Guest Post | CHALLENGES OF BLOGGING by Gentle Orchid

Hello everyone, I trust you are all well and good?I was thinking about this the other day, because reality is, when life gets overwhelming and you have work, family, friends, life realities every single day, you blogging can take a little bit of a back seat... and this is one of the challenges that comes from blogging genuinely for the love of it,
 and not because its your job.
I have a day job so during the day, on Monday to Friday I'm often at work, which gives me little time to blog during the week. I will then just have to condense all my blog work into the weekend, taking product photos, planning my blog posts and writing multiple blog posts to schedule them so they can go out on different days the following week. In the midst of all that, I still have my life to live, see family, spend time with loved ones, friends, and attend events and such. It really does become overwhelming at times. Especially when you want to keep consistent with your blog, and you want to deliver great content for your blog. :(

CHALLENGES WITH BLOGGING…

• BLOGGERS BLOCK- This is a REAL thing!! Its very difficult NOT to run out of things to say especially if you are putting up content day after day. This happens with blogging! However what I have noticed is the key is to KEEP writing! You can write about anything, but consistency with blogging is EXTREMELY important, so write. Everyday, about something, ANYTHING, why the sky is blue perhaps?? Or your favourite holed sweater that your friend spilled paint all over, lol. ANYTHING goes... Write it... This makes the struggle to find something to write about, less and less, because you develop a direction as to what you like to write about and you give more of that, than anything else!

• TRAFFIC- It is SOOOOO difficult to keep motivated when you look your traffic roll and you realize, you are writing all these posts, on a daily basis, yet NO one is viewing your blog, or following your blog... Its soooo de-motivating, and can make you want to stop blogging altogether! I know, I've been there! I think I only got my first follower after only 4 months blogging. For the longest time I was writing to just myself! That's when you need to remember, as a blogger, WHY you wanted to blog in the first place. Did you do it because "everyone is doing it"? Or because its something to truly love, to discuss some of your favourite things on your blog, or talk about your personal life? This is when you realize that is your blog a space that attracts traffic, what do you need to change about it, or what should stay the same? This is where you start to work on your blog, giving it a unique touch that says you. :)

• TIME- It is so very VERY important to make time for your blog! This becomes very challenging when you are doing things outside of blogging that are time consuming, eg: work. Time goes hand in hand with consistency here. If you devote more time to your blog, you are guaranteed to post up blog posts more consistently, and that is key to keeping your audience around.

• FOCUS- It becomes very difficult to keep focus when you feel like you are not reaching out to as many people as you want to. You want to reach a wider audience, and when that happens you want to change the direction that your blog is now taking. Hence, you begin to deviate from what you originally wanted your blog to be about, just to "attract traffic and audiences". This is when you need to remember why you stated blogging in the first place. What about blogging excites you? What do you want to get out there? Remind yourself every time WHY you started it, do not lose your focus.

• CONNECTING WITH OTHER BLOGGERS IN THE SAME COMMUNITY- This is a difficult one which I have been struggling with a lot too since I started blogging. The thing is there are SOOO many bloggers out there, that connecting is good and all that, but sometimes the struggle to actually START by commenting on their blog posts, and joining blogging networks and forums is the scariest thing. The blogging community is a difficult one, and the lack of support in the community is huge. If you want me to do a blog post like this let me know and I will. However, that is the BIGGEST hurdle, from there, it becomes a lot easier. A LOT. It takes time to build these relationships, but it happens.

        So for new bloggers: ensure this

• Time- devote TIME to your blog
• FOCUS- stick with it, remember why you started! Do it because you LOVE it!
• Patience- be patient with yourself and your blog
• MARKET IT- market your blog! Everywhere, ALL your social media platforms, get your name out there, join blogging networks and forums, and do LOTS of tagging!
• LOVE it- LOVE your blog, change its themes, play with it, find what works for you and work on it, constantly! Put your love into your blog!
• BE UNIQUE- Be unique, if its your personal blog, and not a professional work related one, find a way to be unique with it. Adopt a conversational writing style, makes jokes, ask your followers or blog friends as I'd like to call it, questions. Talk to them, converse with them! It will make returning to your blog a pleasure for them! :)

Hope this helps! This was a long one though! What challenges have you come across as a blogger? Do you want to get into blogging?  :) <3
Let me know if there are any other blogging related topics you would like me to address!

Until the next Blogging Post

Live in Light and Love <3

K.

P.S. This post was kindly written and sent to me by Kat and you can check her blog out and follow her on social media 

Blog: www.gentleorchid.com 
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