5 Tips to Beat the Blogging Doldrums
I started blogging in December 2003 and found it to be a very pleasurable exercise. But what started as a hobby eventually morphed into a business.
Along the way, blogging stopped being fun and started to become more like work. When it did, my posting slowed down dramatically to the point where I was only publishing sporadically. I suspect some of you have experienced a similar phenomenon.
One of the reasons is that I found it hard to stay fresh. I had no blog writing plan and depended too much on inspiration to strike — it rarely did. Plus, client work was taking precedence… it paid the bills, after all.
If that sounds familiar, here are five tips to help you overcome the blogging doldrums.
1. Blog about what you have a passion for.
It’s much easier to blog about something you’re passionate about than otherwise. For example, I once blogged at a site called Weblogs, Inc. (nod your head if you remember it) about life sciences, especially chronic diseases, like cancer, diabetes, and heart disease.
While I had great compassion for people who battled those illnesses, I found it difficult to post numerous times each day about things I had little experience with. Not having been a victim of any of those diseases at the time (I have since had a bout with prostate cancer and am a type 2 diabetic), it wasn’t something I could talk about with great passion or fervor.
Which brings me to ask, what enthuses you? What gets you excited each time you think about it? Write about that. If you have other business-related blogging responsibilities, leave room in your schedule for passion blogging.
2. Read other blogs.
If you find your blog idea tank running empty, it’s always helpful to read what others are saying. If you haven’t already done so, get an RSS reader (I like Feedly) and subscribe to the feeds from your favorite bloggers.
3. Take an occasional blogging holiday.
All work and no play make bloggers a dull bunch. Sometimes it’s best just to stop for a while. However, don’t do what I once did and take a three-month hiatus, especially if you’re blogging for business purposes. You will find yourself quickly falling into blogging oblivion.
4. Set regular times for blogging.
Like anything worth doing, blogging takes discipline. That’s an ugly word in my vocabulary, but it’s an absolute necessity, so set aside time each week to blog.
Fortunately, you can schedule posts, so you don’t have to publish them in real-time. For example, I used to set aside Saturday mornings as my blog time and would write several posts in one sitting, then schedule them to appear throughout the week.
5. Rekindle the joy of blogging.
About 17 years ago, I married a wonderful woman, Amie, a full-blooded Cajun! Through her, I’ve learned a phrase associated with that culture, “Joie de Vivre!” — the Joy of Life.
That’s really my point here — to blog for the sheer joy of it — the “Joie de Blog!”
Yes, blogging takes work and requires discipline. Reading other blogs for inspiration and committing to a set schedule can help set you back on a path to productivity. But remember why you started blogging in the first place and try to rekindle that joy.
I hope you find these five tips to beat the blogging doldrums helpful. If you have found ways of your own, leave a comment. We would all benefit from what you have to say.
A version of this article was originally published at Allbusiness.com.
