Blogging Myths Busted: Breaks, Comments, Followers and More

Do you have any examples of blogging myths? You know, those pieces of information you read or are told that don’t quite seem right, yet they can frighten you into believing them.

Over the twelve years I have blogged, I’ve come across plenty of misleading information about blogging, some of which I’m sharing.

You’ll lose all your followers if you take a blogging break

Some bloggers are terrified of taking a blogging break for many reasons, but the main one is that they believe nobody will be there when they return.

While I recommend that you inform your readers if you are going on a blogging break, I can guarantee that even if you do not inform them, there will still be people waiting for you when you return.

And if you do lose followers because you’re taking a break and you told your followers, you shouldn’t concern yourself about those who unfollow you. They’re not worth thinking or worrying about.

Taking a blogging break can improve both our physical and mental health, which is far more important than worrying about losing followers, many of whom will never have engaged with us.

You have to publish posts every day to be a successful blogger

This was a myth I was told about during my first year of blogging. Publish every day, or your blogging days will be numbered before your blog’s first anniversary. Nearly 13 years on, I’ve never published daily, and I’m still blogging!

Sure, if you publish content daily, you may see an increase in views, but that doesn’t mean people are reading your posts.

Daily publishing has its disadvantages, mainly that it can cause blogging burnout if you push yourself too hard.

The quality of posts may suffer, and the comment sections usually end up gradually becoming barren or hideouts for comments that prove nothing other than that the people who left them wanted you to know they popped by in the hope you would return the favour.

There is little, if any, substantive discussion of those posts, making the blog look community-less.

I know successful bloggers who publish weekly, monthly, or even every three months, so do not fall into the trap of believing you must publish daily.

Sure, some successful bloggers publish daily, but they can be hard to find. If you do find one, take a look at the comments section of their posts. If there is genuine engagement, then you may have found a blog worth following.

You must read and comment on all posts of the blogs you follow

So many bloggers suffer from blogging burnout because they are told it’s only polite to read and comment on every post on every blog they follow, for fear that if they don’t, it will upset the blog hosts, who will then unfollow those who don’t comment.

Sure, you can lose followers if you stop following a blog or stop commenting on it, but you stopped commenting or following for a reason.

I recall one blogger telling me they felt obliged to read and comment on every blogger’s blog who read and left comments on their posts, resulting in a total waste of time reading material they had no interest in. That’s not what blogging is supposed to be about.

The majority of bloggers understand that not everyone who follows them will read and comment on every post. If you do encounter a blogger who is upset with you for missing one of their posts, ask yourself whether you should be following them.

And there is nothing wrong with not following a blogger who follows you. I follow the blogs of many bloggers who do not follow mine.

You must have a WordPress account to be able to leave comments on WordPress

This is a myth I have to address repeatedly.

WordPress allows all users to decide whether anyone who wants to leave a comment must be logged into WordPress.

You can change these settings in the discussion area of your blog’s dashboard. For example, I have my settings configured to allow anyone to leave a comment, regardless of whether they are logged into WordPress.

To check the discussion settings on your blog, go to your blog’s dashboard, click Settings > Discussion, and look for the boxes next to ‘Other Comment Settings‘.

A screenshot of a website's settings page, displaying the "Other comment settings" section. On the left, the bold heading reads "Other comment settings." On the right, there are three blank, unchecked square checkboxes next to the following options: "Comment author must fill out name and email," "Users must be registered and logged in to comment," and "Automatically close comments on old posts."

Untick the boxes if you are happy that those wanting to comment do not need a WordPress account.

Another myth you may have heard is that if you allow anyone to leave a comment, you will get a massive amount of spam. That’s not true, as WordPress allows users to choose how much spam they want to see.

The Akismet anti-spam software that WordPress uses helps stop 99% of spam comments from ever reaching my moderation queue or spam folder.

Go to your blog’s dashboard and click on Jetpack > Akismet Antispam. Under Spam Filtering, tick the box that says ‘Silently discard the worst and most pervasive spam so I never see it.’

A screenshot of a spam filtering settings and statistics dashboard, likely for the Akismet plugin.

The top half is titled "Statistics" and features a bar chart tracking spam blocked from January to July 2026. January shows a significant spike with over 7,000 spam comments blocked, followed by a smaller spike in May around 2,000; the remaining months show almost none. Below the chart, text metrics display: "Past six months: 9,924 Spam blocked," "All time: 321,624 Spam blocked," and "Accuracy: 99.74% (557 missed spam, 521 false positives)."

The bottom half is titled "Settings." Under "Comments," a checkbox is selected to "Show the number of approved comments beside each comment author." Under "Spam filtering," a red rectangle highlights the currently selected radio button: "Silently discard the worst and most pervasive spam so I never see it." Under "Privacy," another selected radio button reads, "Display a privacy notice under your comment forms."

You don’t need to look after your blog, it’ll look after itself.

While WordPress takes care of much of what goes on behind the scenes of your blog, every blogger should take some time to do some blog housekeeping to prevent things from breaking and then blaming it on WordPress.

Bloggers who don’t do blog housekeeping usually complain most that their blog is broken or that nobody is visiting or engaging with them, so they end up abandoning or deleting their blog.

The post below by blogger Shah is a fantastic example of what housekeeping needs to be done. Give it a read and go and introduce yourself to Shah.

And that’s it for some of the myths I have heard about blogging. I’d love to hear about any blogging myths you have heard. Share the details in the comments section.

The featured image in this post was created using the WordPress image generator. AI was used to check for grammar and spelling mistakes and to help with the layout of the post.

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63 responses to “Blogging Myths Busted: Breaks, Comments, Followers and More”

  1. Jennie avatar

    Great advice. I’m guilty of feeling like I need to read and comment (or at least like) my fellow bloggers’ posts. It’s my upbringing, and it’s the right thing to do.

    1. Hugh W. Roberts avatar

      That only left me feeling overwhelmed by it all. Jennie. And from what I understand from most bloggers, they all understand that nobody can read, like, and comment on every one of their posts. I read and comment at my leisure, giving me a much better blogging experience.

      1. Jennie avatar

        It’s something I need to work on. Best to you, Hugh.

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