What’s Holding You Back from Blogging?

Some time back ... when cameras used film ... I asked a very competent and commercially successful photographer if he would tutor me or teach me how to tkae better pictures. His response?

First step is easy ... go take 1,000 pictures and then get on my calendar to sit down and critique them ... he also added that not 1 in 1,000 people who asked him for help ever completed this first assignment.

Becuase I had access to bulk 35mm film and a darkroom to do my own processing I actually did complete the assignment ... I never pursued a career in photography any farther, but I certainly learned a heck of a lot about taking pictures and developing and printing them. More valuable thna any book would have been.

There are 10,001 things to learn about blogging, especially financially successful blogging ... but not one tip is more valuable than this tip ... write blog posts. When you have completed say 100 or so you will not only know alot more thna when you started, but you'll have some traffic, some readers and a sense of direction. There is _nothing_ more imoportant thna posting regularly.

I have made the commitment here: http://www.kaceygreen.com/home/45-google-finally-f...
Its a new site of mine, and I plan to have it polished and ready for the public by the end of the weekend, I made the commitment for my new site and my main site www.grlt.com thanks for the inspiration John. Traffic is already up at GRLT!

I'm in my second month of blogging and I'm hoping I can keep it up. I admit I was a posting fiend in the first month, but it's that third one I'm nervous about! I get all antsy when I come up empty for an idea. Tell me it gets better.

Thanks a lot for this post, somehow i feel really encouraged now. I've been blogging for almost 6 months now and it's only a month ago that I starting to consistently posting in my blog. It's very hard for me earlier to find a good material to be post but now somehow I starting to enjoy myself blogging. I don't really care if no one's wants to read my post this time around. I think the most important thing right now is to enjoy myself blogging, blog about the things I love and at the same time to improve my writing and blogging skills. That's what I think. :grin:

Thanks for this post. I've just started blogging and I think this challenge is exactly what I need to get my writing engine revved up.
Here is my list as to what is holding me back;So, here is my list of what’s holding me back,

1. I’m so new to blogging that I want every post to be really powerful.
2. I don’t have enough time.
3. I don’t have enough subject matter.
4. Will people actually be interested in what I have to say.
5. With only a few subscribers at this point, I feel kinda silly.
6. I don’t have enough time. (yeah, I know this one is repeated, but I think it’s accurate)

I’m sure that covers the basics for now.

The whole post can be viewed here:

Now the hard part is coming up with content!

I posted on my blog about what stops me from blogging everyday as I'd like to. I've linked to the post in my name above. :mrgreen:

What do people consider a good frequency for posting? Once per day? Every other day? Twice per day?

Have you ever unsubscribed from an RSS feed because it was udpated too often / not often enough?

Well, how about "I will write 30 posts a day??"

I set myself a goal of posting once per day, but sometimes I struggle to come up with content that's on topic and won't send my visitors away. Any tips?

One of the problems in forcing a daily blogging habit is that you may wind up posting garbage just to have your post for the day. I've seen things like people posting a photo of their snowed in car, or talking about subjects completely unrelated to their blog theme. While its acceptable to deviate once in a while from your blog subject, when it happens to the point that less than 1/3 of your posts are on topic, you have a problem.

I think its better to do 3 useful posts per week instead of publishing daily irrelevance.

::pulls out the old marker::

Hehe, yep, I need to do that. I'm going to do it, actually. :P

I'm just in the beginning stages of launching my video blog and podcast, and I'm finding that I have too many things I want to talk about and write about, and even harder is forcing myself to just post it. I want the quality to be high, but I also need to get the posts out there. I had to force myself to just do it and shoot the first video and not try and get everything perfect, otherwise it would never get out there. Hopefully the quality will incrementally improve over time. I've got lots of ideas and experience in other areas, but none in the "internet show production" department...

Maybe an approach for solving writer's block or time constraints is to build up a small inventory of posts in reserve that can be pulled out and posted quick to keep the content fresh when the time isn't there to research and write a post.

I think the biggest thing that has held me back is the thoughts of "I don't have anything to blog about" - I spend most of my day working, and then don't have any great hobbies going at the moment, so I would start a blog and then forget about it 3 days later.

I finally just started my new site, and I'm just going to keep writing and see where it takes me.

sounds like a good idea! Is there gonna be a prize for the winner post?

nothing. I am blogging as fast as i can

Have made my post at :

http://www.internetmarketingmind.com/announcements...

CONSISTENCY & PERSISTENCY have their own roles to make habit as a habit.... Again, this evil John Chow putting up a smart ideas to create an activities between his loyal readers like me. Other than that, he is actually got a "free-post" by only compiling all of our comments here.... Evil John Chow possessing us again! :)

No idea if the pingback worked, so here is the url
http://www.tatraplan.com/2007/09/04/anything-holdi...

I am reading your free ebook and love it. I am also a stay at home dad and becoming addicted to blogging. It started as just another tool to get visitors to my site. Now I look at something and I think hmmm how can I write about that in my blog.

Now I will have more time to do so because :cry: :cry: My son is starting preschool today.... Good thing I get paid to stay at home, I may just end up making more money. Especially after reading John's ebook.

it is hard to start....and even harder to stop

I like the way you have given the whole step by step procedure to remember to post in blogs, John. I guess i'll start doing this right away.

Hey John, I finally got to say something for this blog, I hope its a good read for ya. And I did like how you advise on focusing.

Are we supposed to link here or to Blue Fur?

Making a new habit particularly blogging that is writing is not easy to some. It needs a strong determination of some sort. While many can easily have a new idea and a bit talent of writing, not all have the luxury. Traffics are also one problem. Many bloggers just impatience to have good traffic just by writing. If it's the case, i think they should learn from you: writing regularly and advertise aggressively. :)

"Experts say that if you do something for 20 days straight you will then form a new habit into your daily routine."

Didn't know that, but I do struggle to get a routine going at times... will try it!

Great! You are coming out with grant new ideas everyday. Where do you get all these? Do you dream a lot daily? Lol....

Now if I can only go to the gym 20 times in a row!!!

steven-movieworld.blogspot.com/

I recall that what held me back in the first place was the fact that finding a topic to write each day seemed to be a daunting task especially when you are actively involved in sports and working. But if you schedule your time accordingly, think of topics in advance and get people to guest blog for you...the tasks becomes more manageable.

I guess writing a good and long post is a little hard, I been trying to attract visitors to my blog while I keep writing but I don't get visitors.
My blog is new and I know is to soon to get a lot of traffic but I hope I get enough to make some decent money.

I just cannot write anything much longer than some comment. I could write few lines but long posts like this or Johns are impossible. What I want to write is usualy maximum 4 lines and that is not enough long. for blog or is it?

Keep On Blogging On!

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vick is a dick (dot) com
http://www.vickisadick.com

We post 30 days straight at http://www.usmansworld.com

I definitely agree that blogging can be habit forming. Why doesn't WordPress come with at warning?

What Holds Me Back From Blogging Is…

http://www.bloddard.com/2007/09/03/what-holds-me-b...

College is holding me back from blogging... :oops:

Hmm... 20 days in a row? That actually seems like quite a challenge. I will give it a go! Let's see how this works out.. lol :)

http://tomoswyn.com/?p=10

My reason(s) about whats holding me back from blogging

I have discovered today after posting 3 times , even on a Sunday in the US and a holiday weekend my Technorati ranking jumped 7 points
So 20 days straight- so I need to have several in reserve as I will be away for a couple of days. this is also a good practice..

I think I will actually take up this blogging challenge. I've been putting off starting up a blog for quite sometime now, simply because I'm pre occupied with my advertising network. But if I could blog for 20 days straight, I would feel I have accomplished something. Maybe not much...but something

Simple. Some days I write three posts. Some days I write zero. I only post once a day though.

Some people have the opportunity cost to spend on TV (average 4 hours per day) but find it difficult to make a single blog. I think it is a time management problem.