Feb 04 2009
Thinking of Taking a Break from Blogging? Think again
It happens to even the most prolific of bloggers.
Yesterday, I was going through a blog which was well-known for being updated at least every other day.
There were many interesting posts on blogging to browse through.
However, one post caught my attention. In it the blogger the blogger talks about his absence from his blog for about two weeks.
He starts off saying how his traffic dropped by 50 % during his absence.
The 10 to 20 daily comments he used to receive dropped to only 4 or 5.
The blogger had a confession to make. He revealed that he had taken it easy after enjoying a little success with his blog.
At that point, he had over 250 blog posts and thought that it was enough to keep readers coming in. He was soon proven wrong.
He learnt that readers were always hungry for fresh content no matter how many existing blog posts you have.
What happened? Why did the blogger stay away for two weeks?
Did his ideas dry up? No. He had about a dozen posts in draft form. All he had to do was edit them and post. He did not do it.
I don’t think it’s wrong to be absent from your blog. Maybe a day or two is no harm. But then two days may stretch into three and more and you readers would soon grow tired of checking your blog for fresh content.
Apart from creating a bad impression on your readers, you would also find it difficult to get into the blogging momentum, as our prolific blogger experienced after the break.
Are you willing to go through this pain?
From experience, I can say that if you decide to blog long term, the first thing you should do is not to think about taking a break.
The exception is when you’re really unwell or an emergency happens.
But if you take a break just for the sake for it, then you’re cultivating an unhealthy blogging habit which may work against your blogging success in the long run.
Maintain the momentum once you keep going.
The lesson the prolific blogger learnt was to treat his blog like a daily newspaper.
How would readers react if a daily doesn’t turn up for days?
So, when you feel like taking a break, the first question is not to ask whether you deserve it, but how it would affect your readers.
That’s very good advice, I’ve been lax myself of late on my two blogs, haven’t felt the greatest and yet I just can’t seem to find my way back to writing anything, but I must;
great advice, just what I needed a swift kick in the rear-end!
LOL!
Hi Wolfspirit,
Glad that the post gave you some food for thought. Hope you’ll restart your postings pretty soon.