Blogging doesn’t have to be strategies and planning

As I mentioned earlier this month, I recently followed some bloggers on twitter with the goal of inspiring me to blog more. It’s kinda worked: I have a lot of ideas floating about my head at the minute. Whether they’ll making it into an actual blog post is another matter, but step 1 complete. Winning!

However, one of the side effects of this is that I’ve realised how much the blogging world has become dominated by the concept of blogging for fame & money, and as such how everything has to be about optimising for this. Content marketing plans, social media strategies, optimal hashtag usage, best posting times, the right theme, the best bloggers to comment-spam in the hope of increasing your following which increases clicks and eyes and revenue and… aargh!

I’m not sure if people realise but *dramatic pause* blogging doesn’t have to be like this.

It is possible to just open your little blog admin panel and write about something. Write as the words appear in your head, without thinking “should I stick another keyword in here”, or “how many giant photographs should I use to reach peak hipster lifestyle blog status”. Don’t edit the shit out of it, don’t dress it up with fancy words and metaphors… just write.

Of course, that’s not to say that you shouldn’t think about those things occasionally. Heck, the giant lifestyle blog photos are winning me over. I sometimes bung some hashtags on my insta-snaps and look ma: I’ve fixed my broken theme. But maybe, just maybe, once in a while: let go.

8 Comments

  1. Yeah, I feel like blogging has got a bit complicated over the years. About the only thing I focus on is ensuring I have an entry image. I don’t really focus on the keyword or such. I just write and share what I want to share, and if there are others who can relate, yay!

  2. Yes!!! I think there are two mindsets – blog as diary and blog as potential moneymaking hobby. I have absolutely no intention of ever making money off my blog, so I don’t try to have the best placed images or hashtags or whatever. My blog is my public diary and I brain-dump into it whenever I feel I need to. (Which lately seems to be twice a year; not sure what that says about me!)

  3. I also quite like big images, as long as they’re not pushing all the actual content below the fold…

    You haven’t mentioned the unrealistic expectation of “I started this blog six months ago and now I’ve got a million followers and I’m going to quit my job and do it full time!”. I mean, it’s nice to have something to aim for but nnngggh
    If I spent vast amounts my spare time trying to aggressively promote/push my blog then I’d never have time to do any of the stuff I like to write about, hah

  4. I’m also experiencing a bit of a block when it comes to blogging, but I can’t bring myself to just write no matter how therapeutic it may be. I have ideas but as soon as I open up the dashboard those ideas evaporate into thin area and writer’s block takes over.

  5. I haven’t written anything on my blog in months because I just got over it. Blogging isn’t the same as it was years ago and it feels like it is so competitive these days and not just for fun.
    I found I wasn’t enjoying doing it anymore so stopped, for now, maybe forever. I miss the old days where you could update a paragraph of something stupid and it didn’t matter.

  6. For me, if all else fails for blogging inspirations, I turn to a set of prompt cards called Rememory (it was a gift from my father for my birthday last year), and if I picked a card of a topic that I’ve never experienced before in my life, I’d make something up. But before the prompt cards, I also used to visit other people’s blogs and find inspirations on what to write about. But then, at the same time, I didn’t want to be stumbled upon by others and then accuse me of “copying” their blog topics (even though the content involving that same topic is completely different). Some bloggers are just being “proprietary” with their topics and ideas nowadays.

    With sites like Pixabay and Unsplash finally offering free royalty-free images, I can finally use some images on some entries, but most of the time, I’m too lazy to find images just for that one entry alone that I still prefer just straight out blogging an entry without any images.

    I agree with you also regarding the “evolvement” of blogging these past few days. I’m not particularly interested in product review blogs (which I have been seeing way too much) so that they can make money. In fact, I don’t think I would last just blogging as a “paid job.” I want to have a remote job one day and make money at home, but building something (like sites and apps), not blogging. :)

    • Jem

      27 Sep at 2:40 pm

      I loove the idea of the prompt cards. I might have to look into that. Or maybe even just a user-provided prompt list that I can use, because then I can answer reader questions or whatever at the same time. Ooh, ideas…. ;)

  7. Thank you for such a refreshing post – so true. All these strategies completely detract from the beauty of blogging. It’s also really frustrating when blogs have thousands of followers and the content just isn’t great! ☺️lauren – http://www.theyoproedit.com