutes following the emergence of blogging platforms such as WordPress & Blogger. And I mean anyone… even Mr Mullet (I just love making fun of mullets!). As a result, there is very little consequence in the decision to abandon an unloved and unread blog. Easy come… easy go. Indeed, Steve Rubel even went as far to say that he trusted blogs created on paid platforms more because the author had shown a higher level of commitment to the medium.
The biggest reason for the abandonment behaviour however, dawned on me as I perused my blog stats for the year to date. And it was the amount of patience required to get a blog off the ground. Because despite what the ‘Make Money Online‘ and other get rich quick blogs may tell you, it’s not friggen easy to get people to read your blog!
The (very) gradual evolution of a blog readership
Mega successful blogs have two core ingredients that drive their continued growth (aside from great content):
- A loyal base of devoted readers
- Great search engine rankings
These two elements work together to drive the blog to greater heights. Loyal readers return, share and refer the blog to others. And search engines ensure a constant stream of new visitors discover the blog. The new blogger of course, has neither loyal readers nor rankings on his side. Both need to be built from the ground up by earning the trust of search engines and readers alike. And as you can see from the graph below, neither comes easily…
The graph illustrates the modest growth in both reader loyalty and search engine traffic over the 7 month lifespan of this blog. A few interesting points to note are:
- Search engines sent practically no traffic to my new blog in its first 3-4 months
- After 7 months, search engines still barely account for 10% of site traffic
- After 7 months, 80% of readers still don’t bother to return after their first visit
How many people have the determination and patience to work through the lean times? Evidently… not many… Naturally, each blog is unique and other newbies will undoubtedly have achieved drastically better results than what I’ve reported above (particularly if they post more regularly). But most wouldn’t. Which is why we’ve got 200 million quitters in the blogosphere.
Ironically, the emergence of social media has made it easier than ever for new bloggers to find an audience. StumbleUpon, Digg and Co. mean that with a little luck, good new authors can get the attention of hundreds/thousands of readers almost overnight. I had over a hundred visits to my blog on its second day thanks to StumbleUpon. Makes you respect the early blogging pioneers just that little bit more doesn’t it. Because there weren’t any short cuts in the early days…
Just a lot of patience and earned trust!
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