From the Blogging Archives (2012): Do Your Followers Know When You Post?

This post is a revision of one originally written in 2012. Back then, many bloggers were working within a changing landscape as Google and social platforms found their footing, and we began to notice that our posts were no longer being placed reliably in front of our readers. Sound familiar?

Then, as now, the question felt practical and solvable. Were readers subscribed? Were feeds updating correctly? Was timing the problem? Visibility still felt connected to habits and tools we could manage.

Over the years since, that assumption has been steadily challenged. As algorithms, recommendation systems, and user behavior have evolved, visibility has become less directly tied to individual effort. Even faithful followers don’t always see new posts in the way they once did.

This isn’t a failure of creators or consistency. It’s a reflection of how publishing systems have changed since this post was first written. What once felt manageable has become harder to predict, even when the work itself remains steady.

This post now stands as both a snapshot of an earlier era of blogging and a reminder that if reaching your audience feels harder than it did in the early days, that shift didn’t happen overnight — and it isn’t imagined.