I work with WordPress all day. I have been since late 2005. I started using WordPress for what it was supposed to do back in the day: blogging. The more I started discovering the possibilities WordPress gave me, in terms of earning my living with it, the less I started blogging.
I’m guessing the decline in my blogging frequency started out as a preference to rather be working on building my business than randomly writing blog posts. But it could be I just got lazy and stopped bothering. Either way, I kinda stopped blogging. Not full stop, but very close.
So, I didn’t think I had to answer the question my good friend Chris raised a couple of days ago. I started skimming his post titled “Should I stop blogging?” and was quickly assured that Chris has no intention in stopping himself, but that he was, in fact, encouraging everyone to actually start blogging (again).
Which of course made me think about my own blog.
Chris sums up 5 lies we tell ourselves to not blog and even though my blogging certainly didn’t stop because of all of those 5 lies, I did resonate with Lie #1 and #2 and #3 to some degree and I think I need stop telling myself those lies.
Lie #1: We need to be inspired to write
I’m plenty inspired on a day to day basis, but I find it difficult to transport that inspiration into something I share here. In some way because I can’t be bothered, but on a deeper level I don’t know where to start. So, I’m going to start looking for ways to do just that. Transform my inspiration.
I guess you could see this post as a start(?) :).
Lie #2: We’re not great writers
Yeah, well, I’m really not. I love reading Zé‘s posts and I think I recognize a great writer when I see one, but I’m not one of them. But perhaps I don’t need to be quite that great? Not having English as my first or second language is definitely not helping me to find a proper flow (you should see how many times I have to rewrite a sentence just to get a flow), but then again, maybe I should just lower the bar some and just write. Just write.
Lie #3: We need something spectacular to share
This is definitely a lie I tell myself and one that I need to stop repeating. This one, much like Lie #2, just needs for me to lower the bar.
381 Words in, but what gives?
So, what I’m really saying here is that I’m trying going to blog more. Instead of raising the bar high yet again and committing to a daily schedule like Chris, I’m keeping it light. I’m also not going the Karim road here either. I mean, two blogs a decade is nice and all, but that’s the schedule I was on there. Kinda. I’ve got to do better than that 😉 .
Blog at least once a week. Not just WordPress, because that’s too limiting for me, but anything that I find interesting. Maybe it’s a comment on someone else’s post or maybe it’s just me expressing … things. We’ll see.
Posting something here on is not a raison d’être so I do actually care what you as my audience are curious about and owuld like to see me blog about. In other words: I’m very curious of what you’d like to see me cover.
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Whew, 577 words 😀
I dig all the technical articles that people post (Bill, Srikat etc) but a lot of the time what interests me most is how people run their businesses, get over challenges in that etc. Not necessarily posting numbers (though I thought the affiliate post Carrie did where she shared some numbers too was very interesting) but more processes, philosophies etc. Bill has also done some good posts (and talks on this), also Curtis McHale, so if you want to write about that maybe, consider it a +1 from me.
PS Kudos for blogging in your non first or second language (I’m not sure if I know enough Italian words to try blogging in that 🙂
Thanks for stopping by Nick. Yeah, I was considering sharing steps, challenges, but also roadmaps for our businesses more, but I’ll be sure to add processes and philosophies to that mix. Thanks again!
I know these feels very well.
I’ve been blogging more this year on ryandsullivan.com (maybe 20 posts or so in 2015). That’s almost once per week, and it’s WAY more than I blogged last year.
My biggest obstacle isn’t actually coming up with ideas, it’s trying to present the ideas in a way that’s going to be helpful to people. I come up with 20 rant posts every day 🙂 but so many of those end up being misguided, or due to my own quirks, that writing a blog post about them isn’t going to be helpful for most people, so I don’t publish anything.
I could say “my blog is for me” and I don’t care if what I write is helpful or not, but that would be a lie to myself. I do want the stuff I take time to write to be helpful to people.
So I guess I don’t really have a straight answer to your question 🙂
I empathize, and if you feel so inclined to blog more, it’d be awesome to hear more from you. I’m sure you’ve got a whole lot to contribute to the conversation!
Thanks for for you visit and taking the time to reply Ryan. I don’t believe in pointing out issues for the sake of pointing out issues, or rants as you call them 😉 . I should however point out those kinds of issues more and provide solutions as I see them. I often just keep them in my head and exclude the possibility that anyone could gain insights from my insights.
And yeah, I’m inclined to blog more!
I want to learn about whatever Remkus is learning, not just WordPress stuff.
I’ve been using Press This more on my personal site and it helps me remember to blog about stuff I read that I get a lot out of. But also sometimes just remembering that a particular tweet may be better served as a short blog post is enough to get me in the post editor.
I’m looking forward to seeing more posts from you 🙂
Thanks for commenting Brian 🙂
I’m going to have to take a look at Press This again too. Didn’t quite do it for me previously, but perhaps this rendition fits the bill. So, learn about what I learn about, eh? So, most of my learning these days has got very little do to with the field you and I both work in. And quite frankly, most of the people working in that field don’t really resonate with that. Yet. So, maybe I should include “those kinds of topics” too, right?
We’ll see.
Couldn’t agree with you more as it can be tough to come up with ideas at times. That said, I went the route of the podcast instead of the written blog as I do want to share and I think I have some insight that helps people. Looking forward to more of your posts. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by, Adam! Podcasts, wow, that’s definetely a bridge too far for me. I’d be happy if I could just get back into the flow of plain ol’ blogging!
now that you said you would blog more you’re doomed to not write anything for the next year. But maybe next year you can give it another shot hehe just kidding, keep them coming, it’s always good to know how friends are doing Cheers 🙂
Hehe, thought about that too, but decided I’m just not going to let that happen. Period.
My solution to this problem, is to only ever write very basic short posts. That way it doesn’t take too much time, yet I still keep doing it over a long period of time. I’m not sure how many years I’ve been blogging for, but it’s quite a few now and I’ve managed to stay very consistent with this approach thankfully. I think if I stopped for a long period, I may not go back. So by writing short posts I manage to keep my consistency, which stops me from stopping permanently. The quality does drop a lot, but I figure it’s worth it just to make sure I keep doing it.
Yeah, that sounds like a solid flow you’ve got there. I do want to maintain some level of quality for my blog posts. I mean, I’m also sharing my Instagrams here, but I don’t count that as blogging. Not saying your posts are like my images though 😉