My Blog = My Life + the hard-truths of blogging

Today, I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Losing blog followers is a part of blogging, and it’s going to happen to you. A lot. Don’t get frustrated about it and don’t panic when it happens.
It’s called attrition.
There is no doubt that most bloggers work hard to gain a following. Almost every blogger who's trying to build a following watches their subscriber and follower counts on a daily (or hourly, or minutely) basis, no matter how big their blog gets. They know when new people follow and they know when their numbers drop.
I remember when I started Single Dad Laughing and my Facebook Page still had around 200 followers. I remember watching that number, excited every time it went up one or two, and I remember how devastated I was the couple of times that I saw it drop one or two. I took it personally, wondering what I did that drove those people away, wondering what I did that wasn’t good enough for them, and wondering if there was any way to get them back. I spent a lot of time worrying about it, tracking down people who I noticed stopped following, and asking them for feedback to gain insight, etc. It took a while for me to realize that some people just stop following, and there’s nothing I can do about it, there’s nothing I necessarily did wrong, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it from happening in the future.
Read & Comment >>