How I Lost 30.000 Readers.

 

I had 30.000 subscribers to my blog and deleted them all.

This was not an accident. I didn't loose my mind. Well. Perhaps. But not that I was aware off. But then, can you be aware of loosing your own mind?

Anyway. I wanted to see what would happen.

When I wanted to see how video changes your conversations, I started a video podcast. When I spoke at some conferences, I was able to experience the impact of online reputations on realtime expectations.

So.

I think your topics, your language and your visuals have an enormous impact on group culture. Online and offline. But I can't experience that if I have a large audience that started reading me when I wrote posts with headlines like "25 Sure Fire Ways To …"

Make no mistake. I loved every single one of those 30.000 subscribers of my newsletter. And many joined again after I thanked them for their loyal readership, and closed the list.

From a blog popularity standpoint this is a disaster. A big NONO. There is no way back. It took me 4 years to build the list of subscribers. After I pressed "delete" that was all gone.

And that was exactly the point.

I know I would fall into some old blogging habits if I tried to please a large diverse audience. I needed to remove the path back into my old "comfort zone". I needed to cut some link with the past, to be able to really push things way beyond my current limits.

A year ago, in November 2010, I started writing in a more authentic voice. Here at Gantthead. Well. "Authentic" is a Big Word. But at least I really, really try to make an effort to not be "an expert" or something. "Experts" ruin everything. And the first thing they ruin is fun. And we can't have that. That they ruin it I mean.

In March of this year I put my first doodles online. Drawings that have the quality of a three year old. Drawings that help me to organize complex stuff. It is funny how adding human like shapes to a diagram about people, makes it actually more human. I always wondered why organizational diagrams have no human-like shapes in it. And then people wonder why organizations can become impersonal.

The blog is doing fine. Thank you very much.

I actually got an entire new type of audience. Not better. Not worse. Just different. One that fits the language and doodles. One that fits the culture.

So.

For me this had a big lesson in it. A  group culture is not something you just dip your toe in and get out when things get difficult. It's not just some suit you try on for a couple of minutes before putting on something more comfortable.

It is something else.

"He who cannot howl will not find his pack." - Charles Simic

 

Bas de Baar is a writer who draws about people in transition. He loves to make visual maps and travel guides for the collaborators of our brave new world.