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Sunday, October 25, 2015

Have blogs lost their luster?

I am considering dropping this blog due to lack of interest.


With the help of Blogger tools I am able to see how many folks visit the blog on a daily basis. While I am fairly pleased to have as many as 20+ visitors per day, readers don't leave comments for authors or for me. After 380+ blogs have been posted, I'm wondering if there's anyone out there who would care if the blog folded altogether.

If you read this blog and would like for it to continue to give you information on authors and books, please leave a comment. Authors, you need to weigh in also. Has this blog helped you in any way? I'm open to an entirely new format and content if that would bring traffic.

Thanks in advance for your honest feedback. I'm offering a gift set of all five Logan Hunter Mysteries to one lucky commenter.

12 comments:

Susan Sands said...

Hi Susan,
I think there is so much content out there these days that unless someone is searching out a particular subject or looking for a contest and trying to win a prize, our regular blogs tend to be ignored. But i do think we have readers who enjoy what we write who don't leave comments. Is it worth the time and effort spent to continue the effort? I guess it depends why we're doing it. I blog on my personal Word Press site and have been doing so for several years--long before I published my recent debut novel. It gave me an outlet for my writing. I haven't won awards for my blogging and I don't try to drive up my stats through all the ways people do. I wouldn't even know how to begin. But I continue my blog for me and the readers who do enjoy following along with my journey. I don't offer prizes for comments or likes to get the contest junkies to hop on board. But I do think that might be the way of things nowadays, sadly. I enjoy your blog and hope you figure out what direction works best!

Susan Whitfield said...

Susan, thanks for the feedback. I'm sorry you didn't have much traffic last week, even offering a free book. Perhaps we will both continue for ourselves even if others aren't visiting. I wish you every success!

Mary Deal said...

I had planed to follow your lead and start my own blog. I know about these difficulties of people lurking but leaving no trace. All this makes me wonder if I should not do a blog. Mine would have been to promote my paintings and photography. However, I don't think promoting art is much different than promoting books.

BTW, I love your blog and your interviews. You do so much for us writers, I wish you receive many more responses and that things pick up. I also know that people, for the most part, have been lackluster in responses everywhere for at least the last year, if not two. It's very disconcerting, but one way or another, we must prevail. It's as much a difficult decision for you to stay or quit as it is for me to start... or not.

Susan Whitfield said...

Good comments, Mary Deal. I have never been a quitter and I do enjoy trying to help other writers get visibility. I have to think on these things. Thanks for weighing in.

Mary Deal said...

Well, I hope you get some comments. I have all your books so take my name out of the contest. Some lucky person is in for a grand reading time with those thrillers of yours. That's a huge prize to dole out.

Unknown said...

I too wish to write a book one day and your blogs are always very useful to me. I have your first book in the series, signed by you. I saw it in the paper while being released from the hospital after a three week stay with pancreatitis. I started reading it when I got home and didn't put it down until I finished it. I hope you will continue your blog.

Susan Whitfield said...

Jennifer, thanks for weighing in. What a great comment. I'm glad you enjoyed Genesis Beach. I hope you're doing well now. How would you like the rest of the series? I'll be in touch.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
chickangell said...

Susan, I know that I susbscribe to a lot of blogs, and read the email without ever going to the blog often. I know that for my own blog, most of the comments I get (if any) I receive on social media. But just because people aren't commenting, doesn't mean they aren't reading.

Anonymous said...

I know the feeling. I stopped posting on my blog as I, too, saw little interest. There's so much happening on social media that I just don't see people doing Google searches to find that I saw Sonny and Cher at Philadelphia's Convention Hall in 1965, a year after I saw the Beatles there.

I found my way to your blog through a newsletter that Sandra Beckwith puts out. She listed a bunch of people who interview authors or do book reviews. Since I'm a new indie author, I was hoping you'd be someone interested in that. Maybe you are writing in a different space?

I hope you'll at least take a look at my homage to my late mother. PEARL's Party...and you're invited
Thanks!

Unknown said...

Hello Susan,
Kay Wilson here. How have you been?

I've just read through the previous posts about your blog staying or closing it up. My thoughts and instincts run along the same lines as what Susan Sands wrote, "Who are you writing for? Is it to help other writers? Yourself or the numbers?"

I'm sure it must be frustrating, although from the looks of responses you've gotten, it appears you do have a following. It's like the mustard seeds, some fall on fallow ground, some fall to the rocks. . .but the ones that take are incredible.

Thanks for listening. Sending you Hugs,

K

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