I came across an interesting post recently in my regular reading that posed the question – ‘Is blogging worth the time commitment?‘. Great question and one that most bloggers will ponder at some point. I’m not afraid to admit that I massively underestimated the time commitments associated with blog maintenance. At face value blogging seems like a simple case of writing and publishing articles. But don’t be fooled… there’s so much more to it. Don’t believe me…? Then come take a journey into my blogging diary…
Blogging – More than meets the eye
Blogging goes beyond writing… WAY beyond. There are a number of core activities that contribute towards the ultimate success of your blog, and each takes up a significant portion of your time. In fact, I now have to maintain a schedule to ensure I dedicate sufficient time to each essential activity. I categorise my core blog maintenance activities as follows:
- Content Development - Hardly a ground breaking concept… but without good content you’re going nowhere fast. No-one wants to read a blog chock full of drivel (yet for some reason people seem to read this one… go figure). Creating good content is an art in itself. It’s not as simple as putting your thoughts on paper. Creating unique and insightful content involves reading popular articles in your industry, developing your own opinions and blog ideas, understanding your audience’s needs, researching your chosen topics… and then finally piecing your article together. And believe me… this process takes time. Given my perchance for longer articles, this process typically takes me 4-8 hours per article. Is it any wonder I struggle to publish more than two articles a week…?!?!
- Blog promotion – What’s the point of writing great articles if no-one reads them…? There isn’t one. Naturally, some level of promotion is required to develop traffic and a regular readership. There’s a whole range of blog promotion techniques available to help you increase traffic including SEO, social media, networking, guest blogging, forum contribution, commenting on external blogs etc… the list goes on. But guess what… regardless of your preferred tactics, a common theme underlies all promotional techniques – success takes a concerted and dedicated effort. It is rarely achieved overnight. Authority and credibility are central themes within the blogosphere and both take time to develop. I commit my promotional efforts towards social media, and it is only after 5 months that I am starting to see some sort consistent results. Perhaps that’s just because I’m really crap at it though…
- Community development – Early on in my blogging adventures my pal Dave Harry taught me a valuable lesson (even if he didn’t know it). He taught me the value of fostering relationships and developing a community for your blog. He was one of the first recognised industry bloggers to find Online Marketing Banter. I contacted him shortly after to thank him for visiting and ever since he has supported me with advice, social media submissions and comments on my posts. There was no need for him to do this. He’s recognised in the industry and I was just a newbie. There really was very little for him to gain out of the relationship… aside from a loyal reader. Which is what he got. The lesson wasn’t lost and I now try to regularly engage with people who contribute to this blog via comments and social media submissions.
- Monitoring stats - Ahhhh… the fun part. Data crunching is always a laugh. But it’s a necessary evil if you want to track your progress. Monitoring traffic sources, page views, subscriber numbers and other metrics is essential in order to establish what is working… and more importantly what is not. ROI is just as relevant to bloggers as it is to any business. Your challenge is to establish which activities give you the best return for your investment of time.
My blogging diary
So… now that you have an understanding of the core tasks on my schedule, let’s have a look at my blogging diary. It’s not for the faint hearted…
There you have it folks… it’s generally a 7am-10pm day… every day. No lunch breaks and to be brutally honest…no life. This schedule gives you an idea of why I refuse to register for Twitter. My day is jam packed already without interruptions about who’s feeding their dog… I suppose I could give up that pesky exercise routine, but then I’d just be conforming to the stereotype of the overweight blogger. And besides, I think exercise helps cleanse the mind, body and the soul.
What you can learn from my experiences
Blogging takes hard work… and a lot of it. Dedicating 1-2 hours a day is typically the starting point for newbies. Daunting huh…? And that’s only if you’re semi obsessed with your blog like me. It’s worth noting that the true blogging superstars dedicate far more time than this. Social media stars have been quoted to say they spend up to 6 hours a day working the networks. That’s what I’d consider a full-on obsession! How they find time to earn a crust I’m not quite so sure…
So before you jump head first into the blogosphere, take time to consider:
- How much time you can really afford to spend working on the blog every day
- How long you’re willing to wait for results
- How much you really want it
In the end, taking the time to answer these questions honestly could save you a lot of time and frustration.
If you’re still keen after answering these questions, go nuts by all means! Make sure you sign up to ProBlogger to learn the tricks of the trade. Oh yeah… and good luck!
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Hee hee… figures I’d be Sphinning this… lol.
If I had to add ine thing it would be commitment as well. I am only a few years into the Blog-o-sphere and it can be trying. As with anything, commitment is huge…longevity comes from it..
Cya round the trails.. ;0)
An obsession … that’s an interesting way to look at it. Some weeks, that’s definitely what it feels like! Thanks for the link, James.
Certainly I think the time commitment is one of the reasons why many bloggers run out of steam quite quickly. It’s reasonably easy to write the first few articles…until you have to start looking for inspiration and researching new data when your initial thoughts have been exhausted.
I’m lucky in that I work remotely anyway, so have more flexibility in the hours when I can be working on my blog and social media, in lull periods of salaried work etc. But it’s still a significant time commitment. Another thing about blogging is that it’s difficult to take a holiday. I’m off to the US tomorrow for a break, but a significant part of the plan journey is going to be taken up writing three or four blog posts so that Fog of Eternity remains active while I’m away.
@ Dave – Thanks for the Sphinn. Commitment is indeed a massive part of blogging. I generally find the more you commit to the blog, the less you commit to other aspects of your life… wife, friends, exercise etc
@ Shari – Thanks for dropping by and inspiring the article. I left my thoughts about your post on your blog.
@ Robin – You touch on an important point which is maintaining momentum after the initial outburst. Trying to produce regular posts with insightful & original thought is a great challenge. I know I have occassions when I wonder what on earth I’m going to write about next… That’s where monitoring social media comes in handy. There’s always great stuff to read for inspiration.
To be honest I’m quite glad that I don’t work remotely. I suspect if I did I’d spend 80% of my time on the blog and 20% on my clients
Enjoy the holiday!