I've recently been reading some posts and messages on Facebook where people are asking for advice because blogging has got to the stage of stressing them out and/or making them feel guilty. I've written about this subject before, and know exactly how these bloggers are feeling, having been through the whole blogging 'feeling guilty' trip, myself.
One of the reasons why I signed up to WordPress and created my blog was because I thought blogging would be fun. One year in and I found myself becoming very stressed and feeling guilty because I wasn't able to keep up with reading all the new blog posts being published by the bloggers I was following. Some days, I was finding myself doing little else but reading and leaving comments on blog posts. Heck, some of the bloggers I was following were publishing more than a few blog posts a day, and I soon found myself apologising to people for not reading their posts or for not being on WordPress 24 hours a day! Then it struck me that I was not doing the main thing that I'd come here to do – to write!
Now, although I do possess a few super-powers, I'm afraid that one of them is not being able to read every single new blog post from bloggers whom I follow. I began to see this as a problem, and my blog as a monster that was doing everything it could to make me want to fight it. Then, one morning, I woke up, switched on my computer and got that horrible feeling I would get when I didn't want to go to school or go to work. I soon realised that I had two choices about blogging. Either I gave it up, or I had to change the blogger I had become.
It didn't me take long in making my choice. After all, I'd created my blog so that I could write and share my thoughts with anybody who stopped by and wanted to listen to what I had to say. I decreased my reading time and began to write more. I took some time to make a list of the people who were commenting on my blog posts and who were sharing my posts on social media. I stopped following back every single blogger who followed my blog. If they didn't have an 'about me' page, so I could find out more of who they were, or they blogged about subjects that did not interest me, then I passed on by.
As time went on, I began to unfollow bloggers whose blogs changed into material I didn't find interesting anymore. I unfollowed some bloggers who continued to fail to or respond to questions or acknowledge comments other bloggers and I were leaving on posts. I didn't feel guilty about this because it was freeing up time for me; time which I could either spend writing or supporting those bloggers who took the time to read and comment on my posts.
If you find yourself in a situation where blogging is making you feel guilty and/or stressing you out, then you need to face the questions I was asking myself. I'm afraid there's no magic answer. What worked for me may not work for you but, whatever you do, ensure you do all you can to make blogging fun again. Isn't that why you came here? Take control of both your blog and your blogging habits and stop feeling guilty about not reading and commenting on every single blog post or unfollowing blogs that you no longer have any interest in. Sure, you may lose some followers along the way (don't we all?), but it's not going to finish you off as a blogger. In fact, most of those that do unfollow you probably don't comment or read you blog posts anyway, so it's no big deal (unless your only interest is as a 'follower' hunter). If like me, you decide to stay (and I hope you do), the passion you had for coming here in the first instance will come back and put you on the r ight blogging track.
Have you ever found yourself feeling guilty or stressed out because of blogging? Are you somebody who keeps apologising because you've not been able to spend as much time as you like reading and commenting on posts? What did you do to get over feeling guilty or stressed out by blogging? Leave me a comment and join in the debate.
© 2017 Copyright-All rights reserved-hughsviewsandnews.com.
Please Feel Free To Share This Post
Source: Let's Keep Blogging Fun
No comments:
Post a Comment