Does a website suck if no one comments?
To be honest, I thought I would be seeing more dialogue occuring within the Black Rainbow Comments sections by now. It has been difficult to keep my ego in check as it has started to persistently whisper ”Does this mean people are not feeling the strip and articles?”
And while I do get the occasional comment, I am talking to myself most of the time. It’s as if I casted a fishing rod that induces the occasional small nibble but keeps bringing up that rubber boot full of spam.
So while I try my best to stay positive and drown out the annoying ego, I look objectively at the design of the site. One potential problem is that my Comments link is mired within the section filled with tags. Users may have trouble noticing it. Perhaps I need to look at a way to break the Comments link out of that pack and place it somewhere else with higher visibility.
Another issue may be related to traffic. I am just beginning to market Black Rainbow so traffic is hovering around between 50 to 100 visitors a day with over 80% staying between 0 to 30 seconds. Stickiness is obviously an issue. Perhaps I am attracting mostly passive users who gloss over the index page. Perhaps when traffic increases, there may be more proactive users that bring about more interaction. Let’s be hopeful!
Putting up my art and blogging means I am putting myself out in public for consumption and scrutiny. My ego craves some sort of validation and recognition for these efforts. Whether its critical or encouraging, to have people become active participants discussing and fighting over ideas offered through my art means that Black Rainbow is making someone feel something. I could not ask for more and look forward to seeing more comments.
I leave you with a great article by Havi Brooks, blogger for The Fluent Self. In her article “No One is Interested in My Thing” she speaks about the irrationality of dismissing and assuming that no one is interested in ones product/service/blog when there is no response. She encourages some cognitive re framing and common sense to re-orient oneself from this mental pitfall. Read it the full article at:
http://www.fluentself.com/blog/biggification/no-one-is-interested-in-my-thing/
I tried to pimp you out on my blog awhile ago, but I guess it didn’t work. Sorry man.
Lol…all good Candace! Keep that pimp hand strong!
I pimped you out today on Twitter.
I like how you have these posts where you document your process. Super interesting.
And yeah, there are so many reasons why people don’t say stuff (the traffic, the sticky thing, the shy thing, the “oh god I should be working on my own stuff” thing, the not knowing what to say thing …)
Not to mention the new thing. My first posts were pretty lonely. VERY, in fact.
So yeah, not you. And sending you some good wishes. Your blog is lovely and your comic is fascinating, in the view of at least one person and her duck!
Hey Havi! Thanks alot for the good wishes and encouraging words. It’s nice to know that it’s not just me. You made my day! Even if it’s just coming from one person and her duck!