Is Blogging Really This Dangerous?
My pal Kori sent me this piece from the New York Times a couple of hours ago. Scary stuff – go read it, then come back and we’ll chat.
Honestly, this article sort of freaked me out. While I do love blogging, this article covered a lot of the negatives. Long hours, the constant story hunt, links, networking, no time to eat when I’m in full on work mode, and more. Some of this stuff is scarily true.
It’s worse when you’re on someone else’s dime too. I remember blogging just for me, back in the day. The big difference was that if I felt like stopping, taking a break, I could. I did. I do remember blog breaks. Now, blogging for others, supporting my son with blogging, I rarely have time to breathe when it’s work time. I just don’t stop.
Recently (last month) I realized that something had to give. I sat down with my schedule to think things over. Among other things I went down to part-time at one position and dropped another gig altogether. We’ll have less money immediately, but in the long run, I’ll be more productive at the blogs I’m keeping.
I have some other ideas as well. If you’re a frazzled blogger here are some things that may work:
Quit something: As noted above, I recently did this and I feel much better already.
No more free guest posting: Guest posting has some major advantages if you blog for others. That said, it’s also a drain on the time you could be working for money, hanging out with your family, exercising, or sleeping, etc.
Blog what you know: Deb wrote about this in her post, Knowing When to Say No (And When Not To). It’s smarter to blog what you know because it saves time.
Don’t blog time significant topics: Topic like tech news, taxes, celebrities, fashion, television, and in some case real estate, (among others) can be very time significant. As in you snooze you lose. There are blog topics that are more evergreen than others and some are just as successful as time dependent topics. Examples include parenting, cooking, children’s literature, college life, and more. Obviously all blog topics have some evergreen aspects and some breaking news aspects, but you have some sort of give here. If searching for breaking news 24/7 is making you nuts, look for another topic.
Blog better where you are: You can have a ton of blog gigs and make good money. The disadvantage to holding down many blogs is that you give more attention to some of them, not the same attention to all of them. Maybe you could quit a few blogs and focus exceptional attention on the blogs you have left, thus making them more successful. Believe me it’s less stressful to focus on five blogs vs. ten.
Don’t take poor paying gigs: The worse your jobs pay, the more jobs you need. If you’re currently working five low-paying blog gigs, start looking for two that pay better.
Cut out social distractions: I get more done when I avoid Twitter and Stumble Upon. I also get traffic from both, so it’s a toss up. Email distracts me too. I’ve been considering instituting a dedicated social networking time that includes email. That’s a huge step so I’m only thinking about it right now, but it will save me some time, once I get brave enough to try it.
Blog one blog a day: Some of my friends say that they’ll do all their posts for one blog on Monday, another on Tuesday, and so on. some of them swear by it. It’s not my cup of tea, because I like to jump topics, but it’s something you could try to save time.
Take on a co-blogger: I recently did this and it’s saved me time, motivated me, and the blog has gained lots of traffic, so my wages haven’t gone down that much. Co-blogging is not for everyone, but it can save you time. In my experience, most clients and networks will let you give it a whirl.
What else can we do to avoid the major burn-out that can come with blogging? What have you done that’s worked?
