“But I think it is always difficult to have high expectations of yourself or anyone else.”~ Uma Thurman
DEAR NEW BLOGGERS:
So you’ve had a blog for an extended period of time. And your own personal goals are not being met. Frustration has settled in for what seems to be a permanent vacation inside of your head, and is staying there rent free.
Your personal reasons as to why you began to blog in the first place are yours and yours alone. Nobody can take that away from you.
But it just seems unfair that it appears that you are not getting what you were hoping for to begin with.
I have also experienced the same frustrations and confusion over my own personal blog. I’ve had up to five different blogs at one time, and now I am down to three. Two of which are honestly seeing any kind of creativity or usage at any given time.
Three and a half years later after beginning DAMBREAKER which is the first and original blog, there’s only 125 subscribers/followers. Nearly 142,000 total views in that time, but I honestly would have thought that if in three years or more I would have thousands of people reading, viewing, commenting, and participating. But I don’t. Not publicly at least.
Is it the content? Is it that I am not writing about the right things? Am I focused on things that are just boring?
Well, all that can be said in response to that is that there are different strokes for different folks.
I cannot count or remember how many times that I had thought about trashing the entire blog. DAMBREAKER was going to be complete and total history and I would have sat here in front of my computer fuming about how it would have been a huge waste of my time to have ever been involved in blogging in the first place.
But hold on!!! Before you go tapping away at that DELETE button you should probably consider a few things. 
This posted image is something I relate to when dealing with the so-called “success or failure” of my blog, DAMBREAKER. The same could be related to your own blog in deciding whether or not YOUR page is succeeding or failing.
Let’s keep things simple for right now though.
#1- LIKES. There is (at least for WordPress) a “LIKE” button. We’ve all seen it on other social media websites. It works the same way on WordPress. If someone enjoys the post, they can click the “LIKE” button. Ask yourself: Have I received any of these “LIKES” to any of my posts that I’ve written on my own blog? If the answer is YES- You are successful.
#2- COMMENTS. Again, the same as social media websites there is the option for the reader to leave a comment. Some people use it for compliments to whatever it is that you have written. Others are adding their own opinions. Some still will relate to your post and will tell you about it, which allows for further discussion on the topic. Ask yourself: Have I received any comments on any of my posts? If the answer is YES- You are successful.
#3- FOLLOWERS. Ask yourself: Do I have anyone following my blog? Is there anyone that signed up to have anything that I put on my blog immediately directed into their e-mail inbox? If the answer is YES … even if the number is ONE- You are successful. It tells you that at least one person is interested in what you are writing about and want to know and read about more and more and more. And wish to keep in touch that way.
#4- PERSONAL FEEDBACK. Sometimes people do not subscribe to your blog or follow your blog. Sometimes your blog doesn’t go to someone’s e-mail inbox directly. They don’t leave you comments. They don’t click the “LIKE” button if one is available or rate your post. But they come to you in other ways and forms of communication and provide you with feedback. They either found it on their own or you have published the post publicly somewhere else and they followed the link to your blog and now they are talking about it. Good or bad- whatever it is that they have to say is evidence that they are at least reading your blog. If they are reading your blog- You are successful.
You don’t need thousands of followers with thousands of comments and thousands of people clicking “LIKE” to know that you are doing something good.
Yes it would be nice to have those things, but they are not completely necessary to have success.
As a matter of fact, I’ve come across a lot of personal feedback in which the person admitted to reading this blog and then gave their feedback in what they did like about it or how I have been such an inspiration to them which caused them to change their lives for good in some certain way. When you hear things like that ….. you know that its all worth it in the end. And sometimes that’s really all that you need.
These kinds of things are what we as bloggers should remember whenever we get down about what we are doing with our blog posts and thinking that its not doing anyone any good because there’s no “activity” and we assume its a failure. To remember this checklist is all the validation that we will ever need.
Dambreaker 