“Blogging? What type of passion is that?” You must have heard such comments if you are a passionate blogger. Not to mention the disapproving glances and sighs of your family and friends when they see you doing your stuff. What is even worse is when they tell you to ditch blogging if you (God forbid) share with them that you are facing blogger overwhelm, the very natural after effect of being a fervent blogger.
With constantly having to promote your blog on various media – Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, keep up with all sorts of algorithms and keep churning out freshly brewed content, the life of a blogger is not easy for sure. Quitting, however, is not an option but the following 7 ways are definitely going to help you handle stress.
7 Efficient Ways to Handle Blogger Overwhelm
1. Be Consistent
The key to success in blogging is pretty much the same as in other fields of life and that is consistency. There is no point in coming up even with the most excellent stuff but posting only once in a while because chances are there won’t be anyone around to read it. If blogging becomes too overwhelming for you, just cut yourself some slack and skip a few not so important steps. You know what we are talking about. Agonizing over the perfect layout, right image, and the ideal fonts is of lesser importance. The idea is to show up regularly.
2. Be Smart
The existence of social media scheduling websites is one of the most amazing things the gods of technology have bestowed on us. Cut a step off your blog management process and schedule your social media posts using one of those scheduling sites. The most popular one is Hootsuite that allows posting on 4 social media forums at the same time! Be smart and save yourself the trouble of repeating the same chore time and again!
3. Define your Blogging Goals
To keep on blogging when hit by overwhelm, you must have an end goal. If you are to keep a blog to promote your product, focus on that. This will help you post something relatable that will help you achieve your objective as well.
4. You don’t have to follow every other trend
What others are doing should be learning, but competition for you. Try to improve on your weaknesses, for instance if a fellow bloggers is using a mass emailing program, see how it can also improve your blogging process. What works for others will not necessarily work for you and you are not obliged to try every trick there is in the book. Stick to what works for you.
5. Recycling
Sometimes, recycling your most popular post is alright. On days when coming up with new material becomes impossible, it is okay to let your better work come to your rescue. Repeating a post after 2 years or more will only increase your readership.
6. Going for the fallback
In case of bloggers’ block, it is good to have a fallback option to rely on. You can opt for a guest post or just let Twitter decide the topic.
7. Take a Break
This is the last option, only when you have tried all other ways to get over your blogger overwhelm. Just shut down your laptop and do whatever it takes to refresh your mind.
However, return to blogging the moment an idea hits you. Happy Blogging!
Have you faced blogger overwhelm? How did you deal with it?
I think from time to time we need to take a step back and define our blogging goals in order to prevent us from falling into the trap of mindlessly following the crowd. That’s one of the things which I should do. I don’t follow the crowd but it’s time for me to sit back, reflect and define my goals.
All these tips are highly relevant, Corinne.
Vinitha recently posted…Reading with Kids
Overwhelm happens to me all the time! 😛 The spark eventually fizzles out. When it becomes too much like a chore, time for a break! It’s not the writing and formatting that gets to me (perfect layout, right image, etc. – I love that part!), it’s the follow up with those kind people who stopped by to comment (something I feel is important), promoting the posts, etc. etc. Falling too far behind with real-world stuff means I need to step back. Repurposing evergreen posts is an excellent idea, but that doesn’t alleviate the other issues.
Thankfully, I’m not trying to earn a living through blogging, which means less pressure to be consistent. “Go with the Flow” (or the Muse) works best! 🙂
Debbie D recently posted…LOVE, REIGN O’ER ME | #BOTB RESULTS
Right now, I am only following number 7. I have shut my laptop and am focusing on drawing! 🙂
I did most of the others you mentioned here. In fact, all the others. I renovated old posts and shared them. I used Buffer to share for me on Insta and Twitter. I tried doing what was comfortable for me– of course, I did get lost trying to ape others as far as their strategies were concerned. Now that I have realised I need to folllow my heart and do what’s good for me, I am taking this break, and plan on returning when I feel like it. Until then, I am going to write whatever comes to my mind and gives me some peace.
Thanks for sharing my story, Corinne. I am sure there are so many out there, who, like me, are facing a burnout.