There are millions of blogs, like this one, out there, or personal online journals where people link to and write about things of interest to them. Their lives, their hobbies, their politics, their technology. But somewhere close to 95% of these blogs ‘fail.’ The blog never gains any substantial kind of readership (outside of a handful of individuals — friends, family), or the author loses interest in writing on a daily or semi-daily basis, or the blog loses focus, direction and eventually, readership.
But most blogs fail because keeping an ongoing tally of one’s interests, life, politics, or technology is just plain hard and often times, monotonous. It’s difficult for most people to easily write hundreds of words every day that have some greater meaning (as opposed to the, “Wow, look at that beautiful sky today,” or “The NY Times said something interesting, here’s the link to it.”). I suspect most bloggers figure this out after the first or second week of writing. Writing well takes effort and time.
Writing well constantly and consistently is a task that simply doesn’t fit most ordinary people. People write when they have the time, and if you have a lot of time, well, finding time to write is easy. But when life starts getting busy or interesting or stressful, a lot of people don’t find writing as easy as it once was. Sure, for some, it comes naturally and is a stress-relieving tool. Most people aren’t natural born writers, however (if they were, we’d all have published novels by the time we’re 21).
Blogs have two choices at some point in their growth — find a way to integrate blogging into your life that continues to provide some substance to your readers, or just start writing badly very frequently, infrequently, or not at all. You can tell the latter blogs by their hilarious devolution into nonsequiturs or mundane musings. “I arrived safely back at the beach in Florida.” That’s nice. I arrive safely at work everyday through rush-hour traffic, but I suspect not many care enough that I should write about it. Actually, mundane personal musings are fine and great for a personal blog (and can make for interesting reading when you know the person). But when you find such stuff mixed in with commentary on technology, politics, or what-have-you, it just seems silly and out of place.
Blogs fail when the authors give up on them. That’s why you’lll find most blogs have been abandoned. I’m constantly doing research online and am amazed at the number of results that come up pointing to a blog entry. Like a good netizen, I click to see where it leads me, and find a blog. Okay, so let’s go to the blog’s homepage and see when it was last updated. Oh, August, 2003. January, 2004. May, 2002. It’s almost a rarity when I come across an active blog by chance (as opposed to finding one through friends or colleagues).
If you don’t want your blog to fail, don’t give up on them. Acknowledge your limitations and your strengths in writing. If you’re not a daily writer (like me), don’t force yourself to become one for the sake of blogging. Your quality will suffer and readers will notice. If you’re writing a topic-oriented blog, make sure readers have a way of knowing when you’re posting personal stuff (like classifying it appropriately). And if you find blogging is not for you, you should probably make a little effort to just go ahead and archive your writings somewhere. While it’s quaint to keep them online as a snapshot of your life, everyone sees that snapshot too and wonders what happened.
Remember that blogging takes committment, energy, and effort. Not everyone should blog, just because you can. You should seek to contribute something to the effort beyond noting that McDonald’s french fries have a slightly salty, beefy taste to them.
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9 Comments to
“Why Most Blogs Fail”
but your comment about french fries was interesting!!!
This is a great post I totally agree, I was in the process of writing up how to promote your blog a step by step guide, when I thought I should Google up why blogs fail. Your post has been insightful and an interesting read. Another reason why blogs fail is the lack of passion for choosen niche. There str just way too many blogs with irrelevant content on the web, its either one starts a blog and must be consistent to the cause or shouldn’t create one in the first place.
Hi,
I agree 95% of blogs are blogging about quality content from rest of the 5% blogs.
New bloggers get stuck when nothing to write. But they have an urgency to blog everyday. This urgency leads to give up blogging.
Too much rushing to ‘fill’ our blog will create a new type of stress ‘BLOGGING STRESS’. New bloggers must be aware of it before giving up blogging due to blogging stress and depression.
Learn to keep the blogging as pleasure and not pressure.
Good advice on blogging for noobs like me.
Quote:
“Blogs fail when the authors give up on them.”
I’ll remember that whenever I feel demotivated about the lack of traffic. I won’t let my blog fail,at least not before one year is up 
Great explanation, that’s why I’m not sure if I’ll ever write…it’s really for dedicated people and who enjoy it.
I think the lack of patience makes blogger to quit, it could take a long time to have a good traffic to a blog or any site.
I’m approaching my second full year anniversary over at Unexpected Blessing. Frankly, I’m amazed at the sheer growth over the past year. It’s motivating to continue to blog as doors are opened and I get email from readers and input from friends, loved ones, and acquaintances on how much they enjoy what I’m doing.
Funny thing is that I’ve always been horrible at keeping a journal yet somehow I’m doing well with the blog. I’ve loved writing since I was a child. Always excelled at it, actually. Yes, there are days when I get writer’s block. But I find if I just breathe, put on a funny tv show, and really clear my mind, an idea will pop into my head. I’ve been writing a lot more lately – and thinking like a writer in the process. It’s been great to be back in the groove of writing.
The key to a good blog is patience and the ability to present topics in a solid manner. Even if it is about the beefy salty deliciousness that is a McDonald’s french fry!
If only people just blogged about what they were passionate about, no one would ever fail or quit. Blog about what you love and you win, period. Blog for money, and you lose when you have 2 visitors after a span of 4 months – and those two were you and your spouse. Do what you love, blog about what you know and what you’re passionate about and you’ve already won.
Sage advice indeed, John. I am trying to do just that–launch my blog and build a solid readership. I myself have experienced the blogging depression as mentioned. But quit on my blog? It’s not in my vocabulary…
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Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 7 Apr 2005
