Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes…

A few weeks ago I wrote about what appeared to be a major milestone – my blog had reached 100,000 views.

While I was excited by that number, deep down I knew that the number didn’t really measure impact or engagement. And on those metrics, my blog has not fared very well.

After three and a half years of blogging (1,319 straight days), I only have 45 followers. In addition, a comment or two on what I’ve written is a rare event.

I don’t write with the goal of getting views, or followers, or comments, but such metrics may be good surrogates of either the lack of good content, lack of good promotion, or most likely a combination of both.

If I wanted to have more followers or more engaged readers, I realized I needed to stop doing what I’ve been doing. I needed help.

So I decided to reach out to someone whose blog I first came across when I began writing over three years ago, and has served as a role model for me with respect to blogging, Dave Kanigan at I Can’t Sleep. Dave blogs on a daily basis (sometimes multiple times per day), has over 17,000 followers, and routinely gets dozens of likes and comments on every blog he posts. One of his posts had over 800,000 views and 1,300 comments! Like me, Dave is not a full-time blogger, but does it for the love and fun of it.

So I thought, who better to ask for some guidance on how to improve my blog. I wrote Dave a fairly lengthy email, and as I expected, he got back to me on a timely basis with a very thoughtful and useful response which included some specific courses of actions he recommended I take with respect to my blog.

I plan to start incorporating such changes over the next few weeks, so bear with me as I do so. Some of the changes will be subtle, others will hopefully be more noticeable.

What will not change is my commitment to blog every day by sharing my experiences and ideas and stories I come across that make me think, laugh, feel good, or occasionally cry.

Thank you to all who have read my blog over the past three and half years, your support has been greatly appreciated.