Couple of questions from a blog-novice

[Thinkingabouthowlifechanges]

Thinking of starting a blog and have a couple o questions:

1. If I use Wordpress can other people see how many people follow / read the blog or is that secret?

2 how do I go about getting readers?

Other people will be able to see some follower numbers but not all. I use wordpress and, for example, if I look at other WP blogs I can see how many WP followers they have but not how many email followers. Readers can see some share figures on posts. WP gives you lots of tools to customise what people see and how your blog looks even on the free one.

I get most views through Facebook and Twitter. If you write something good then people will share it.

we are in a similar position, just starting out. What we have been doing is:
1- make sure we find what we write interesting.
2- engage with people on social media related to what you are writing about. don't expect people to just find it try and show it to people..
3- enjoy it. Its not sustainable if you don't enjoy what you do.
4- be patient, think about how much is out there.

Depending on which wordpress plug ins you download you can chose whether or not people can see the number of subscribers/number of times posts have been shared.