Blogging- it sounds easy enough, right? Then why do so many people eventually give up? In 2009, this New York Times article cited data suggesting that 95% of bloggers give up. There are many blogs out there today just sitting there… waiting for their owners to come back and update them. Sad little pieces of cyberspace with no one to read them or nurture them, these blogs sit for years, left unfulfilled.
So why does this happen?
Most bloggers start with great ambitions. They have a great idea for a blog and since it’s free, POOF! They go and make one. But that’s when it gets tricky. That first post is often easy because you’re feeling motivated. It’s the posts that come after that will get difficult.
One reason so many bloggers give up is that they don’t have a firm understanding of what blogging is all about. There are many myths and misconceptions out there, which all lead to frustrations for the blogger. When you begin to place all of these rules on your writing and your blog, you will lose that initial inspiration that had you fired up to write in the first place. You’ll also lose that spark that makes your blog unique and valuable to the reader.
This doesn’t mean you should throw all guidelines out the window but it does mean learning the difference between myths and solid blogging advice and avoiding some of the common reasons people give up on their blogs.
Here are some other common reasons many bloggers give up:
- They don’t have a goal/obtainable goal- You need to have a goal or purpose for your blog. It can be flexible but it should be present so that you have a baseline for what you are doing and why. For example, people will tell me “I want to start a parenting blog” and I ask, “Oh, nice what will it be about?” and their answer: “Parenting”. Well, there are tons of these already. How will yours be different? What is its purpose- to entertain, to teach, etc?
- They think they have to post every day- There is no requirement to post on your blog every single day. You should post frequently so you do not lose readers and so that you remain in search engine result ranking but you don’t have to post every day. Anything from 1 to 4 posts a week is sufficient. Think quality over quantity when it comes to your blog posts.
- They don’t know how to market their blog- Writing for your blog is one thing but if no one ever reads it, what purpose will it serve? Even if you don’t plan to monetize your blog, you still need at least some marketing in order to drive traffic to your blog.
As you can see, there are many reasons why bloggers give up but lack of planning and poor expectations are two of the most common. If your own blogging has petered out, consider what got you fired up and ready to blog in the first place. Then see if you are letting one of these reasons block your path. If not, what is getting in your way?
Find and fix it and enjoy blogging- be one of the 5%!
