Do you find you suffer occasionally from bloggers block? I’ve been experiencing it lately even though I have plenty of material to blog about and I know that once I commence blogging again, the fingers will tap away on the keyboard and I’ll get back into the habit reasonably easily. Although I love writing and really enjoying blogging about social media, I found that breaking the habit of twice-weekly blog posts meant I lost my momentum.
1. Not Maintaining Consistency
I generally write a blog post twice a week here but when I was busy with the blog awards (Yes, I recognise the irony in this!), my posts slipped from two posts a week to one and then to none. Even though the awards event was on 4th October, I had a number of appointments slotted in last week and it just seemed to take more energy than usual to restart the writing. Losing consistency meant that it was harder to re-start.
2. Limited Time
Writing a good blog post takes time. Being short of time meant that I was prioritising my ghost blogging work for clients and simply hadn’t scheduled in enough time to write my own posts. Being tired after the awards, I just didn’t have the energy to write my own posts ‘after hours’.
Maintaining consistency is the easiest way to keep on track with your blogging and that means being realistic with your expectations. If you feel you will struggle with writing two posts a week, then write one but stick to it. Don’t beat yourself up about something that isn’t realistic. Maintain the quality of your posts by giving yourself sufficient time to devote to writing a good post. Allocate yourself up to 90 minutes on a particular morning of the week to write your blog posts. After all, if you finish early, you can reward yourself with the treat of going for a walk or reading. Pushing your blogging to be fitted in at the end of the day means that it turns into a chore.
3. Advance Planning
I underestimated how busy I was going to be – organising an event, organising judging, publishing posts about the blog awards sponsors, client work, training, putting a proposal together, taking a stand at a 3 day event with my book and achieving significant press coverage meant that all those interviews ate into my time too, it all added up for a hectic month. I knew it was going to be busy but I should have planned in advance and written some posts to schedule. Alternatively, I should have arranged for some interview posts or some guest posts. Although these take time, they can be effective in time saving.
Planning content is important too so it’s a good idea to brainstorm some topics for your blog. If you are struggling with getting back into blogging after a break, choose your favourite or the easiest topic to increase your motivation.
4. Not Using A Content Planning Tool
I was using Co Schedule for a while to ensure I stayed on track regarding my planned theme for each month. However, once I realised I wasn’t sticking to my schedule, I reverted to writing my ideas for posts in my trusted notebook. I had plenty of topics in mind so lack of material wasn’t an issue. However, if I had maintained my use of Co Schedule, it may have kept me on track.
I recently explained how to use Co Schedule to help you stay on track with your blogging and also for sharing your posts to social media platforms such as Pinterest. Amanda posted a video tutorial yesterday too. Using a content planning tool with a realistic timetable really aids successful blogging.
5. Ignoring Traffic
Even though I was still getting enquiries about training and ghost blogging, I wasn’t paying attention to my google analytics reports. When I did look, the results weren’t good. My traffic had decreased by 20% over the last month. This just proves that regular blogging really helps with traffic. I’m sure if my blogger’s block continued, it would have an effect on enquiries too.
Stay motivated by keeping an eye on your website and blog traffic. Give yourself a pat on the back when you see increases in traffic and when you know that sales and conversions happen as a result of your blog. This will motivate you to maintain your consistency.
6. Not Celebrating The Achievements
Writing a good blog is hard work and you should reward yourself by celebrating your achievements. Many Irish bloggers celebrated their achievement of getting into the finals of the blog awards by attending the event on 4th October. I had been too busy to celebrate the fact that my blog was generating more paid work but it’s important to stop and give yourself a clap on the back – even if it is just an extra cup of tea and an extra big slice of cake on a Friday afternoon!
It can happen that we are too busy to celebrate the achievements or sometimes we just aren’t kind enough to ourselves, that we drive ourselves too hard. Take time to stop and smell the coffee as well as rewarding yourself.
I’m back in the saddle now and yes, I enjoyed writing this post. The next two weeks will be busy so I’m going to be realistic with my schedule and I plan to write one post a week, then I should get back to my norm of two posts a week!
What do you sometimes struggle with when keeping up with your own blog? I’d love to hear.
If you are a businesswoman in Ireland, do come along to the National Women’s Enterprise Day conference in Galway on 22nd and 23rd October – I’ll be presenting on Blogging and Writing for the Web on Wednesday afternoon.
