I followed a thread last week that talked about how writers could make sure their posts were read; how to get them read enough to start a ripple of others connecting and reading. After reading that post and others of the same ilk, to me, it still seems to take as much luck as anything else. Some of the ideas offered were to have a catchy title that will draw someone in, and use a picture that grabs people’s attention. A few weeks ago I wrote a post based on a lesson I learned from Chris Hadfield’s book, An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth (Random House, 2013), and it took off. I went from averaging 15 to 20 views to over 3000. It also generated over 400 likes and 35 comments. I saw the number of my followers jump as well. Was it the fact that I used a famous Canadian astronaut’s name in the title, or was it the cover of his book that I used that motivated people to click on the link? Not sure, but the comments told me that people actually read the post, which was gratifying.
I started writing this blog to put down my thoughts and ideas as I began a new journey of my life, starting my own coaching/consulting practice. I knew that as I experienced new things, and new opportunities opened up to me I would want to be able to reflect on them, and forcing myself to write a weekly blog would make me stop and take time to do that, and hopefully to learn from them as well. It has become a form of journaling for me. Each blog I wrote, I then posted to both LinkedIn and Facebook. I hoped that what I write would have an impact on others, maybe get them reflecting and thinking about their own circumstances. Although it is extremely gratifying to receive comments and to see “likes” for what I have written, I am confident that even without them, I can still have an impact. I know this because of my own experience. I read a lot of posts for which I don’t leave a comment, but that have got me thinking about something and even triggered my own post.
So, why did I write this? It’s something I have been thinking about for a few weeks now, ever since my Hadfield post went almost viral. I think some of my other blog posts have been pretty good (and granted, some not so good). I went through a bit of a slump wondering why the next week there were so few views. So that week it was just me doing what I said I would do with this blog: putting my thoughts down and then reflecting on them in about 500 words.
