Does anyone remember the dinosaur days when blogging was so simple? You blogged, you read and commented at other blogs, and you *might* have gone to a blogging convention, but that was pretty much the extent of blogging. It was easy enough to keep up with your favorite blogs and people because you probably had them listed on your blog roll and, at least in the mommy blogging world, there weren’t quite so many blogs to to choose from. I miss those days sometimes.
THE PROBLEM:
And now? There is Twitter, Facebook, vlogging, blogging forums, feed readers, Google Follow, stressing over stats, SEO, PR opportunities, giveaways, and about twenty billion blogs to choose from.
I finally came to the realization that I would never, ever be able to keep up with all of this at once. I work. I have a child. I have a life beyond this computer screen. I love Facebook, I love blogging, I love reading blogs, and I love to work with PR and offer relevant giveaways on my blog, BUT… I also feel incredibly guilty if I don’t visit someone who has recently left a comment on my blog, I feel bad if my stats don’t hit a certain number each day, and I feel like if I’m not at my forums or checking out Twitter, then I miss what’s really going on in the blogosphere. I feel overwhelmed trying to keep up with 300 blogs in my feed reader. I also feel like if I am not doing all of this on a daily basis, then I am not “working my blog” to its fullest potential. I hate the competitiveness that goes along with blogging. I hate feeling like blogging is just not enough.
I want to do it all when it comes to blogging, but I just can’t keep up.
THE SOLUTION:
I’m implementing my own therapeutic blogging program called Do One Thing to help me reign myself in, put the focus back on my writing and to sincerely enjoy the other blogs I read. And what is Do One Thing, you might ask? If I only do ONE thing a day to connect with other bloggers, readers, or PR contacts, then I won’t hold it against myself. If I only answer ONE email, leave ONE comment, read ONE blog from my reader, make ONE Tweet, then I’ll have done one thing pertaining to blogging besides blogging itself and I’ll have managed my time more wisely. There will be days, of course, when I do MORE than one thing, but on those days when my computer time is very limited (which has been the case more often than not recently), I won’t allow myself to feel bad about what I don’t do. That’s it.
And? I must somehow whittle my feed reader down to 100 blogs. That’s going to be very painful. But necessary. And? Stop obsessing over traffic, SEO, networking, and stats. It’s a blog, for crying out loud, right? But it’s also so much more. *sigh* In regards to PR and giveaways, I am only accepting and posting the ones I want to, so I am proud that I have been more selective in that aspect. Baby steps.
I’ve promised myself in the past that I would do these very things to stop the blogging insanity, but I never do. But it MUST stop. It must.
I may lose readers, traffic may tank to new lows, and I’ll probably miss out on all of the blogging gossip, but that’s ok. It will have to be ok, because I’ll still be here blogging if anyone stumbles in and wants to read.
Is there a such thing as Blogger’s Rehab?
I feel the same. I used to twitter a lot but now with so many followers I just keep track of everybody. I feel I don't give enough attention to the people I usual read because all the others are there in the middle.
I started using Facebook a lot this week and it's quite addicting but also no farms, no fishes…no time for that.
Of course we have to use social media but I'm having trouble organizing myself.
my google reader numbers fluncuate, but the best thing i ever did was stop reading a couple of big sites. one always hosted tons of contests and carnivals-which was great-but i would get caught up for days trying to win stuff. i just read for pleasure now and enter a few contests now and then.
I agree it is so overwhelming.
Twitter – I dip my toe in the Twitter waters occasionally!
Like Facebook so I can be nosy about what others I know in real life are up to, but NOT going to be sucked into those games/farms/aquariums.
Will never stop reading blogs, love the blogging community most of all the online world, but sometimes you just have to clear out that reader.
Hope I make the cut! 🙂
I think we all struggle with what to or not to do. When someone asked me the other day what my blog was about – I struggled to answer and felt pressured. Why? I don't know and you know what – don't really care. My blog is about my world and life with my family. So long as I enjoy it and have fun I do not feel the need to have to explain myself.
Don't even get me started about Google PR #, page views and all of the other statistics. I think they are not very useful because of all of the rules and people that read using Readers and other tools.
Like you, I really need to clean out my Google Reader. Of course, my favorites like yours will always remain.
i am what i will consider a "baby blogger" – i may have been at it for a few years now, but nothing crazy has come of it.
and I get stressed over followers/readers/twitterers!!
so, i think that doing one thing a day is perfect.
Ohh I get it I so do! I only have 47 followers and have a hard time keeping up. But I noticed that people with high amounts don't really try to connect to their readers. Ohh they might answer a bunch of questions in one post but they don't really stop by everyone and say hi. Don't beat yourself up. This is supposed to be fun for you and for all who chose to read your blog.
LOL!! I'm coming to read the underwear post!
Heck, we all understand that! I get overwhelmed by how much is out there, and I'm only online for an hour or two every three days or so!
I'm about to write a post about underwear, though, so you can't miss that…