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Is It Ever Okay to Lose Readers?

By Ronald Huereca on Jun 1, 2007.

A few weeks ago I came across a post that discussed when it was okay to lose readers.

Leroy Brown from Green Llama said this:

If someone unsubscribes from your blog, or just stops visiting over an advertisement that they don’t like, then you’ve lost nothing.

He went on to conclude:

So if you have a chance to make some coin, go for it – the important folks will stick around. The rest can go their own way, and you shouldn’t lose any sleep.

I’ve sat on this for a while to keep as objective as possible, but I’m still of the opinion that the second you choose money over readers, you have sold your soul to the blogging devil.

So I ask the readership and fellow bloggers, when is it okay to lose readers?

 

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7 Comments »

  1. Hiya Ronald,

    Let me ask you this, point blank. Would you rather have 100,000 daily readers and 0 monthly income from your blog, or 20,000 daily readers and a $10,000 monthly income from your blog?

    I’m of the school that blogging is not a holy medium. It is simply a new( well new-ish now ) method of publishing information. It’s no different than writing and publishing a magazine, when you get right down to it.

    Having tons of readers is fantastic. But what’s the point of hammering out post after post, moderating comments, building links, etc etc, if there isn’t any monetary reward at the end of the rainbow?

    Comment by Leroy Brown — June 2, 2007 @ 5:35 am

  2. Leroy Brown,

    Thanks for responding.

    I personally wouldn’t want to be in the position where I’d have to make the decision of money vs. readers. But hypothetically speaking, I’d like to think if I had those 100,000 readers, I’d have at least made some effort to monetize my blog. It’d be nice to have both readers and money coming in, but I personally don’t blog to make money.

    You brought up a good point in your post that you can’t please every reader. And this is true if you compare that to customers in a retail environment. The customer isn’t always right 100% of the time. However, readers are the ones that allow the blogger to grow and make that monthly income.

    You want some fruit for your effort, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But you can’t grow and sustain that tree on your own.

    Comment by Ronald Huereca — June 2, 2007 @ 7:47 am

  3. In Leroy’s comment lies a good question of its own. It depends on whether we blog to cater and provide information to everyone who comes, or if we cater to readers who turn into customers, resulting in our site making money. Are we doing it to make money, or are we doing it to provide some information? Many, if not most, bloggers are blogging these days for money. Some are not.

    You can’t please everyone, but you can make an effort to please everyone, not by changing what you have to say but by accommodating them into what you have to say.

    Comment by Bes — June 2, 2007 @ 2:06 pm

  4. This is very much a niche and demographic thing.

    You will always lose readers one way or another, but maybe gain more core readers by doing so.

    Comment by Andy Beard — June 2, 2007 @ 7:20 pm

  5. It depends of what your goals are. If your goal is to increase traffic, then it is OK to lose some readers by changing your positioning, if this change is bringing you more readers from the new targeted segment. Businesses are very much about figures: if I cannot make a profit from the great services I deliver, eventually I’ll have to stop offering them. If my blog is my business, then I have to treat it as such, and look at the numbers. Of course, this does not mean that I’m not careful with my clients (aka readers) to spot their needs and fulfill them.

    Comment by Simonne — June 3, 2007 @ 8:25 am

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