Do you want more pageviews, or do you want more readers?

When it comes to generating content online, there are generally one of two goals behind it.

1. Get more pageviews on your website.
2. Get more people to read your content.

While they sounds like very similar ideas, the approach for each can be quite different.

Let’s assume we’re talking about a blog post like this one. While the main post lives on my website, there are many different ways I can share it.

If I want more pageviews, I would:

• Publish a partial RSS feed to force users to click “read more” and visit my site to read it.
• Do the same with my email; include a tease and a link.
• Do the same on social media; include a tease and a link.

This would undoubtedly get more people to my website and my traffic numbers would go up. However, a good number of people will see the headline and link and simply move on with their day.

If I want more readers, I would:

• Publish a full RSS feed so users can read the full content as soon as they see it.
• Publish the full content via email, so those users can read the full post in their inbox.
• Share as much as possible on social media. This is easier said than done, but doable in some cases.

The result of this would be far fewer people coming to my site, but more people consuming the content in their own ways.

Where are you?

Some of you might be reading this on my blog at mickmel.com, but there is a good chance you’re reading this in your email, on Substack, on Medium, or in your RSS reader. I don’t care where you read it, I’m just thankful that you are!

There are some reasons you might want to work to push users to your site, but generally speaking, most people just want to be heard in whatever way makes the most sense. In my case, my top priority for writing daily is for myself, to think through thoughts and ideas. I hope you find them valuable, but I don’t care where you read it. If I get more traffic on my site, great! If not, that’s ok too. That’s not the point here.

When you choose to publish content, you need to decide what you’re really doing. Is it worth losing readers to try to push more pageviews on your site? That’s up to you.