Blogging 2014….the encouragement thread!
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So, I’ve been thinking about New Year’s resolutions for the past couple days. Unsurprising perhaps, since you can’t get away form their mention. All over facebook, the news, morning radio, nosy family members, and so on.
But that’s how it goes for most people, with the turning of the calendar comes a determination to begin new projects and enthusiasm to continue old ones. WordPress.com and the rest of the blogging world is hardly any different. From the newest registration to bloggers with thousands of posts, New Year’s Day tends to give us all a kick in the pants.
But as with all resolutions, it is the staying power that becomes an issue. How to stick with something and make it a fulfilling part of your life rather than just a passing fancy.
So I thought it would be neat to start a thread where people could either post what they see as pitfalls/challenges to staying motivated. Or perhaps more importantly, share something that you feel helps you keep you motivated and dedicated.
Myself, well, I have a dastardly streak of procrastination and forgetfulness mixed in with a pretty busy life. I work hard to not put things off and I use just about any means possible to remind myself of things I want to do (calendar email/SMS reminders, notes on my hand, etc). But still, there is plenty of room for improvement.
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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For me, it is all about accountability. I’m going to start a separate blog that I’ll post to about my fitness/health goals and ask friends and family to check it out… at least comment or like something a couple of times to trick me to think everyone cares about my goal :-).
Knowing (or at least believing) that I’ll let my friends and family see I’m not following through is a motivator for me.
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If I have an idea for a blog post, or photos, I pretty much have to do it right then and there. If I tell myself, “oh I’ll post that later” it never happens. This is particularly true for when I travel. Just about all of my posts with photos from other places were published the same day I took the photos.
I’m not a fan of resolutions, but one thing I would like to do improve upon is being more intentional and regular in my blogging, so it’s not 3 posts in a week and then none for months.
I’m also enjoying the WordPress.com reblogging feature, as it is a nice way to highlight other posts that I think are especially funny, inspiring or whatever… and the nice thing is, with the reblog tab in the admin bar, it’s also super easy to do! :)
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I mostly have trouble posting new content when my blogging has been going well and people are enjoying it. I start to fear that I can’t sustain the level of creativity that I’ve gotten going, and I feel like it’s a lot of pressure. I’m afraid I’ll run out of ideas, or people won’t think my newer posts are as creative or funny as my older ones.
I try to remind myself that not every post has to be amazing, and not everyone has to love everything I post. Nobody stays the same for years on end, and nobody’s writing stays the same either – it shouldn’t!
Anyway, this year, I’m going to try to do a post once a week, and just try to make them all something that makes me laugh, without thinking about whether this person or that person will think it’s funny. :)
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I’ve just started a challenge set to me to record a song (mostly my own, but some covers) each week and upload it, along with a bit of chat about how I got there. Having laid down the rules in writing on my blog that will (hopefully!) force me to make sure I keep to it every week! domenicarose1.wordpress.com
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I find that blogging is much less enjoyable (and much less frequent) if I force myself to have a blog with a niche subject. I have tried this before in all my years of blogging. My blog went from Apple-focussed, to Technology-focussed, to WordPress-focussed, and even Music-focussed for a brief period of time.
All that niche blogging really did was make me post less often. I even tried a separate photo blog, which simply made it easier to neglect my main blog. What I then realized was that I’m interested in Apple, Technology, WordPress, Photos, and Music, and that if I didn’t limit myself to just one topic, I could post 5x more often on 1 blog! So, now I just post whenever I find or learn something interesting. It’s just more fun (and more frequent) that way. :)
So, if I could share one bit of advice, it’ll be to blog about whatever you want to on just one blog, and have fun while doing it.
Bonus tip: If you find something interesting, but don’t have time to write a post at the moment, either start a draft or add it to your to-do list. If you can’t do that, it’s probably not worth posting.
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Bonus tip: If you find something interesting, but don’t have time to write a post at the moment, either start a draft or add it to your to-do list. If you can’t do that, it’s probably not worth posting.
Seconded! That’s exactly what I do too.
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I have the WordPress app for Android (I assume the iOS version works the same way). I wouldn’t want to do too much composing on a phone, but it works great for getting an idea down and then saving as a draft. Then I can come back and do the “heavy lifting” later on with a larger device.
It works with both self-hosted sites (which I’ve used it for for awhile) as well as WordPress.com sites (which I’ve just started).
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I got a Bluetooth keyboard for my Android and that helps with the typing. Got the keyboard for some of the email with a friend when I am not at home. My base Android typing an such sucks. Not planning on doing any real Posts with the Android, my stuff tends to be long.
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I like what Malcolm X said: Anger is a gift. I find that instead of sitting and stewing about things that make me angry, blogging about them is a helpful release. God only knows how many homicides my blog has prevented!
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