Maintaining Momentum in Blogging

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The Blogosphere is suffering from an epidemic of inactivity.

One of the most quoted statistics about the growth of blogging is that last year Technorati says that one blog is started every second (that’s 86,400 per day or 31,536,000 per year).

This is an amazing figure and one worth slipping into conversation when attempting to convince someone of the worth of blogging – however another finding from Technorati that is quoted much less is that around half of new blogs become inactive after just three months.

Scientists talk about the amount of ‘space junk’ accumulating in orbit around the earth – my mind boggles at the number of blog junk that must be sitting idle – orbiting aimlessly through the blogosphere.

There are many reasons for this blog junk. A lot of it is the results of splogging. A “Splog” or Spam Blog is a blog created for the sole purpose of linking to other associated websites. Splogs have a short lifespan. Some other blog junk is the result of blogs coming to the natural end of their life cycle (even good blogs die eventually) and some of it is the results of bloggers ‘testing’ new designs or playing around with different blog platforms.

I would guess however, that many of the abandoned and inactive blogs orbiting around, are the results of bloggers who’ve started blogs with good intentions, who have not been able to maintain the momentum that they started out with in terms of posting quality and frequency.

Most of us have struggled at one time or another with maintaining momentum on their blog/s. The reasons for it are many:

Bloggers biting off more than they can chew – one common scenario that I see in ‘Pro Blogging’ circles is bloggers starting multiple blogs at once and then failing to maintain any of them due to the load. Another problem is picking a topic that is just too wide and therefore overwhelms the blogger.
Running out of things to say – on the flip side of starting a blog with too wide a focus is choosing one that is too narrow and where it’d difficult to find much to write about.
Hitting ‘bloggers block’ – many bloggers hit periods where creativity and new ideas just dry up.
Busyness – many bloggers find that the busyness of their lives is not compatible with the maintenance of a blog
Holidays – taking time off from blogging is an essential part of keeping fresh and not burning out – however it’s also a danger time for bloggers as many fail to reengage with their blogging rhythm after a period away.
Crisis – similarly some bloggers fail to reengage with blogging after a crisis hits their personal life. A death in the family, the loss of a job, a relationship break up or any other significant event can mean putting blogging on pause and make it hard to start up again.
Blogging Crisis – I’ve seen a number of bloggers in recent times become overwhelmed by the negativity of the blogosphere, particularly when they’ve been critiqued or even attacked for their blogging. While this drives some on to blog harder and stronger it can also be a trigger for giving up in some.
Boredom – as I look at some of the blogs I’ve let go over the last few years one of the reasons was a lack of excitement about the topic. It’d difficult to keep writing on a topic that fails to engage you.

Linked below is a series of posts on the topic of Maintaining Momentum in blogging (at the request of a number of readers of late). Hopefully through it will give us all a little inspiration and a few tips on how to re-start (or end gracefully) those blogs we’ve struggled to keep moving forward.

There is likely to be a bit of cross over between this series and the Battling Bloggers Block series because ‘bloggers block’ is obviously one barrier to momentum. However, maintaining momentum is wider than just a lack of ideas and creativity and hopefully you’ll find this series will address the wider issues in a way that the previous one could not.

Read the rest of the Maintaining Momentum in Blogging Series at:

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