As interesting as the idea and practice of blogging is to all of us enthusiasts, it’s still lots and lots of work. And I think this is one of the reasons a lot of people drop out, I hear the drop out rate is about 99%! People jump into the bandwagon, but then the zeal fades away over time simply because of the sheer discipline and hard work required to keep posting content day in and day out.
I faced this problem myself in the early days.
I started about three blogs within one week and only posted about twice and then left it fallow for months! I look back now and wonder how frustrated some of my visitors might have been. In fact, I’ve visited many blogs since then, lots of them with amazing contents, but then when you look at the date of their last posts, it’s almost 6 months earlier!!
Just think about it. It paints a picture of an unserious, haphazard, unprofessional, careless individual.
I examined myself to come up with some of the reasons why this situation occurs and I’ll point them out here. I guess there are more, I’ll try to share some of those too and hopefully show some tips on how these lapses can be eliminated.
Why are lots of blogs left to lie fallow?
The following 3 come from my personal experience.
#1 Author’s Laziness and Procrastination.
This was my number one problem!
I kept procrastinating. I was just too lazy to sit down and put my thoughts down on paper. And even in those moments when I did, I was too lazy to organize them properly for posting.
Then it was also a challenge to do the necessary reading and research to spice up and enrich the material.
#2. Poor Time Management.
As a busy person, I failed to allocate my time in a tactical manner so as to accommodate my passion of blogging.
I blogged in an erratic fashion – when I felt like it.
Actually, and this is very important, I’ve found that if you want to succeed in blogging, you must evolve from spontaneous writing and posting, into a habitual one.
#3. Low Prioritization of Blogging.
I claimed that blogging was my hobby and passion, yet it all that claim amounted to mere lip service when it came to the allocation of my time to my various activities. We all know that if you want to succeed in anything, you must give it premium time allotment. Think about football for instance, can you win footballer of the year by playing every now and then at the school field?
The next 2 come from the complains I got from other bloggers when I posed this question to them.
#4. Expensive Internet Access.
This, of course is a major challenge here in the country (Nigeria, and or course several other African countries).
Internet access has become a lot cheaper, but a lot of people who would have been active in blogging do not yet have 24 hours access to the internet. A lot of bright and talented Nigerian bloggers are hampered by lack of cash and so are not able to update their blogs as regularly as they would have loved to.
#5 Unpredictability of Idea Flows
A lot of bloggers have told me that sometimes they just don’t have anything to write on.
This is quite normal because ideas flow in seasons. Sometimes you have more of them than you can handle, at other times they seem to be nowhere near your mind.
#6 ?????
Do you have any reasons more than the ones I have posted above?
You can share them in the comment box below.
Now, let’s examine some practical tips to assist you in ensuring that your blog is updated regularly.
#1. Set a Posting Goal.
Do you have to post something everyday? No.
Do you have to post with a certain regularity? Yes.
It is very important that you have a rhythm that is consistent. This is particularly important when you have subscribers.
I think that once a week is the minimum you should strive for. Three times a week is ok. Once every day is great but advisable if your traffic is big. This is because often times, you need to give your readers sometime to digest what you’ve already posted.
What of several times a day?
Not if you have a large readership of regularly online people. But then it can only be brief posts and tips that your readers can easily follow.
The most important thing is that you choose a rhythm that you can maintain and increase with time.
At the moment I’m doing a post per day.
#2 Schedule a time for updating your blog.
This is extremely important if you want to cultivate discipline and consistency in blogging. I personally use the early mornings immediately after my early morning devotions. I have a daily check lists that I use to ensure that I’m doing the things I should regularly. In doing this, be guided by your own unique situations. But do schedule a time for the important work of updating your blog.
#3. Leverage your Idea Flow.
Every author, or blogger for that matter, would easily agree that good ideas do not come often. In fact, you don’t control that flow! Inspiration is peculiarly ’sovereign’. It seems to invade your thoughts at the least expected moments and then vanish just as spontaneously as it came. So I use the ‘bank’ strategy. I have a folder on my laptop called ‘Ongoing Projects’. There I store up ideas that I’m working on. In fact because of this strategy, I am actually currently in a position to post at least 2 articles per day each being at least 2000 words.
When you have such a bank, you could then leverage the store. For instance, if you have 10 articles in your bank that are ready for publishing, you could spread them out over a 20 day period, while banking other ideas that come within that period. This is a good way to ensure that you blog regularly.
#4. Budget for Blogging.
This advice is particularly pertinent for those who have to maintain their blogs via cyber cafes.
How many hours do you need to update your blog? You could reduce this time if you use stuff like flash disks and so on to save the post offline and then use it in the café to reduce both time and cash cost.
When you determine the cost, particularly financially, then put aside certain amounts per week or so to offset that cost.
#5. Prioritize Blogging.
I believe that prioritizing blogging can only be done if it truly is your passion.
My motivation to prioritize this activity is to be a part of the solution and success of other people. It keeps me typing through the night, reading, researching, and marketing to ensure that I’m doing the very best that I can with the talents and opportunities that I have today.
But beyond the attitude, is the action. I personally allocate a specific block of time for all the activities required to maintain a relevant and high traffic blog or website. In all honesty, you would not need anything less than 3 hours per day to maintain just the basics of a site that consistently attracts a mere 100 visits per day, particularly if you are monetizing your site.
If you are running your site as an expression of your passion, that is, as a hobby, you still need to maintain a certain level of integrity, stability and consistency. But however you do it, ensure that enough time is allocated to this great passion of yours.
