What Have You Done for Me, Lately?
Apologies to Janet (Miss Jackson, if you’re nasty), but sometimes a blog isn’t worth the effort. Time and attention are extremely valuable. If what I’m doing doesn’t fulfill me and have a monetary pay off, I don’t continue with the effort, because that effort is wasted. When that happens, I shut down the energy-draining operation and redirect my life energy elsewhere. I have started—and ended—a lot of blogs in my time.
When you start a blog, you have high hopes for it, and you put a lot of effort into it. But there comes a time when you have to ask your blog: What have you done for me, lately?
Traffic?
Earnings?
Fun?
New opportunities?
No? Time to end this relationship and see other blogs.
Three Clues to Watch For
So, how do you know when to give up on a blog that you thought was a good idea? Here’s what I have learned to look for:
- Little to show for your efforts in terms of relevant traffic or earnings, even after a couple or three months (assuming you know what you’re doing when it comes to building traffic and producing content).
- Producing content for the blog and managing it feels burdensome instead of fun, or, worse, like you’re compromising yourself.
- There’s a mismatch between your search traffic and your AdSense content compared to the blog’s content. Your bounce rate will be very high, and your clickthrough rate and earnings will be very low.
So how can you prevent this from happening? By using your imagination. Visualization is a proven technique for helping people succeed, but it’s usually discussed in terms of visualizing successful outcomes. I don’t mean to say that you should visualize failure. You should visualize as realistically as possible. That’s not negative, that’s smart planning. It can help prevent you from making mistakes.
Beyond the Honeymoon
Imagine how you’re going to feel months or even a couple years from now as you work on a blog that seems like a good idea in the present. Can you imagine yourself sustaining the effort required to make the blog work? Can you imagine liking the people you’ll meet along the way? What kind of audience do you think your blog will attract? what kind of person will you have to be in order to keep the blog going? Will you be someone you could respect? Would you be proud to tell your family what you’ve done?
You want a long-term relationship with your blog if it’s going to be fulfilling both personally and financially. Can you survive past the honeymoon stage with your blog? Visualize what a future with that blog and its readers is going to be like. Make sure the content and advertising and audience expectations are all in harmony with each other.
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