by Vincent Mars

 

Wouldn’t it be wonderful for your children and grandchildren to read your blog? Okay, maybe not all of it, but your best posts, those which have touched upon matters that are precious to you, or that have informed, entertained, or enlightened others.

I don’t know if I’ll ever have children, let alone grandchildren, but if I do, I’d be happy if one day, when they have nothing better to do, they will check my blog. Meanwhile, let’s keep our blogs alive, shall we?

In my last post I wrote about blogging fatigue, how it afflicts us all, how it can be one of the major challengers we face as bloggers. Following that post, several people have asked me how old my blog is and what has kept me going – understandably so, since many blogs are abandoned months or even weeks after they are created.

I have been blogging for 4 years now – not bad for a high-school drop-out – and so I feel I have been around here for long enough to tell all the new bloggers reading this a thing or two about blogging continuity.

 

Make Your Blog Personal

This is the best way to keep your blog alive. If your blog isn’t personal, if it doesn’t touch on matters close to your heart, if it’s just about other people, news, events, or ideas, there’s a good chance you’ll become bored with it sooner or later. I’m not saying your blog should be a diary or necessarily autobiographical.

Only that whatever you blog about – even if it’s seemingly impersonal, like business, politics, technology, or ancient Greece – it has to be viewed through your eyes, and related to your own thoughts, feelings, experiences, and interests. It should be easily recognizable by anyone who knows you as a digital extension of your self.

 

Set a Posting Schedule

It can be once or twice a week – which is what I’ve done lately – or if you don’t have time, it can be even once every two weeks or once a month – it all depends on how much time you have and what blogging means to you. If you’re a spontaneous, whimsy, or dreamy person, you probably won’t like the thought of having a posting schedule, but such is our mind that if we set goals and deadlines, it is more active and performs better.

A posting schedule helps you turn blogging into a pleasant habit. So pick a day, and pick an hour, too, and write them down somewhere. And if the posting doesn’t come easy, force yourself a little. Consider blogging an exercise – in practicing your English, introspecting, musing, overcoming doubts and showing your artworks to the world, or whatever it is you are trying to do with your blog. Long-term blogging is a bit like mental weight lifting, and so it’s not always easy.

 

Write Posts or Create Content In Advance

Once blogging loses its sense of newness, it can feel like a chore, like work even. Your conscience encourages you to tend to it, but your mind has plenty of worries already and would rather lounge on Facebook or relax on YouTube. Blogging is more demanding than other social efforts because it requires creative energy.

This creative energy waxes and wanes, comes and goes… When you feel inspired, create not one post, but two. They can both be drafts. Then, when posting day comes, you have at least one draft to work into a post, and you can’t use writer’s block as an excuse.

 

Other things you can try

  • Establish friendships with bloggers you like by commenting on their blogs and interacting with them – the social element of blogging can be even more encouraging than a posting schedule
  • Invite guest bloggers to post on your blog
  • Change your blog’s look and feel every now and then, bringing freshness to it
  • Enable Publicize to share your blog posts on Facebook and other social media and constantly remind your friends and family about your blog
  • Blog not only for yourself, but for others, too – if your posts have value for others, if at least one other person enjoys them and looks forward to them, you will be motivated to carry on
  • Give me your blog address so I can check it out – you may win a new follower : )

Now let me ask you – for how long have you been blogging? And have you reserved a place for your blog in your future, or is it only a whim, a digital defense against boredom?

 

 

Guest post contributed by Vincent Mars. Vincent is a Romanian with a dream: to write stories in English. Check out his blog for more of his articles and information about his book, 50 Word Stories.