Hoping to Make Blogging Fun Again
Ahhh, the pressure of blogging. It all starts innocently enough. You write a few posts, submit to a few blog carnivals, get picked up by a few mid list bloggers… the next thing you know, 4-500 people a day are stopping by to read your stuff, you have folks subscribing to your feeds, people emailing you with questions, wanting your advice. The blog success story. Or is it?
You are in a catch 22 position. You are not successful enough to make a go of full time blogging but you are successful enough to worry about the quality of your product, to want to turn out good articles, to want to be “on”, to want to please the readers. Blogging has now become work, and it is impossible (for me, anyway) for work to be fun: That is why they call it work and not dessert.
At the same time, I am a business owner, with all the stress and time commitments that involves. I just do not have the time to turn out brilliant posts 5 times a week. However, I realize that having started this thing, I have a commitment to you, the readers. Besides, I like it (most of the time).
My solution? Asides. I have instituted asides on this blog, which are simple, quick dirty posts, usually about 100 words or less, that I can crank out in about 10 minutes. Please note that I will still write long post information articles, they will just be supplemented by the aside posts.
It is my hope that this will make it fun again, that it will let me turn out good content and yet take some of the pressure off. We will see.
Category: Blogging 12 comments »
July 11th, 2007 at 7:36 am
Keeping it fun is the trick… isn’t it. I’ve found it difficult. I’m finally having more fun again.
July 11th, 2007 at 10:31 am
Using experiences of the day, or reacting via trackback to a post that made you think are also good ways to provide value and be brief.
In fact, using the trackback you also get to send your comment to your readers not just the readers of the other blog.
July 11th, 2007 at 12:02 pm
Hey Hugh, I lost my top commenter status..:) You have 500 readers a day! Great job! I love your new look, and I’m using the organic version on my new site….we aren’t quite up and running yet, but working on it and I love this design. (btw, I left a comment a while back asking a question and never got a response.. maybe thats the penalty for loosing top commenter position?)
July 11th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
@ Steve- I thought a lot about you as I was preparing to write this. I am glad you are finding the joy again.
@Roger-Good Point!
@MichelleVan- The Top Commenter resets at the beginning of each month. I must have missed your comment… sorry. If you go to the contact page and shoot me an email I will do my best to get it answered today.
July 11th, 2007 at 12:55 pm
@ MichelleVan- re: the 500 readers a day, that is only some days (sighhh…)
July 11th, 2007 at 1:41 pm
Hugh, I wish I knew what my question was now… I guess that is a sign of old age or complete overwhelm. Anyway, glad I’m not on your blacklist. hum… …Do you have such a thing?
July 12th, 2007 at 9:57 am
Exactly! Keeping blogging fun and exciting for yourself is a really hard thing to do sometimes, but you have to find ways otherwise you won’t be able to keep writing. Good Post!
July 13th, 2007 at 10:04 am
[...] Hoping to Make Blogging Fun Again [...]
July 17th, 2007 at 8:11 am
great idea, I hope it keeps you blogging-
July 17th, 2007 at 10:30 am
@ Eve- Thanks for stopping by! Yes, I hope this works. too.
July 25th, 2007 at 1:15 pm
[...] my options, to decide the direction I want to take, to see where I want to go with it. I was not happy with where I was and I did not know what to do about [...]
July 29th, 2007 at 2:51 am
Some days it is just plain difficult to find motivation. It’s days like that, where I spend most of my time on YouTube!