The Worriers Guide To Blogging #2
Last year I wrote a post called 'The Worriers Guide To Blogging' and I looked back at it not too long ago and felt like I held back quite a lot. So today I wanted to share some of the regular thoughts that I think we all face from time to time and I know they're the things that probably none of us wants to admit to having but they come up and they can make you feel so alone and rubbish.
'STATS DON'T MAKE SENSE'
As of right now unless I have to for PR reasons I will never check on my stats. I used to check them every single morning and whilst it's good to have some idea of what is going on I think it can end up being hard on your mental state. Trying to understand your stats and how things work I've found is a pointless game and no matter how many clickbait posts I see about improving your traffic I think for the most part they are completely pointless. Because what works for some will never work for all of us. I've always found that the more I look into my stats the more unhappy I become and the less I focus on what's truly important which is creating awesome content that I love and want to share.
'I'M TOO BORING TO WRITE A BLOG'
The professional bloggers are always flooding our feed with all these exciting things that they're doing or working on. And it can be really easy to fall into the comparison trap and think well why would people ever want to read anything I'm sharing when these girls are doing something way more exciting? But it's nice to have a balance between the two and I know for myself I like reading about people's day even if you don't think it's riveting people will more than likely be interested. And the things that I find are the easiest to strike up a conversation about are the day to day things, because those are the things that we all have to do. Seeing others do crazy exciting things is nice and I'm happy for them but it's just not something I can relate to in any way.
'WHY ARE PEOPLE UNFOLLOWING ME? AM I AN AWFUL PERSON, I THOUGHT WE GOT ON?'
When people used to unfollow my blog or on social media I used to really let it get to me. I let their action of pressing the unfollow button turn my mind into a downward spiral of worry about why they were unfollowing and the reality is that we're probably never going to find out why. And there can be so many reasons why people unfollow and rarely is it because of a malicious nasty reason and sometimes you just don't want to see what they're putting out. Losing followers stings and is a bruise to our ego but I always think it's better to have a smaller audience who are engaged and enjoy what you do online whatever it is than loads of followers who don't really care or even worse leave cruel comments. Unfollowing isn't always a negative thing even though it can feel that way and it never needs to be something that affects your day. It's never worth that.
'WHY AM I NOT DOING AS WELL AS SHE IS?'
I like to kid myself that I'm really good at not comparing myself to other people in the blogging world but I definitely do. And I listened to a podcast recently with Emma Gannon and one of my all time favourite bloggers Liv Purvis about the comparison trap with blogging. The points that were raised were so important and probably the best thing to take away from it was that so often we're jealous before we even realise what we're jealous about. I know it's a feeling that I tackle on a everyday basis and I'm always so thrilled when I see women in the industry doing well but then I feel the jealously and comparison trap creeping in. And whenever those feelings do start bubbling up I have to remind myself 'is that something I want and do I want to be like that'? because it's so easy to think that's what you should want. But we all have our own goals with this whole blogging thing and they never look the same.
'I THOUGHT THIS WOULD GO DOWN WELL, WHY DO THE THINGS I LOVE NEVER GO DOWN WELL?'
If there is one thing I think anyone who creates content online can agree with it's that it's the things that you really love and think have a chance of being somewhat popular with your followers are the things that never are. And it feels so frustrating in many ways because when you really adore something you want others to feel the same way and I think this is where it's so important to feel proud of what you create no matter what. And it's always the things that you believe aren't that amazing that always get the best response and you can drive yourself crazy trying to understand why but it's pretty much impossible.
'AM I TOO OLD FOR THIS?'
At 26 I'm by no means an old blogger but sometimes I do worry that I'm a little too old for things and maybe blogging is just a young persons game. Which is completely ridiculous because people of all ages read blogs and there are no age limits on what you can do but when it feels like everybody is in their late teens and early twenties you can start to feel like you're completely past it. The internet has no limits and there is room for absolutely everybody.
What do you worry about when it comes to blogging?
