Over the past few months, dare I say it, maybe even the past year I've been in the biggest and worst blogging rut I've ever had. Before my ruts were "I don't have anything to post about. I've ran out of things to review or new outfits to photograph." Now my rut goes a little deeper than that. It's more like... "What do I blog? Will anyone even read it? My blog has no niche. How do I fix it? What do I do?" It's been absolute killer and I'm feeling that I still don't know what to do. Instead, I thought I'd blog about my situation and see if there's anyone else feeling even just a little bit like me right now. If you have something to add to the discussion, please comment below. You might help me out or anyone else feeling the same way.
What's Been Going On?
It's obvious by the lack of content and enthusiasm on my part that I've been demotivated and lost in general. I've had a very busy and very difficult year but I've also had some pretty life changing things happen. If you've been reading my blog regularly still, you'll know that I just moved into our first place and I'm so extremely happy about it. Buying the house has been the highlight of my year and I'm still so excited about it, but along side that I've had some personal matters to deal with. It's things I'd like to keep private but I know that some of my friends (some of which I haven't seen in years) have noticed that I've not been the same for a while. With other things at the forefront of my mind, blogging took a backseat and hasn't been focused on in a long time.
Now, with a lot of it having passed and things being in a little more positive and under control, I'm taking the baby steps back into blogging and slowly regaining my motivation to get back into doing the things that make me happy.
The Blogging Rut Explained:
I've always had a notebook full of ideas, a camera ready and the buzz to get writing but over the last year I feel like I've really lost myself as a blogger. Not only have I reduced my focus on style blogging down to lack of confidence, but I feel I've lost my way with my other posts. I think what I've been doing is taking an easy route and creating posts that I feel were a little easier to write and quicker to put together. Two years ago I was excited about every post I wrote and now I don't think I'm as excited. I don't feel like it's work - I never have, but I don't feel like I don't put as much love into my posts as I had before. If I'm being truly honest, I think I lost the love for blogging. But. I do feel it coming back. With things getting back to a normal and the more I begin to feel like myself again, the more I want to blog and the more blogs I'm reading again. I want to get back into the place where I'm excited to come home and blog about the next idea.
On top of my love for blogging being a little lost, I feel my niche is non-existence. I know that having a niche isn't necessary, but I feel that my blog has so many categories and directions it's a bit like a tree. My blog needs a little direction so that I am organised and it's more focused. I simply blog about too much. So when I want to blog, I don't know what to blog about because I have too much choice. And so because of that, I'm taking some time to narrow down my blogging categories to about 4 or 5 categories.
Despite the blogging rut, my passion to still be a blogger is there. I do want to blog and I have urges to write and write. When I am blogging, I really enjoy it and I'm really happy. I also really love being part of this community and socialising with you guys on Instagram and Twitter. I don't care that much about the numbers though. As long as people are enjoying what I write when they do come to visit my blog, I'll be happy. I don't think it's about the number of followers anymore, but more about the content and how readers relate to it.
I did wonder if my time as a blogger is done. I thought about quitting so many times and not because I wanted to, but because I felt I wasn't relevant anymore. I sometimes feel like readers can't relate to my content. But I recently learnt that you can adapt and change your blog (but still be within your focus) and you can be fluid. It's not about being relevant to the current market all the time but relevant to your current interests and who you are. Because though we're all unique, there's always some other people out there with similar interests! On top of that, we're all getting older and so with that comes a lot of change and differences. My blog is never going to be what it once was because 3 years ago, I wasn't a home owner or a career woman. I wore different clothes and I saw the world in a different way. But you know, that's okay. I don't mind if I lose followers because I'm not relevant to them anymore for that reason, because I might gain others that relate to me better now.
What Am I Going To Do To Get Out Of It?
- First, I'm going to be pushing myself out there to re-fuel my motivation. Recently I've been reading blogs more often and exploring other blogger's content. Seeing other people's work and enjoying what they've written has already influenced and motivated me to think about blogging again. It's kind of what got me writing this long post.
- As I said before, I'm going to revisit my blog's content and see what works and what doesn't. What am I still passionate about and what can I let go. Once I've done that, I'll pick 4 or 5 blogging categories that all future posts will sit in.
- I'm also planning a blog layout refresh and potentially getting a new banner. I want a fresh new feel for a fresh new blog. I am considering moving over to Wordpress but at the moment I can't justify the spend.
- I'm going to schedule my blogging time. Another problem I had was organising my time properly. I work best when I have set schedules and I'd love to get that back in order, especially since I'll be back at work soon. I'd like scheduled times dedicated to blogging and times set to publishing posts too.
- Plan ahead. The last thing I'll be doing is planning all posts and my blogging work ahead. At the moment it's all planned, photographed, written and published within a week but I want to plan ahead from now on. So that if I get stuck in any ruts again, I have content readily available and time to refocus.
- Make sure I always enjoy it. The day I stop enjoying blogging is the day I'll stop.
Over the next couple of weeks I'll be working on my next steps to get myself out of my blogging rut. I'm already feeling myself pulling out of it and my motivation kicking in. I recently went out for Afternoon Tea for a blogging opportunity and I really enjoyed it. I was so excited to come back home and blog about it. I did blog about it and I'm still so happy and excited about the post and that experience days later. It's been really lovely and I feel like a blogger again.
If you've read all the way to the end of this post - wow! Thank you so much for taking the time to read it. I'm quite a waffler so well done too! As I mentioned before, get the discussion going in the comments. Have you been in a similar situation? How did you get yourself out of the rut?
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