You Blogged Down a Hill You Can’t Write Back Up

You have done everything by the book. You started your blog, you wrote quality content, and you shared your posts on your social media networks.

Then you stayed consistent by posting regularly, you researched other blogs similar to yours and stayed up on the trends, and you read articles about how to drive more traffic to your site. You updated your site with fancy plug-ins, you connected with people on social media, and you constantly searched for new ideas.

Then one day it just hit you – no one is reading your content. Traffic to your site is minimal. Retweets, mentions, likes, and shares are just not happening. But why? You have done everything that you thought you were supposed to do. Why is none of it working?

You simply cannot figure out the problem and thus slow down on posting because “no one is reading it anyway”. You stop sharing what you do write on your social media sites for the same reason. You write and post less as time goes on and eventually you do not bother keeping up your site at all.

Does this sound like you? Okay, maybe not every part of it or in the same ways; but if any of this rings true then you have found yourself in the same exact place as many others. By now you have lost confidence in your writing, in your marketing abilities, in your ideas, in your commitment, or in many cases – in your dream.

You love to write, you have ideas you want to share with others, or you have knowledge and experiences from which others could benefit. Whatever the reason, something inspired you to create a blog or site that encompasses one or more of these things and it just did not work out as you had hoped.

Well, guess what? There is still hope! There are ways to get your confidence back and continue doing what you set out to do for whatever reasons you set out to do it!

Be Realistic

When you start off with realistic expectations you are less likely to be disappointed. Did you really think that you would just start blogging or writing and people would come running to read your thoughts? Did you think that you would gain 1,000’s of visitors or subscribers in the first month or two? There is nothing wrong with dreaming, hoping, and setting some tough goals for yourself to reach. But, unrealistic goals will only continue to disappoint you when you fail to reach them.

“Overnight sensations” are not the norm and you already know this. It takes time, perseverance, hard work, patience, and most importantly confidence. Set realistic goals for yourself. Try starting small and working your way up. And for goodness sake, do not be so hard on yourself! Make mistakes and learn from them, take advice, and try new things. Do not give up!

Educate Yourself

There is nothing wrong with taking a class or workshop to hone your skills or learn new ones. Whether it is writing, marketing, social media, or something else in your specific field – take the time to build on your existing skills and regain your confi

Sometimes just learning a new skill or bettering those you already have can revive you! You will be excited to try out what you have learned. Learning can be a real confidence booster!

Text Optimizer is a great semantic analysis tool allowing you to better understand your topic and driving your content research. With Text Optimizer you will write a good article each time!

Keep Writing

It can be natural to just stop writing because you think no one will read your work anyway or it just is not good enough. But, is that really what you want? No, it is not – so, just keep writing! Write every day, whether you decide to post your work or not, write it anyway. Letting your fears or lack of confidence take over are just more ways of saying “I can’t do it”. But you can do it and you know you can do it or you would not have started in the first place!

Keeping your creativity or ideas flowing keeps your brain pumping and keeps you working towards your goals. You might write something that you decide to set aside, but down the road open back up because suddenly it makes more sense or your new experiences have breathed fresh life into it.

Get Organized

Clutter can be the biggest motivation hurdle, especially when it comes to blogging where you should be doing hundreds of little things every day: Read, write, tweet, take notes of new ideas, connect to fellow bloggers, etc.

Getting things organized is your answer: You want to feel you are keeping things under control. Cyfe is a great business dashboard that will help you put many tasks under one roof and keep an eye on dozens of metrics and inboxes, including Gmail, social media, mentions comments and more.

Treat your blogging as a profession: Create to-do lists, set goals, get disciplined and organized. Create a business email address and define your branding. When you approach a task with style, you are likely to succeed.

Learn from the Best

Seeking out a mentor might be another great option for you. There are many experts out there who would be happy to provide advice, teach you things you do not know, show you what you are doing wrong, or lead you down a path you did not even know existed.

Research the experts in your field and check out the services they offer for some help. Getting assistance from someone who knows may be just what you need to get back on track!

Make New Connections

This does not mean that you should cut off your existing connections or contacts, just make some new ones! Get involved with some new online groups. For example, Linkedin offers many communities that anyone can join. You might also check with your existing contacts for possible groups on other sites like Facebook. Look for those in your field and make some new connections!

Sometimes knowing there is someone else out there struggling just like you are can make you feel a little better. You might find people who are willing to share your work because you are willing share theirs. You may find others with whom you can collaborate to come up with new ideas or even venture into a new project together.

Other online communities such as MyBlogU can offer some great benefits not only for connections but for content as well. There you can collaborate with other members, brainstorm ideas, conduct interviews, and participate! Not only will you end up with terrific content for your site, but you will be able to drive traffic there when other members share it. Participating in other members’ interviews can also help to get your name out there as an “expert” and drive visitors to your site too.

Stop Beating Yourself Up

Get yourself back into the right mindset and stick to it telling yourself every day that you can do it! Sure, you have lost some confidence – okay, maybe a lot of confidence – but it does not have to stay that way. You have heard the saying “we are our own worst critics”. Well, we are often times harder on ourselves than anyone else is (I know this is true for me). But, if you continue to believe that you do not have what it takes then you will never succeed.

Further reading:

• Why Aren’t People Sharing Your Content?
• 5 Ways to Keep Your Content Fresh
• The Power of Social Media for Bloggers

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Sandy Stachowiak

Sandy Stachowiak is an Information Technology Project Manager and Freelance Writer living in sunny Northeast Florida. Her primary responsibilities are writing technical documents, in addition to managing projects and people. You can find Sandy at her blog.

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