Content Operations: What should I do if my article has very few clicks?

In the fast-food era, an article that fails to capture the reader's heart from the very beginning will sink like a stone into the sea. The author of this article deeply analyzes the 8 common reasons for low article clicks. If you have ever been troubled by this, you might as well take a look.

Let’s talk about content operation today.

As self-media enters the era of video broadcasting, that is, the era of short videos.

No matter which short video app you open, there will be thousands of videos under each topic.

The most fatal thing is that people’s stay time is getting shorter and shorter.

If you can’t grab the reader’s attention within 2 seconds, even the best content will pass by.

If your content isn’t getting the traffic you expect, here are the eight most common reasons:

1. You post too much content

This is probably the most common reason why you’re not getting more traffic.

This is a bit counterintuitive. Logically, the more content there is, the greater the probability of increasing traffic.

While publishing more content is helpful, the premise is that the articles you publish are the best and most distinctive in your niche.

When the Internet first emerged, the basic rule was "publish as much content as possible, as quickly as possible."

You can write an article of only 300 words in five minutes and still attract enough traffic.

This isn’t because your content is great, it’s because it’s the only article on the topic on the web.

But today, there are mushrooms popping up on the web on every conceivable topic.

The article you publish is competing with dozens or even thousands of other articles on the same topic as yours.

When you publish an article, it has to be better than anything else published on that topic for you to have a chance.

2. You spend too little time promoting your content

Before you reach 10,000 followers, you should spend half your time promoting your content.

If you spend 10 hours writing an article, you should spend at least 10 hours promoting it.

This is because, in the beginning, no one is paying attention to you and you need to create amazing content.

Then submit your articles to influential platforms or personal media until these platforms or individuals promote them for you and bring you traffic.

Of course, the 10,000 fans here are just an illustration, and the operations on different platforms are different.

At the same time, it is also related to the verticality of your content.

For example:

For writing articles on WeChat official accounts, it may be enough for you to have 10,000 followers in the vertical content market;

But for some text or video accounts, 100,000 followers may be just the starting point.

3. You are writing content as a “teacher”

When you write, you might think of yourself as a teacher.

Your account is like your classroom, articles are like lessons, and your readers are like students.

This is obviously problematic.

There is a huge difference between content creators and teachers:

• The teacher has an audience, the article does not;
• Readers can always click the back button if they want, and there is little you can do about it.

If you want them to stick around, you have to entertain them or give them something to gain, which means you need to make the reader feel fulfilled.

You can teach them something, but it’s better to do it in a way that satisfies them.

4. There is no method in writing

When you wanted to learn to play guitar, did you just sit down and start strumming until a song came out?

Of course not, you might start by learning basic chords.

The same is true for chess:

If you want to be a good chess player, you can't just learn how each piece moves and then plan the moves of the 12 pieces in advance:

• You need to learn what is a mate and what is a draw;
• Re-understand the basic function and value of each chess piece;
• Then learn some simple killing methods and some simple tactical skills;
• Then learn some simple openings, and then play against others, and learn from the specific games;
• You will learn different combinations of chess pieces and eventually combine them into a complex strategy.

In fact, you will find a similar progressive structure for almost anything you want to learn.

However, none of them will help you at all if you choose the wrong topic.

5. You’re writing for a niche audience

Are you always trying to find a topic that no one else has written about?

If that's the case, you're in danger.

There’s a reason everyone writes the same thing: it’s what people want to read!

This doesn’t mean you have to be a copycat, you can choose a different angle, delve deeper into a sub-topic, or even just use your own unique personality.

But don't try for originality, it will only make you irrelevant.

One day, you have a flash of inspiration and a new idea surprises you.

It’s interesting, new, and full of possibilities, so you search to see if anyone is writing about it.

You’re lucky that the field is completely blank. This may not be the biggest, most popular content topic in the world, but it’s better to be a big fish in a small pond than a small fish in a vast and dangerous ocean.

Since you’re new, you believe you can’t possibly compete in a large niche like social media or parenting and your only hope of standing out is to find a market with no competition.

However, the following usually happens:

No one notices you, let alone reads your articles.

Not because your writing is bad, but because of a lack of demand.

The truth is, originality is only good insofar as readers want it.

If you don’t write in any popular categories, then your articles will most likely only have a small audience, making it difficult to gain mass attention.

So how do you choose a theme?

First, choose a topic you are passionate about.

Don’t just pick a topic you think you’re passionate about, it has to be something you enjoy writing about so much that you want to keep learning more about it.

Then create a list of all popular content accounts in that topic.

Make sure to check it out once a week to see how many people have tweeted or liked it, the higher the number the better.

Take articles that have 50 or 100 social shares and list them in a spreadsheet as new ideas for future use.

This can be your reference list when you need to write about a new topic.

6. Blind Confidence

In the minds of many junior authors, the path to becoming a big V is like this:

• Create content that shows how smart and wise you are;
• Being “discovered” by an influencer by chance;
• Influencers retweet your content, bringing in a ton of traffic.

It happens sometimes, but it's the account equivalent of winning the lottery.

The real path to becoming a big V is this:

• Create content using a proven structure;
• Keep "bagging" influential authors until they check out your article and realize how clever it is.
• Influential people link to you, bringing you a lot of traffic.

7. Poor title

You only have a few seconds to grab people’s attention, and if you don’t write a headline or the first few sentences that captures your readers’ attention, you’ve lost them.

You could have the most brilliant content, but if your headline sucks, most people won’t read it.

Let’s say you’re targeting the keyword “cake baking tips”, from an SEO perspective you’d obviously want this keyword to appear in the title and earlier in the title.

From an article perspective, you need to make sure the words surrounding your keyword are enticing enough for people to click.

Numbers are really effective for articles.

For example, you could say:

• Cake baking tips;
• 25 incredible cake baking tips.

Obviously the latter is more likely to attract readers to click because they are curious about the specific 25 numbers, and the word "incredible" makes them more curious.

8. Not Establishing a Dialogue with the Reader

You need to use the words "you" and "I" frequently in your essay.

The reason for this is that you need to establish a dialogue with your readers, and using a conversational style in your essay helps improve readability.

By creating a conversation, you’ll find that your posts get read more and people are more likely to comment.

If you read an article you liked and the author of the article asked you a question at the end…what would you do?

There’s a good chance you’ll leave a comment, right?

By asking your readers questions, you will encourage more readers to leave comments.

This will keep people engaged with your post longer since it will take more than a few seconds to leave a comment.

Plus, it gives you the opportunity to respond to comments and bring readers back to your account.

Author: Wei Peng; Official Account: Product Person Wei Peng