I’m told that it’s become fashionable to shut down your weblog. In fact, quitting the blogosphere may be the next big trend (right after everyone rushes over to jump in on the popularity of MySpace.com.)
There are plenty of valid reasons to quit blogging. Maintaining a weblog is a chore, and often a time sink, for everyone. Most writers have to pour their energies into day jobs, relationships, kids, writing time and pursuing a career in a very tough industry. A weblog that serves no purpose is the ultimate time-waster.
However, a popular weblog is worth the effort. If visitors find your blog interesting, they’re going to link to it, discuss your posts and draw more traffic to your site. Writers know that the more traffic they get, the more books they’re likely to sell – which paired with the free blogging services available makes blogging an effective, low-cost form of self-promotion.
Yet blogging is for everyone, and I do mean that literally. If you thought competition for publication was tough, check how many weblogs are out there. At the time I wrote this, Blogpulse, a blog-tracking service of Nielsen Buzzmetrics, offered these statistics about the blogs it watches:
Total identified blogs: 28,124,606
New blogs in last 24 hours: 50,131
Blog posts indexed in last 24 hours: 807,794
We’re competing with over twenty-eight million other bloggers, and we’re all looking for the exact same thing: readers. The good news is, about fourteen million of them appear to be teenagers who are only interested in boys, or girls, or who said that terrible thing about Jamie during lunch period.
Some writers do make it work, and blog popularity sells thousands of books for them. But what if you’ve been blogging for six months, or a year, and it’s still not working? Why not just give up and dump the useless thing?
I don’t have a one-size-fits-all answer, but here are some things to try before you click on “Delete This Blogâ€:
1. Plan ahead: If you’ve been blogging by the seat of your pants, try planning your content better. Write your posts 24 to 48 hours before you publish them. Stockpile posts for days when you don’t have the time or inclination to write.
2. Offer features: Start writing weekly or regular blog features that appeal to your visitors. A growing group of bloggers do a weekly meme of thirteen things about themselves every Thursday and link to each other’s posts. Make the feature day work for you, too: I put up a ten links every Monday (my worst day for blogging) and an open Q&A post every Friday (my lightest day of the work week.)
3. Post daily, or as often as possible: If you post regularly, your visitors may come back. If they see the same old post hanging there for weeks or months, they probably won’t. Also, posting excuses as to why you’re not blogging is like saying the dog ate your homework. Make a schedule, and a commitment: either blog or don’t blog.
4. Mix it up: Offering a variety of content can help attract a variety of visitors. Don’t write solely about your books, your work and your struggles. Talk about the industry, time-saving ideas or gadgets, genre trends, bestseller lists, the future of publishing or anything writing-related. Try writing a series of themed posts, such as “Plotting Week†or “Six Steps to Publication.†If you’ve mostly been blogging in diary form, experiment with how you write posts. Browse other weblogs and find a topic that interests you (and remember blog courtesy and post a link back to the original source.)
5. Tell a story: You’re a writer. Your visitors are readers. Show them your stuff. Tell an anecdote from real life, or flash a piece of short fiction, or write a parody about something that drives you crazy.
6. Promote intelligently: If you have self-promoted in the past with disappointing results, be more creative with how you do the next book. Avoid the hard-selling, insincere BUY MY WONDERFUL BOOK! Or READ THIS GLOWING REVIEW! posts; they’re beyond boring. Instead, have an unusual giveaway contest, tell your readers a bit about the process of writing your novel, post an interesting snippet, or offer some book-related trivia.
7. Make your blog interactive: If you haven’t already, install or enable a blog comment feature. Yes, it’s risky, particularly if you allow anonymous comments. Yet some of the best content out here can be found in a weblog’s comments, so it’s worth a shot. If you don’t like the results, you can always disable comments later.
8. Smash the vanity mirror: As wonderful as you must be, do you think anyone wants to hear about you 24/7? Find another fascinating writer out there and interview them for your blog. Get some industry insight from a willing editor or agent. Spread the word about another writer’s great book. Discuss industry topics that affect other writers. Participate in and link to terrific discussions on other weblogs.
9. Give something back: Give away copies of your books via your weblog whenever possible. If you don’t have a book in print yet, put up links to other writers’ contests or giveaways, or give away copies of their books. Link to sites that offer beneficial freebies, such as writing articles, e-books or freeware.
10. Have fun: Relax, enjoy what you post, and make your blog a fun place for you. If you’re having a good time, your visitors will feel the same way when they stop in to read.
For those who are still feeling down in the dumps, two last resort ideas: 1) change your blog template, or 2) create a brand-new weblog somewhere else (with a link to it from the old one.) Starting over with a fresh look or at a new place can jumpstart your creativity, and you may end up with the blog that everyone wants to read.
No related posts.
Great list! I don’t mind bloggers taking time off if they need to as long as they let me know. But I hate it when they up and quit. They can have very good reasons but I still miss them.
Apologies for the comments being disabled earlier. A technical glitch.
I do 1, 3, 7, 9 and 10. I’m working on 2 and 4, and am thinking about 8.
Excellent advice as usual, oh great PBW!
All excellent advice that I try to put into practice. Blogs can be a great tool, if managed well. Big business uses them to their advantage and we, as writers, can too.
I’ve been thinking about the day-of-the-week feature thing for a while. I may have to get off my duff and actually do it. Great encouragement.
the group blog i belong to is doing author interviews. But we let the readers ask the questions. We post who we’re interviewing about a week before, give them time to offer up questions, then we pick out five or six to send to the chosen victim.
Sometimes, the author comes and joins us when the interview is posted. Sometimes we give away prizes.
I like the author interviews… offers something most readers like reading about. Plus, they are easy.:smile:
Awesome post, PBW. I’m restarting one of my blogs right now and while I likely can’t post every day, I will post at least twice a week. Our plotmonkeys.com blog is every day becuase there are four of us!
[...] PBW guestblogged on RTB about blogging today. [...]
I’m a diehard bloggist and bloghopper. It’s a lovely, little social circle where I can find interesting news and tidbits.
Not to mention those people who can really understand when I say I’m in editing purgatory.
Grins*
Great post, PBW! Only this week, I’ve been rethinking my haphazard approach to blogging. Thanks for the list of things to consider.
Super advice. Gonna pull out a calendar and start planning some non-egocentric fun things. Thanks!
As always, your post is insightful and helpful. Thanks!
Great advice…I’ve been struggling with keeping up my blog lately, and have been trying to build up steam again. Once we get moved and settled, I’ll have to take some of this advice, for sure!
I have to say you are my number one blogger, bar de none.
Anyway, I abuse my frickin’ blog regularly. I change it, move it, close it, and fool with the registration features especially when traffic is up.
Then when my blog traffic simmers down to a reasonable level (say ten friendly folk bopping by a day), I’m comfortable again.
I settle down and blog away. Then it starts all over again!
I think I’m defeating the purpose. Your idea about focusing outward is lovely.
Thank you PBW! I only JUST started a blog two days ago and my first topic was “Why Blog?” for which I didn’t have the answer. Now I do.
I’m printing off your article for my bulletin board!
~ Wylie Kinson ~ wyliekinson.blogspot.com
Even if I have nothing to say, I make a new header graphic at least once a week.
Right click on my header and “view background image” and you can see the number of the header. This week it’s #70. I still have the other 69 headers online, even though I’ll never use them again. Most of them are admittedly lame, especially without the caption that I put in text that rides above the image, but it’s something. I refuse to have the same header graphic up week after week.
This was an interesting post. I’m a diehard blogger and so is my mother. It’s a catharsis for both of us. There are a lot of people out there who should NOT have a blog, but that is my own opinion.
I find author blogs great, especially if they talk about their lives in a real sense. Sure, they talk about writing & what they go through, but they also talk about their real lives and what they do all the time outside of the writing spectrum.
When & if I ever get published, I hope to continue on blogging. To me, it’s not a fad, but a way of life. I’ve made wonderful friends through the blogosphere and that is what matters the most to me anyway.
Lately, I’ve become really fond of the group author blogs. More content, and more time for everyone to write their books, too!
Great list. I’d never dream of giving up my blog. I started it as a lark, to chronicle my attempt to sell my first book, and found it really began to take off after I actually sold that book and another.
The blog has been a godsend for me, a kind of release after working on book two, a chance to unwind, to have some stimulating conversation…
My hit count seems to double every month, so I’m thrilled that somebody’s paying attention.
Somehow I don’t think MySpace would be half as much fun.
Great stuff, Sheila. I’m already compiling questions for my interview of you. (Here’s one, Stephen Colbert-style: “Orson Scott Card. Great SF writer, or greatest SF writer ever?”)
Thanks for all the comments and kind words. You all are putting #8 into practice here beautifully.
If I survive the 11-year-old birthday/pool party we’re attending tomorrow — they’ll never guess I’m not 11, right? — I plan to stop by all your blogs and see what’s happening in your corner of the net. That should be #11 on the list — always put links to your weblog out there when you comment in other places so we can hunt you down and read you at your place.
I’m late in commenting, but figured I would add my 2 cents anyway:smile:
From a reader’s perspective, I love author blogs! I love all blogs, period. I’ve discovered quite a few new authors via blog hopping. While it hasn’t been nice to my book budget, I’ve definitely enjoyed my new discoveries.
Blogs are fabulous. I’ve met so many people through them. I can’t believe people would ditch them, I just discovered them! LOL. I’m a little sloooooow.
# 10 should be #1.
Thank you, PWB.
Great post and practical advice- thanks
Great tips for a new blogger like myself. I like the idea of mixing up what I write about.
Since this whole thing is free, I think people who want to stop blogging should have the freedom to do so. They have their reasons and they may not be able to share them. But that’s just me. I get a little annoyed when one of my favorite TV shows go off the air, but MOVE ON!
Great tips for a new blogger like myself. I like the idea of mixing up what I write about.
Since this whole thing is free, I think people who want to stop blogging should have the freedom to do so. They have their reasons and they may not be able to share them. But that’s just me. I get a little annoyed when one of my favorite TV shows go off the air, but MOVE ON! Something as good or better will fill the space.
Apologies for the double–now triple–comment. I’m that new at this. I turned my back on the computer and there was an empty comment box in front of me and I though the comment was lost. I, also, did not proofread it. So, I’m not doing it again and correcting my error.
[...] <a href=”http://www.romancingtheblog.com/blog/?p=630″>Don’t dump that weblog</a> [...]
[...] You know, I have been sick of this blog for so long. Everyday I go through the same debate? Keep it? Delete it? It’s a tough call. Then I come across this post at Romancing the Blog and I think it may have just given me the inspiration I need to beat that cycle. [...]
Great tips! Thanks! I especially like the themed series of blog posts. I was thinking of having a specific theme each month and trying to gear my posts toward that, but maybe theming particular series of posts is easier.
Camy
Thanks for a great blog! I’m going to send this link to my blog partners.
As a aspiring novelist I started my blog to motivate myself in writing by posting my word count. Since then it’s expanded into different topics and rants.
The hardest thing has been finding the line as to how much to talk about your own life and where to draw the line. That’s why a plan is necessary so you know why you are blogging and what you’re trying to say.
I’ve met some wonderful bloggers whose blogs are on my must read list. It’s an addictive bit of voyeurism.
I also have to agree with some of the other posters. Some blogs are awful. People write with no rhyme or reason and seem to have no purpose. But that’s the great thing. All you have to do is click the mouse button and you’ll find something else to read.
Thanks for the tips. These are all things that I’ve been thinking about myself. Now I have to draw a battle plan.
I for one LOVE to blog. My daughter Kaitlin commented earlier on here that we’re both diehard bloggers and it’s true. I started mine at her urging a little over a year ago when I had a lot of personal issues going on in my life and nowhere to really vent. As Kaitlin knows, my way of dealing with emotional stuff is by writing and she said she thought blogging would really help. Oh, what a wise young woman she is! By getting a lot of ‘baggage’ out in the open and learning thru people’s comments to my entries that I’m NOT alone…well, it has been truly emotionally liberating for me and I’ve come to peace with many things in my life. I went from having a handful of visitors a day in the beginning to an average of 700-800, even peaking out at 1,782 one day! Blogging has opened up the world to me and I don’t think I’ll ever quit.