This is a guest post compiled by +Ikenna Odinaka for OgbongeBlog
The best blogging decision I made few years back was to quit blogging. And it may be the best thing you’ll ever do. I know you are confused right now. Let me explain.
Have you ever felt confused, saturated and directionless with blogging? Be honest.
You’ve been doing your best, applying all the blogging tips and advice you have learned. Done what successful bloggers do. Written all the guest posts. Optimized your post for search engine. But your blog remains a virgin island, empty and lifeless.
The other day, you woke up with what seemed like the idea that will transform your blog sooner than later. The next day, what once seemed like a brilliant idea was just an over-exaggerated illusion.
You feel drained and exhausted. It’s not working.
You hung in there hoping that one day, the powers of blogging will favor you.
That, I have felt.
I started blogging in 2008. Early 2009, I made the best decision and quit blogging.
In between the days of absence, I devoured blog posts on Problogger.net, StevePavlina.com, DailyBlogTips.com and several others.
Reading and observing these blogs, gave me a new understanding about blogging. I was empowered to blog again.
In what seemed like 9 months or so later, I returned with a fresh perspective about blogging. And have been blogging since then.
Reading the story of several success bloggers reassured me that I’m not alone with quitting blogging once upon a time.
Here is why I think quitting to blog could be the best decision you’ll make any time soon.
1. A chance to clear your mind
One of the worst things that’ll happen to you as an entrepreneur is a clustered mind. You’ll never achieve anything with it. You may look busy to everyone else, but deep within, you know you’re anything but productive.
Stepping away from blogging for a while will help you clear your mind of information overload. We are at our best creative self when our mind is free of distractions and anxieties.
2. Discover the blogger in you
I believe the best way to discover your talent in anything you want to do is to start doing it. Like if you want to know if you’ll make a good musician, you have to start singing, right? Then with an open mind and flexible spirit, you’ll discover unique opportunities in music.
But if blogging has been an uphill hustle for you. If it feels like a blood-sucking vampire in your life. Step back for a while. Blogging is not an easy venture quite alright, but it shouldn’t be a parasite either.
When you start blogging for the right reasons, you’ll catch the sensation. You’ll be more confident to identify yourself with blogging.
3. Get to see blogging differently
If you have been seeing blogging as the money minting venture, you need a fresh orientation. This is one of the most important reasons to quit blogging.
Spend more time observing and reading successful blogs. Not the hype laden ‘make money quick’ kind of blogs. But the genuine entrepreneurial minded blogs, and your understanding about blogging will never remain the same.
4. After all, it may not be for you
In the theory of evolution, as we were taught in school, species survive by the jungle rule; survival of the fittest.
“Let the strong survive while the weak perish”.
If blogging is not strong enough a business for your personality, let it perish.
Now, that sounds a bit pessimist.
But truth be told, not everyone will build a successful blog. It’s the reality. If it’ll take staying away from blogging for a while to discover that it isn’t for you, then it’ll be worth it.
There are several other businesses you can do and make money online.
5. So you can get a live
Many bloggers seems to have sold their soul to blogging and the internet. Take this away from them and they have no life left. If this is you, you need a break.
There is more to life than a piece of screen and blogging.
I love and recommend blogging
Contrary to what you may be thinking right now, I love blogging and love to encourage other bloggers to keep pushing on.
I believe blogging can change the lives of people who build them and those who read them.
But I’m also a realist.
With all the blogging tips and advice about ‘how to make money blogging’, you need to hear the other side of the story once in a while.
If you know what you are doing, keep doing it. But if you are more of a haphazard, confused blogger, my advice for you is to step back. Spend the next few months reading and studying other blogs.
You’ll have a new perspective about blogging. And I bet by the time you return, you’ll do it a lot better.
Have you ever quit or considered quitting blogging before?
Has quitting blogging in the past helped you become a better blogger?
Drop your comments below.
This post was written by +Ikenna Odinaka . He is the Chief Editor of AfterSchoolAfrica.com. You can read his Story of 10 Lessons in Blogging here.
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