Each time I resolve to be a bit better & I think I've crept forward but Five Sixteenths is not where I'd like it to be. Which leads me to question: Where do I want Five Sixteenths to be?
I am not ready for blogging & a shop to be my life. I do however want Five Sixteenths to be unique & a part of me. Drawing so much inspiration from other bloggers often leads me to compare Five Sixteenths to the blogs I follow, and not in a good way.
In the past few days I've thought about the top 5 mistakes I made in blogging.
Thinking I have to 'fit in' - Five Sixteenths has a bunch of pre-formatted posts, like Make it Monday & Fan Friday. I saw so many bloggers with weekly features on their blogs that I totally just filled my blog up with all the pre-formated posts I could think of! You don't have to fit in & do what everyone else is doing. Yes, readers like consistency (something to look forward to like blog features) but I try to keep quality posts rather than quantity. Keeping up the integrity of the blog or creating integrity for your blog is rather tricky sometimes.
Giving up & not blogging - Thinking that I had nothing to offer often kept me from blogging. Who am I to be so great to post something that someone will care about? No one eve reads this blog, I'd think. Well, the best piece of advice I ever read was to blog as if you had 3000 readers. Another piece of advice I read just the other day was to make sure even you want to visit your blog. Do you like being kept in the dark? Or left hanging for a post? Readers want to read! Even if it's nothing too great see if you can link up some old posts or just post what you're thinking that day, your plans for the weekend, how much you love your shoes, etc. Sometimes I'd convince myself I had nothing. It's ok to take a break sometimes, believe me, sometimes enjoying things other than blogging is alright!
Not blogging about life - There was a point in this blogs past that I just reposted things I found around the blogsphere. I used this blog as a sort of public inspiration board. This was long before Pinterest & Five Sixteenths was just a reposting board with no uniqueness. Including posts about life, inspiration, creativity, and plain ol day to day activity are the reasons I follow other blogs! So why wasn't I including things that would make you, the reader, like (or hate) me? I have no idea! Seeing other peoples dogs, homes, crafts, and aspirations are the reasons I want to share mine! A big part of blogging I think is realizing that there are others like you, which makes you want to be a part of the community!
Comparing - Sometimes comparing your blog to others is a good thing. Evaluating the design & effectiveness of blogs you love help you create a better looking blog of your own. I usually pull up some interesting blogs or blogs that I think are well designed & incorporate different elements into my own design. My recent blog re-design reflects the inspiration I draw from other blogs that I love. But I often find myself comparing Five Sixteenths on a level of success & failure. Getting jealous of others accomplishments or achievements is common in the blog community I think since we are all exposed to such great bloggers. I personally find myself wondering how these amazing bloggers do it all: have great posts, great pictures, have time to work on their projects, have time for lives, have time for work, for relationships, etc. How do they do it? Am I not as dedicated? What am I not doing? It turns out the thing I am not doing is being them! So, blog for you. What do you want to share...and make sure it's true to you!
This post is the first of my dedication to quality posts. To actually sharing useful information. Tomorrow I hope to post my new planner & blog book with some honest suggestions on how this whole blog planning is supposed to work!
Have you ever had trouble being true to yourself? How do you feel about keeping your blog a part of you? Do you have any tips?
It's so easy to get sucked in to the blog comparisons, I've done it too but once it's starts to feel forced is when I step back. I love blogging, been doing it for years, even before I had a shop so it's probably something I will continue to do for a long time. :)
ReplyDeleteI suffer from this stuff so badly too! Blog about what you want to blog about! If you want I blog about something but think it may be too boring for some people then just do it! I personally love hearing about your boring Sunday's with Zachary! I'm ll for lazy days! X
ReplyDeleteOk, my iPad just auto-corrected zach's name to Zachary!
ReplyDelete