The hardest part about being away from blogging for a while (like I have been this past summer) is the fear that once you start blogging again, no one will read your posts. Your regular readers will think you no longer blog (which was true for a while), so they won’t think to check your blog. Some may feel resentful that you haven’t been reading their blogs (not because you didn’t want to but because you were out swimming in lakes and playing Pokémon Go). Others may have stopped blogging, too, or may be taking their own bloggy breaks. What to do?
1. Reconnect with your old blog buddies
Say “Hi! I’m back! Let’s retweet each other and read each other’s blogs!” It will be fun to reconnect with old friends and discover what they’ve been up to. I know I’m excited to check up on Sierra Godfrey, Anne R. Allen, Kristan Hoffman, Christine Brinkley Harmon, Nancy Davis Kho, Brian Meeks, Ruth Harris, and many other blogger friends..
Me not blogging in front of Niagara Falls this summer (while someone sticks his selfie stick in my face).
2. Make new blog buddies
You may find some of your blogging buddies no long blog or want to read your blog. That’s okay. According to Worldometers, more than three million blog posts were written TODAY alone, so there has to be SOMEONE out there who wants to read your blog. Blog for them!
Me not blogging after 500 pictures of Niagara Falls.
3. Stop worrying about how many comments you have
Comments aren’t always an indicator of how many people read a post. Comments tend to be written by other bloggers—often your blog buddies—who know you virtually and want to support you. Most people who find your post through a Google search aren’t going to leave a comment, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t reading (or sharing) your post. Focus on page view numbers, not comments. In fact, as comment spam has worsened and social media platforms like SnapChat, Instagram and Twitter have bypassed blogs as social networkers’ favorite places to engage, many bloggers, like Chris Brogan and Copyblogger, have turned off comments altogether. To help you decide whether to turn off your own blog comments, read the incredibly informative Great Comment Debate over at Allyssa Barnes’s blog.
Me not blogging while looking seriously dorky in my sun hat while kayaking on the Russian River this summer.
4. Comments on other bloggers’ posts
Read and share and comment on other people’s posts (on their blogs or on Facebook, Twitter, etc. if they have turned off blog comments). The Golden Rule—Do unto others as you would have others do unto you—works for blogging, too.
Me not blogging with the fam at my niece’s wedding in New York.
5. Take a hike
You’ve worked hard to relaunch your blog. Maybe you’ve even improved it with a cool newsletter sign-up form or some snazzy new social media buttons. Now go outside and get some fresh air. It will clear your head and make you a better blogger…and a better person.
What about you? Have you ever taken a blogging break? How did you reboot when you returned?
Nice post.Thanks 🙂
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It’s good to have you back. I haven’t been doing much blogging of late, either, but I have been writing. 🙂
Glad to hear you are writing! Are you done with your Nomadic Novelist blog? (And did I completely botch the name?) I’m attempting to blog, write, practice the piano, exercise, read, spend time with my kids…we’ll see how long this lasts.
Hey, Meghan! Great to see you back. A lot of my blog buddies have given up on blogging. I just heard from one today who talked about the “incredible shrinking blogosphere”. But I think it’s simply a dynamic thing. New blogs are sprouting up all the time and others fade or cut back.
As writers’ careers grow, they often find they don’t have as much time for blogging, so they cut back to once a month or less. Or they switch to sending a newsletter instead. (Which I think is a mistake, because that doesn’t grow a new audience.)
Ruth and I are getting the benefit, though. Our blog is booming. Come on by. We’re on WordPress now.
I’m not finding your share buttons. Did WP take them while you were on vacation? Sometimes things disappear. Maybe I’m just not seeing them. They used to be at the bottom of your post.
Anne,
I find it totally amazing that you’ve managed to keep up your blog EVERY WEEK for so long. I got burned out. And thank you for letting me know about my share buttons! When my blog was hacked, the web guy who fixed it removed all my plugins and that’s evidently one that never got put back. I’ll work on that today.
And I’ll be by your blog soon!
Welllllll, hello, there!
It’s nice to see all these names in the comments. Indeed, it seems like we have dropped off the blogging, but I indeed still have mine — still working, still writing, still living.
Glad to see you back!
Great to see you back, Sierra! I’m excited to be blogging, writing, tweeting, reading other blogs, etc. again. I’ve missed it.