Stop! Read This Before Giving Up On Blogging
November 22, 2007Has blogging let you down? Are you tired of being a B-List blogger?
It’s possible to improve the state of your blogging. In fact, it’s easy to take your blogging to the next level.
If you are like many bloggers (who sell their blog after discovering the “truth” about blogging) you’ll go through rough times. The thoughts of giving up will overwhelm you. It happens to you because, in your thinking, you are not improving enough to justify spending time on your blog.
I assure you, almost every new blogger is attacked by pessimism, if it’s of any consolation to you. But those of us who reject to bow to negative thoughts, succeed. The rest sell their blogs and run away.
If you don’t let negative thoughts get in your way, they will lose hope and stop pestering you.
But how?
Write everyday
Consistency is the key. Write often so your writing muscles don’t stiffen up. Just as your legs get stiff when you get up after sitting for too long, your writing muscles also refuse to flex if you don’t warm them up often.
You don’t have to post everyday to write everyday. Write only the bits you think up during the day. Or write small parts of a large post you are working on. Heck, write whatever comes to your mind. Just write, write, and write. This will keep you from getting lazy and ultimately blaming your failure on some odd circumstance.
Stick to a schedule
Guess what highly effective blogger do to succeed? They develop a schedule and follow it diligently.
Not following a schedule can land you in unorganized and uncreative way of life. If you keep on browsing the web, stumbling on StumbleUpon, and adding friends on Facebook while your blog gets stale, you seriously need to discipline yourself.
In fact, it’s not that important to comment on other blogs and network with other bloggers if you don’t write content on your own blog first. Your blog is your first priority. Everything else comes second.
Look at what you have achieved, not what you haven’t
If you feel like giving up because your blog hasn’t lived up to your expectations, it’s time to re-adjust your perspective.
If you look from the moment you started your blog onward, you’ll remember many glorious moments. Do you remember the day when you got an unexpected surge in your traffic? Do you remember how it felt when your got your first tackback?
Those were all important milestones in your blogging journey. You can only move forward one step at a time. If you try to gallop too often, you’ll fall face down, only to find you don’t have the courage to stand up again.
Think positive. Is the glass half empty or half full?
Read the bloggers who have succeeded
Everyone needs some motivation once in a while. A confirmation that what we are doing is indeed right. Weird but true.
If you feel you are lacking motivation, read the successful bloggers inside and outside your niche. See how they are still as passionate about blogging as they were at start.
You think they are big and you are not? Newsflash: They started out as small bloggers the same as you, only they didn’t give up midway. And if you want to follow in their footsteps, you’d better keep on trudging ahead as well.
Get away from computer
Online life may be jolly good, but sometimes it can be pretty lonely and depressing away from the rest of people around you.
So what you need is a break. Get away from the damn computer. It’s filling your head with negative thoughts.
Go out with your friends, see how beautiful and welcoming life is. Trust me, you’ll come back with a renewed spirit. I can attest to that myself.
Simply put, if you ever feel like giving up, don’t make quick and rash decisions. Such thoughts are an indication that you are probably not doing something right. So instead of giving up, pinpoint the problem and figure out ways to eliminate it.
Your thoughts?
Have you gone through any “I’m gonna quit” moments?
17 comments so far and counting
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One more reason that I think possible for blogging newbies to quit blogging is that they want to be the next John Chow or someone like that where they need to put in a lot of effort.
After one month, they find the efforts unheard and they will be thinking of “I want to quit”. Nevertheless, some people just don’t have the persistence to start blogging, either they have had an unmaintained “blogging lifestyle” or their perceptions of blogging is totally wrong.
Thanks for the link to my article.
With due respect however, I tend to disagree with the advise that one needs to write everyday or stick to a strict schedule of blogging. That takes away the fun of blogging and makes blogging no different from working life (unless you are a full time blogger and making a living from blogging). I think there are far too much emphasis on the need to write everyday or having a schedule that it makes bloggers (especially newbies) putting pressure on themselves to catch up with the rests. On whose standards are we competiting or measuring ourselves anyway?
Great post Mohsin. I like the part about looking at what you’ve achieved. If I’m ever feeling down, then I’ll open Google Analytics and look at those heavy traffic days and know that I can do that again.
I’ve never had any “I’m gonna quit” moments when it comes to blogging in general because blogging is just a part of my life whether I’m successful at it or not. I’ve had moments where I felt like quitting when it comes to making money or being super-successful.
Your first priority shouldn’t be how successful your blog is. It should be about enjoying the blogging process, what you write about, and connecting with new people.
I am looking for a bunch of bloggers who would be willing to write ONE post a week on topics related to the environment, or charity, or health, or nature. I know that would be very difficult, considering none of us would be paid for doing it
Do you have any recommendations?
Wayne, yep, that’s why I mentioned how some people quite after discovering the “truth” about blogging. I mean what do people expect, start rolling in dollars as soon as they set up a blog?
pablopabla, I am not an advocate of writing on the blog on a daily basis. What I mean here is, if you don’t write for too long, you find it hard to write anything at all, let alone write good posts. So you don’t have to make a post daily. Just keep on writing whenever you are free.
As for schedule, it is really necessary. If you want to get things done and hate to procrastinate, you have to discipline your online life sooner or later.
I think there is a misconception about blogging: that you don’t have to follow schedules or meet deadlines. Well, that’s not true. Whatever it is you want to get done, there must be a deadline before you MUST finish it. If you don’t, there are consequences.
Justin, right on! Blogging is an amazing networking tool above all things. If we enjoy the process of writing and blogging itself, there’s no way we will be disheartened by the occasional bumps.
Pelf, sorry if you get the feeling that I wrote this post with you in mind. Your matter is entirely different. 1) You are still passionate about your topic. 2) You are not quitting because you are disheartened.
Of course, your problem is that you can’t dedicate enough time to this blog to keep it running, and this is quite understandable. I say, if TGH is putting extra burden on your shoulders, sell it. This way, you’ll have more time to give to your main blog which is more established.
Surly selling at a good price is succeeding? Most of the blogs that have sold are fairly established ones where the owner didnt just try for a month and give up.
Mohsin: You mean, I DIDN’T inspire this post?! ARGH.. LOL.
Yes, I am not quitting because I was disheartened. I just thought that I should be paying more attention to TGH. I still wanted it to work, but I’m not sure if I could pull this through..
Great article Mohsin. Blogging sure isn’t a get rich quick business. On the other hand, it is fun. If you don’t like writing your blog, then stop now.
Matt, yours was a different matter too. You sold your blog for a very good price. So I count it as a success rather than failure.
But you are still writing at Blogging Fingers?
Pelf, of course you didn’t!
Does that disappoint you?
Fred, true say. It’s not a get quick-rich-quick scheme, rather, it’s get rich-if-you-don’t-give-up sort of thing.
The new owners have hired me to keep posting there, I’ve got another few weeks there at least but I will probably continue longer
LOL. Disappointed alright!
I love your new colour scheme!
Matt, ahan, you sold the blog for a handsome price, yet you continue to blog on it and still earn money? Now that’s something!
Pelf, thanks. Please give your feedback on this post.
I guess i would be considered the new guy. really enjoyed the article and found strength from it. I was concerned cause cashquests was one of the first make money blogs i read. Back when cashquests was on blogspot, i remember thinking i should try this out. i finally start my blog and she sells it…it kinda broke my spirits. But this article is a breath of relief. Also. i enjoyed the dialogue in the comments. throw me a bone too guys…help the new guy out.
Easy to write that. The truth is that most people that have popular blogs really don’t have anything to say. As someone who wrote original stories to my blog, I’d find it difficult to get more than 10-12 comments per entry of each part that had hours spent on it. People are more comfortable reading garbage about people’s kids spitting up their juice boxes or the way the waiter treated them at the local mall.
There are far too many fake bloggers out in th world for me to deal with; which is why I just put my 3 blog out of its misery. I’ll take my shot at compiling my book and take my lumps in that arena where I can actually get paid for all the hard work instead of giving it away.