Blogging ain’t easy. Just ask the hundreds of bloggers that quit within the first three months. You might have lurked around your favorite blogs and thought that you could do it too, so you started your blog. You’ve now you’ve hit a wall and want to quit. So what do you do?
Reflect on why you started
Ask yourself, “why did I begin blogging”? You must have an absolute passion for the idea behind your blog. It has to be something that you surround yourself with, and wouldn’t mind talking about endlessly. Because ultimately, if your blog is to make it, that’s exactly what you will do. If you’re not motivated enough to talk about your topic all the time, your readers will sense it and they won’t come back.
Reevaluate your expectations
If you had hoped to have 100,000 readers a month within the first year, and did not have an absolutely killer marketing plan, your expectations might be too high. Lots of great blogs get around 100 visitors a day after they have been blogging for some time.
If you thought that you would make hundreds of dollars each month in advertising revenue, and you are not, ask your fellow bloggers what they are doing to earn revenue so that you can learn from the best.
Upgrade your knowledge
Increase your knowledge not just in your particular subject area, but on the craft of blogging itself. Sites like Problogger and John Chow make hundreds of thousands of dollars each year teaching people how to blog professionally. There is always something to learn.
Take a break
Sometimes you just develop writer’s block. It happens to the best of us. Solicit guest posts or articles from your fellow bloggers. Good bloggers are always willing to cross promote, and you can gain some new readers from sharing your web space with a new writer.
Is it time to quit?
Stuff happens! Life intervenes, you get busy, you add a new child to your family, you move, or your interest changes. The best part about being human is the ability to make decisions for yourself.
If after taking a break you decide that blogging is not for you, it’s okay to quit! We won’t judge you for it. Just be sure to tell your fellow bloggers and readers good-bye in a post. As bloggers we forget that our readers feel as if they know us, and when you disappear without saying that you are gone, they feel as if you left them standing at the altar.
If you need help, always remember that your fellow bloggers are here to help you. I hit a major wall and stopped blogging for about a month after receiving a whopping tax bill, but it was with the help of my fellow bloggers that I made it through that time. We can, and will, do the same for you. Don’t quit!
Have you ever thought of quitting blogging? How did you get through it?
Sandy runs the blog Yes, I Am Cheap where she is chronicling her methods of getting out of debt and sharing some stories about her tenant from hell in the process.
Maybe it’s just time to rest, not to quit.
I recommend a ‘vacation’ from the blog at least once every 6 months- set up scheduled posts and walk away from the blog and email for a couple of days at least. Call if a mental health vacation. Sometimes just keeping up daily grind puts too much stress on you- you need a break.
AND as a bonus, you usually find all sorts of things you want to blog about while on break and you DO come back more rejuvenated and raring to go!
Just like regular vacations are good for the soul, so are ‘blog vacations’!
I recommend a ‘vacation’ from the blog at least once every 6 months- set up scheduled posts and walk away from the blog and email for a couple of days at least. Call if a mental health vacation. Sometimes just keeping up daily grind puts too much stress on you- you need a break.
AND as a bonus, you usually find all sorts of things you want to blog about while on break and you DO come back more rejuvenated and raring to go!
Just like regular vacations are good for the soul, so are ‘blog vacations’!
Great post and quitting is an issue that we all face at some point in time. Blogging is simply another aspect of business.
If business were easy….everyone would be doing it.
Hence… make sure quitting simply isn’t an option.
It also helps if you try to develop some marketing and SEO smarts.
Patrick
Very interesting to read all these comments. I think there is a lot of misunderstanding; a lot of “newbies” think blogging is an easy way of making fast money. Yesterday I was reading a blog of someone who had started a new blog and set some goals within 30 days (like earning $1000 in his first month). I think he gave up after 15 or 20 days…
I started a new blog 2,5 months ago and it’s running okay. I don’t have the time to write an new article everyday, but I try to write 2 posts a week. I have around 60 visitors a day and this might sound a little amount, but I only just started this new blog. How can I expect to have thousends of daily visitors if I have only 30 posts?
And for the future? Well, I still have plenty of ideas and I won’t quit blogging now. After 2 year I will evaluate it, because I believe it also has to grow. But when I take a look at my statistics and see that some articles are viewed over 500 times a month… well, for me that’s worth it!
Ouch! He never gave himself a chance really. Setting your goals too high is a surefire way to failure. I had zero expectations when I began. I thought everything was just going into the ether until – wait, is that a subscriber? Then 2?!
:)
I think a lot of the points you make are stemmed from a common belief that blogging has to be a lonely venture, just as many authors are thrown in with the tortured writer stereotype. The thing is blogging doesn’t have to be a lonely business, if you surround yourself with others who are into it as well that is likely to provide most of the motivation you need to keep going. We don’t have to lock ourselves away until we finish a manuscript – it’s as much about connecting with people and having fun as it is about writing.
And sometimes you may quit one to start another…
I have a zillion blogs I’ve started, but only a few I’m passionate about. Sometimes we need to “test the waters” so to speak….
I agree about telling people good-bye. I was friends with a blogger who had Cancer. She was doing fine, I thought.
A year or so ago she stopped blogging and I’m afraid to ask why….
Great post-thanks!
O! I really welcome someone who will post a “Good bye” Post. But never seen such type of post. Most people just left their blog un-attended.
Thanks for sharing the post! :)
Nice post! I would only consider quitting blogging if I ran out of valuable information to share. But there is just so much to write about and not enough time in the day!
Blogging is no different than a small business. There are good days and bad days. I am relatively new to blogging, but I was a former business owner. I think I understand the up and downs a little better than some. Concentrate on the goal and you will be fine.
Really? mine is now getting closer to this.
This post feels like a new blood and spirit for me to always looking after my blog and fasten my process to design my newest blog. .Really thanks!
Some bloggers will brag about their numbers but there are others that would really love to cross that threshold. It doesn’t mean that your blog isn’t good! It just means that people haven’t found you yet. :)
If this gives you motivation to continue, then please do. I remember the days when I prayed for 100 pageviews let along visitors. When I consistently hit 100 I did a mini-celebration…then I set my goals higher and higher.
Your post is very informative. Determination to share your knowledge and insights to readers in every part of the world is an essential virtue to blogging.
When I first started blogging in 2009 I became a statistic and quit after 4 months. I didn’t realise how much time it would take and got really frustrated and walked away. Then 6 months later I was ready to start again and I’ve just celebrated one full year of blogging.
I agree with Nicole above – you need to take a break from blogging from time to time otherwise it will wear you out.
I have fallen in love with blogging. I am just reaching that point where you feel the burn. My blog is 3 months old and I have managed at least one post a day for everyday of 2011. I am surprised I have managed to keep it up but is definitely because I love doing what I do.
I had a very deliberate mindset from day 1 that I would manage my expectations. I would have loved 100 readers a day but I knew it would not happen. I am happy I am up around 40 a day just now.
It’s comforting to know that quitting a blog is not regarded as failure. It is a huge committment and life brings external challenges that can get in the way.
I aim to keep going as long as I can.
Keep going guys.
I never thought I’d see this type of blog post on a blog. LOL. :P
Sorry… I never quit, I grow…
But I think it’s a good idea to take a break and refresh your mind. :)
Never thought you’d see a blog allow a post to be published telling another blogger that it’s okay to quit? Why the heck not?
How many blogs have you stumbled into that haven’t been updated in months and are just waiting out the time for their domain registration to expire. There’s nothing wrong with deciding that your interest have changed.
I use to it which always break sometime when looking for new topic. Because most of the time, after write a done a hot topic. You need to make sure that will come out another hot topic so your reader will continue follow you rapidly.
Some people would not need much time to look for new topic but some yes. Some people to recognize the problem and they would like to share out. Some people would like to get other topic which is latest news or update and pick it as their topic.
But never quit a blog permanently. Blog is still a trendy to earn money.
I’m not a blogger but a reader. For me it is a way to here a voice or opinion that I might or would not have ever heard before. And yes sometimes it only takes one word or a phrase from someone you will never meet to change your mind and let you see things from the other side. So for those that are thinking of quitting I say hang in there because you never know you might have those words that can change a mind.
In anything we do, its not just about passion and the love of writing. You also need the muscles. I love to run but if I dont run that often enough, I will still not be fit for marathons coming end of they year.
So its the same thing as blogging. You need to grow the muscles in blogging and when you do you can’t stop. Coming to 8 years of blogging.. Only monetizing it the last few years.
Mostly people quit just because they don’t have a plan. Your advice on deciding to quit or not was really good. As everyone else said, a vacation would be great. And knowing fellow bloggers, reading and admiring other great bloggers like Darren, experimenting new techniques, lot of cross platform research- all these would be a mind refresher. Calm down, sit and think what you are up to and then decide, choose a proper time line, write for passion, then for money, you ll never quit.
Nice post. I read blogs for years before starting to write one. I haven’t hit a wall yet in seven months of blogging, and hope I won’t. This is a good set of reminders just in case I do.
Thank you for this always timely post! Probably every single blogger in the world has thoughts of quitting, even if it’s just fleeting and only once a year or so. It’s just the way it is. It doesn’t matter what level you are at, it’s just something we all have to work through in varying degrees depending on the person.
Ultimately, keep at it! You cannot lose!
Peter
Yup! Last summer I just could not freaking write a single blog post for the life of me. I felt overwhelmed and like I was stagnant. I thought about quitting, but at that point I’d been blogging for 2-plus years and I wasn’t sure I wanted to throw it all away. Rather than quit, I did as you suggested. I solicited guest posts and took 6 weeks off. It was awesome, refreshing. When I was back I still felt a little overwhelmed, but I worked through those feelings and am proud to say I’m coming up on 3 years of successful blogging next week!
When traffic levels are low, it’s very tempting to want to quit… But like anything else, there are good days and bad days…. and never give up! Hard work always pays off!
Every time I get writers block I pull a blog post from one of my friends or guest bloggers. My clients like it and it adds variety to my blog.
I just think that people who do blogging for the first purpose to make money should consider many things, like the time spent on blogging and the amount of money from blogging. But those who do blogging for interest do not need to consider these things – because they blog with their passion and interest. :)
Sandy,
i don’t think so. in order to run a blog, we have to be passionate to it. if we aren’t, we don’t have go to run a blog.
Thanks
There are so many different options besides quitting you blog. If you started to blog for a reason, chances are someone will one day need that information. As others have mentioned, take a holiday, change the direction of your blog, experiment with finding your voice etc, just don’t quit!
Great article. I have had ups and downs but you have to stick through them all and it is definitely worthwhile.
I never thought about quitting but I guess blogging is for me. If it’s always forced then it’s definitely time to change things up or throw in the towell.