It's a new year — time for a fresh start. Welcome to our 15-day series on how to fall (back) in love with your blog. The series is all about stepping back, re-evaluating things and making sure you're still connecting with your blog. Here's what you won't find in this series: articles on analytics, plug-ins, sponsored content, ad networks and the like. What you will find is tips and strategies to stay inspired, motivated and pushing your own boundaries, all while loving what you do.
We couldn't make our posts as much fun without images like this from Shutterstock!
In Day 1 of the Falling (Back) in Love With Your Blog series we asked you to take stock of why you blog, what you love about it and what makes you unhappy with your blog. We also asked you to avoid looking at traffic or revenue stats.
One of the reasons we asked you to avoid looking at reporting for the next week is because one of the biggest traps we can fall into is comparing ourselves to others. Or worse, to the results we assume others are achieving.
The truth is, unless a blogger tells you up front, you really have no idea what goes on behind the scenes of any given blog — you don’t know their traffic, their income levels, if they have a virtual assistant who does all their social media … in short, you really don’t know their back story unless they tell you.
Maybe they put in 14-hour days, five days a week to grow their blog because that's their full-time job and it has to work so they can pay their bills, while you put in 14 hours a week because you have a full-time job outside of your blog.
Maybe they don’t have children or a family to take up a lot of their time while you're surrounded by kids, a partner, big dogs and a lot of love.
Maybe their camera is fancier than yours, but that doesn't mean they have your eye!
Maybe they live on the bright, sunny, but cold Prairies while you live on the dark, grey, rainy west coast.
Remember, blogs and their content and social media are often highly edited and carefully curated. Nobody’s situation is perfect. They may not choose to show you the less than perfect parts. But they’re there.
So STOP comparing yourself to them. It’s one of the most negative things you can do to yourself!
For the next three weeks commit to focusing only on yourself and your story — your reasons for blogging that we wrote down on Day 1.
Here’s some tips to help you avoid the stress and negativity around keeping up with Jane or John Blogger:
- Don’t look at what other bloggers are doing for the next three weeks — it doesn’t matter right now.
- Think about what you are going to do for 2016! What are you excited to try? Write those things down right now.
- Make an action plan of small steps for one of those items that will help you achieve that goal.
- Unfollow any or all blogs or social media accounts that don’t inspire you. If they make you feel frustrated, envious or bad about your life, ditch them. You want positive vibes, not negative ones; negative energy will suck your life away.
Remember, different is good.
Doing the same as all the other bloggers in your niche or genre doesn’t make you stand out to anyone — it just makes you the same. Celebrate your differences; they make you who you are.
You can’t be the next Pioneer Women. That role is already taken by the only person who was meant to play it. But, the amazing thing is … nobody can be the next you — because you were the only person born to play that role — and you can play it to a standing ovation if you stop worrying about trying to keep up with what the rest of the world is doing.
Sage words! Here’s to a unique year of blogging…
This is a breath of fresh air for someone who has been deep into learning the technical stuff!