Lade's Blog

Contrasting Colors For Work

15:00Lade Ibikunle

90s fashion for women fashion how to survive heat wave

6 Tips to Surviving Lagos Heat Wave

19:02Lade Ibikunle

blogging mistakes Blogging mistakes and How to Avoid Them Blogging Nightmares

6 Blogging Nightmares and How to Avoid Them

16:00Lade Ibikunle

Blogging is hard work! You have to constantly care for and nurture it. From the inception of the idea of starting a blog, to publishing your first post, to building a base of regular readers, to learning about SEO and ranking a little better on google search, to finally being recognized by brands and making money and BAM, you are hit with one of the blogging nightmares *insert scary sound effect*

In this post, I’ll be sharing 6 blogging nightmares, some of while i collated from an Instagram question tag. And I'll be telling you how to avoid them. Without rambling too much, let’s get into it.
1. YOU LOSE YOUR PASSION FOR BLOGGING
As I said in this post, blogging is not that easy and there are times things can be really really tough. But what will save you is your true and absolute passion for what you do. Don’t start blogging unless you’re absolutely into that niche. If you don’t enjoy talking about your blog’s topic, then I suggest you take a back seat and re-evaluate this blogging thing.

I also suggest that you join blogger communities that can motivate you for times when you are down.

2. LOSING YOUR BLOG
I almost lost my blog once and boy was I scared???????????
Since then I have been very very careful and I make sure to do the needful, starting with backing up my blog.
I use the Blogger Platform and there is an option for you to backup/restore your blog, which I use from time to time.
For wordpress users, there a plugin called BackupToDropbox that you can use to backup your entire site.

3. WRITERS BLOCK
Even the best of us go through this. Writer’s block is a natural occurrence but its how you deal with it that matters.
One secret I use is to jot down ideas that come to my mind immediately, a phrase, a subject, a topic, a word, just jot it down. You do not even need to develop the post immediately. The idea is to have enough in your ideas bank for whenever you need to develop content.
Also, do not put yourself under unnecessary pressure. If you know you cannot churn out four posts a week, do not go ahead to announce to readers that they will get four posts per week. That will just wear you out and leave you frustrated.

4. PEOPLE NOT ENGAGING WITH YOUR POST
I’ve tried over time not to let this bother me much. Truth is people are not entirely spurred to leave comments on a blogpost. Do not get me wrong, I’m not saying people don’t leave comments, I just mean it’s a little more cumbersome than dropping a quick comment on Instagram. First, they have to drop their email, decide whether to publish the comment as anonymous or their real names, see what I mean?

Having said that, I also feel like if you are generally writing about what people are interested in, they will engage with your post. So put out a survey and ask people what they will want you to talk about within your niche. That might just be what you need.

5. FEAR THAT THE CLIENT WILL REGRET WORKING WITH YOU
At times like these, I think about all the times client has loved my work and I tell myself ‘If the client loved that, they’ll love this one too’. Why? Because I work, hard and I know my onions. Yes, I psyche myself.

6. THAT THE WORLD WILL GET TIRED OF BLOGGERS
I totally understand this fear, but what I take out of it is that we bloggers/influencer's/content creators should find new ways to deliver. Truth is things change. The ways of blogging in the next ten years will definitely be different from today. So we constantly need to upgrade ourselves, take a few courses, do some reading (online &offline). Just stay relevant and fresh.

While these are not the only blogging nightmares you will face in your blogging journey, they are definitely the biggest. But don’t freak out, just learn all you can about how to avoid them by reading and updating yourself and you will be fine.

I want to hear from you all too, so please interact with this post. Help me deal with my Nightmare 4. Also leave suggestions on how to deal with these nightmares and others not listed above.