why is nobody reading your blog?

daily blog #66

When I started blogging, I understand from day 1 that my BEST post will never get as much attention as a funny 60-second TikTok video.

So why blogging? For me, with the time I spend shooting and editing a 60-second video, I can probably write 10 blogs. So from the production perspective, blogging is the most efficient form of production.

From the consumption perspective; however, blogging is usually the least appealing form. In the TikTok era of 60-second attention span, why read a 15-minute blog when you can watch a 3-minute video that explains everything with better visuals?

Bloggers and book authors can talk all day about how retention is better with slow text reading than with flashy visuals, how meaningful content is all in written form, the majority of content consumers would just not care.

We are heavily influenced by instant gratification, dictated by this question: Does it feel good to consume that content IN THAT MOMENT?

And that's really hard for bloggers to compete with TikTok-ers, Streamers, Instagram models or YouTube-ers...

When I started blogging, the goal was just speed. No matter how long or imperfect my writing is, I would publish it within 24 hours of writing. My blog had 1700 words on average.

Now, as I have gotten used to writing, the goal is concision. Can I convey the same message with fewer words? The question moves from "What can I add?" to "What can I cut?" My blog now has 300 words on average.

Did I sacrifice my content? No, I just get rid of the unnecessary parts that wouldn't increase the quality of the blog. This costs me a little bit more time, but saves a lot of collective time for my readers.

The biggest reason why somebody is not reading your blog is that it's too long. You can blame them for being lazy reading, or you can blame yourself for being lazy editing.

Besides academia, the ability to write lengthy essays won't help you much in real life. The ability to write concise and meaningful stuff that is easy to understand will.

Learn to write more concisely.

How about doing it in a storytelling workshop by a TikToker/semi-pro writer and a filmmaker: https://fb.me/e/4TaVWRxGf