Many bloggers are unhappy bloggers. They find it difficult to get inspired to write and when they do they are upset by the lack of readers. Then when they look at their website’s statistical data they are even more saddened by the lack of time people spend reading their musings. In business, it’s worse; many bloggers are tapping away on their keyboards because they have been told it is good for their business. Maybe that’s true, but it might not be good for them.
This is the “blogging hell” many people find themselves in. They feel pressure to blog because the theory is it is good for business, yet they can’t get inspired or even find it difficult to write just a few hundred words each day. Then, the time it takes them to produce anything resembling a good blog eats into their working time, meaning stress and unhappiness with their real job of work. That then leads to them being told they should blog more, so that they can attract more custom so they don’t have to work so hard. It’s a seeming never-ending spiral of pressure to blog, that seems to have less and less effect on business.
Here’s the issue: people in blogging hell are not motivated to write. Imagine, for a moment, you yearned to be a lawyer ever since you were a teenager. You love the legal work, the challenges, the sorting out problems and standing up for other people’s rights. You may be a fantastic lawyer – yet also be penniless as you are unable to attract new clients. You see, being a successful lawyer requires you to be good at marketing yourself. But you didn’t go into the law in order to be a marketeer.
And so it is the same with blogging. People did not enter the accountancy profession, or serial entrepreneurship, or cake making to end up being a writer for a quarter of the day. These people are motivated by their job – not by writing. Writers are motivated by writing. So it begs the question – why do so many business people feel the need to blog?
The answer is “fashion”; it seems as though it is “the thing to do”. Then, you find that blogging gurus will explain (rightly) the impact blogging has on a business. But few people seem to question the impact blogging has on you as an individual. Is it, for instance, making you stay up late at night to come up with ideas? Is it taking time away from more productive work? Is it difficult for you to actually write in the first place?
Blogging has undoubted benefits on business – you can generate leads, create a new income stream and produce new ideas for your business. But that can be at the expense of you and your work. So, take this simple test to see if you are in blogging hell. Answer these questions:
- Do you find it difficult to get inspired to blog?
- Have you ever spent more time than you wanted on a blog post?
- Do you blog more because you “have to” rather than “want to”?
- Are you frustrated that your blog doesn’t get the level of readership you want?
If you answer “yes” to these questions you could well be in “Blogging Hell” and you need to escape. So how can you do that? Simple: get a writer. Find someone who is motivated by writing to do the work for you. Build a relationship with a writer so they can be your online voice. Try Tony Quinn at Inspiration Inc, Nigel Morgan, Patrick Moore, or Matt Ambrose for instance. Or go to Elance and find someone to help.
But whatever you do – get help. Rather like an alcoholic, the first step in dealing with blogging hell is admitting you suffer. Once you have done that, get help from people motivated by writing so that you can enter recovery and get on and do what you do so well – running your business.
