Requesting Feedback on my Dhamma Writing

Fellow Dhamma practitioners, I have been writing a series of short essays on Dhamma topics but have not received any feedback from readers. It may be that I am not suited to writing and would do better to engage my energies elsewhere. I would be grateful for any feedback on my Dhamma writings, especially on the essay, ‘The Sacred Path of the Householder.’ Here is the link: https://www.ghatikara.com/the-empty-hut-a-dhamma-journal
With gratitude and lovingkindness

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These look like great articles! Really, I doubt the problem is your writing ability. It’s difficult to get an audience on the internet these days. Most people are spending their time on social media sites, and many spend it on smartphones rather than computers. So, we’re back to having to actively marketing blogs and websites to get people to follow a link and share it with others. I’ve been building a site of Buddhist translations for a bit more than a year now, and I still have only a handful of regular visitors. Not that I’ve been trying particular hard at getting the word out. Mostly my audience is here on D & D.

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For those of us old enough to remember, when the internet started becoming accessible enough for the average person to use it regularly, a lot of people made a lot of claims about how it would revolutionize and democratize information. Although they were right to a certain extent, what they failed to foresee was that when anyone can post anything on the internet, the sheer amount of information basically creates a situation not too unlike the one that existed before the internet. What I mean is that starting a blog, when there are literally millions of other blogs, amounts to self-publishing your own poetry back in the old days. Sure, technically your poetry is “out there,” but good luck getting anyone to actually read it. Even publishing a book in the traditional way, by which I mean getting it published by a publishing company, isn’t any guarantee that anyone will know about it or read it. The publishing company has to do a lot of marketing to let people know the book exists. The situation with the internet is basically the same thing. SEO (search engine optimization) is basically one form of marketing, and is required if you really want to get a lot of exposure (which means clicks or web traffic) nowadays.

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Thank you for letting us know about this site and all your hard work putting it together. I think it is important to present Buddhism from the perspective of the lay practitioner and combine that with an emphasis on the Early Buddhist Texts. That being said, it is also difficult to teach or spread knowledge. The previous posts regarding the challenges of SEO and the plethora of content on the internet are spot-on. There are also several interesting discussions of teaching Buddhism on Discuss & Discover, such as: Teaching others

The attitude I try to take is that while I do this primarily in the spirit of helping others, there is also another important benefit: it helps me learn the dhamma. So, even if no one participates, the effort I made to understand and learn, while preparing the post or talk, is worth it.

There are, of course, broader issues of sustaining the website in terms of financial cost, etc. This is a personal decision, but could be viewed as a form of dana.

I wish you good luck and success on your efforts. We live in a golden age where a lay person can read the suttas thanks to resources such as SuttaCentral and Access to Insight. We live in a society where we are not being persecuted for following different faiths. And many of us have food and shelter such that we can turn our minds and energies to these seminal spiritual questions without having to struggle for daily survival, a burden that 500,000 years of past humans had to labor under.

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Hi, Charles, thank you for your reply. I agree with what you wrote. It’s not the size of the audience that is an issue, it’s the dearth of feedback from readers…and I do see that there is a steady stream of readers. I would have appreciated any feedback from readers so I can continue or cease as one does not go to the trouble of planting a garden if one knows it will never rain. To change the subject, I enjoyed browsing your website and wonder if you would be open to corresponding on some specific questions I have regarding the correlation between the Pali and Chinese canons. Kind wishes, John

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Dear Dayunbao,

Thank you for your reply. Indeed! The overwhelming amount of information of various levels of quality and accuracy has created its own kind of desert. As I shared with Charles (above), I am not interested in building an audience but in having a few, meaningful, and beneficial interactions with readers. Be well :slight_smile:

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Dear Nalaka,

Thank you for your beautiful, helpful, gentle and uplifting reply. I agree with you on all points.

As you said, I did learn a great deal from writing. At the same time, I learn more from simply practicing and it’s less effortful than writing.

The world is overwhelmed with information, even information about Buddhism and I think there are far more impactful writers and teachers than myself. Perhaps if there are enough people like me practicing restraint from writing it would allow the brighter writers to be heard more clearly.

Wishes of good health and safety to you, John

I can understand the wish to get feedback. One approach for this is to consider holding workshops or classes, and then emphasize a Q&A approach to the discussion during the workshop. You could, for example, put a question at the end of each post in which you ask readers if they would be interested in joining a 45 minute workshop on the topic of the blog post, and once you have 10-15 responses, consider organizing one via Zoom. You could then have an interactive discussion and get feedback. Most likely only a few people would actually show up, but I’ve found that live discussions involving even 3 people can be very informative and have helped me deepened my understanding of the dhamma. Another option is to cross-post content, and place it also on Facebook and other sites. Lastly, many people learn via video so a 1-2 min video summary on Youtube, then linking back to your blog post for more information, may also drive traffic. Good luck!

Hi, John,

You’re welcome to ask questions or make comments about my translations. (And that goes for everyone!) Not many people are very interested in the nitty-gritty of studying the Chinese and Pali canons, so it’s always good to connect with people who are. My email is at the top of my homepage at dharmapearls.net, or you can send PMs here on D&D.

Regarding feedback, I do have a couple observations about the website design. One is that the sidebar that lists article titles overlaps with the text when the browser window gets below a certain width, which is actually quite wide. That’s really just a little aesthetic detail, but it’s possible to fix that so the text and sidebar never touch as the window is resized.

Another thing is that the articles aren’t interactive. Readers only have the contact page to give feedback that I can see. There are no email links, like buttons, or commenting interface. That might be a reason for not seeing much feedback. The ways that people are accustomed to giving feedback are missing. Even a simple email link applied to your signature at the end of the articles might make it easier to reach out when reading the articles.

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Thank you for a wonderful read this morning. :heart:

There were some minor edits that might smooth out the reading:

  • Buddhists are obsessed with suffering Buddhists deal with suffering. Obsession with suffering slides a bit too close to mortification.

DN34:1.2.5: What one thing should be developed?
DN34:1.2.6: Mindfulness of the body that is full of pleasure.

  • this person does nothing but attempt to not suffer. The Buddha lists greed first. And MN1 in particular indicates that relishing is the root of suffering. We even hear the phrase “worth the pain.” So instead of “attempt to not suffer”, perhaps “pursue delight without suffering.”

Your choice of Ghatikara made me smile. Ghatikara’s story deeply inspires.

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It’s very rare to get feedback from readers. Just think, how many websites have you visited and also left feedback? For most people it is extremely, extremely few. People give feedback more when they have criticisms, so that’s actually a good sign!

If you wanted people to discuss your posts, you should add a comment section and then ask them some questions at the end of the article.

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