Casual blogging is easy. There’s really not much to it. You set up a blog and write whenever you feel like it. If the mood strikes, you set aside some time to jot down your thoughts. If it doesn’t, oh well – it’s not as if anyone was expecting anything anyway. You’re not letting anyone down.
Professional (and even serious amateur) blogging is an entirely different beast. While casual blogging is mostly a private exchange between a blogger and a computer, professional blogging is a relationship between a writer and his or her readers. And once that relationship is established, it can lead to wonderful outcomes – or terrible ones. In this post, I’m going to explore a variety of possibilities.
Back in the early 2000s, when I first began blogging, it was mostly to share photos and stories about the first house Laura and I bought. It needed a ton of work, and since we were overjoyed (and proud) to finally own something we could call ours, we poured our time and money into fixing it up. As we went along, I posted pictures and shared the steps we took. Blogging was fun back then, mainly because there were no expectations. Things are always more enjoyable when no one’s expecting anything from you.
Fast forward a few years, and I began writing more frequently. I was posting nearly every single day and had developed a modest following. Nothing huge, but there were a handful of people who enjoyed reading my posts. My readers came to count on them and even looked forward to each new update. I’d write, they’d read, and we were all happy.
It was around that time that I started feeling stressed about writing on a schedule. I never actually promised I’d post with any kind of consistency, but since I had for so long, my readers had come to expect it. If I missed a day, maybe one person would reach out and ask what was going on. If I missed two days, two people would write, and so on. It felt like the more “successful” my writing became, the less fun it was to do – all because people were enjoying it. Strange, I know. How does someone like me even end up in that kind of situation? Perhaps it was just the demands of my acting as a casual blogger to actually becoming a not-so-casual one.
The thing is, I never actually signed up to become a blogger. It just sort of happened. I never had a plan or a goal in mind. It’s not like I woke up one day and decided blogging was going to be my career (not that it ever has been). I was just free-floating, which was great for a while. But as time went on, I began noticing what was happening. After all, I was putting myself out there in a way I never had before. As I got better at blogging and sharing my thoughts, and as my readership grew, I began putting unnecessary pressure on myself. My own expectations grew because I felt like I had to deliver those daily posts. It was the consistency that wore on me. People liked that consistency, which honestly surprised me. I never thought anyone would care about something like that – but they did. They really did.
The strangest part? My readers didn’t seem all that concerned about whether my posts were great or not. What they cared about most was when I was writing them and when they could read them. Eventually, because I felt like I couldn’t keep up, I quit blogging. I’ve always continued with some type of writing, but nothing close to what I was doing back in 2005–2007. Those were the good years. But that was then, and this is now. Things are completely different today, and in this post, I’ll explain why all the aspects of blogging I used to shy away from are actually valuable (and even necessary) if someone wants to succeed in this business.
How to Fail as a Blogger
If you ever decide you want to become a blogger, you really need to make that decision. I mean a firm, long-term decision that blogging is something you want to commit to. Back in the early days, you could kind of waffle and blog here and there, but today’s different. There’s not much room for waffling anymore, and if you do, any effort you put in will likely go nowhere. So why bother at all?
With that said, my advice to any blogger, or any writer, really, is to decide that you are a writer. This is a crucial step because it’ll force you to take yourself a lot more seriously.
Down below, I’m not going to cover how to become wildly successful once you make that decision. I’ve written plenty on that topic (and others) on my blog about blogging; you can check those posts out if you like. What I will do here, however, is share how I’ve failed at my own blogging. This will be quite the admission for me, so I hope you find value in it. And I hope you don’t follow in my footsteps, because the challenges I’ve faced with my own failures were tough to overcome.
By the way, in this post’s title, I mentioned exploring the “one surefire way to fail at blogging.” I may have misled you a little, because I’ve expanded it to include another. The first two failures I’ll share below led me down a path of certain despair. The third is just an added bonus.
I Stopped Blogging
This is an obvious blogging failure – one that doesn’t need much explanation, though I’ll expand on it a bit.
Over the years, I’ve set up many blogs. I’d launch one, then I’d collapse it, then I’d start again. Each time, I poured in energy, thought, time, and money. With all those investments, I gradually built equity in the blog at hand. Building equity takes time, whether it’s readership, search engine placement, content, or something else. Every time I stopped blogging, whether I shut the blog down or just let it drift aimlessly, I lost all the value it had gained.
You might be wondering, “What’s the lesson here?” It’s simple: if you decide to start blogging, make sure you have a system to feed ideas and keep you motivated – and then don’t stop. I’ve stopped enough for the both of us, and it never got me anywhere. Don’t be like me.
I Lost Consistency
Consider two scenarios:
First, think of a friend who launched a blog. This friend wrote one fantastic post the first week, then another excellent post six months later, and another insightful post two years after that.
Next, think of a different friend who also started a blog. From the beginning, he told you he’d post once a week. His posts were maybe just okay, but interesting, and he stuck to his schedule. You came to appreciate not only his posts but also the effort he made to deliver them consistently.
Which situation feels more comfortable? Which blog would you follow? Which one would you bookmark and return to in your downtime or whenever you felt like reading? I’m guessing the second blog.
An interesting phenomenon in the blogging world is that people value consistency more than talent. It’s not that they don’t enjoy a great post – they do, but they need a post to read. If nothing is there, people can’t read it.
I’m like most people: I oftentimes start strong but fade once I get used to an activity. It’s human nature. We all do it. It’s like joining a gym on New Year’s Day and quitting in February.
Over time, though, I’ve worked through this flaw by turning my endeavors into habits rather than mere interests. These days, I don’t worry about whether I’m still “interested” in something that’s good for me. Since it’s a habit, I keep at it. As long as my cause is noble and productive, I stick with it for the long term.
I wasn’t always like this, and I paid the price for my inconsistency. There’s no going back with a readership. Once you stop blogging for a while, then come back, then stop again, you lose your readers. People don’t respond well to on-again, off-again writing. So don’t be like me. If you say you’re going to do something, and if you set expectations, stick to it. Do what you say you’ll do. Readers love consistency.
I Apologized
Have you ever seen something like this in writing – or even in a YouTube video? “I apologize for being away so long. I was really busy with other things, but I’m back now, and I plan to be better than ever!” Of course, after this proclamation, the person is never heard from again.
I call this the blogger’s apology. It’s the final gasp of a dying blog; the message from a blogger riddled with guilt for failing at his or her own enterprise.
I’m honestly not sure if I’ve ever apologized to my readers like this myself (I probably have at some point), but I’ve definitely encountered these apologies along the way. They’re not pretty, and I’m certain no one enjoys reading them. They come off as desperate and insincere, because everyone knows what happens next: the disappearance, just as I mentioned above.
Here’s the lesson: if you plan on exiting the blogosphere and then returning, only to leave again, don’t explain yourself. Do it in silence, and try to preserve as much dignity and self-respect as possible.
Conclusion
The main point of this post is to highlight just how critical consistency is in blogging. But really, this applies far beyond blogging, whether it’s working out, learning an instrument, practicing jiu-jitsu, building a career, or anything else in life. Consistency is often the key, because we all know that quitting a worthwhile endeavor rarely gets you very far. Hard work and sticking with it – that’s where the results come from.
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