Blogging is a great way to express yourself, make a little extra money (or a lot), and have fun. You may think of a great idea, start writing, and watch the money start rolling in. Everything seems to fall into place beautifully.
A few months later, you start to dread sitting down at your computer to write. Looking through your comments seems tedious. Logging on to your social networks seems like a chore.
What’s happened? You’ve lost your blogging mojo. There are many ways you can lose your blogging mojo and lose that special “umph” that was driving your motivation and your success. Here’s how:
Post Everyday
You do anything every.single.day. of your life and you’re going to get tired of it. Maybe even hate it. Maybe even do anything else just to avoid it.
Posting on your blog everyday is no different. This can be a real problem if you are trying to develop a blog with long-term success and the potential to make a significant income for you.
While your blog does need regular content to keep your readers engaged and to get Google’s attention, you don’t necessarily have to write every day. Hire freelance writers, open your blog up to guest posters, or write a block of posts when you’re on a roll and schedule them to post later. Forcing yourself to write everyday will eventually sap your motivation and dry up your inspiration.
Don’t Take a Break
Even when you’re not posting, there is a lot of other work you must do to make your blog a success. You have to moderate and respond to comments, read and comment on other blogs in your niche, participate in forums, guest post, maintain a presence on social networks, analyze traffic stats and ad revenue, and much more.
If you don’t take a break from these tasks every now and then, you will burn out fast. The benefit and curse of blogging is that it frees you from the traditional 9-to-5 schedule. While you may have more freedom to do the things you like, you also may feel like you have to be constantly working on your blog and you never “clock out” for the evening.
Copy Others
When you’re building up your new blog, you are looking at other blogs for information and examples to make your blog a success. Maybe you see another blogger using a tactic you’d like to try. Maybe you take note of a plug-in you want to use.
It’s OK to find inspiration and practical feedback from other blogs. Just be careful not to become so consumed with another blog’s success that you start consciously or subconsciously mimicking what it does.
Your blog thrives on your own unique voice and vision. Not only will copying another blogger’s work set you up for failure by ensuring that you have nothing unique to offer your readers, but it will also rob you of your enthusiasm for what you’re doing, depriving you of the ability to express your own vision for your blog.
Try to Force Quick Results
Blogging is a marathon, not a sprint. While you can create content instantaneously, you cannot create readers instantaneously. No matter how great your site looks or how awesome your content is, you can’t expect to become rich overnight. It takes time to build a reputation and to get readers.
If you focus too much on trying to get fast results, you will become frustrated and give up too soon. Accepting that results will take time will help you to be patient and to put in the work necessary to create a great blog.
Focus on the Money
If you’re selling ads or other products on your blog, you aren’t in it just for the joy of it. Yet, if you only focus on selling ads or products on your blog, your reader will be able to tell, and you will quickly lose whatever je ne sais quois your blog did have.
Focus instead on what you love about your niche and on bringing something of value to your readers. Over time, your readership will grow and so will your income.
Did you lose your blogging mojo when you were a relative beginner? Tell us about your experiences and how others can avoid doing the same in the comments!
(Image by Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com)
Audrey Porterman is the main researcher and writer for doctoralprograms.org. Her most recent accomplishment includes graduating from Ohio State, with a degree in business management. Her current focus for the site involves computer science phd programs and a phd in higher education.
These are some excellent observations of how bloggers can easily lose their blogging mojo. Blogger may look easy to a lot of outsiders and beginner, but it’s very arduous and tedious work. Taking breaks is what works best for me to avoid quick burnout.
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Hi Audrey,
you are right, blogging every day can be a nuisance and highly counter-productive. At the end of the day, you start hating what you originally loved. Not good. It’s highly critical to take creative breaks from time to time.
Thanks for sharing your insights.
Take care
Oliver
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Audrey Reply:
May 30th, 2012 at 8:30 pm
So true Oliver! Thanks for the invite, I will check it out asap.
Thank you for the compliment!
Audrey
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I’ve been trying to find that sweet balance between staying consistent with my blog and being completely lazy. I believe in hard work, but it’s hard to decide how much is too much.
How much time do you delegate to blogging everyday? 2 hours? 30 minutes?
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Audrey Reply:
May 30th, 2012 at 8:32 pm
Hi Mike,
Usually 3-4 hrs a day, BUT I have to break it up throughout the day or I get completely bored! Too much can make what you love a pain.
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Thank you for this post Audrey! As a beginning blogger, I find your words both encouraging and inspiring. All are very practical advice that I can really use right now. And I’m glad that I’m not focused on money making… I realized that I’m not ready for that yet, and I’ll be happier and gain more readers if I focus on letting everyone hear my unique voice.
Thanks again!
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Audrey Reply:
May 30th, 2012 at 8:33 pm
Thank YOU Glori! It can be difficult to stay inspired, just keep blogging about what you love!
Thanks again!!
Audrey invites you to read… Comment on Part Time Doctoral Programs by Azeez M E
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Blogging everyday doesn’t have to be problematic or the reason why you lose your mojo. Frankly it takes consistent posting and time to find your voice and once you do it becomes infinitely easier to blog.
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Audrey Reply:
May 30th, 2012 at 8:34 pm
I agree, it’s not the ONLY way, but I think it is one of the main routes to losing your mojo! Consistency IS key!!!
Audrey invites you to read… Comment on Part Time Doctoral Programs by Azeez M E
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Jack Reply:
May 30th, 2012 at 8:41 pm
I have been blogging for 8 years now so it hasn’t really been a problem. People over think blogging and or underestimate how hard it is to make real money doing it. Those two factors wreak havoc on bloggers.
Not to mention that many forget that it takes time to become successful. Organic growth is worth working for.
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Churning out posts everyday is exhausting and creatively debilitating to a point. But it doesn’t have to be if you have friends who can guest post for you.
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Thanks for sharing this post!This is very interesting! I have enjoyed reading this very insightful post. Very engaging and informative. Great resources you have here.
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Thank you, Audrey,
Yesterday I had a big blank memory hour. Nothing came to mind. So I decided to go deeper into the blank. I started exploring how we come up with words. I appreciate your advice about finding my own voice. Yes, my blog yesterday was inspired by your blog. Appreciate your help!
Letters, Words And Meaning
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Audrey Reply:
May 30th, 2012 at 8:38 pm
That is GREAT Margarita!! You are learning such a valuable tool that you will be able to use all of the time with enough practice. Thanks so much for sharing!
Audrey invites you to read… Comment on Part Time Doctoral Programs by Azeez M E
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Very helpful post.. It’s very useful for me to get to the peak of my site’s success. I enjoyed reading the whole post very informative never got bored, thanks for sharing… kudos!
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Audrey Reply:
May 30th, 2012 at 8:38 pm
Thanks so much, what a blessing to be able to help others and share what I have learned! Thanks for the compliments!!
Audrey invites you to read… Comment on Part Time Doctoral Programs by Azeez M E
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I definitely agree with you, especially in the last tip..always think of money! That’s one reason why I still keep on blogging.. This is one way to motivate me.
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True, but make sure that they are representing you well!!! You don’t want to find out that they are insulting people or disrespecting others at YOUR expense!
Audrey invites you to read… Comment on Part Time Doctoral Programs by Azeez M E
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Thank you Candice, I hope they help!!! It has worked for me so far and I still have my mojo : )
Audrey invites you to read… Comment on Part Time Doctoral Programs by Azeez M E
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Thank you so much for this helpful and inspiring article, I’m a newbie to the blogging scene and I’ve just started my first blog, but I want to learn all the SEO and online marketing strategies. Thanks for sharing the useful information!
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Aside from having a hard time gaining followers and readers. I also find it hard to create my own blog at first. No matter how dedicated I was until I eventually got tired. Well maybe in the future I can start over. Thanks for the great article.
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Great and helpful tips. I think the 4th point is hugely responsible for many newbies dropping. They learned from some crab work that it’s easy and quick but as we all know, this is fat lie.
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These ways are really of great help to all of us. Hope this can be applied to all marketers so that they can grab success at the right timing.
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Great article! I find it very useful for beginner.It is uplifting for me so that I will keep on improving my site.Thanks!
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Yes – Never ever scrape (copy) content from another person posts. Google will index the site and penalize you for duplicate content. Scraping is one of the best ways to damage a website’s authority and reputation online.
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It’s not actually about completely copying others but rather that’s the act of consulting the blogosphere to know which topics are trending and getting a lot of discussions about so you could fill in with your own thoughts. It’s about sharing what you know and what you feel about it.
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For me, it was blogging about things that I wasn’t passionate about that caused me to lose my blogging mojo. I have stopped more blogs than I have continued because I just couldn’t get into them. I think that’s my best advice, blog about what you love and you will love to blog.
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Consistency and frequency are the main factors for the progress of a blog. Your blog have value if you generate your own contents.
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Beautiful post, Audrey! I agree to some of the things you’ve told, but I personally write articles every day and feel more passionate! So sometimes active blogging is a good thing.
Thanks for your minds!
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I just agree with this blog at all. And all this word seems to me very positive at all. Really I was looking forward to read about it. Thanks for this allocation.
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Hi,
Seriously, blogging (and everything that comes with it) is hard work. Git her done!
Guess I’m boring. I’m not guilty on one of the accusations…
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