The Blogging Files: when no one reads your work

story time.

It was Saturday, and I was looking forward to my phone dinging out of control like it had done last month with my other post. I had gained so many more followers, and had gotten that many more likes. I was a…

I was someone to be admired, cherished and famed. I was that it girl.

Subconsciously, I tailored my thoughts to be prepared to see more incoming traffic and likes. I had done the same preparations I always make with each of my posts. However, on Sunday of the next morning, I received zilch—zero, nada, nothing—from my newest post. Was I passionate about it? Of course. It was about Barnes and Nobles, of all things. Was I faking it? Heck no. Did I get any likes? Nope.

Immediately my heart started pumping with fear. The timeless and long-standing lie that spreads that “If I am doing anything with social media I need to have like thousands of people reading my stuff” juice had gotten into my bloodstream. So many people had enjoyed my last post, I contemplated in my head. I was supposed to have likes every time I pushed the Publish button.

But the reality of life and blogging is that no one is going to be a huge superstar bringing in big views every post (unless they’re gossip blogs or something like that.) and also…an even bigger reality is that more than often, your blog will get little to no traffic. People will like some things you write while not be interested in the rest. And sometimes, people will not like anything you write. Does this mean I am a bad writer or that I should just give up blogging?

what i learn from social media

Growing up with social media has made me a very impatient person. I’ve learned that in order to be seen as important, I need a lot of people paying attention to me at all times and need to validate every little thing I say/do. I don’t think it’s wrong to want people to approve of your actions. But I’ve noticed I am too eager to get someone’s approval. This brings me to many questions about myself, like…what defines success to me? Is it ok to write about things I enjoy? Is it ok to just be creative for my sake sometimes, because I need to?

I did some research and found an article by Sebastian Hunt about blogging and how it goes far more important beyond someone just reading your posts. Hunt goes on to explain more reasons why blogging benefits the one writing than the people reading the posts. It was such an encouragement—because when I first started my blogging journey, I was so gong ho on getting people to read and validate my blog. Still do, but I am learning that blogging is more about me learning my writing style and creativity and not about pushing out stuff that people like. As someone who writes I want to make sure it’s enjoyable for me and whomever is writing.

I have a whole bullet point from Hunt’s article that stuck out to me the most, about “writing about whatever the [expletive] you feel like” and what he thought about this topic:

I’ve written a few blog posts that I know for a fact would be interesting to only 7 other people on this entire planet. Sometimes you just need to write about whatever you find interesting. And sometimes you need to get that out before other ideas are able to come out so make your life easier and more fun by follwoing this tip and writing about whatever the fuck you feel like. Examples of me writing about things that took forever to write and are probably only interesting to me and 7 other people worldwide include a blog post about how Rick Ross is an economist and another unfinished post I started called “Tinderellas And Bumblinas: A Millennial Man’s Guide To Online Dating.” Sometimes I’ll just think of a good title and start a blog post based off that even if I’m not super interested in the topic eg my post in progress, “SaaSquatches, Kanban Dons, and Scrum Dog Millionaires.”

Sebastian Hunt. I just had to include the whole thing because it was so darn good.

it is totally okay to blog for you.

It’s ok to only write about things that interest you. It’s totally ok to ask your friends what they’d like you to write about every once in a while. It’s totally ok to have fun and customize your site to how you’d like it to look. (My website is all pink, I am working on a post right now in the drafts entitled Sharingans, family murders and weird brotherly “love” which is all about Itachi Uchiha and I’ve gotten a lot of ideas from coworkers and people I see everyday. The website is supposed to be fun and an adventurous time for me. As someone who’s never stuck to something for a long period of time, it’s a big proud moment to have an actual website I can look at and swoon over.

now please…stop looking at those statistics.

Leave the stats alone. Stop looking at your follower count. Turn off those notifications for likes and comments. (Maybe not the comments…you might need to reply to those.) Start learning all you can about your writing and what you like (and want to change) about it. Don’t make writing so serious. It’s supposed to be fun, creative and full of wonderful surprises! Even if no one reads your stuff, you are definitely reading it. So make your posts look good for you.

Write about things you want to write about. Here is a list of things I wrote about I am pretty sure I was the only person interested in, at the weirdest times—but I had to get them out of my head somehow:

My own opinion on Leaving Neverland
Agust-D and his two albums even though I was several years late
Yu-Gi-Oh season 0 (the forgotten season)

Nicki Parker and Stanley Oglevee are NOT goals
Going to Chinatown in Houston (oops that one hasn’t been written yet.)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Copyright © Shanedra Smith 2021. All Rights Reserved.