When Is It Time to Stop Blogging?

In a fast growing web-centric world, more and more people are blogging, whether for business or pleasure. There are blogs about business, blogs about recipes and blogs about home projects. There are even blogs about blogging.

Blogging is not for the faint hearted. It often means getting up early or staying up late. The blogger has to deal with writers block, building a list of subscribers and persisting when it feels like you are not going anywhere. Motivation often goes on a holiday.

Sometimes it seems the only good thing about blogging is the coffee you sip while you’re word wrangling.

But what about when you can’t blog anymore? How do you know when it’s time to quit? Are there ways to tell when the writing’s on the wall?

To help answer those questions, here is a list of reasons for why it would make sense to shut a site down. If you want to know if you should quit blogging, this is what to look for.

#1. You aren’t posting anymore

A surefire sign that it’s time to quit blogging is that you’ve stopped posting. You can’t think of anything to say. Your schedule is too full. You forget about your blog altogether.

Whatever the reasons, if you’re finding that you hardly ever post, it’s probably a good sign that you should quit. After not posting for five months, that’s what blogger English Major Money realized, prompting her to post a blogging goodbye.

 #2. You’re not enjoying it

Even with few readers and/or few posts, if you love blogging, you have a reason to stick with it. But if you hate it, if you dread sitting down to write, what’s the point? Ask yourself what you’re actually getting in return for your blogging efforts.

If it’s not enjoyment, is it new clients? Better branding? A sense of community with your fans? It better be something. Blogging takes time and energy.

Weigh what you’re getting against what you’re investing and make sure the effort is worthwhile.

#3. You’ve given it time

If after blogging for two weeks you are bummed that you aren’t seeing better press, then you haven’t given it enough time. If on the other hand, you have been blogging for six months or a year and still don’t have readers, something’s wrong.

It’s either time to change your strategy or to stop blogging.

#4. Not succeeding

Here’s the thing…even big blogs with big readerships are failures if big readership is not the goal. If you’re a business blog, for example, looking to promote your company and gain new clients, having 10,000 subscribers matters little if none of them buy into what you sell. If this is the case, blogging is wasting your time.

Move on.

Men with Pens wrote a whole post about this topic here.

 

#5. You’re busy with new work

Maybe you started your blog to get the word out about your company. You may have wanted to be a writer and started blogging to build a portfolio. In either case, when your blog finally achieves your goals, it might be time to call it a win and move on.

When your company is busy and new clients are coming from other channels, you might not need blogging anymore. When your freelance work keeps coming and you’re getting paid to write elsewhere, it makes sense to focus your attention on what’s profitable.

Your thoughts?

Looking at the list above, is it time for you to quit blogging? When you weigh the hard facts of benefits against costs, how does your site stack up? If things look dismal, don’t wait!…do something now.

Maybe it’s time to assess if you are blogging for the right reasons. Either change your blog to focus on what you are passionate about, or ditch it.

Sometime there’s no point sticking with something if it’s not working.

Guest author: Shanna Mallon is a writer for www.straightnorth.com, a Web development company with headquarters in Chicago, providing SEO, Web development, and other online marketing services to B2B clients. 

 

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