Why Bloggers Need To Think Twice Before Quitting

I thought I would take 5 to reflect on the process of blog writing.  Since I have started in the WordPress community, I have seen a number of blogs that begun come and go.

And to be honest I don’t always know why they stopped – because some were seriously good!

Maybe they didn’t enjoy writing that much, they got writers block, or the disappointment of only having a small audience that didn’t provide instant validation they wanted made them quit.  Or perhaps life just got in the way.

I have had periods where I I thought about quitting blogging – it was usually down to stupid shit.

I would get a bit pissed off seeing work that I had put hours of effort into get zero response or ‘likes’.  On the other hand I looked at a quote that took five seconds to cut and paste having 100’s of likes.  I did forget that naturally we as people can buy into something that take 5 minutes of our time rather than something that takes a sustained investment.

Don’t believe me – do a survey that takes two minutes to complete.  Ask someone to join a focus group that will take an hour is much harder, why?  Because everyones time is precious.

I started having a set schedule – like this was a proper magazine.  But I usually found that when I didn’t stick to it, I didn’t feel great about it.

And so I thought about quitting.  I do enough writing and find it quiet threpetuic.  But all the validation shit had taken over my motivation.

So I took some time off and decided that I was going to approach it differently.

I wasn’t going to give a shit whether a thousand or zero people looked at my latest post.

I wasn’t going to insist on a strict posting schdule, I would post when I had something I wanted to say (or prove).

I also wasn’t going to spend hours on writing a post (unless I really wanted to).  I have made more effort to experiment – doing anything from 8oo word posts to a short paragraph of some observation.

Since making these changes I have enjoyed the process more.

What the amateur blogger needs to remember this is all voluntary – we don’t do it for financial gain, so don’t feel down if it all feels a bit unprofessional or we don’t have a massive following.

What surprises me now, is when I am a bit slack with posting on a regular basis seeing my site analytics with a high number of hits.

So bloggers – don’t quit, find something to write about.