Do you think you can maintain a blog for another five years?
By scheng1
@scheng1 (24649)
Singapore
July 16, 2009 10:56am CST
It takes a lot of effort to maintain a blog for a year or two years. The need to constant update, in order to satisfy the readers, and maintain the Google page rank of the blog can take a toll on bloggers.
Many bloggers stop blogging after three months. And those who continue blogging may suffer burnout a couple of years later. Then there is a third group who just runs out of material to blog about.
Assuming at the rate of two articles a week, that will be a hundred articles per year, and two hundred articles in two years. We are talking about five years later, so that will mean another five hundred articles. Some bloggesr just run out of blogging ideas for their blogs.
Do you think you can maintain a blog (or few blogs) for another five years? How do you prevent yourself from suffering burnout from blogging? How do you ensure that you do not run out of ideas for your blog?
5 responses
@kush86 (108)
• United States
16 Jul 09
It does not take a lot of effort to maintain a blog. It does take a lot of effort to keep your blog growing. There's no reason for any blogger to maintain a page rank. (Straight up its pointless) How to keep from burning out? That's so easy, I picked a niche I am passionate about and can talk about it all day long. There's no way I would run out of things to blog about. Who is updating their blog 2 times a week? I hope it's not their main blog. I publish a new post everyday sometimes 2 times a day. If a person dare call themselves a blogger and can't see themselves blogging another 5 years then they aren't bloggers. I will tell you like I tell all new comers into the blog world. Pick a niche you truly passionate and ask yourself this one question. Can I talk about this daily for the next 10 years? If the answer is no. DON'T BLOG!!!
1 person likes this
@kush86 (108)
• United States
17 Jul 09
Of course if you don't update your blog for a long time and have that type of traffic you going to get tons of comments. That guy is not a good role model for new bloggers. Having more the one blog does not matter. We all have that one blog we want to be successful above the rest. I know, I run many blogs myself. You should not look at PR as motivation. What should be motivation is more traffic, more comments, and most importantly more subscribers.
1 person likes this
@scheng1 (24649)
• Singapore
17 Jul 09
Hi Kush86, for some bloggers who maintain a few blogs, daily updating is not possible. Some of the popular blogs hardly have weekly update, much less daily update.
I check out Grizzly's "how to make money for beginners" blog regularly. The latest update is in May 09, wonder when he is going to update again.
Every post attracts more than a hundred comments, so in a sense, a single post is updated regularly.
For me as new blogger, page rank serves as a motivation, to guage how well I am doing. And that will motivate me to update constantly.
Thanks a lot for all your tips! It helps a lot.
1 person likes this
@thedailyclick (3017)
•
16 Jul 09
I think there are 2 things you can do so that you don't suffer blogging burnout. Firstly when you pick the niche for the blog make sure that is not too narrow and give yourself some leeway so that you can slowly expand the scope of your blog without it feeling too much like a mismatch of niches.
Secondly to stop boredom creeping in I think that having various blogs which cover a wide range of niches is helpful. By being able to write about one thing one day and something completely unrelated the next is a great way of stopping the boredom creeping in.
Funnily I have just begun to notice that several blogs which were started a couple of years ago are now coming to a grinding halt as they have explored the limitations of their niches.
Part of the reason why I have not gone down the blogging route, preferring to create information websites instead, is that I know I would loose interest in maintaining a constant flow of content for a blog.
1 person likes this
@rosdimy (3926)
• Malaysia
23 Jul 09
It depends on the blog topic. On topics that I am familiar with, I believe I can last for many years.
An example is the subject on martial arts. There are many aspects to it. If each aspect is to be dealt with in some depth, it will take a long time to complete the task. Touching on the basic aspects of each school of thought will take at least 400 separate articles. So it means at least 400 days. Then there are the various hand and foot techniques. In short a blog on martial arts can go on for more than 5 years.
On the other hand there are topics which I will be unable to go beyond 100 articles. An example is one on money making tips.
I have not suffered from a burnout yet. Due to certain circumstances I am unable to be as active as I would like to be.
I believe having several unrelated topics can prevent burnout. As for ensuring the availability of fresh ideas, as I have mentioned above, it depends on the topic.
@rosdimy (3926)
• Malaysia
24 Jul 09
Maybe you should. Martial arts can help us to think in a different way, to see things from another angle. They can make us a better person in many aspects of life. A true martial artist is not prone to rash decisions, and able to adapt quickly to the situation.
Feelings of a burnt out can be extinguished through martial arts moves.
@scheng1 (24649)
• Singapore
24 Jul 09
Hi Rosdimy, I am interested in the Qigong martial arts. Recently they are very actively involved in the community.
I like the concept of breathing, and strengthening the organs, and the concept of drawing energy from the ground.
Those breaking bricks, and pulling car are outward show of the Qigong martial art, not what I want, and not the important thing in Qigong.
@scheng1 (24649)
• Singapore
23 Jul 09
Hi Rosdimy, you must be an expert in martial arts.
Too bad I dont know anything about martial arts, otherwise there are enough materials for me to write about. Even the chinese form of martial arts have so many schools, and so many things to write about. I can only watch and admire those martial arts practitioner who can break the brick apart with bare hands. I only know that control breathing is very important. Maybe I should learn some forms of martial arts.
@lampar (7584)
• United States
17 Jul 09
Blogging need plenty of free time on hand for blog owner, at least several hours a day to blog, if you internet is slow, it will need much longer hours. I had a blog for about two years several years back, then i just stop maintaining it, short of adequate free time on my part and having difficulty access to computer later on making it impossible for me to continue, and using public library p/c is just not practical to blogging. Blogging is nice if your blog can bring you extra income to compensate for your time, but most of the time, it is an income free hobby for me. Getting idea is not much of a trouble, if you are blogging about your self, you can talk about any thing of your life, your hobby, your interest, your works, your vacation etc... a whole lot of things concerning you every day and happen to you. 
@lampar (7584)
• United States
18 Jul 09
My friend, i am talking about 'quality blog', if the content of the blog is full of junks, nonsenses and contain nobody can understand languages make up of Malay-lish, Singlish, Chilish, or whatever direct translation of local languages, then it will not take much time of the blogger, since he only need to write articles only he can understand or over n over again, in which i found is quite common among bloggers from east Asia like Malaysia , Indonesia and Singapore. I think it is all depend on level of quality contents the blog has and how high the expectation blogger has on his blog, that determine the amount of time he has to spend on blogging. 
@scheng1 (24649)
• Singapore
18 Jul 09
Hi Lampar, blogging is not so terribly time-consuming.
Even if you have no internet connection, you can write and save the blog posts in word document, then open two email accounts, and send to each other.
When there is a chance to use public library internet connection, you can download the saved word documents, and upload to blogs.
I do not post everything at once, I can change the date and time, so that all the blog posts will be spaced apart. In this case, I do not need to worry about having time and mood to write. When I have more time and mood to write, I write more. When I have less time or no mood to write, the blog posts I write earlier will still be published according to the schedule.
@Canellita (12029)
• United States
16 Jul 09
LOL, I barely maintain my blog as it is. I am not sure it will ever really get off the ground.
@scheng1 (24649)
• Singapore
17 Jul 09
haha Canellita, my blogs also suffer from lack of attention.
I will have to stop writing for Helium for the time being, to generate enough content for my two blogs.
Since one of the blog is already a PR2, it's too painful to give up now, got to continue on, and raise the bar higher.
1 person likes this
@Canellita (12029)
• United States
17 Jul 09
I suppose I too will have to take time away from helium and focus on my blog or a bit in order to move things along with it.
