Archives for April 2007

In my opinion, blogging isn’t for the weak-willed. Before one decides to go into blogging, one should think clearly on whether he/she can take the challenges that the blogosphere brings.

I admit, if approached in the right way, blogging is mostly fun. Therefore, before you start to blog, examine yourself and your intentions and figure out whether you can have fun blogging. If you cannot, then do not blog. Blogging is basically about writing – can you write consistently over an extended period of time? Take a look at Erick’s reasons for not blogging. Is blogging still for you?

This post isn’t about discouraging would-be bloggers. In actual fact, I’m aiming to address blogger’s block: a condition of blogger disillusionment where you feel ‘tired’ of blogging and, obviously, your blog suffers. My reasoning is simple: if you got into blogging for the right reasons and understood what you were getting yourself into, blogger’s block won’t hit you so hard.

It does, however, hit everyone once in a while. Here’s how I recommend dealing with it:

1. Take a break. Go for a long walk, do some gardening, go on a date – do anything to get you off the computer.
2. If this doesn’t work then go to a library near you and just browse through books you find interesting (you can do this on the net but I recommend getting off it). Alternatively, go crazy with the papers and read to your heart’s content. If you cannot do either of the above or you just can’t pull away from the computer, try stumbling aimlessly for hours and hours (and get a check up for cannot-get-off-the-computer-syndrome).
3. If, by now, you haven’t got blogging back into your system, consider taking an extended amount of time off blogging. Go on holiday.

Useful links on combating blogger’s block:
Battling Bloggers Block
Hack Your Way Out of Writers block.

This post was written by Erick, a regular reader and commenter on this blog. I wanted a guest blogger here because I was inspired by I Help You Blog’s “101 Great Posting Ideas For Your Blog.”

Many thanx to my host Kayliz for this guest post, which is in response to his question on a previous post. I read ‘somewhere’ that lists are good (see number 11, second bullet), so here’s my blog on why I don’t blog 🙂 :

5.Originality
It goes without saying that a blog has to be original. But apparently Archer came across a deliberate act of plagiarism. I’d rather not blog than feel the need to copy others.

4. Time Management
In order to write a good blog, time needs to be managed so that other parts of your life don’t suffer. Blogging less than once a month would seem “too little” for me, and would discourage others from coming back for new content (see number 8). A lack of effective time management is one of my many weaknesses.

3. Planned Blogging
Readers come back for more content when a blog is interesting, and that takes planning and research (see number 9). Even then, I wouldn’t want to sound like a ” know it all” 🙂 . How does one balance expressing accurate knowledge with conveying humility? Still figuring that out.

2. Comment Envy
People are generally social creatures, so the more the connection between blogger and commenter(s), the more dynamic a blog is. But it takes time to develop a good “comment base”. Even Aco admitted that he used to blog for himself a long time ago. I would probably look at my “0 comments”, then go over to tHiNkEr’s rOoM with 20+ comments, and think “How much longer??” 🙂 .

1. No Vision
As already stated in my comment, Aco posted something on blogging some time ago. A lot of it is personal opinion (as he stated), and he has valid points. Others don’t agree with him and I see their point too. One statement that sticks out is:

“I think that part of the problem is that when many people start their blogs they don’t have an idea where their blog is going.“

I would want to continue blogging even when no one comments, because I know what the goal of the blog is. Comment Envy or not 🙂 . I’m still waiting for that Vision, so will continue enjoying others blogs in the meantime. Thanx again Kayliz!!