Every time a friend says they want to start a blog, I cringe. Not because I’m an elitist asshole who already has a blog for a few years, but because they never make it. They never do. All of the people I’ve known personally who started their first blog, went on a blogging spree for a solid three months and then they stopped forever.
Keeping an updated blog can be pretty difficult at times, but I’m here to tell you, it doesn’t have to be that way.
There’s no rule to how often you should blog.
If you feel like you only have the time or enough interest just to blog once every two weeks, great. If you haven’t updated your blog in a more than a month, fine with me. You’re the boss of your own blog. Don’t make yourself think that you have to update a few times a week and then apologize to the readers if you don’t. Surprise! Nobody is expecting you to blog consistently. That kind of pressure can only scare yourself away from blogging again.
Don’t burn yourself out.
When you first start a fresh new blog, all you want to do is think about what to post next. You’ll put all your energy and time to writing entries and possible blog ideas that it’ll wear you out fast. Just take a breather and calm down. If you’re really full of ideas and you need to write them all down, I would suggest opening up a new post and write a few first sentences about it, then save it as a draft and come back to it later.
Using a blog on a non-social networking site can be lonely, so find a community.
Using sites like Facebook and Tumblr as your blogging platform can be a lot easier to garner attention because people who are already following you on those sites are “forced” to see it on their own feed. People can also “share” or “repost” what you’ve written. Hell, if you use tags on Tumblr, non-followers can read your entries with the right tag they’re searching for.
On the other hand, blogs like mine (I had to install WordPress) can neither be reposted nor followed (unless you use an outside source). If you’re using WordPress or Blogspot, then find other bloggers who share the same interests as you and who uses a similar blogging platform. Seriously, this is important. I would’ve had a shitty ass time blogging if it weren’t for all the other wonderful bloggers who have been regularly visiting and leaving comments on my site. Most of us are mutually linked to each other.
Why you should try keeping your blog up even when you feel like quitting.
There are many different reasons to use a blog but one of the main reasons to keep at it is to document your writings and store them for memory. Our writing style, attitudes and beliefs change and evolve as we get older, so it’s always interesting to read what you’ve written ten years ago.
Here’s a snippet of what I blogged on May 1, 2003:
KAY so who wants to kno what happen w/ the cheerleaders during 6th periodo?! Kay so we had to run around the track once and one of the cheer girls starts complaining about and says she and the squad only runs around the tree ..this is bullsmack!! So we ran together..and then 10 seconds later..the cheergirls were waaaay behind us. how sad is that?!! it was embarrasing for them..b/c the football guys saw.and realized how the cheergirls were out of shaped (but damn those girls r dam flexible!!..i bet they can put both of their feets behind their heads and roll down a hill !!)….
Embarrassing, yes. Difficult to read, certainly. But funny nonetheless.
