Creative Blog Talk – How to Beat the Blogger Blues | Club Chica Circle

It’s Creative Blog Talk time again – where we are taking a brief break in our crafting to sharing some blogging tips. Today we are tackling an issue that can plague anyone – the blogger blues. (I am not a licensed therapist nor doctor, so please seek professional help if you have depression and need to find a way to crawl out of the hole. WebMD has links to multiple resources.)

It’s inevitable…the blogger blues.

Blogger blues may come in the form of sadness, frustration, anger, or desperation around your blog.

Perhaps it’s the frustration over a brilliant post that doesn’t get much feedback or eyeballs.

Perhaps you have writer’s or crafter’s block.

Perhaps it’s the pure exhaustion of doing it ALL between maintaining your home life while also creating, writing, editing, photographing, marketing, and providing tech support for your blog.

Perhaps it’s the trolls who leave unflattering comments.

Perhaps it’s lackluster or declining pageviews.

Do any (or all) of these scenarios sound familiar? If so, there is HOPE. Try the steps below to beat the blogger blues out of your system.

1. Shake things up

If your blues are coming from frustration over the blog engagement metrics, consider if you are being true to your brand and voice. Do you need to change your approach around your blog topics or around your social media amplification? It may be time to take an inventory of what is working well and what isn’t to flush out what areas may need a refresh or totally different approach. Try our worksheet to help you super charge your brand.

2. Take a social media break

Even though social media can be exhilarating when you are actively engaged with others online, it is also exhausting. Keep in mind that every hour you spend on Facebook is an hour not spent creating new content or engaging in real life with family, friends and peers. Social media is an essential part of the blogging world, but you should be strategic and focused with how your time is spent. Last week, we shared strategies for maximizing Hootsuite.

If you have a case of the blogger blues, it may be time to take a more drastic approach and to not allow yourself go on Instagram, Facebook, Google+, or Twitter for an entire week. Yes, the full 7 days. If you choose this option, plan ahead by pre-scheduling a batch of social media posts and also telling your readers that you won’t be able to respond for 7 days.

3. Write a gratitude post

Shifting your energy away from sadness to gratitude is another powerful way to beat the blogger blues. The act of reflecting on what has gone well in your day or week no matter how big or small is really powerful and mind-shifting. Betsy from betsylife does a great job of this every week with her Great List posts. I still remember my own case of the blogger blues which prompted me to write the Thank You! You Are Awesome! post. The feedback and comments really helped me cure that bout of blues.

4. Stay away from Google Analytics

Seriously! It may be counter-intuitive but it may really be time to step away from the computer. Watching your Google Analytics dashboard can be a little like watching the slot machines in Las Vegas. The thrill of watching the map light up is quickly extinguished when the map looks relatively bare. You are bigger than the analytics! You do not need the analytics to prove you are a worthy blogger. When you do check analytics, check no more than once per day. If you are suffering from the blogger blues, give yourself the same 7 day hiatus as the social media blackout.

5. Set up your blog systems

If being overwhelmed is part of the blogger blues equation, setting up blog systems will help alleviate and focus the workload. ‘Systems’ is a broad term relating to setting up repeatable, prescheduled or event-driven actions. You could set up your tweets via Hootsuite or Facebook posts via Facebook scheduler. You could also set up alert rules on your mobile device through the apps or via IFTTT rules. Refer back to our 50+ Blog Must Haves for more ways to set yourself up with a strong blog foundation.

Remember – as long as you are breathing, you have a second chance to have a better day and some fabulous blog feedback and pageviews. You never know when the blog seeds you have sown will sprout. One of Pauline’s posts from two years ago (Puffy Paint Window Snowflakes) was a successful post in all respects, but it recently went completely viral this past week. We will now be reminding ourselves of the tips above as the viral traffic has slowed down to lower levels.

How do you tackle the blogger blues? Please share below so we can support each other.

As we continue our Creative Blog Talk Series – we would love to hear from you! What topics would you like to see us talk about? You can comment below or fill out our Creative Blog Talk Series form. We will continue the series here, but also send exclusive content directly to #CreativeBlogTalk subscribers. Sign up here for free.

We hope you catch up on our past posts: