How do you judge the success of a blog piece? I’m being serious. I don’t know. That’s why I’m asking. It’s fine to ask questions, don’t be afraid to do so. As long as they’re intelligent and related to the subject at hand. This is a question I would think many bloggers have. I’ve had my blog since the end of May 2015, not even a full year. My main goal was to grow my blog in views and followers. There’s another key category, likes. Which brings about a level of confusion. It also brings up more questions. Which category matters more, views or likes?
People without a WordPress account can’t click the like button, or make comments. To add to the confusion, WordPress doesn’t count views correctly. I know they don’t. I’ve posted plenty of pieces with many, many more likes than views. How does that work? How can you like something you haven’t viewed?
I ask not so I can give an answer, but with the purpose of receiving one. Actually, more than one. An answer from as many of my fellow bloggers as possible. This is a universal question, and they don’t have a single definitive answer. They’re subjective by nature. I ask this question not only for myself, but for everyone with the purpose of starting a discussion. Each person has their own answer and knows what works best for them. For the people like me who aren’t sure which way the answer lies, we might be able to find a direction.
Copyright © Drew Martin 2016
Drew Martin Writes 
I have asked the same questions about likes versus views. I had a post reach 8 likes in a half hour or so but was only viewed 5 times? Am I in the Twilight Zone?
It is hard for me to judge how successful a blog entry is; it is almost like each one is judged independently. I combine all my feedback from Facebook, Twitter retweets, comments (mostly), and likes. I mean we read SO much every day that if anyone decides to respond via any platform that I feel successful if anyone takes the time to do more than just scroll and move on.
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I have a Facebook fan page but my wife and aunt are the only people who ever respond to the links on it. I see Twitter as a mixed bag. I’ve been getting more comments lately, but when I’ve asked for them before I never get any. This whole views vs. likes thing is what gets me. Thanks for reading Alex, and thanks for the input.
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Additionally, how do we discern between a genuine like or a like for acknowledgement’s sake? You know?
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That’s a very good point.
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I think a blog post is successful based on the likes and comments it receives. To me, the comments mean more than likes. Those who aren’t on WordPress can still comment on the post. This is a good post and question.
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Are you sure. I didn’t think people without an account could comment. Unless they’ve changed something recently.
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I’m positive. As long as they include an email address. People who aren’t on WordPress have commented on my blog before.
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Thanks. I’ll have to pass it along. I never knew.
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Yes there is an option under the Admin settings for discussion that allow you to decide this. You can make it required for the user to be logged in to their WordPress account or not. You can also choose an option that makes it required to input a name and email address.
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Thanks I’ll have to go check and make changes if need be.
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And I just realized more people have said this… so… ignore my comment 🙂 lol
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All comments are welcome.
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People without a WordPress account can comment. I’ve been blogging for 3 years and that’s been the case all that time.
I tend to measure ‘success’ in views, although looking back over likes can give an indication over time of which type of posts are more popular. 🙂
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I had no idea. I’ll have to let a few people know. Thanks for the comment.
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Social media, especially Twitter has helped me meet other bloggers and get more views. Facebook not so much. Twitter has a lot of blog sharing pages whereas Facebook not so much.
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The Facebook fan page has done nothing, of the people I know who liked it only my wife and aunt use it to read posts. I agree Twitter is far better and plan on writing a piece about this issue in the near future. As far as blog sharing do you mean hashtags?
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There’s some that use hashtags, for example #SundayBlogShare. There’s some where you tweet @theirusername and a link of one of your posts. They’ll retweet it for you. This way other bloggers and many others know about you and your blog. There’s a bunch that’ll retweet. I can only think of Sunday Blog Share at the moment. If you do a search, you’ll find a lot.
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I think I can explain the likes v views part. On the WordPress reader youcan see the opening lines of a bloggers post that you follow and have the open to click to read more. Some may not do so because they may be attracted to the subject header or image which they subsequently like. So they’ll hit the star without digging deeper.
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That’s a waste. Perhaps the header is for something they like and the actual writing is a negative response to it.
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This is a very good question. I appreciate the likes but I also look for great comments. I love to interact with my viewers.
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I agree! I love to hear what people have to say and interact with them. Some interactions lead to more e-relationships, etc. Definitely like that sort of thing!
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So true. I love feedback especially on something serious because different point of views are great
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