Recently I have been having what is known as “Blogger Burnout.” This is essentially the feeling of not being able to write or blog. The problem is not finding subjects to write about. I have plenty to write about and a lot of great ideas for articles and content. The issue is the actual enjoyment and willingness to write and convey my thoughts has become increasingly difficult over the past couple weeks.
It's hard for me to pinpoint and zero in on why blogger burnout is hitting me hard now. Part of it is that a friend of mine is also experiencing blogger burnout and is taking a break from writing altogether. While I was not happy to hear that, since he is a good writer with good style, I really understood and respected that decision.
I was analyzing what was making me feel down about the writing and blogger field. This made me look back at some of my articles I worked hard on in the past. Looking at some of my articles I thought to myself, “Wow, this is a great material… but nobody read it!” This might sound like kind of an A*&hole thing to think, but here are my 3 strongest and best written articles I did on my auto blog;
- Parking Panda strives to Revolutionize parking
- Charm City Pedal Mill: You Drink, You Pedal, We Drive
- RelayRides Takes Peer-to-Peer Car Sharing Nationwide
These were articles I worked long and hard on and I didn't write them to be SEO optimized or for massive traffic. I assumed the merit of the good writing would prevail… but that wasn't the case. While some got decent traffic and hits for a little bit most of these are not popular pillar posts.
That really gets me! I have written a lot of articles in the past just for the sake of traffic or to insight discussion to get a lot of hits. I mean I am not proud of it, but that is something everyone does.
The other issue is I have been writing and blogging online for quite awhile. While I think I have made great improvements in my writing abilities, I don't feel like I am at a point that I should be in my writing career. It's kind of depressing looking back and feeling like you wasted time trying to build sites and blogs but it just didn't workout or you went for positions or jobs which you didn't get.
I was going to write a list of ways to conquer blogger burnout. You know, because everyone loves list and that's great for SEO. Instead of me writing a list of ways you can avoid the ‘burn', which may or may not be helpful to you, I would love to hear other writers and bloggers experiences with being a blogger burnout victim.
How did and what did you do to overcome your blogger burnout? Did something inspire you? Did you take a break from blogging, writing and social media for awhile? Did you just decide to quit? Leave a comment and maybe you can help another writer or blogger find their passion again.
Catch me on Twitter @AdamYamada … if you can!