Lately I’ve been chatting to a number of bloggers whose blogs have dropped off the radar. I’d been disappointed (as a reader) that they’d stopped blogging and I’d secretly been thinking of it as a “failure” of sorts….
But I was reminded by those bloggers that in many ways that they’d actually succeeded with their blogs and that stopping blogging was a sign of that success.
In this video I explain more.
Notes
- View this video full size (in HD) here
- Video shot on a Panasonic Lumix DMC GF1 (aff) – here’s why I use that camera to shoot my videos.
Transcription of “The Five C’s of Blogging: Reflections on Eight Years of Blogging”
I’ve had this video transcribed below for those who prefer to get it that way. The transcription provided by The Transcription People.
I was having a chat to a blogger that I really admired and was writing some incredible content a couple of years ago. I was chatting to her a couple of weeks ago now, and she kind of dropped out of the blogosphere and wasn’t really writing any more—just the occasional post.
I used to really love her content, and it was almost like a daily experience of wonderment and learning just logging in to see what she was writing. And then she kind of disappeared; one of her posts said that she’d just got a new job, and the posts kind of disappeared after that.
And I was always disappointed in that; and I said to her, when we caught up for a coffee recently, “What happened to your blog? It was so great; it had so much potential.” And as we were chatting she said, “Well, I got a job. And the reason I started a blog was that, you know, I wanted to land a job, I was out of work, and the blog was never really going to be anything beyond an online résumé, a place for me to build my profile and build some credibility, and potentially meet some employers.”
And it kind of was interesting to me, because I’d always sort of seen it as a bit of a failure—as a disappointment—that she’d stopped blogging; but, the more I chatted to her, the more I realised that a temporary blog, a blog that just had the goal of landing her a job, is really an okay thing. And whilst it was disappointing for me as a reader that she disappeared, she actually had landed her dream job as a result of her blog.
It reminded me of another interaction that I had with a blogger who, off the back of his blog, launched just a very small piece of software. And it was a piece of software that really took off and got used a lot; and as a result of that software, he then went and launched another piece of software and another piece of software, and then ended up with a software company which employs ten to 15 people.
And I remember having this similar sort of conversation with him: “Why don’t you blog any more? Your blog was great; I loved it; I really found your ideas interesting.” And he reflected back to me that again, his blog was a means to another end—he was never going to be a professional blogger, that wasn’t his model; his model was to launch a software company, and he used his blog to do that.
And again, there’s a whole heap of stories I could probably tell along similar lines. And I guess these sort of conversations are reminding me that there’s not just one model for blogging and for making a living from blogging. And your blog doesn’t have to go for many, many years to be successful. If success for you is landing a job, or launching another company, your blog can actually be a stepping stone for you.
And whilst I’m disappointed that these people aren’t blogging anymore, I’m really excited that blogging is a medium that can be used to help people achieve their goals beyond having a successful blog.
This is just something I’ve been thinking about the last few days, and I’m interested to hear your comments. What’s the goal of your blog? Are you blogging for blogging to be the end, or is it a stepping stone to something else for you?
Love to hear your comments.
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Blogging is a journey in self-discovery for me and after three years I can actually see doing it for a decade or more. Being sixty something and retired there are no pressures surrounding blogging and I’ve learned quite a bit about my creative potential especially regarding writing prose and poetry and taking photos. I have enjoyed walking down the road to the University of Richmond and taking photos. At one point the president of U of R commented how much he enjoyed the photos of his campus. And next semester I’m auditing a creative writing course. I’ve also explored the darker side: finding purpose in the senior years, dealing with depression and drinking and building relationships online. Commenting is one of my weak points. But it’s mostly very positive and my wife and I enjoy many outings. She enjoys looking for bargains and I’m looking for the next interesting photo. Considering that we found each other online ten years ago I would say blogging and the internet have been a great gift to someone who could have ended up in front of the television with a drink in his hand.
The title of this post is interesting: ”Blog as Stepping Stones”.
I started blogging last year and still doing it. It is a great idea to use blog as a stepping stone as I found it easy to start a blog and be online to make money. However, i find it difficult to master to make big money.
With the knowledge of blogging, I have gain experience in SEO, google listing, traffic generaion as well as link building. The only thing I am still not able to grasp is to get a profitable keyword.
Cheers
I started my blog with the intention of running it as a full time business – to get away from the rat race of my day job. Much as I love aspects of my day job, I do hate the stress and unsociable hours. So up went my blog.
However I want to improve ways of expressing myself on the internet and to get into writing in general, so I enrolled on a writing course. I am now using my blog as a platform to practise my writing. You never know, one day I may get a job writing for magazines.
Although it is still my intention to run my blog as a business, I am really enjoying blogging. The more I post, the more ideas I seem to come up with and Pro Blogger has taught me a lot! Thank you.
I blog to receive motivation from my readers. The feedback, ideas and comments I receive are invaluable. I also blog to share my thoughts and put a smile on someone’s face. I blog when I feel like blogging and once I reach that stage when I feel like it’s a chore, when that day comes, it means I’d have lost motivation to blog.
I agree with David, Blogging is a journey and you get a a lot of surprises every now and then, hence learning on the path only makes you succeed to achieve all that “HIGH” goals…
Rather nice post,thnx…
I agree with Wins who agrees with David, You do travel through blogs reading,commenting and you get a lot of surprises every now and then which is really cool as i often find blogs that i have to bookmark and return to.
This is my first time landing on this website and definitely will be more everyday as I started to focus on doing blogging in my spare time. Bought some domain name and hosting but still dont know what to write.
One of them is http://www.ohmydarwin.com, at first I wanted to create a portal but lacking of time and focus didnt really happen.
I created a blog because I despise answering to a boss and working like a dung beetle.
I find it painful to go to a regular job knowing that I could make more from home if I knew what I was doing. Little by little, in a couple of hours/day I will learn. I will take action and I will tell the world what I have decided to do and why so that they might be able to skip some steps, encounter less hassle, and reach their happiness more quickly.
Blogging in this manner not only helps those who read, but helps me keep an electronic log so that I can go back and re-learn what I learned last year. It helps me to create systems of action for others. Teaching has always helped me learn.
Thank you for reminding me to help others. I haven’t blogged in quite some time. I finally have internet service at home again, so hopefully I can get something accomplished now.
Note to David: Commenting is also one of my weaknesses, but I’ve really enjoyed all these thoughts that keep trickling in. I think you were really brave to write what you did. Good for you, and keep on blogging!
Anything you create can always lead to something better if that is what your goal is, and obviously this person achieved her means, and that can only be viewed as success in itself. I always enjoy commenting here and reading the other views, extremely beneficial to all of us. Thanks Darren!
I just started a blog and i can tell you I really enjoy it, the responses are quick, and the search engine crawls our blog frequently. I will help get a better pagarank and ofcourse getting more traffic, which results in more customers.
We must write something day by day if it is meaningful or not in order to learn blogging.
I definitely agree that blogging can be a stepping stone for a lot of people. The thing that I like about blogs is that you can get your opinion out there on the internet very quickly. You don’t have to wait to get feedback from your friends when there are poeple all over the internet that can give you feedback. But I realized a while back after I sold one of my blogs for 5 figures, that people actually looked forward to what I had to say! I guess when I started getting emails from people asking me when I was going put up some new content, I realized isn’t wasn’t just about me anymore. So sometimes other people place more importance in your blogs then you might.
I write bog everyday to share my information with my friends. Some of them love to read my blog everyday, or when I post a new entry.
Sometimes, when I get bad mood, they try to make me feel better. I own that. You know, I can’t meet all of them and tell them what happended to me. So if they really care about me, they will know what’s swrong. I’m thankful for that.
I started my blog while looking for work. After I found work, it sorta started to loose its draw for me. However, I am finding that many of the things that interest me are made better by focusing on making a blog entry out of them.
I guess this makes my blog a stepping stone in some as yet undefined direction. There is something about that I find attractive. Someday maybe I will look back and find that my blog took me to a new hobby, vocation, art or business. Right now it is a vehicle for intellectually wandering.
Great site and content!
Thank you,
John
Thanks Daren, You have been the best Blogging Guru ever!
Your every tutorial and trick has worked and has really helped me!
Thanks!
Blogging on my counselling website is a way of introducing my style and service. I introduce my blogs as “our thoughts”
My blogs help people understand why seeking counselling is beneficial and they can also learn new skills …free of charge
Nancy
my goal is to be a multi-millionaire in 2 years :)
I agree with David, Blogging is a journey and you get a a lot of surprises every now and then, hence learning on the path only makes you succeed to achieve all that “HIGH” goals…
Rather nice post,thnx…
Although it is still my intention to run my blog as a business, I am really enjoying blogging. The more I post, the more ideas I seem to come up with and Pro Blogger has taught me a lot! Thank you.
The reason that I started blogging was because I saw it as the easiest way to gain social proof in order to become known online.
If I am perfectly honest I am not sure where this is going to take me. I guess I have met many other marketers on the back of it and have learned an awful lot I didn’t know before about online marketing.
My ulitmate goal is to earn a decent living by selling information products online and running blogs are what I think are the most effective way of achieving that
Using temp blogs make internet garabage. At the end of this works, getting a ideal blog is not enough to receive pardon.
In my opinion, people try to do best as well as it is possible.
I totally agree with you. I already see very good blogs which are made for business reasons and usually those kind of blog stop living when they fulfill their purpose which is for their owners good thing. On the other hand blogs that last “forever” are usually made for fun of the owner.
Darren,
I have blogged for four years as a way to learn to write and to spread ideas. Now I am blogging about my core passion – assisting men in creating the life they want. For 30 years in many capacities I have worked with men. I am seeing that there is a new awareness and appreciation about being a man. I want to support that.
I also want to use my blog to help launch my book – Grow Up Men – 9 steps to being a man.
Darren, I enjoyed your interview with Dave Navarro as part of his mastermind program – thanks.
Thanks for such a great video, it was really full of great suggestions.
I am investigating blogging as a way to help change the way trauma therapy is done in the world. The traditional way it is done is a lot like trying to take someone’s tonsils out through their nose. It would be difficult, time consuming, and painful. Making people who are suffering from old pain tell their story over and over hoping at some point that they will feel better is sadistic. There is a much easier, faster, more effective, and less painful way. I want to teach other therapists how to have their clients’ old pain processed internally by the reservoirs of old pain, and release it permanently. More info can be found at: traumaconversiontherapy.com. When the blog is up it will be at: askthertraumatherapist.com. Thanks for the info on your blog.
Interesting video Darren – I agree with your sentiment.
My blog started as a means to learn about blogging and internet marketing, while searching for a more lasting subject (or at least a better targeted niche). It may well end up being the sort of stepping stone that you describe, and become more of a personal resource that I update far less frequently.
Thanks for the post, i think i’m gonna have to start a new blog for my day job to build up some kind of profile, serves as a portfolio too.
I think this is really insightful and is a look into what many bloggers are out to do….serve a more short term interest as opposed to create a long-term income from blogging. Face it, that is not likely to happen for most people, at least not without years of effort that may or may not pay off.
And all that is okay.
Using a blog as a creative outlet is especially useful if your intent is somewhere within the writing arena.
Starting blog as hobby and then landing into professional blogging is getting popular these days but still blog is a great way to promote yourself and get acknowledged.
I started my blogging journey to help grow and promote mine and my husbands business. I found it a good way to network with others and educate home owners on renovations and other matters that reflect our business. It’s also been a way to build up our company’s profile online. I am totally hooked now! I’m enjoying the whole blogging experence and am considering starting more blogs on the side.
I’ve learned so much from ProBlogger too, thanks for the great content!
This video is powerful even beyond the subject of blogging. We’ve been trained to this old math:
starting + stopping = failure.
But it’s time for a little new math:
(starting + stopping) / experience = Growth
Rejection and endings aren’t failure unless we view them as such.
That said, I started a blog earlier this year as a way of working through a personal change. It’s fun that you posted this video because I recently wrote an e-book that I give away on my site about using blogging as a way to make change in your life. When you write through some life shift you’re doing, especially if it takes continued focus and action, you’re more likely to stick with the changes you’re making.
When my blog started to take too much time and I was faced with wanting to have a blog that could become a viable business down the road a ways, I stopped … just last week in fact.
Another thing starting and stopping blogs has done for me is to define my real areas of interest. I started a blog as a platform for doing ghostwriting and one as a platform for writing coaching I was doing, and I found I had to MAKE myself write for them. Compare that to a photo/inspirational blog I started, The Joyful Springer, which has no monetizing plan but I love it anyway. It’s making me take a good look at which direction I want to go with my writing.
So blogging can be a wonderful self help and life purpose tool. It helps you get to know yourself. And once you figure out who you are, stopping the blogs that aren’t a fit isn’t failure–it’s a WISE DECISION. :)
I read an article in the Voyer magazine while returning on my flight from the Melb Cup, and when I got home, looked up the problogger website as it sounds really interesting, and I’d like to give blogging a go, but just didn’t know where to start really. I want to see if I’m any good at it. And I think I have something to blog about. So, if I start a blog, it will be as a stepping stone into eventual retirement with hopefully an income one day. Thanks
Hey! darren.
I had few couple of blog last year, but when i realized that having more blogs dilutes your effort on every blog, i just started a single blog ‘ultimate blogger’. And i was surprised to see that my blog was on the 1st page of google in just a month.
I really agree with your article.
thanks a lot
regards..
Divya……:)
I am considering starting a blog, but sometimes I think it is too much work with too little reward. Thanks for your comments.
it is kind of motivating. I particularly like this phrase: “blogging is a medium that can be used to help people achieve their goals beyond having a successful blog..”
thanks for sharing the content. It’s encouraging.
Hi, Darren!
We started the B-Blog for Magic Senses (a soap company) a few years ago… and we found it easier to update our fans and customers via the Blog rather than via Newsletters every week.
Hopefully, this will not be a temporary blog! We do our business for fun and the blog makes it even more fun!
Thank you for a great video!
I Blog cause I live alone and I have nothing else to do after work; I get bored and my Blog provides enough entertainment for me. I have a pretty boring job too so I can Blog at the office as well. Add insomnia to the mix and you get a full time Blogging experience.
Stepping stone or full time thing? I don’t know. I’m kinda getting bored of the Blog at the moment. I’ve been dating this Chick and I’d like to spend more time with her, I’m also getting job offers in other countries with better pays than my current minimum-wage-soul-crushing job and Google analytics shows I’m not getting that many visitors, on top of that my web designer is a really expensive one. So I don’t know. I’ll let it run for another couple of months and if it doesn’t work out I might as well pull the plug on it.
I look at Blogging as an opportunity to build a community for my site, which will eventually be more than just a blog. My blog is a starting point to something more. Still trying to figure out what that “something more” is… any business ideas? I am all ears…
thanks…
Even if a blogger isn’t using a blog as a résumé or portfolio, the odds are good that the blogger won’t stick with it. Writing any type of content day in and day out (or even month in and month out) isn’t easy, whether it’s a blog, a magazine column, or a comic strip.
Burnout is only one reason for abandoning a blog. People have babies, go to jail, die, or simply take up other pursuits (like running for city council, joining a band, or learning French).
Also, if people have unrealistic expectations about their blogs–such as earning a decent income from a blog that’s more about self-expression than serving readers–the day will come when they’ll examine their return on “sweat equity” and decide that their time could be spent more productively somewhere else.
hye, i’m from malaysia. i do enjoy reading your posts, and looking forward to produce some sort of english aticle,but I think, it is good to have a huge connection so that it’ll encourage me to blogging in english..
I never would have thought about it like that.. a blog as a resume — I would be interested to know what field her dream job was in.
Thanks for the post!
– Aaron Cross
I blog because it is a way of life for me, but I have cut back on my mom blog to once a week. I’d love to blog full time like you do, but my situation is such that I have to have a day job and do the blogging nights and weekends.
The only thing about a temporary blog – it’s great if they still post at least once a month, but when they abandon it altogether, it makes me crazy because it is just another website clogging up the information highway. I’d like to see them make the blog private if they aren’t going to post anymore.
Catherine
I’m definitely in the category of wanting to be a long term blogger. Whether or not that ends up being a full time profession or a part time passion remains to be seen.
Right now I’m in a personal growth phase as I’m finishing up an MBA along with trying to get traction as an HR professional.
Love your stuff. Thanks for what you do and sharing with us lesser mortals.
I blog because I like to share stuff online and make my blog as my future reference just in case something that I will need in the future. That’s the first but later, I blog to earn too.
I blog for both the reasons…..I like to blog, and I also want to use my blog as a means to show my talent to to thers….
I have stared blogging recently, and i found its fun. Problogger did a great help, as they lend me the stepping stones into the blogging world. I am looking forward for more important stuffs from Probloggers..
I got a question, is it necessary to be a programmer or a web page designer to be a successful blogger? And in what other means blogging can help me earn?
I belive somebody can help me out.
Well I blog for helping spreading the word of my ideas. And for the fun of it :-)
Great page! Thanks
Hey great post I have read a coupleof your other posts for how to promote your blog, and they have given me good insight as to how to get some subscribers.
My blog is a showcase for my novels, short stories, and poems with links to purchase what I have published in order to eventually make a living as a novel writer. I am just trying to increase a fan base of readers to help promote it.
I offer the opportunity to read my writing fully before buying it and I plan to hopefully keep using my blog for that purpose for as long as possible.
I also thank you again for such good sources of information regarding getting noticed.