Categories
Uncategorized

What Is Going ONNNN???

Aaaaaaaaagh!
Aaaaaaaaagh!

We have a lot of smart readers here; maybe somebody can tell me what’s going on.

What the Hell is going on???

I subscribe to a lot of blogs because I’m trying to learn more about blogging. From people who do it well (to do more of what they do) and from the others, too (to do less of what they do). Nothing wrong with that, but occasionally I’ll find one that is extremely popular.

Several blogs I have been following – on WordPress specifically – have amassed either 3,000 or 5,000 or even 10,000 followers.

If somebody is doing that, I need to read them. They are doing something right.

Do I need this?
Do I need this?

It may or may not necessarily be something that I as an author need, but as far as marketing and building a base, there are probably some things I could learn from folks like that!

So I followed them.

I commented on them.

I liked them! They were good!

and

and

My soul when I read their terrible words.
My soul when I read their terrible words.

And they left!

These people were witty and charming and unique. That, to me, is the essence of why you want to do this in the first place. Whether it’s blogging to just blog and connect with people, or blogging to build a base for your books as an author, or whatever, uniqueness to me has always been important.

And what did I find?

They left!

Disappeared!

Honestly, two big bloggers in the last 30 days have said, “I’m going to go in a different direction… I’m taking some time off while I figure that out… I’m going to change what I’m doing…”

How am I supposed to learn from them if they stop posting?

Did they not think about that before they took these drastic actions???

Who fucking does that?
Who fucking does that?

The first time I read that type of announcement in a blog, I thought they were being self-destructive. Too much unexpected success, feeling pressure to stay on top, to add followers, to get higher and higher views each week… Who knows? Success can be scary if you feel you’re out there all by yourself winging it.

The second time I read that type of announcement in a blog, I thought wait a minute. Is this a pattern?

The second one went in-depth about how she would have more freedom and fewer restrictions on her new site… I ge that. WP is kinda clunky sometimes.

“Life of Moi,” if you must know. She says she’s keeping a WP dot org domaine, so here’s that. She’ll keep access to her stockpile of prior blogs that way, among other things.

And somewhere in there I got the impression that maybe she also thought she could generate revenue. That’s just me, not anything she said necessarily.

Maybe it's drugs
Maybe it’s drugs

Now, those of you who know me, you know I am all about the Benjamins. If you can make money off something, do it! I’ll back you hundred percent even if it’s not strictly legal. Probably.

So that brings me to this question.

WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON?

Why would you work hard to get 3,000 or 5,000 or 10,000 blog followers on WordPress and then decide to scrap it and jump ship and…

What? Why?

What are they doing? Are they going somewhere and just figure “I’ll just transfer the WordPress people over there and host my own and sell ads and make money”?

If so, I’m all for it!

The problem is, the two blogs that I’ve seen do this in the last 30 days, are both on like hiatus while they’re doing it.

Hello, clue?
Hello, clue?

That, I totally don’t get.

What I would do is run this blog and tell you, “Hey don’t forget I’m gonna be over at this new place!” Transition, transition, transition.

Or I’d post the first part of the a great blog here and say, “If you want to read the rest go to my NEW blog site! Subscribe there and I’ll give you a free something or other.”

So what am I missing, folks? What’s going on?

What is their big incentive to do this?

Has the train left the station without me?

Should I be on the train?

Is everyone going?

Will there be drinks?

Again, let's not rule out drugs
Again, let’s not rule out drugs

Or is it self destruction? I honestly have no clue. No idea. Fill me in.

We have lots of smart people here; maybe you have the answer. And when I know, you’ll all know. I’ll tell you what we find out. And just in case you’re wondering, NO, I’m not going anywhere.

Yet.

But if I did, I’d be telling you BIG TIME because I’d want you to come with me.

So? What are YOUR thoughts on all this possible mass migration?

.

Your humble host.
Your humble host.

REBLOG me! Or SHARE this post on Facebook and Twitter! See those little buttons down below? Put on your glasses. There they are. Click them. The FOLLOW button is now in the lower right hand corner.

Got a QUESTION? ASK IT! Hit the Contact Me button and I’ll see what I can do. (I have lots of smart friends.)

Dan Alatorre is the author of several bestsellers and the hilarious upcoming novel “Poggibonsi: an italian misadventure.” Click HERE to check out his other works.

54 replies on “What Is Going ONNNN???”

I would normally think money but neither of these two bloggers seemed like that’s what they were in it for. However, it only takes a few posts from people saying, “Hey, you know you could make X dollars a month if you monetized this site…” to get people thinking.

Like

I have no idea why this happens. There were a couple of awesome bloggers I followed religiously and then they just vanished! Without even saying goodbye! I felt rather bereft. Maybe the awesomeness gets too much to bear eventually. Pah.

Liked by 2 people

PorterGirl, I think that has something to do with it. I can see racking up lots and lots of followers because you’re just being yourself, and suddenly you start checking stats and say, gee, last week’s post got 1,000 views but this week’s post only got 600. I need to up my game!

On my Savvy Stories site, I posted a video of my daughter at age 3 1/2 dancing like a maniac at Sea World during lunch. There was music at the outdoor cafe and she just went crazy. It got like 1500 views on Facebook just because my friends shared it around a bit. There was a little rush of excitement when I saw that, and subsequent posts that didn’t do anywhere near as well were disappointing, until I realized the ONE video was a fluke. Now, if ALL my posts got 1500 views and then it started dropping, even if it was just for fun, I’d being pressure in my self to wonder why it was happening.

I think on at least one case, the blogger felt pressure to perform and decided they couldn’t keep outdoing themselves, and has really walked away.

In the other case, she seems more balanced but a new venture still carries the risk of failure. We’ve all continued to watch a favorite TV show that isn’t quite as good as it used to be, but when they take time off and come back on a new day and time, by then we might have replaced them with a new favorite show, and if they newest iteration isn’t great, we easily move on.

So I wonder what’s afoot, and I wait.

(BTW, you still owe me a raunchy story, don’t forget!)

Liked by 1 person

I can understand the pressure to continue to be bigger and better with every post and that must be very hard. Writing can be a brutal process and no one is more brutal to the work than the writer themselves. I suppose one can only do what is best for them at the time.
(Aha you remembered! I am building up to it, promise!)

Liked by 1 person

I think that’s really it. I can understand, too, but I wish they’d just cut back rather than go away, but maybe that just wasn’t in the cards.

And there’s a lesson in there for us. You have to put it out all out there, but you also have to avoid burnout.

(I wait patiently for your filthy story!)

Like

I have to think, just slow down, don’t post so much… but they said what they had to say, milked it dry, and sat there asking NOW WHAT? And probably didn’t want to disappoint everyone.

If I wanted to blog about my wild college days for example, eventually I’d run out of stories. I’d probably invite others to post their wild stories, like Scary Mommy did about mothering and family stuff, and eventually we’d have a watered down version of whatever it was I was talking about in the first place. At which point it probably should fold – as far as wacky college antics. But since people still go to college and will still be wacky, the site could go on. I’d hopefully evolve into a different being – an adult, say – and still have interesting things to say about something else.

That’s what I hope will happen with the sites I loved that have disappeared, but I think that’s pretty ambitious for somebody who isn’t something like a manager at a magazine!

Like

Hi Dan,
My take on this:
Most of them seem to be either lured by the ‘Freedom of expression and flexiblity’ of going Self-Hosted (but lose their re-blog facility, thereby deterring many followers who love to re-blog.
OR
They have just worn themselves out trying to keep up with the demand of new posts, ideas, etc.
Many of them feel that THEY have to do EVERYTHING THEMSELVES and neglect the benefits of sharing their blog-space with others (many – but not all) are authors who concentrate on THEIR books, lives, etc.
There are probably other reasons as well (illness, bereavement, etc), but the above seem to be the two main ones.

Liked by 3 people

One is definitely self hosting, but what’s the big benefit of that?

Losing EASY reblog ability is potentially costly, and she addressed that, saying she was assured she’d have lots of app and add ons to make the site easy to follow and reblog. That sounds like a round about way of saying it’s NOT easy for readers.

I agree, I think it’s more likely they ran out of interesting things to say.

Sad. I really want to be wrong about that.

Liked by 1 person

You’re right, Chris! There are extenuating circumstances out there, but listening to you and Dan I have learned a lot…followed Nose Graze from Dan’s blog and finding out I was originally right in hosting on WP.org and have undermined my SEO’s by doing WP.com as well…so will be working on that and thanks for all the info…is a continuous learning process for sure! Take care. 🙂 🙂

Liked by 2 people

I will! I thought I understood the .com vs the .org thing…but found out from Nose Graze that my original thought about being on .org was right…but the .com is where I see the blogging interaction…soooooo confusing! OK…now I owe you a Pinterest one and a WP.org vs WP.com perspective from a partially computer literate individual 🙂 Have a great weekend!! 🙂

Liked by 1 person

And so I wake in the morning
And I step outside
And I take a deep breath
and I get real high
And I scream from the top of my lungs what’s going on?
And I say, hey hey hey hey
I said hey, what’s going on?

That’s the soundtrack playing in my head as I read this,
Maybe it’s like dying and those who go can’t come back to tell us where they really go when they do.
~B

Liked by 3 people

The domain thing is easy – as you own it you can place advertising on and can indeed make money from the blog more easily. But don’t expect to get rich from it.

As for blogs disappearing… dunno… I can’t imagine how you can keep up with 1k blogs let alone 10k.

Liked by 1 person

That’s true. Time becomes a factor. And unlike me, they probably feel the need to be witty and entertaining in their replies.

I own this domaine name, but it’s still on WP. I’m guessing I can’t sell ads here (can I?) but if I had 10,000 followers I would probably look into it.

Liked by 1 person

I don’t like ads, but if I liked a blog I wouldn’t unsubscribe because of it. I still do Facebook and it’s wall to wall ads these days. I shouldn’t be so arrogant, but if it was $20 a month in ad revenue, I’d pass. If it was $200 I’d do it, but only because 200 can become 2000 easier than zero can become 200, you know?

Liked by 1 person

Dan, I just finished reading ALL the comments and your responses which were great, but it took some time. Hell, if you had 1500 or so followers it would take hours it seems to respond to everyone…or even to read the comments. I think the Story Reading Ape is close to right by saying they just wore themselves out.
Oh and your posts are great. When you hit 3000 and then jump ship…I’ll understand, man.

Liked by 1 person

I think sometimes people get bored. Yes their site is successful, but after time they lose interest. They may not need the money or care about it. I saw a very successful youtube workout channel decide he’d had enough and call it quits. About 6 months later he was back, recharged.

It may be just burnout. I wish I had those problems instead of sitting at a desk at my day job. Iam grateful for my job do not get me wrong. They are good to me but my goal, my dream is to be a published author working fulltime writing.

Liked by 1 person

Well, the one blogger was kind of calling it a hiatus, so maybe she’ll come back in three more months all recharged. That would be good. Likening it to TV shows, they take summer off and lots of breaks over the holidays, too. I always thought they were lazy for doing that, but maybe it’s to keep from burning out!

Like

Perhaps they found that being liked and followed was more predatory than beneficial for the time expended? I had a blog a few years ago, lots of followers, spent a lot of time on it, really enjoyed it, met some wonderful and talented people, and one day I thought about all the hours I would never get back and closed up shop. This time around I am aware of the black hole time suck that blogging can create if not managed. Some blogs make money, most don’t. Some are an ego trip to get all the followers that also want to be noticed and there is no give and take any more with that many people. I know one thing that makes a blog interesting is fresh visual images. Dan, I love you man, like a brother, but you’ve GOT to get some new pictures!

Liked by 2 people

True, a LOT of people wonder how somebody can have time for writing, blogging, social media, etc., and a popular blog that replies to everyone can become a time eater.

I HAVE been using those same seven pictures for a while, haven’t I? It was like a running joke for me because I was too lazy to go find new ones and it was funnier (to me) to use the same ones and just change the captions. I think, though, after a year of Dan’s Girls, we may need to retire them!

Tomorrow’s post has a few ones ones, and so does one for next week. I’ll try to work some new faces into the rotation.

Liked by 1 person

I followed that blog recently. It is weird if you have that many followers why leave. I’m still holding on, I got like 20 followers now and i do contemplate if I’m wasting my time. I worked so hard on my last post got 0 views, that was rare usually i get 20views maybe. I have more reason to quit but i just enjoy blogging, i do it for me i feel like I’m doing something productive.

Liked by 1 person

I have a number of regular visitors to my site, and it has gotten to the point that I consider many of them friends even though we’ve never officially met. Now if my blog suddenly exploded over night, I imagine it would be difficult to maintain that level of connection, which is really what I like most about blogging. Once the connection was gone, I can easily imagine there would be a significantly higher risk of burnout. It wouldn’t make business sense, but I might tell myself, I grew from nothing once, I can do it again.

Liked by 1 person

I think it’s because of the pressure it puts on them. Having a vast list of followers is also a big responsibility to them, they have to come up with new ideas/posts every day. But when it comes in the way of their full-time job or personal life (yes I’ve seen some bloggers leave for both reasons), then I think them taking a break is justifiable. Taking a BREAK! Not leaving and deleting that domain entirely. It would be a waste of your talent, the memories you made here, the amazing people you met. I think no one should burn bridges in the world of blogging.

Liked by 1 person

The real world is out there, not here, we can only give so much and seemingly endless giving drains you, can really mess you up. We are not wired to interact 24/7 with everyone and anyone, humans are selective, creative and yes defensive, we get swamped, turn off, physiological – psychological switches trip, auto-survival mechanisms kick in, you just have to step away, without explanation, how the hell do you explain the unexplainable to a mass of folk you think you might, but actually don’t really know. You can’t analyse everything, least of all human nature, as I said the real world is out there, face to face with people, words are just a single part of communication, we all need touch and sight and sound to know that our life is real.

Liked by 1 person

It’s probably like dominoes, too, where one popular blogger does it an another sees what happened and says, yep, that’s how I feel. The they do it. The two I referenced may have been friends, too, or one followed the other’s blog and vice versa.

Blog burnout. Who knew that was a thing?

Like

I think for some, blogging eventually ceases to be fun, and if they weren’t trying to monetize it in some form, then why continue? Sounds like there is such a thing as blogger burnout. Enlightening post and comments.

Liked by 1 person

I agree, Ingrid. I think it’s blogger burnout. I think the main driver is when it take more and more time to he point where, as you noted, they aren’t enjoying it. And while we all might be overworked at times at our jobs, a blog usually doesn’t pay its owner anything. It was fun, so when it stops being fun, it has stopped serving its purpose. Ditto if the blogger runs out of ideas. At that point, if it were a job, we’d look to change jobs. All that means is quitting the non-paying hobby that isn’t fun any more, or taking time off until it looks fun again.

Thanks for the kind words and for being a supporter of the blog.

Liked by 1 person

Well…you are right, Dan…and thanks for posting the Nose Graze articles because I learn from people that know what they are talking about!! I think that is the problem…you have to READ the posts in order for them to teach you new things…I am finding out my original intent on WP.org was really the right choice but was missing the WP.com blogging ability so migrated to WP.com. Already have the site set up on .org so needing to go back to square one and re-visit that question. So thanks for all of your useful articles. I don’t know why they would do that…good question!!

Liked by 1 person

I have no clue either – I also follow(ed) ‘Life of Moi’ and was intrigued that she would leave it all behind without any clear information about where she is going next. Still, she seems a pretty smart cookie, so I’m sure it’s something good.
I can’t imagine doing that though – I’m working hard to build a following here.

Liked by 1 person

As I struggle with breaking a hundred followers, I really don’t understand it either. I have seen a few people disappear, but they had far less than a 1000 people following them. The world is a wacky place… and sense is better made from change than from dollar bills… or is that cents… either or.

Like

Leave a reply to Dan Alatorre AUTHOR Cancel reply