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| Artwork by Tarek Chemaly |
Yes, that is from Oliver Twist, way before anyone's time I guess.
But still, the question in the title of this post plagues me as I am way into my 10th year of blogging. A lot of years, a lot of posts, some years with a better cuvée than others, some posts better visited, some weeks more prolific, etc, etc...
When I started off moons and moons ago, the answer was simple - "anyone who cares about advertising". Then blogging took off and marketing/advertising agencies realized I was not the type to be swayed by free goodies, so more or less the format remained the same. Along the road, many blogs fell off the wagon, some sold out, some burned out, some were born sold, some became increasingly more interesting, some dwindled and faded. Where does mine rank? Well, less than its peak of readership in May 2014, but still healthily (stubbornly) strong despite all the bad omens thrown at me along the way.
So from people interested in advertising, the readership moved to people into pop culture, vintage/retro elements, people interested in art reviews (where the word is beyond saying a couple of words about a product one was paid to place undernreath the table), people wanting to hear a different take on the topic du jour, people who want to read about politics at large, and a chunk of people who fall into it by accident.
We all know that organic reach is at an end, what does that mean? It means unless I put ads to my blog on social media platforms, there is a possibility the readership will dwindle. Who knows - I might go through the roof and do some advertising (oddly, for a communication consultant I rarely go to the front of the spotlight), or I might just say "enough is enough" - cherish the memories and move on.
If I am to be honest as to my readership, the answer is vague. Quite a bit of people read it, and read what they want into it. But it's been mostly fun, and yes, it is quite lovely when you thought a post has gone under the radar, would be so enthusiastically commented upon in a social function or via private correspondence. Because, for all the hundreds of thousands of readers, I still believe change happens individually, one on one, never in mass scale.
"Who will buy
This wonderful feeling?"