Sometimes it seems like blogging can no longer simply be a creative outlet. Instead of blogging for fun, we launch blogs with the intention of turning them into sources of income. This comes along with many sweet benefits and unfortunately sometimes a lot of stress. Angela and I absolutely love sharing knowledge and inspiration here, as we’re both passionate about blogging, writing, business, and visual inspiration. Even so, there is something really amazing about having a personal blog where you can share anything and everything you want, as curated or disorganized as you’d like.
About a year ago, I said a temporary goodbye to my personal blog, aside from the occasional portfolio update. For me, blogging was always a stress-free, fun hobby until… it wasn’t. Don’t get me wrong, I loved having the opportunity to write sponsored posts and I was super happy to see my number of followers growing, but I eventually realized that I was no longer having fun with my blog.
Since reading the post When You Realize Your Blog Sucks by Erin of Living in Yellow, I’ve been inspired to start using my personal blog as a creative outlet again. I have been thinking of how I can start updating it with more of a carefree mindset. Here are some ways that I’m hoping to fall back in love with blogging this year. If you’re in a rut and you’ve found yourself stressing over your blog too much, I encourage you to try at least one of these tips!
1. Ditch your blogging schedule
I think having a blogging schedule is a great way to stay on top of everything (it definitely helps us with TBM), so I don’t think you need to do away with this forever. But if you run a small personal blog and you’ve been stressing about your schedule, challenge yourself to blog whatever you want, whenever you want for a couple of weeks. This is what I’m planning to do on my personal blog for the long haul and I can’t wait! Read this post to find out when you should skip your monthly blog calendar.
2. Ignore your statistics
I remember the night I became obsessed with my blog stats. I read a post on how to record stats monthly, and I created a Google spreadsheet with all of my social media channels. For the next several months, I recorded my blogging views and visitors, as well as my IG and Bloglovin’ followers. It was magical watching the numbers grow and being able to see real growth in my blog. At the same time, it was such a bummer when my pageviews decreased or I lost followers. When I stopped paying attention to my stats for a while, I felt like I was finally able to focus on what I actually wanted to write about, and that was extremely freeing.
Here on TBM, we do focus on our statistics but we have learned not to let them bring us down if they aren’t what we hoped for. Some months, we record our stats and note insights from Google Analytics, and other months we don’t pay much attention.
3. Share something exciting and personal to you
Okay, this is a big one. I used to post my random thoughts, recaps of my weekly Instagrams, and photos of my adventures. Then I read somewhere that blog readers actually don’t care about your personal life. WHOA. It made sense though. Whenever I posted blogging tips or DIY projects, my readers were really into it. On the other hand, if I posted anything mainly about my life, no one commented. This was discouraging for a while, but then I just jumped on the blog advice bandwagon and began sharing more tips and tutorials and fewer personal posts.
This worked out well and is pretty much our model on TBM. I love blogging for other people and sharing tutorials. Over the past couple years, I’ve become more reserved and I don’t necessarily want to share many personal details online. However, there are some things that are just really fun and exciting to me, and I want to be able to share those things on my blog (regardless of how many comments or followers these personal posts bring in). One of my biggest goals for my personal blog is to begin sharing whatever the heck I want. Maybe it will be a series of photos from my peony farm visits this past spring, or maybe it’ll be a collection of funny animal videos.
If you run a highly successful blog and need to stick to a certain niche or schedule to continue bringing in income, these tips might not be realistic for you to practice. But if you’ve been feeling burnt out by blogging, even trying out these steps for a day or a week could make a huge difference in your attitude toward blogging.
Have you found yourself missing blogging just for fun? As Angela mentioned in this post, having fun with your blog can actually help grow it. What a thought! Feel free to share the ways that you take time to enjoy blogging, especially when it starts getting stressful.
Bren Pace says
Love this article, as I wrote a similar not too long ago. :)
Sadly, when blogging starts to feel like a chore and not quite so fun anymore, it’s best to take a break. The break can allow you to get your creative juices flowing again, plus make you respect what you do.
I love the tips you’ve shared and am passing them along. I know many that could use these!
B
Jennifer says
Thanks Bren! I agree, taking a break is always so refreshing. It’s amazing how many ideas you can come up with while you’re not trying to.
Audrey | Brunch at Audrey's says
#2 is easier said than done, but once done, would definitely change the game for me! This is why I love Snapchat :) Usually I’m too busy with school to stick to a blog schedule, but I’ve been better about keeping it up this summer. However, I can feel myself beginning to tire/stress out about it. #3 is something I try to do with every blog post :) -Audrey | Brunch at Audrey’s
Jennifer says
Oh totally! Snapchat is the most stress-free social media app in my opinion. Love how much you practice #3! :)
Berry Dakara says
This is really interesting – point 3 that is. In the Nigerian blogosphere, readers prefer it when you get personal so that they can relate to you better.
Berry Dakara Blog
Kate says
These are really helpful! thanks so much!
VioletDaffodils
xx