Jason Kaneshiro offers some excellent advice in Navigating The Five Stages Of Blogging Fatigue Jason states that comments left by readers, responding to pieces written on blogs in his own blog, setting internal goals, pre-writing and writing a series of posts, reading and commenting on other blogs, writing honestly about the issue are all methods he suggests to beat blogging fatigue which can eventually lead to abandonment.
One technique I have learnt from my experience on my other blog In a Minute Ago would fall under his category of giving something back.
I have found that issuing a challenge will lift my spirits and I will shift from being lethargic about blogging to energised in the space of about 48 hours. For instance currently on my other blog I run a weekly challenge for stitchers. It keeps my energy levels up as I watch people week in and week out take up the challenge. My cure for the blogging blues is to become more active on all fronts. I comment more – respond more to the community and give more because I have discovered that if I do that I get the sort of positive feedback I need to prevent me from chucking it in.
I was shaping this piece when I encountered Lorelle VanFossen’s piece Is Your Blog Reactive or Proactive? Lorelle describes two types of bloggers one who reacts to news and the other who is proactive and shapes a conversation. My two blogs could be seen as examples of both. In a Minute Ago is proactive, highly satisfying to work on and has a regular readership.
This blog on the other hand is often reactive not in the sense that I rush to get some newsy tit bit out but often I am simply highlighting resources for students. To put this in context, I fall into the blogging blues at times when I have a routine of too many posts that simply link to resources or news.
As a teacher I am always digging out resources and links that I hope students will find of interest this blog particularly falls into that trap. It’s easily done particularly when pushed for time but the habit can lead to little investment in building a blog. I have found if I do this too much there is little room to be proactive and move the process to next level. That said I would say finding a proactive way to contribute to the community other than my students is the way to ditch the blogging blues particularly with this blog.
Anybody out there that has a few tips on avoiding the blogging blues? Leave a comment I would love your thoughts
August 26, 2007 at 1:00 pm
It seems that people love to comment when you ask for their opinion on something, or their advice in how to solve a problem or find a solution…this could lead to more interaction between you and your readers here, esp. if you figure in some kind of incentive for your students if they leave a particularly stellar comment.
Or is that cheating?
August 26, 2007 at 8:40 pm
Allie I think my students don’t think to comment because they see me every week and we talk face to face. Also I am extremely doubtful about using students to boost my own blog or develop my own blog.I encourage them to leave comments on each others blogs so they get used to actually interacting with their readers and being a reader but don’t ask for comment from them. For this blog I would like to shape it into something that is useful for my students but also has a wider appeal to the general public. So I have been doing some rethinking lately.
About 1% of visitors comment so it’s a very big gap between those that like to interact and those that don’t.
August 26, 2007 at 11:58 pm
I never thought of the ethical aspects…you are so right about never “using” students for your own ends.
This blog to me has always been about learning more about the social evolution of the web…(I loved sociology in college.) Of course you frame that in the context of your students’ particular goals and fields of study…I’ll be so interested to see how this blog evolves, too.
August 27, 2007 at 4:33 am
I think there are also those who would like to interact but don’t always do so, maybe through shyness, feeling they don’t have anything to add, or someone else already said what they would have said - I often feel one or other of those things on reading blog posts and comments (as I do in face to face conversation, in fact). I find Mindtracks fascinating and I also often show posts to my husband (he’s a computing academic). I should have said thank you before now!
August 27, 2007 at 7:03 am
Fiona and Allie I think you are right but I have to remember that as only about 1% of readers actually leave a comment. People are shy and are not really used to interacting online with people who publish. We are bought up with TV radio and Newspapers and have not been able to interact with them so it’s not as yet the cultural norm to chip in and talk. But blogs are conversations even if readers are not used to it.
Often I think they feel unless a comment is a crafted response that it is not wanted or that what they have to say is of value. A comment may not have a lot of information in it as such, but it has social value in the sense that if gives a blogger feedback and for that reason alone its worth leaving a comment.
Allie your comment about tracking hte social evolution of the web is interesting because in many ways that is my area of interest. it is not so much the technology but how people are using it that is of interest
August 27, 2007 at 8:22 pm
I think you identify something crucial when you mention the ‘crafted response’ - I know i find it very hard just to dash something off - I can easily spend a silly amount of time on a comment (and am much the same with email). For me I think the essential thing to take on board is what you say, that any comment is of social value for what it gives to the blogger. I’ve understood that much better now I know how it feels to get comments on my blog (which are still few enough that each one feels like a big occasion!). Actually I can’t imagine ever taking them for granted.