This summer, as I scanned through my RSS reader, I noticed some of my favorite blogs being overtaken by a sense of malaise. In part, it may have been a case of wanting to escape from the screen to enjoy the nice weather but I sensed something more than that under the surface.

At this point, we’ve collectively reached a moment where blogging has been around long enough that there’s a bit of a “been there, done that” mentality. And because of that, there’s a natural shift taking place.

When I first started blogging, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest didn’t exist yet — blogs were the place for breaking news and new discoveries. Now, all that information hits social media at a dizzying speed. Photo shoots are sneak peeked and teased up sometimes weeks before their big blog debuts. Some of that magic of settling into a new corner of the web and soaking up something you’ve never been seen before has been lost. Where does that leave blogging?

I’m all for embracing the new, especially when it comes to social media platforms. But at the same time, I still believe that blogs have their place and always will.

I’ve always thought of social media and blogging in these terms: Social media is meant for sharing snippets of your work and life while blogs are the place to showcase the full story. In a way, interacting on social media is the equivalent of a quick coffee date. You’re making small talk, feeling things out and getting glimpses inside a person’s world. But with blogging, you’re taking it to the next level. Blogging is about inviting someone into your living room for a deeper conversation. They have the opportunity to dig in and really find out what you’re all about.

Creatives and business owners email me all the time, asking me if they should have a blog. My response is always an enthusiastic yes, definitely! Especially if you’re just starting out, blogs are the ideal vehicle to build trust when it comes to your brand. They are the space where you can open up and share your work and life on a deeper level. While that’s just my opinion, social media trends come and go. And if you choose to put all of your eggs in one basket, especially when it comes to getting the word out about your business, you run the risk of hitting some rough patches. I’ve always felt that having a blog to anchor your brand for the long haul as people move on and explore new social media platforms is a safe bet.

When it comes to blogging, I still do so regularly because I genuinely love it and besides that, blogging indirectly supports my design business. It’s as simple as that. But, feelings and focuses do shift. It’s always good to occasionally step back and ask yourself if the effort you’re putting into your blog, business and hobbies are worth it and decide if it’s time to make some changes.

I want to know: Why do you choose to blog? Is it as a creative outlet, to promote your business or for some other reason?

One of the questions we get asked every time at The Blogcademy is, “How often should I post?” And, I’m not surprised that it gets brought up so often because it’s an important one. But there’s a lot more that comes into play before you can land on that magic number. So today, we’re going to cover the ins and outs of determining a posting schedule that works for you.

Set Attainable Goals

When it comes to setting goals, a lot of us (including myself) tend to set the bar so high that it’s nearly impossible to reach. And when we don’t reach it, we feel like we’ve let ourselves (and our readers) down. Remember, it’s much easier to start out slowly and build your blogging empire in small but achievable increments than the alternative, which is to post so frequently that burnout sets in.

Think of it this way: how would you feel if you fell in love with a new blog that posted once a day and a month after your discovery, it suddenly dropped down to once a week with no explanation? Even if the content was still really high quality-wise, you’d probably wonder what happened. But, if your favorite blog that consistently posted once a week announced that it was growing and would now be posting once a day, you’d probably be over the moon.

The mistake a lot of bloggers make in the beginning is to set goals that they’ll never have the time for. It’s better to just dive in with a schedule that you can manage now (even if it isn’t that often) and roll with it — as you grow and are able to carve out more time for your blog, you’ll already have a solid foundation to build on.

Also remember, posting too much can be as bad as posting too little! If your frequency is too often, it can leave your readers feeling overwhelmed. So finding that balance is key.

Define Your Blog’s Purpose

Some people blog strictly as a creative outlet while others blog for income. Still, others like me blog to support our businesses. A lot of business consultants claim that blogging once a week is enough for a business to post and then, when it comes to personality-based blogging, it’s common to post much more often (3 to 5 times per week). The more often you post, the more potential “doorways” people have to discover your site — but frequency depends heavily on your goals and niche.

Be Aware But Don’t Obsess

A lot of bloggers observe peers in their niche posting every day (sometimes twice) and consistently making the rounds on their social media accounts. Competitiveness starts to sink in and they think that they have to do the same to climb the ladder.

But when it comes to blogging, you need to step back and remember it’s not about them, it’s about you. If your current schedule allows you to post three times a week, that’s perfectly fine. If it only allows you to post once a week at the moment, that’s fine, too. The point is work at a pace that fits into your life and not dig yourself into an obsessive, friendless, lifeless hole in the process!

Some of my friends including Kat post twice daily and sometimes even on the weekends. I usually only have time to post once every weekday. But instead of beating myself up for not posting more, I remind myself that full-time blogging is her job whereas I’m a full time graphic designer (and most of my day is dedicated to my clients). I’m aware that some bloggers post much more than I do. And others post less. I just do the best I can, when I can and focus on keeping my routine steady.

Create Regular Features

While some bloggers feel that setting a regular rotation of features is creatively stifling, think of them instead as a framework to give your ideas structure and cut back on stress. What are you already posting a lot of or really interested in? Define it and create a column. For instance, in 2008 I realized I was taking a lot of photos of my projects, surroundings and daily life but most of them went unused. I thought, why not round them up every Friday and share my Week in Pictures? Now, it’s one of my most popular columns and I never have to scramble to come up with a post idea for that day of the week. If you post multiple times a week, it’s easy to start feeling the drain of ideas a few years in — but those staple columns keep your regular readers coming back and allow you the opportunity to fill in your other days with exciting, unique content.

Stay Consistent

If you announce that you’re going to post three days a week, do everything in your power to hold up your end of the deal. If your posting becomes too spotty, your diehard readers will probably stick around but the influx of new readers will probably move on. Building an audience for your blog is based on trust. Just like you’d show up to school or work, show up to your blog. Of course, sometimes life’s circumstances get in the way and we’re all human — some things are just out of our control. But if you do have to take an extended absence, make an announcement so your readers don’t think you fell off the face of the earth!

In Closing

As a blogger, there is no right answer when it comes to your posting frequency — it comes down to what works for your lifestyle. It’s much more important to stay consistent. It takes time to build an audience and brand you believe in and there’s no one posting schedule that will work for everyone. Make blogging work for your lifestyle — not the other way around.

I want to know: How often do you post new content and how did you determine that number for yourself?

Photo: Made U Look

If you’ve ever hit a roadblock and wondered why you should keep blogging, if you’ve ever been overwhelmed with life and pushed your blog off to the side, if you’ve ever wondered why you should continue blogging when there are so many other great blogs out there, the answer is simple:

Activity breeds activity.

In a way, I’d been trying to explain this for years every time I got asked by someone why they should keep blogging when they weren’t getting the results they sought. But, as hard as I tried, the words never tumbled out as eloquently. Then, I was sitting in an entrepreneurship class two weeks ago when Stephanie Lynn said those three words: when it comes to reaching your goals, activity breeds activity. It was as simple as that.

Following that class, it quickly became my new mantra. I’ll be honest, there are plenty of days that I feel overextended, plenty of times I am tapped out of energy, unable to even scratch the surface of my to-do list and the last thing I feel like doing is blogging. But I know that the more time I take off from anything (eating right, working on personal projects and yes, blogging), the harder it is to get back into the swing of things.

So even when I have those feelings, I now remind myself that activity does in fact breed activity and the more of myself I put out into the world (via blogging, social media and responding to emails), the more I’ll get back. We should always give without expectations but it is a nice feeling when we receive something of value in return.

The more you dedicate yourself to your blog and the more regularly you put thoughtful, high quality content out into the world, the faster you’ll see results. If you want to get more out of your blog, give more.

There is no secret to getting to where you want to go. It takes a whole lot of work, perseverance by the boatload and a willingness to give it everything you’ve got. And, practice. I’ve said that it took me 500 posts before I hit my stride and really found my voice. Blogging takes time but that activity you put in now will pay off later.

Blog because you love it but also blog about topics that resonate with you (and in return, your readers). Blog because you can’t imagine not having it in your life. And blog with consistency. Because when it comes to blogging, activity breeds activity.

View more of the Blog Log series here.

Source: You Can’t Be Serious Blog by Natala

Whether you already have a blog or you’re just thinking about starting one, do you look at the top bloggers in your niche and wonder, “How will I ever get there?” Because I still occasionally have those days, 11 years into blogging.

Oscar Wilde famously proclaimed, “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” And when I find myself getting caught up in self-imposed comparisons, I try to take solace in that. While comparisons can be a helpful benchmark to see if I’m on track (and I do follow a lot of blogs to keep up on market research and trends) if I check in too often, I start feeling low instead of inspired. How about you?

Maybe it’s just me but I feel like comparisons are harder to shake off now and it’s a sign of the times. I’ve been blogging since 2001 and I sometimes still get caught up in asking myself if my blog and work measure up. Part of this comes from a distorted reality a lot of blogs present (mine included sometimes), especially now. Back when blogging was a great big unknown and I was on Live Journal, we all did it for fun. Sure, there were really popular people but the overall playing field was much more balanced. Digital cameras weren’t that sophisticated yet and I don’t think any of us ever posted a photo larger than 500 pixels wide. I didn’t even know what an action was in Photoshop! We documented everything in a more “This is what I did today” way. There was less of a format or a formula. Our journals were often little more than personal diaries that happened to be outward-facing.

The Proof Is In The Picture

In the last few years (and especially now with Instagram), I feel like the proof is in the picture. Before, people were trying to explain how great their lives were and it was easy for us to write it off as being boastful or insecure. But now that we have visual proof, it really hits home. I’m a designer and by nature, I’m always rearranging my belongings and surroundings. Part of that no doubt comes from being in the advertising industry where the aim is to curate the best image possible on a client’s behalf. Companies pay big for that polish and it’s understandable because competition is stiff.

But what happens when that seeps into our daily lives? The lines between online and real life have been so blurred that it’s hard to separate fantasy from reality. If we see imagery in an ad campaign, it’s obvious that there’s a team behind it. But when we see it on blogs, it’s harder to tell.

When we’re comparing our blogs to everyone elses’ we only know part of the story. Contrary to what anyone says, none of us should be expected to share every little piece of our lives online. We all have different comfort zones. And we should respect that when it comes to everyone else, too. When we only see bits of a story (usually the best parts) it’s natural to fill in the blanks. I’ve met a lot of bloggers I admire (after following some for years before ever having that real life interaction) and I can tell you that I’m always blown away by how approachable, vulnerable and normal they actually seem. It’s a good reminder that we all have struggles.

Standing Out Is More Obvious Than You Think

When it comes to blogging, if you’re wondering why what you’re doing even matters, the answer is simpler than you think: We each have something within us that makes us unique. You have a distinct voice and perspective from everyone else in the world. Only you have the ability share, define and curate your experiences. Instead of comparing yourself to everyone else, you will actually stand out more by just being yourself.

If you’re familiar with differentiation when it comes to marketing, standing apart from the competition is a usually viewed as a major competitive advantage (and we go into a lot more detail on the subject at The Blogcademy). Your differences from every other blogger are what will actually make you the most memorable. If someone visits a dozen blogs in your niche, chances are that they’ll remember the one that is the most unique.

In Closing

At the end of the day, I try to remember that blog posts are just a snapshot into someone’s life. They don’t necessarily reflect a current moment. A blog post is a recollection of a point someone’s life that was memorable to them. It’s a learning experience. Instead of focusing on everyone else, focus on what you do best. The rest will come naturally. If the pieces haven’t fallen into place yet, it’s okay. It takes time. Just don’t lose sight of what makes you unique.

Do you fight self-imposed comparisons when it comes to blogging?
Any tips on how to stay focused?

View more of the Blog Log series here.