I read this post by Pooja at Lifesfinewhine regarding 5 things she hates about blogging. I agree with Pooja in that I enjoy blogging because it gives me the freedom to express my thoughts, but there’s a downside to it all as well. Here’s 5 things that can take the joy out of blogging if you let them get to you (the first four are for authors, and the last one is from the perspective of a reader):
1. A Nagging Conscience:
Once you gain readers and start receiving likes and comments, your conscience might start nagging you to keep on posting blogs in case the readers get bored and move off to other sites.
This could create …
2. Pressure/Stress:
This is the untold pressure to keep on creating amazing content. Of course this is not always possible. Sometimes your mind might be just as blank as a new sheet of paper, but hey, your readers are waiting…
But are they? Well, in short… no. They’ll move off to other sites, but when they see a notification that you’ve posted amazing content, they’ll come back, lol. But if your blog might have been written in a hurry because you’re under pressure to produce, this may cause…
3. Not Many Likes or Comments:
So… bad luck. You can’t please all the people all the time, or maybe you might just have had an off day. However, this fear of your writing not being liked might cause you to churn out several unsatisfactory and rushed blogs in one day just to keep the stats rising, gain possible re-blogs, and therefore give the impression that all is well.
4. Stats:
Stats rise with good content, and fall when no blogs are published. So what? Readers will return when you post another blog. The trick is to stop worrying about falling stats, take a break for a day or so, and re-charge your batteries and gain inspiration for some more amazing content. This content, in my opinion, should definitely not contain the following…
5. Blogs that are too long and too many:
As a reader as well as a blogger, I’m put off and feel overwhelmed by bloggers who all suffer from the 4 problems above. My email account is full of WordPress notifications every day, sometimes hundreds of them, with a few names that can crop up many times in a 24 hour period. I don’t like to miss any blogs that I usually comment on, and so I prefer to receive notifications. However, if I go away for a few days there could be over a thousand notifications when I return!
Stevie Turner 
I’m more for less being more. Some bloggers post multiple blogs per day ( or re-posts) and it just starts to feel like spam, then I avoid them. 😝
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Indeed. It’s overwhelming.
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I had to stop receiving emails (unsubscribe) but jot down in a nitebook the ones that do not show in my reader so I can find them again. But that was too severe and I lost some in transposing, but my emails dropped to a manageable twenty or so. Then I tried again and this has worked much better. I save a post from each of my favorites in notifications and I look at saved once a month and click on the blog to see what I missed. This has so far worked. Thanks for a good post.
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That sounds like a good idea, Ellen. I’ve added another email address, and all the WordPress notifications go into it. In this way my old email address only receives messages from my contacts, and so now I don’t miss any!
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It was the amount that was overwhelming, some post 4/5 times a week. But I will bare that in mind. Thank you.
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Thanks for the mention and I find your frustrations quite relatable especially the last one- I ended up creating a separate email for blogging because I couldn’t handle all the notifications.
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Good idea. Perhaps I might try that.
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So true that if you opt out of notifications you will miss blogs you like to follow, but it is also overwhelming. We can’t read every blog of every blogger we follow and we shouldn’t get stressed or feel guilty. Equally if we miss posting a regular blog because real life intervened, it’s unlikely anyone will even notice! Any follower worth having will be back another time.
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Yes, you’ve hit the nail on the head there Janet…. nobody will notice; sad but true.
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I feel like I have reached the maximum number of blogs I want to follow. I don’t want this to become a full-time job. As I always tell my wife, if it ever stops being fun, I’ll find something else to do.
The blogs I have the hardest time following are the ones with so many posts in the same day.
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Me too, as it’s overwhelming, isn’t it? Clive told me how to reduce the notifications of ‘incontinent’ (lol) bloggers to once daily instead of immediately, and BeetleyPete says if he goes away he deletes all notifications on his return and starts again. This is a good idea as well.
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Very sensible Pete; I think we need to put limits and stick to the ones that are most interesting or amusing.
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Yes, the temptation is to follow all that follow us, but not all of them are suitable.
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If I ever felt that my blog was putting me under pressure I’d have a serious think about whether I should give it up! I do what I want, when I want, and if people enjoy it that’s great. If not, that’s too bad so we just move on. As for reducing your emails, have you tried setting daily notifications for those with blogging incontinence? It can make a big difference.
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I’ll have a look into this, Clive. Thanks.
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I do it for quite a few, especially the blog farmers – much easier to scroll down one email to see if anything takes your fancy than wade through loads!
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Ah, not sure I can do this with the free blog I have.
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I have a free one and can do it with that. You have to reset them individually – go into the list of blogs you follow, choose one and you should see a box for notifications. It’s one of the options in there. Good luck!
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Thanks Clive.
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Where do I find the list? Everything’s changed.
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Online, not in the app, is where I find it easiest. Click on ‘Reader’ then click the ‘Manage’ button in the ‘Followed sites’ box near the top, and you should get a list of all the sites you follow. Each has a ‘Settings’ option. If you click on that there is an option to be notified by email of new posts. Click on this and you can choose between instantly, daily or weekly for each blog. Hope that works for you, as it saves me a lot of emails!
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It works! Thanks Clive.
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That’s good!
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Hi Stevie – you’re right on all points. It’s hard to keep up with everyone else’s blogs AND post your own content. I always get the feeling that other bloggers are way ahead of me on visiting and commenting on other blogs, but I can only do so much and keep a job and manage a household! Still, I very much enjoy blogging and all the pieces and when I feel bogged down, I just take a break and accomplish things in the real world. I’m always refreshed by that. Great post!
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Thanks. We all feel the same, I think. I’m looking forward to my break next week.
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Good points I have had to stop following a couple of blogs because they posted too often. I never feel obligated to post something. Nothing is worth doing if you no longer enjoy doing it.
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Very true. Thanks for your comment, Darlene.
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Great points! It is easy to get caught up in the pressure, which in turn makes it unenjoyable – which defeats the purpose.
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Absolutely, and it leaves less time for actual writing.
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I originally used the blog as an artificial deadline. I also shut off email notifications for things I can find in the reader if I get curious so I get a handful emails from a handful of people and that’s it. I discovered that like all social media it can waste a lot of time and the world won’t stop spinning without my pithy prose. And unfortunately it’s mostly a marketing platform. I couldn’t care less about cover reveals and I wrote the book that started the whole world crying bullshit and the circle jerk of amateur “author” interviews, politics, depression, restaurant and reciprocal book reviews… which is epidemic on all platforms. Google how to cook scallops on a Blackstone griddle and YouTube serves up forty chubby bearded Hi Y’all Bobby the Backyard Guru here, be sure to hit the follow button and ten minutes of nonsense splainin’ how groovy they are and all the sponsor stuff before they get around to it. Like the people who should be editing their content instead of being a freaking WordPress rash four times a day. I agree with you. But it’s not anywhere near as important or viable as we think. As a creative friend of mine says, “Social Media is a brain sucking waste of time.”
He’s probably right. Quitting I’d bet would free up more time in the day than smoking cessation or kicking the bottle or any other compulsive behavior.
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You’re absolutely right in that it’s compulsive behaviour. Blogging doesn’t sell books and I’ve often thought of quitting all social media, but so far have only managed to close down Facebook and Instagram. I think the next one will be Twitter, as there I go again mindlessly re-tweeting those who re-tweet my tweets. What a waste of time it all is, because the only books that really sell are written by celebrities or well-known traditionally published authors.
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And what we all need to do is write books that compete on every level with the best sellers that end up in the cutout bin until someone figures out a marketing scheme that works for indie authors besides the circle of influence (circle of flatulence) merry go round.
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We need to write that book that sets the whole world crying, lol.
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I’m relatively new to blogging and it was nice to hear that it’s not just me!
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I think we can all suffer from these if we let them get to us. The trick is not to worry and just blog when you have something to say.
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I learned that on returning from a trip away, I just have to ignore the hundreds of missed posts and start from scratch. Before that, I once spent 7 hours commenting on blog posts and replying to comments on mine.
Best wishes, Pete.
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I’ll do that next week when I’m away, otherwise it’s just too stressful trying to keep up.
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it’s important to try not to let these things get to us, but i’m sure we all suffer from them at times
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