Trust me. It’ happens to the best of us. You’ll be typing along in your own merry little world when BAM it hits you. Blogging becomes a chore. Comments have gotten out of control (and maybe even down nasty). Your ‘numbers’ are taking a nose dive and it seems like no-one really even cares. So why continue blogging? Well here’s why.
1. Answer the question: Why did you start blogging in the first place? Odds are you’ve lost touch with the real reason you started blogging. You’ve gotten so caught up in the giveaways, the link-ups, the comment driven posts that you’ve forgotten about what you really wanted to do with your blog. Did you start writing as a way to express what’s going on in your life? Were you blogging to help keep in touch with your family and friends? Was it a small thing you started as more of a ‘journal’ to help you remember your life experiences?
2. Get back to the basics, maybe give yourself a facelift. Once you figure out why you started blogging in the first place, get back to that. It’ll be hard prying yourself away from all those things that really drive your blog now (or so you think). Sure your stats may take hit, but stats will never make you happy. I promise. You’ll aways want more, more, and more. Find your inspiration again, and start off with a clean slate.
Ehem. I’m a blog designer remember? Do you need to do a blog makeover? Do you need to start fresh? Well heck ladies (and gentlemen) I’m more than willing to help you fulfill your blogging dreams. :) I personally know that a new look can make a world of difference! You’d be surprised at how inspired you feel to write when you have something nice to work with!
3. Remember that even amidst the harsh comments, you have multitudes of amazing comments (and readers). Ok some people are just plain mean. Working in customer service 6 years of my life, I realized time and time again that some people wake up on the wrong side of the bed and stay that way trying to ruin everyone else’s day. I have been the victim of many rude and downright awful comments, gestures, and actions. It happens folks, and it most definitely happens in the blogging world.
For some reason, people try to hide behind the fact that they can mask their identity and pretend to be someone else online. Being a ‘made up’ person gives these meanies extra courage to say whatever the heck they want to say, and it goes unfiltered, and a lot of these comments turn into cyber bullying. As a blogger we put ourselves out there to let people judge away at our lives, and sooner or later you’re bound to get attacked.
Although it’s a terrible feeling being the victim of cyber bullying, just know you have a million other readers and commenters that are willing to stand up for you and be your cheerleaders! Don’t quit because one person was having a bad day.
4. Stop caring (and obsessing) about the numbers. This. Is. Ridiculously. Hard. I can almost guarantee you, if you asked any blogger out there how many Bloglovin, Twitter, Facebook, and Google + followers they have, they’ll be able to give you the answer in 0.058 seconds without so much as a blink of their eye. We’re obsessed with our numbers.
For some reason, the blogging community has drilled it into our heads that the only way to be a ‘successful’ and ‘good’ blogger is to have the best following. I can’t even tell you how many blogs I’ve randomly stumbled upon that still remain my absolute favorite, even though they only have less than 300 followers. I can’t even tell you how much it irks me why numbers have to be so important. You know what I’ve found to be the case most of the time with numbers? The higher the counts the less genuine the content.
Unfortunately bloggers tend to morph their posts to make them ‘reader friendly’ and forget why they started blogging in the first place. Writing all these ‘reader friendly’ posts may be beneficial for getting more of an audience, but I can guarantee you you’ll get burnt out faster than a birthday candle. This brings me to my next point.
5. Write for YOU. There’s a reason you started blogging. Whether it was to help your family keep up with you or as a creative outlet for you to display your work, you most likely started blogging for yourself. If you didn’t feel an initial spark of enjoyment, then odds are probably wouldn’t have come this far and continued to blog. We often get sidetracked in our writing and posts tend to get less and less genuine. They also get less and less fun to write, becoming more of a chore than a hobby.
Here’s the deal. It’s YOUR BLOG. No one’s hovering over you telling you how you need to write and what content you need to include (ok if you do happen to be in that situation I’m sorry). You’re not happy with your blog and where it’s headed? Change it. Odds are if you’re honest with your readers they’ll be excited for you and interested with what you’re going to be bringing to the table.
There’s nothing worse than trying to read a burnt-out bloggers posts. You know what I’m talking about. They lack passion, originality, and can seem thrown together. Now a blogger that’s truly inspired? I could read that stuff for hours.
Why is blogging not fun anymore? Because you’ve made it that way. Good news? It’s not too late to revamp and refresh.