Are you sick of spending countless hours of time on your blog and still feeling like no one is reading it? We’ve all been there. You might even be to the point where you feel like you’re ready to throw in the towel. Many of us have been there too. But before you hit that “Delete” button, make sure you think about a few things first:
1. Would Changing Your Plan Make Blogging More Fun?
There are quite a few reasons why a person might grow disinterested in blogging, the first of which is that they just don’t have any more to say on the subject of whatever niche they’ve chosen. This doesn’t necessarily mean it’s time to abandon your blog altogether!
If you don’t have a very niche-specific URL, you might want to consider giving your blog an overhaul– changing your direction a bit to make it more fun for you and interesting to your audience. I wouldn’t recommend a total 180 if you have a niche-specific audience, but if you think you could get away with it without totally alienating your readers, you might consider this option instead of abandoning ship.
That said, one of the biggest reasons I went on my four year “blogging hiatus” was that I had created an audience full of raw vegans and *gasp!* I was a bit of a raw vegan failure. I had a miscarriage and the next thing I knew, all my beautiful healthy habits were replaced by Diet Dr. Pepper and cookies. So I thought I had nothing more to say over at brittanybullen.com… but as it turns out, my URL is my name, so what I wish I would have done was just keep on blogging about whatever’s relevant to me!
Instead, I lost all those months of hard work and traffic and trashed my site, having to rebuild it from scratch later (without all the lovely search engine juice I could have been building by just posting maybe once a month!)
Which brings me to…
2. Could You Blog Less Frequently?
If you’re overwhelmed by your posting schedule, it might be because you’ve bitten off more than you can chew. Remember, longevity is huge in the blogging world, so it might be worth scaling back your editorial calendar to make it more manageable rather than quitting altogether.
3. Is Your Blog Worth Selling vs. Just Deleting?
Have you ever considered the possibility that your blog might be worth money to someone? Don’t sell yourself short– the following you’ve been working so hard to build might have a price tag that could surprise you. If you’re interested in finding a site where you could sell your blog, check out the five listed in this post.
4. Is There Something Else You’d Like to Show That Audience?
If you’re still interested in the subject matter in your niche, is it possible that you might want to redirect your audience to a new dimension or creative pursuit?
What if you decide that rather than writing posts, you want to write songs or make videos? That’s fabulous! Why not post that on your blog? Instant audience, anyone?
If you already have a following but your blog is weighing you down, you might want to think about different ways to engage that audience that make you feel a bit more inspired.
5. Is Your Blog Worth More Than Just Its Traffic?
Even if you haven’t built up much of a following, don’t forget that you have built up a great archive of content that represents some of the best of your many talents. If nothing else, a blog is a fabulous way to show potential employers what you really can do. Your blog is, in many ways, your digital resume. Unless you feel really confident that what you build next will serve you better, you might want to hang on to it.
What Do You Think?
Are you in this for the long haul? Statistically, most of us aren’t. So what’s your stopping point? What would make you give it up? I want to know. Leave me a comment, won’t you?
P.S. Make sure you stop by the Mommy Blogger Academy for more blogging tips from yours truly!