The New Era of The Reluctant Blogger

 

You may have caught my post the other day about the wobble that I had with my blog. I go through stages every couple of months, where I just want to throw everything away and delete my blog. Hence the name, The Reluctant Blogger. However, since uploading that post, I have taken some time to think about how I want/need things to be. I think we are at a stage where we are embarking on a new era of blogging.

My issue has been that I want to do everything, and I want to do it 100% to the best of my abilities. However, The Reluctant Blogger is not my full-time job. To get it to the heights that I would like, I would have to dedicate all of my time to this. Especially with my career being in website development and SEO, I can see the potential and it kills me that I cannot achieve it due to time restraints.  

Things have to change and here is what the new era of The Reluctant Blogger is going to look like:

 

More frequent uploads.

I am a very creative person. However, I know that what is best for blogging is a schedule which is adhered to. Sometimes, I will get an idea in my head that I would love to upload a post about. However, I will add it into my blogging schedule, and it may not come up for me to write for a couple of months. By that time, my passion has gone, and the moment has passed. I want to start writing in the moment and just uploading without overthinking things and missing the moment. That is how I started my blog back in 2012 and it is what I want to get back to.

 

Non-professional photography.

A big part of blogging these days is photography. Back when I was blogging around 2016, I had much more spare time. My weekends would be all about creating content, shooting item and editing them. Nowadays, I haven’t got time for that. If I want to upload more and in a much more off the cuff manner, I am going to had to adapt to non-professional photography. That might mean more iPhone pictures that have bad shadows and aren’t 100% crisp. I think this will help massively and give me more time do manage my blog in a realistic way.

 

More honest posts about things that I want to write about.

This point kind of ties into my point above. Sometimes, I edit myself to make sure that I am putting my best foot forward on my blog. I think the most personal post that I ever wrote was regarding Sarah Everard. However, since launching this version of my blog in 2019, there have been many topics that I should have talked about. For example, Black Lives Matter. I didn’t know it was my place to write about the subject, even though I felt like I had something to say. I don’t want to edit myself anymore.

 

A shorter term plan.

When I first set out my 2019 planner, I wrote a 10-year plan for my blog. It was ambitious, but I reckoned that it was pretty realistic with a good schedule. However, I have cut this down. I have no idea how my life is going to look in 10 years’ time and I don’t know if I will still have the time to be writing post after post. 5 years for me looks more realistic and even though I have lots of post ideas, I can post everyday if I wish. Just with some of the changes in place that I mentioned above.

 

Cutting back the social aspect.

Since the day that I started my blog back in 2012, I have been very social. If I am actively blogging, I am making sure that I am being a good blogger. By that I mean that I take the time to read other peoples posts and comment as much as I can. This was started back in the day because it would help generate you new traffic, but I simply love looking what other people are doing in the space. However, this takes me hell of a lot of time. It can take me the best part of 4 or 5 hours to really spend some good time making sure to read what other people are putting together. Truth is that I haven’t got that time on a weekend and that really upsets me. There are so many people out there that deserve the attention!

 

It is a new era of The Reluctant Blogger. In an ideal world, I would be uploading one SEO-rich post her day. I would have 4 to 5 professional images per blog post. Not to mention that I would dedicate time to auditing my old posts and improving. Plus, I would spend lots of time visiting your guys blogs and reading and coming as much as possible. Sadly, as things have changed, time is tighter, and things are having to change. Hopefully, for people visiting my blog, things shouldn’t be too much different. I don’t want to stop blogging, but I also need to make it fit in with my life. I am sure that many of you guys have also got to a point where I am today. The Reluctant Blogger is here to stay and we are in a new era… for a few months anyway until my next wobble!