Lately, I just haven’t been feeling the blogging mojo. I crank out posts, I work on platform, platform, and more platform. I edit and tweak my blog and try to think of clever things to say until I’ve got bags under my eyes and I almost stop blinking from staring at the screen for so long. I check my blog stats and see that I’ve lost five Twitter followers. Yesterday, I typed up my Frivolous Friday post and hit publish, yet I was not truly satisfied. I even began to think the unthinkable. I wanted to quit. I was ready to throw in the towel, call it a day, say goodbye to all the tribe building, buzz words, and marketing mania. Fear, doubt, and lies whispered to me, “You are not good enough. You are too different and people don’t want different.” I looked at my blog compared to the top bloggers I admire. I don’t have the cute header picture of me dancing in the sunlight. No sweet sounding titles with the word “heart” in them (except this one), no flowery words. I made my way over to Sarah Mae’s website and began to watch her Killer Tribes talk. I thought I could glean something about marketing from her and I always find encouragement on her site.
As I listened, I began to sob. She didn’t give five steps to become a millionaire from your blog. She didn’t talk about the perfect way to design your ebook. She talked about becoming your reader. She talked about the need to be understood and feeling not good enough. I realized I had it all wrong. It’s not about the nuts and bolts. It’s not about getting 1,000, 10,000, or 20,000 followers. I was running around trying to figure out the perfect way to market my content and missed the point entirely. I had to take an honest, painful look at my writing over the past few weeks. Was I writing for new subscribers or was I writing for them? Do my readers feel understood and inspired? Honestly, I found some not so inspiring pieces. If I wouldn’t want to read it, why would anyone else? Before we hit publish, we have to take an honest look at who we are, where we want to go, and what we are doing to get there. You can have the cute header, amazing website design, and the ebook everyone should read NOW, and still miss the boat entirely. Don’t sacrifice the heart of your writing for one more tribe member. It’s not worth it.
What lies have you believed that made you want to quit writing?
…and by the way…you are good enough
You’ve got the gift…keep using it…
Melissa, you spoke to my “heart” in this post…I can so relate to every word! That platform thing; the stats; losing twitter followers; the fear, doubt, and lies that whisper “you won’t make it…it’s too hard…just give up…nobody wants to read what you write anyway…blah,blah,blah” It’s so true that sometimes I need to step back and remember the real reason I love writing in the first place…to encourage and to give Glory to God, and stop making it about me….without Him, I surely couldn’t do it…
It’s so refreshing to know that many of us feel the same way…besides girl, you have a whole lot more followers on twitter than I do… just sayin’…lol
Thank you as always, Doris! The best advice I have been given thus far, of all the platform building mumbo jumbo out there, is to be a friend to get a friend. I’ve found that if I follow someone who has a blog or book I really enjoy and begin commenting on their posts and interacting with them, not only do I win them as a friend and follower, I meet others too. I think it’s really all about making connections. We’re all in this writing thing together and we need each other!
Oh my goodness! You hit the nail on the head with on this one! It is so true that as a blogger we get caught up on numbers and cranking out posts that we start to lose the joy of it. I have a blog that I’ve maintained and worked hard on growing for over a year but then these exact feelings you described got hold of me. I had to be true to myself and I kept trying to make the blog fit me. I thought about quitting but that could never happen. We writers gotta write!
I ended up starting over with a new blog that feels more me from the heart than me on autopilot.
Thank you, I hope my post was encouraging! Glad to hear you are being true to yourself! Go, Melina!