It’s happening again. Bloggers are saying that blogging is stressful or makes them feel guilty.
Blogging is becoming a chore.
They don’t have time to read and comment on all the blog posts of all the blogs they follow.
They’re constantly apologising for not reading, commenting or publishing new blog posts.
They don’t have time to keep up with a blogging schedule they set themselves.
They feel obliged to read and comment on everything because those bloggers read and comment on their blog posts.
Let’s get something straight about blogging. Nobody expects you to read and comment on all their blog posts.
Just because Susan and Jenny read and comment on all of each other’s blog posts doesn’t mean you have you. And believe me when I say that Jenny and Susan won’t have always read each other’s blog posts. They may have left comments, but those comments don’t prove they read the post.
Nobody cares if you don’t read and comment on all their posts.
Nobody says it’s your obligation to read and comment on all their posts because they read and comment on all your posts.
Nobody? Well, not quite. The only person who may feel obliged or think they must read and comment on all the posts of the blogs they follow is you.
One of the biggest pitfalls of blogging is feeling obligated.
Once again, I’ve been reading blog posts, comments, and social media posts where people ask for advice because blogging has got to the stage of stressing them out and/or making them feel guilty.
They seem to feel that not reading and commenting on every post is some kind of a blogging crime and will land them in blogging jail.
I’ve written before about the stress and guilt blogging can bring (if you allow it) and know exactly how these bloggers are feeling, having been through the whole blogging ‘feeling guilty’ trip myself.
So, allow me to explain why you never need to feel stressed or guilty about blogging or never need to apologise for not reading, commenting or publishing blog posts.
Why did you start your blog?
One of the reasons why I signed up for WordPress was because I thought blogging would be fun.
One year in, I became very stressed and guilty because I couldn’t keep up with reading all the new blog posts published by the bloggers I was following.
I was following way too many blogs, many of which didn’t interest me anyway.
Some days, I found myself doing little else but reading and leaving non-engaging, spammy comments on blog posts. You know the types of comments. Things like ‘Great post,’ ‘I enjoyed this’, or one-worded comments that meant nothing.
Some of the bloggers I was following were publishing more than one post daily, and I soon found myself apologising to people for not reading their posts or not being on WordPress 24 hours a day!
Then it struck me that I was not doing the main thing I’d come here to do – write!
Although I possess a few superpowers, I’m afraid that one of them is not being able to read every new blog post from bloggers I follow.
I began to see this as a problem. Blogging was becoming a monster, and I was doing everything possible to make me want to fight it.
Then, one morning, I woke up, switched on my computer and got that horrible feeling I would get when I didn’t want to go to school or go to work.
I soon realised that I had two choices about blogging. Either I gave it up, or I had to change the blogger I had become.
It didn’t take me long to make my choice. After all, I’d created my blog to write and share my thoughts with anybody who stopped by and wanted to listen to what I had to say.
I decreased my reading time and began to write more.
I stopped following every single blogger who followed my blog. If they didn’t have an ‘about me‘ page so I could find out more about who they were, or they blogged about subjects that did not interest me, then I did not follow back.
If bloggers kept sending me messages begging me to follow their blog, I ignored them.
I stopped feeling guilty for not following back.
As time passed, I began to unfollow bloggers whose blog content I didn’t find interesting anymore.
I stopped reading blog posts that did not interest me, regardless of who had written and published them.
I unfollowed some bloggers who continued to fail to respond to questions or acknowledge comments other bloggers and I were leaving on posts.
I didn’t feel guilty about this because it freed up time for me to write, read, and comment on blog posts that interested me.
If you find yourself in a situation where blogging makes you feel guilty and/or stresses you out, then you need to face the questions I was asking myself.
I’m afraid there’s no magic answer.
What worked for me may not work for you, but whatever you do, ensure you do all you can to make blogging fun again.
Isn’t that the reason why you came here in the first place?
Take control of your blog and stop feeling guilty about not reading and commenting on every blog post or for unfollowing blogs that you no longer have any interest in.
Sure, you may lose some followers along the way (don’t we all?), but it’s not going to finish you off as a blogger.
In fact, they probably didn’t read your blog posts anyway and will have left short, non-engaging comments just to prove they visited, so it’s no big deal (unless your only interest is how many followers you have).
If, like me, you decide to stay (and I hope you do), your blogging passion will return.
Remember – Blogging is a marathon, not a sprint!
Have you ever found yourself feeling guilty or stressed out because of blogging? Are you somebody who keeps apologising because you’ve been unable to spend as much time as you like reading and commenting on posts? How did you get over feeling guilty or stressed out by blogging? Leave me a comment and join the conversation.
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