The Traffic Plateau and the One Dimensional Blog

You’ll read about traffic plateaus all over the web, in fact I once wrote about the fallacy of them in my post Denial, excuses, the truth and a lesson.

I’ve been studying the mechanics of this, and I think I’ve found one reason it happens.

Let’s start by talking about readers:

Disengaged

Disengaged readers are people who have probably come to your site via search, or maybe they saw a tweet. They don’t know you, and probably aren’t that bothered about knowing you. Often, they’re after an answer to a problem. They’re in, they find what they want, and they’re out.

Of course, you work hard at keeping them on the site, and converting them into regular readers.

If you think about it, any new blogger is aiming at these people when she starts. Most of the early writing is directed towards this group. “How to” posts, “How I” posts, “Where we are going?” posts and so on.

Keep in mind that this group will always be the largest on your blog.

In time, some of those readers will stick and become…

Engaged

These people visit regularly, via RSS perhaps. They occasionally comment. They might chat with you on Twitter, and even RT a post or two. Mostly they will stay in the background, absorbing, reading, getting information about your topic. They may well be in your niche.

This is when bloggers start to gain some real traction. There’s an identifiable audience! The blogger will continue to write the early stuff, because she still wants to grow the audience, but now the writing starts to be aimed at real people. It becomes infinitely better. Some of the best posts on blogs are written in this phase. Challenging, thought provoking, interesting.

And because of that, some of the engaged readers become…

Friends (I don’t like the word fans, but you know what I mean)

These are people who become very close to the blogger. They are subscribed to the newsletter, they read every post, and comment all the time. They’ll have long conversations on Twitter, and run fiercely to defend “their” blogger at the merest hint of criticism.

Most bloggers love this phase. It feels good. Every time you post, you get a load of traffic, and tons of comments. There’s some terrific banter going on there, and the whole thing starts to feel like a club.

Inevitably, the writing style changes. A lot of guest posts appear. They seem slightly off-key, and not really relevant, but you have to support your friends, and let them post, don’t you? The blogger starts writing more posts about herself – after all, the friends love those, they want to know every detail. There is no longer any challenge, because you don’t challenge your friends, do you? It’s suddenly like a jolly, happy club, and it feels nice and warm to the people who are part of it.

But in real terms, it’s a very small club.

Welcome to the traffic plateau!

Here’s the problem. By switching style to accommodate the friends, you’ve completely shut out the biggest group of readers – the disengaged. Even if they do find one of your good posts via search, as soon as they read the recent stuff, they’ll feel like an outsider. They won’t get the “in” jokes in your comments. They won’t understand why your last three posts have been all about you and your life – “What’s that got to do with me? I need information about fitness / making money / lifestyle design / playing the guitar….”

There’s an easy test to see if this is where you are. Look at Analytics – is less than 50% of your traffic coming from search? If you’re not already on the plateau, you’re heading for it.

The Solution

By all means enjoy the fabulous relationship you have with your friends. But mix the posting style up. Don’t forget the first two groups of readers are many, many times larger, and the only way to grow your blog is to keep attracting them with challenging, interesting, helpful posts on whatever your topic is.

Set an objective to write posts specifically aimed at each group, every week. Consider transferring the really personal stuff to your newsletter.

Don’t forget the disengaged!

Get yourself a three dimensional blog.

If you’re a disengaged reader, please look at these posts. I wrote them for you!

1/ The Case Study

2/ Blogging and job security

3/ Eight tips for bloggers struggling to come up with post ideas