5 Reasons Nobody Is Reading Your Articles
#4: You’re neglecting the marketing side of writing
Whenever you set out to write something that other people will enthusiastically read, engage with, and share with others, you must approach your writing in a different way than you would if you were merely writing for yourself.
Creating content that attracts and retains other peoples’ attention requires more than just decent writing and an interesting perspective. It also requires explicit strategizing, a commitment to patience and growth over the long term, and an audience-first mindset that prioritizes the reading experience over the writing experience.
As writers, we sometimes get so wrapped up in the writing process and in the specific issues that form the substance of what we publish that we lose sight of the importance of other dynamics that determine whether our words reach the very people for whom we intend them. In other cases, we’re so used to writing in a specific style or assuming the clarity of our words that we fail to appreciate how our habits and oversights discourage others from engaging with our work in the ways we wish they would.
Believe me when I tell you that I know what it’s like to work for hours, days, or even weeks on a piece of writing just to see it fall completely flat whenever I finally put it out into the world.
The best thing to do whenever one of your articles turns out to be a dud is to try to identify the specific reasons that so few people took notice of it. If you’re struggling to connect with readers and if few people seem to care about the stories you share, it’s likely that one or more of the following dynamics apply to you.
1. You’re Writing About Yourself Too Much
People read things because they want a return on their investment.
Whether it’s learning something new, scratching the curiosity itch, acquiring a new skill, experiencing an emotion, or seeking temporary distraction from the reality of day-to-day life, we read with the expectation that doing so will produce a tangible benefit for us. Whenever this expectation isn’t met, we feel disappointed in general and annoyed with the writer in particular. A sure way to agitate and push away your readers is to write about yourself ad nauseam.
Yes, being vulnerable in your storytelling is crucial for creating genuine connections with your readers; however, if your words consistently amount to little more than retellings of your experiences and descriptions of your hopes and dreams, your readers will eventually give up on you once they realize that your writing is no different than a diary entry.
If you want people to read and engage with your work, you must clearly show your readers that the things about which you write are worth their time and attention. To do this, you should consciously try to write less about yourself and more about your readers. Practically, this means
- translating your experiences into lessons learned and bits of concrete advice that your readers can use to improve their own lives
- using lots of you- and we-based language to create both a meaningful linkage with your readers and the impression that you and they are on the same team
- constantly asking yourself “Why should anyone besides me care to read this?”
Writing in a strategic manner with the intention of helping, inspiring, or teaching your audience—that’s how to create articles people can’t helping reading and sharing with others.
2. You’re Using Boring, Vague, Self-Indulgent, or Unoriginal Titles
When it comes to convincing people to give your writing a chance, especially if you’re a relatively new or unknown writer, there are few things that are more important than the titles you choose for your articles. The title of your article is usually the first or second element that a potential reader sees—the other one being your cover image. See here for advice on how to choose an effective cover image.
With few exceptions, my decision to read something takes no more than a split second to make, and it’s based nearly entirely on the title I read. I suspect I’m not alone in this regard.
Your title must hook readers; it must draw them in by convincing them your article is worth reading. The reaction you want readers to have whenever they first spot your title is the opposite of the following:
- “Ugh, another article on this topic?! I’m so sick of seeing these pieces all over my feed!”
- “Well, that sounds like a fun read!” *Rolls eyes*
- “How about something different for a change?”
To get people to pay more attention to your stories, try to write titles that implicitly or explicitly do one or more of the following:
- Activate a sense of curiosity (Zita Fontaine nailed this with her article I Tried the World’s Most Dangerous Writing Tool)
- Generate controversy
- Induce one or more emotions (anger, annoyance, empathy, enthusiasm, fear, hope, inspiration, love, outrage, optimism, surprise, etc.)
- Promise one or more specific outcomes or benefits
- Speak directly to your reader, using you-based language.
Whenever working on your title, ask yourself “How likely would I be to click on this story if I hadn’t written it and if I didn’t know who its author is?”
Try not to let your enthusiasm for a topic crowd out the need to create a title that will convince even the initially uninterested from giving your piece a chance.
If you’re really struggling to find the headline cheat code, you can either
- take Michael Thompson’s advice by joining a mastermind group and working with other group members to come up with titles that people can’t help clicking on
- check out Kickass Headline Generator, BlogAbout’s Impact Blog Title Generator, or SEOPressor’s Blog Title Generator (you can also try Answer the Public).
3. You’re Not Being Patient Enough, or You Have Unrealistic Expectations
Take a look at the top writers on any platform, including here on Medium, and you’ll notice something: Virtually every successful writer dedicated many months, if not years, to publishing content on a regular basis before they amassed a large readership or started earning significant income via their writing.
Online writing platforms are more competitive today than at any other point in history, especially now that it’s possible for anybody with access to the Internet to turn words written into dollars made.
Even if we weren’t dealing with the current COVID-19 pandemic, which is displacing many people from standard workplaces and forcing these folks to find new ways to generate income, the above point about competition would remain true.
It takes a long time to establish yourself as a reputable writer whose words are recognized as deserving of attention. Many aspects of earning this recognition are under your control, such as publishing your best work on a regular basis, proactively marketing yourself as a writer, and engaging with and supporting other creators (learn more here). Other aspects, however, are beyond your influence, such as the inner workings of the algorithms that determine whether, and if so, then how, your content is shown to people online.
If you’re new to a given platform (or to the Internet more generally), it’s simply unreasonable to expect to be able to build a huge following within the short or even medium term; if it were that quick, many more people would achieve it than actually do.
Do everything you can to get your best work in front of as many people as possible, but—and here’s the key point—don’t expect to bypass the slow and steady growth that characterizes the vast majority of successful writers’ ascent. Put your most thoughtful ideas out into the world and trust that, eventually, they will make a meaningful impact.
4. You’re Neglecting the Marketing Side of Writing
You need to learn how to market yourself and your ideas if you want to succeed on the Internet as a writer.
Today, every successful writer is also a successful marketer. That doesn’t mean that all, or even most, writers with big audiences produce half a dozen different forms of content every day, run massive email lists, give public talks at conferences, upload YouTube videos on a weekly basis, regularly host webinars, and relentlessly try to form relationships with other creators.
What it does mean, however, is that virtually every writer whose ideas consistently reach significant numbers of people does much more than merely put words to screen in an effort to increase the chances that those words will attract lots of eyeballs.
Maybe you’re thinking to yourself, “I can easily name someone who does nothing but publish stories online and has tens of thousands of followers. I never see them doing any sort of marketing. They just write, publish, and repeat—day in and day out.” Although not impossible, I find this to be extremely unlikely.
Much of the marketing that successful writers do takes place behind the scenes—for example, in private groups that 1) are never discussed in public and 2) consist of influential writers who work together to promote and support each other’s work. So, even if you don’t witness your favourite writers actively promoting themselves, rest assured that they are indeed networking with others and seeking to build their influence.
More to the point, even if it’s true that a (very) small number of writers are able to consistently reach lots of readers without having to do anything other than type out their thoughts, this is almost certainly the exception to the much more powerful rule that states that marketing is now an essential part of any effort to build an online presence, including as a writer.
If you’re an unknown writer whose articles garner little, if any, attention, you have no choice but to up your marketing game if you want people to start noticing you.
Here are five things you can start doing right now to gradually acquire a larger readership:
- Engage much more frequently with other writers’ content on whichever writing platform you use. Spend 30 to 60 minutes (or more) every day highlighting and commenting on other writers’ stories. Tag the authors in your comments, and make sure to leave thoughtful and genuine feedback. The odd “Thanks for writing this; it’s exactly what I needed!” is fine, but it shouldn’t serve as your go-to comment because it reads as disingenuous whenever overused. If possible, you should also send writers short DMs from time to time. A simple “Just wanted to say this point really hit home for me. I appreciate your honesty here” is sufficient. Over time, these types of comments and DMs will allow you to form new relationships with your fellow writers, and these relationships will lead to more people genuinely caring about your writing.
- Write a meaningful status update on LinkedIn every day during the morning EST hours, and tag other people as appropriate. LinkedIn continues to provide great opportunities in terms of organic reach—much better than many other social platforms. LinkedIn is the perfect place to share stories about success and failure, including all the steps and emotions involved in taking risks in business or your personal life. LinkedIn is where ideas about business, freelancing, and personal growth/development flourish. You can also publish full-length articles on LinkedIn, which many people do.
- Practice the art of cold emailing and use what I call the Social Media Share every time you publish a new article. Learn more here (tactic #2).
- Take advantage of and contribute to Medium-related Facebook groups. Learn more here (strategy #4).
- Share your content across as many social media platforms as possible without spamming people. You may think I’m crazy for suggesting this, but I believe one of the best ways right now to significantly increase the number of people who read your articles is to create content on TikTok (you can watch my TikTok videos here). Yes, you read that correctly. The organic reach on TikTok is unparalleled at this moment, with people gaining hundreds of thousands of followers, if not more, in a matter of months. If you can create short videos about the topics that your articles cover and then direct people on TikTok to your website or whichever writing platform you use, you can drive a lot of free traffic towards your writing. There’s a reason celebrities have flocked to the app in recent months: It’s the place to create content right now.
5. You’re Failing to See That Writing Isn’t Your Superpower (and That’s Okay!)
Some people would be much happier and more productive and successful if they were to turn away from writing and direct their creative energies elsewhere. I’m not presuming to know whether you fall into this category, but if you’ve applied yourself to the craft of writing for a long time now and if you’ve struggled every step of the way, it’s at least worth considering whether your dedication and talent would be better practiced elsewhere.
The reality is that not everybody has what it takes to succeed as a writer, just as not everybody has what it takes to excel as an actor or as an athlete or as an economist or as a physicist or as a welder—the list goes on and on.
Self-awareness is essential to achieving success in any area of life. Rather than trying to force yourself to become something you’re not, you should, as Gary Vaynerchuk likes to say, triple-down on the things you do extremely well. This requires 1) being honest with yourself about your talents and past successes and failures and 2) accepting that there’s no need for you to be good at everything.
I’ve always wanted to be a musician, but I have no formal training, and I can’t carry a tune to save my life—seriously, it’s astonishing how bad my voice is! Rather than waste time producing music or learning about calculus or trying to become the World’s Strongest Man, I focus on what I excel at, i.e., editing, writing, and teaching.
Some people struggle as writers because their current writing and marketing skills are subpar—this deficiency can be gradually fixed. Others struggle because of dynamics that are more difficult to change, such as having disorganized and sporadic thinking patterns that don’t translate well into the type of logical analysis and systematic processing that careful writing requires. This has nothing to do with intelligence or with certain professions being better than others. It’s simply about being brave enough and having enough self-love to be able to ask yourself whether writing truly is the optimal vessel through which to express your creativity and earn a living.
For some people, the answer to this question is no, and that’s perfectly fine. For what it’s worth, I’d rather be a snowboarder or a techno DJ/producer than a writer. Maybe I’ll be so lucky in my next life.
The Takeaway
Putting your soul into your writing only to witness each new article you publish bring about nothing but the sound of crickets chirping can be a devastating and demoralizing experience. Many people dream of becoming writers whose words reach masses of adoring fans, but few individuals actually turn that dream into reality. Fortunately, it’s never been easier than it is right now to succeed as a writer. It’s still an extremely difficult goal to achieve, but it’s now more in reach than ever before.
In this article, I’ve tried to shed some light on five key reasons writers often struggle to connect with readers. If you’re facing this dilemma, i.e., if few people, if any, are reading your articles, you’re probably making one or more of the following mistakes:
- You’re writing about yourself too much.
- You’re using boring, vague, self-indulgent, or unoriginal titles.
- You’re not being patient enough, or you have unrealistic expectations.
- You’re neglecting the marketing side of writing.
- You’re failing to see that writing isn’t your superpower.
One last thing: Get more stories like this one here.