Do You Struggle as a Blogger? Join the Party

Hi, my name is Roy and I'm a victim of “draft purgatory”.

Thanks for sharing, Roy. Welcome to “12 Steps for Recovering Bloggers.”

I've debated throwing my half-baked posts out on Posterous. Raw arguments, incomplete thoughts and all. Just get it out there…see if anyone can run with it. Whaddya think? Better or worse than waiting until a post composes itself?

If it's a half-baked thought under 140 characters, I say throw it out to the twitterati and see what the response is- if it's noteworthy; follow up with comments.

I struggle with keeping to a schedule. I always advise my clients to write multiple posts at once, then stage them, but then whenever the inspiration to blog strikes me, I'm only able to churn out one post before my attention span craps out.

And that's when I'm even able to get past the topic sentence of a post before I spot something shiny and distracting.

Hey Scott, Hope you're well buddy. I know for me it is mainly a time issue. When you're juggling client commitments, doing your business development bit and keeping up on latest thinking and developments in SM by reading material online etc. But I'd caveat by saying I recognise the importance of it so you really have to make the effort. I think the time pressures arguement bit be helped by looking at video blogging. It certainly takes far less time to get your point across. Interesting I've seen a significant upturn in folks using video blogs, Chris Brogan and Gini Dietrich for example. Certainly a good topic for discussion!

@allanbarr

For me, it's feeling a couple things. Concept and keeping on concept are a real challenge. Then, wondering why anyone would be interested anyway. And yes, I agree with your friend Allan – by the time I prioritize and schedule paid writing projects and try to do the great job on them that every client deserves and expects, then I am OUT of time, inspiration, creativity and ideas when it comes to crafting a blog post.

To be honest I seldom struggle to come up with ideas or write a blog. As a long-time sales guy you can ask me a questions and I can deliver a 10 minute speech. I find almost everything a little or a lot interesting. That's my issue.

I blog about blogging, writing, keywords, management, current events…you name it. That may do a good job of letting people get to know me but it doesn't make me a trusted source, an expert, for one area.

My internal debate now is, do I continue writing about whatever interests me, what might be topical, and things I think small business and social media types will find useful or do I focus on one narrow area and try to become the big-Kahuna?

Keep up the good work, Scott.

Have you tried creating an editorial calendar, Matt? An editorial calendar has many benefits: It helps you define the unique niche your blog fills, keeps you on task, and ensures that you'll have a content plan for those writer's block moments.

I recommend them to clients…it's even good practice for veteran bloggers like you and me.

Chris and Gini are definitely good leads to follow. They're mega-busy, successful entrepreneurs, insightful leaders, and they've got gobs of personality. Video blogging is a good suggestion.

Blogging definitely adds one more demand on our time, but it's worth it. Whether you find creative ways to accomplish it or just force yourself to make time, it pays off.

I wonder why anyone would be interested, too, Aprill. But then I remember that as we spend more time around thought leaders in our fields, we encounter ideas that may seem old hat to us but that are new and transformative to those less tuned in to the leading edge.

Any tips for how you balance your time?

Boy, that is a quandry, Steve. I am SO with ya on that.

While I tend to follow your first model — provide useful insights on a wide range of related topics — I fear it's not as helpful to readers as I want it to be.

Think of cable TV, for comparison. You've got access to hundreds of content choices…channels for anything you could possibly want. It's overwhelming. We eventually settle on a handful of channels that are narrowly focused and supremely relevant to us.

Blog readers are a lot like TV watchers; if a blog's scope is too broad (guilty!), it risks being less and less relevant to each individual reader.

I dunno…that's my theory anyway. What do you think?

My problem is that my brain cranks out great ideas, even some great outlines of a blog post…..but seriously cramps when it comes to the actual writing….the writing process derails when it comes time to actually writing it :) and I'm still in the earliest stages of blogging so its more of a challenge since I dont have the writing habits down yet. But I keep trying and hopefully soon the words will flow freely.

keep up the great blog!

Thanks for sharing, Skip.

Have you ever tried recording your posts as audio? When you have great ideas and can verbalize them, but lose them in the writing process, speaking into the mic might help. You can easily transcribe those notes into a post (or have them transcribed), or even publish them as a podcast. Or both!

haven't tried the audio recording, and my blackberry has that option, so I might try that. thanks for the tip

You’re doing the right things. Other tips: Are you commenting on the blogs you subscribe to? Do you link to other bloggers in your posts (they’ll usually get a notification if you do)? Following and interacting with them on Twitter? Meeting them in real life at events, over coffee, or at casual TweetUps? Sending a personal email to bloggers you admire?

It takes time, but it works. It’s not just about a high volume of interactions — try to be personal, not just a mass messager — though consistency does matter. It’s like building any relationship.