Hi Mark, I find this challenging as well. Sometimes you go to networking events and people talk about a blog post you wrote that they read. They talk about how they implemented some action and got improvements to their business. That’s great but I only heard this feedback by meeting the person at an event.

We focus a lot on getting people to share out an article. If feedback is really important to us maybe we should have something on blogs that is an easier way to give feedback. For example, a question at the end getting feedback on the value of the post. We don’t get comments but we’ll get people to click a button -> Valuable, Not Useful, Entertaining etc. (e.g. Facebook open graph action buttons)

Ian

This post had an impact on me … going through a blog dry spell, but this is a totally new way for me to think about it.

Also reminds me of a recent experience; I ran into a woman from my town who has an event planning business. Her business is going well, and we were chatting about it. Get this: she told me that I inspired her to start the business, and gave her the confidence to go for it, in a conversation we had had while waiting to pick up our kids at a party 5 years earlier. I didn’t even remember the convo! But to her, it was just the encouragement she needed at that moment. So, you never really know the impact you have on others:)

Mr Mark, you are famous to me (for one) for your battlecry of “don’t get caught with your stats down!” I like this idea, and I wonder, how are you capturing this feedback? Are you measuring it in any kind of formal way?

Great post here Mark! I have gone thru phases of this myself especially when I launched my book http://www.marketingfunwithmike.com/hot-dog-marketing-book Do people care? Am I wasting my time? Etc. But I stayed positive worked thru and I started to see it when my book reviews came in, my page views on my website were 5x times what I thought, and last week I did a post on running my half marathon this past Sunday for a charity and I received over 20 entries of people’s favorite charities. Tons of interaction, tons of nice notes from readers. It brushed that little devil off my right shoulder saying that no one was reading. Thx for good inspiration this morning!

Wow, what a great story. Wish we had a device to hear about all of the ways we’re having these “secret impacts!” Thanks for sharing Rhonda!

Awesome Mike. Thanks for coming by and sharing today!

Ever since 1995 when I began blogging I find enthusiasm, and gratitude as I share my life, and online experiences grow. Thank you Mark for your inspiring, and motivating questions!

Mark, somehow I suspect you won’t ever wonder again if your blogging makes a difference. If you do, call me and I’ll set you straight.

I don’t know how you do it, but please keep on doing it.

Sincerely,
Eric

Hi Mark,

As you mention most of our readers never comment and even those who do don’t always give you the kind of feedback that makes you feel like you are gaining traction.

I figure the place to start is to identify why we are blogging and what we hope accomplish. Are we looking for leads, book deals, financial compensation?

Once you have the answer to that question you can start to figure out how to track/measure it.

Bloggers are insecure sometimes. We all want to feel appreciated and believe that our work/effort has meaning.

I’m here to serve. Will do my best to keep it coming. Thanks for the very nice comment Eric!

Interesting points. I KNOW the blog has created a voice of authority for myself that has led to business opportunities. No question. So I guess there is a higher-level need regarding whether I am getting through and making a difference on a human level.

It’s also little things like when I do something a little extra — a joke, a graphic, a particularly difficult blog post — I wonder if people noticed I truly have no idea. Google Analytics does not measure the laughs per joke or the number of times a post has been emailed to colleagues. I want to reach through the screen sometimes to see if there is anybody out there — Hey, what did you think about that today? Should I do more, less, or different? Did I make a difference?

The only way you can get that feedback is by talking to people really. Thanks for the comment Josh.

Thanks for your blog! I realized my blog made an impact when i attended a friend’s birthday party. There was a woman there who I had never met but she had read my blog and related to it. At that point, I realized I had a responsibility to post regularly because people who I didn’t even know were counting on it!

How reassuring!

Well … I guess i didn’t make THAT big of an impact : ) LOL!!

The post was the “Easter Island” analogy, which I might try to re-work into the dialogue again some day. I thought it was a new viewpoint but I find when I introduce serious thinking the blog post often bombs! You helped me keep going. Thanks for that.

This is inspiring but I have to ask the hard question: how the heck did
you get the phone #s of your subscribers? Did you ask them if they
wanted to talk to you? Most of my subscribes are just gmail and hotmail addresses!

If you have their email address, you simply write them and set up a time to talk! For many people I already had an email relationship any way. It would be too inefficient to just call them out of the blue so I would set up a time to talk. Hope that helps!

Mark, thank you for writing this post. Although
my site has a small readership, and not many posts generate multiple comments,
I’ve gotten personal feedback and responses through email that proved that I
can make an impact. Readers have told me they’ve shed a tear, been overwhelmed
with appreciation, and have even re-blogged my words on their (bigger) site. I
feel privileged to have written and published posts that can bring that
reaction. I guess in the end, the numbers don’t really matter.

Wow Mark I must have made an impact…

Did not expect to see my private eMail to you, and Disqus to be posted here. As you can see… all is well here once again ~Rae

P.S. Feel free to delete the “private eMail” message since I have no idea how this ended up as part of this discussion!.

Hi Mark, I’m still under 20 posts as I write this, but I know a few people who read my blog (thank you Twitter!) so I can ask them for feedback: is it useful, is it readable, what should I focus on to improve? Getting a useful answer is harder but it does happen occasionally.
Since I’m on WordPress.com I can’t tell if likes from fellow bloggers are meant to say “thanks for visiting my blog”, “great post”, or worse: “I appreciate your efforts, keep trying…” So whenever I visit other people’s blogs I try to come up with a sensible comment instead of ‘liking’ or leaving. But I don’t have a limitless supply of time…

Very important post, Mark. You speak in The Tao of Twitter about the impact that Twitter can have on your life, but often we don’t see the impact of the writing in our blogs.

Great idea to call your readers to get their feedback on your writing. I’m certain that you are having a bigger impact than you realize. You’re right about a small percentage of visitors taking the time to leave a comment. I hope people do take the time to let you know what an inspiration you have been to them.

My most touching experience happened when I had been blogging for about three months. I had written an article about Locavore, an app and website that helps you find local farmers’ markets and co-ops. The article got very little traffic.

I discovered through Google Alerts that someone sent that article to her parents who own a farm. They had been trying to find a co-op in their area for years but had been unable to find one. Because of my article they were able to join the co-op which made a huge difference to the sustainability of their farm.

Although this reader never left a comment on my blog, she made me realize very early on in my blogging career the impact that my words can have.

Traffic has very little relation to impact. Thanks for the reminder.

You’re welcome, Mark. Great topic. It’s important to let writers know that their words can mean more than they realize.

What I love about this post, Mark, is just how much it demonstrates the importance of how significant off-line connections are in helping to make a blog success. Build it and they’ll come doesn’t always work.

Great post.

Simply building a blog and posting doesn’t seem to work alone. I have found that integrating it into other media, such as Twitter, interacting with other users to provoke interest and feedback seems to work well to generate a readership.

Richard

Hello Mark, I loved your post. I also think that when you write you have to believe in the relevance and impact of your words. You basically need to have faith that when you put your heart and mind in your post, it will touch others in a powerful way. They may not tell you about it, as a lot of times we fell silent when something touches us profoundly. Silence does not equal indifference. Most important changes happen in us when we suddenly become silent. In blogging, as in everything else, I think one has to be honest, passionate and care about what matters.
I just want to add that you blog is very powerful and has a lot of impact on others. Thank you!