Patience

So I launched a site, and put up a blog post.  Next day a friend asked, “How many hits did you get?”

Friend is new at this blogging game.

For a while, probably a long while, expect to get few to zero hits on your new site.  You need to build up content for the search engines to care about you, and you need to develop a following that actually remembers you and comes back for more.

It’s like opening a new restaurant, I told my friend.  At the beginning, especially if all you do is throw an Open sign in the window and never do any advertising, then it will take people a little while to find you.  And by “find” I mean do something more than walk past you on the street and maybe look in the windows, I mean sit down and become a customer.  Or, in this case, become a reader.  Maybe comment on some of your posts, get engaged in some discussion.  Nothing sadder than blogs with no comments.

Of course, there are plenty of ways to “advertise” your new presence without having to pay for actual adds.  The social networks are the logical place.  You’re on Facebook, Twitter?  Tell people about your posts.  You’re bound to get some clicks, even if it’s just your friends.

Two major obstacles with this plan:

First, you need a following on those services as well.  How many Twitter followers do you have?  That’s roughly how many people – at the most – will see your story.  Perhaps you’ve got more friends on Facebook?

Which leads to problem #2, don’t spam your friends.  Your friends aren’t necessarily your customers (they might come to your restaurant to support you, but if you expect them to eat there every night they’re going to feel put upon and stop coming).  Maybe you have one friend in your group, in real life I’m talking about now, who belongs to one of those well known multi-level marketing gimmicks?  And who, every time you together, is trying to sell you something and tell you how you too can be a distributor and earn fabulous prizes by hosting your own parties?  Yeah, nobody wants to hang out with those people for long.  Likewise, your Facebook friends don’t always want to hear your business posts, either.  They may not always tell you, which is why I am.  Friends are a resource to be used, but not taken advantage of.

In summary, patience is a virtue.  I think I should trademark that, I’m pretty sure I’m the first one to say it.   Focus on finding a voice.  Generate content.  Try things.  If you build it, they will come.  I am on fire today, there’s another brilliant idea that I just thought of!