The Uninspiring, Unencouraging and Unmotivating Guide to Unblogging

(Reading time: 4 – 6 minutes)

Blogging really sucks. It’s hard work. Inspiration is fickle as fate, and motivation blows with the wind. Why would anyone set their shoulder to such a task? You fire your old boss, then find your new boss (you) isn’t much better. And there’s all these rules and shi^H^Htuff about how blogging is supposed to be.

Where’s the fun in that?

Hey, how do you like that headline? Rockin’, right? Gonna get me some real search engine lovin’ on that one, oh yeah!

Pfffft.

Since I’m dedicating this article to all of you who are in your “I loathe/hate/despise blogging” phase, I thought I’d channel me some Kelly Diel’s headline advice and poke a sharp stick into Blogistan‘s collective eye for how things oughter be.

But I’d hate to disappoint anyone, so I’m going to trot out the tired old trope: There’s good news and bad news. Which, as we all know, really means “You’re not going to like what I have to say, but my compulsion to say it outweighs my consideration for your feelings.”

Let’s be about it.

Good news!

• You are not unique, everyone hates blogging sometimes.
• Even when you hate it, when it’s your job, you can jobify it. More later.

Bad news!

• You are not unique, everyone hates blogging sometimes.
• Even when you hate it, when it’s your job, you can jobify it. More later.

Helloooo, my Special Snowflake!

I love snowflakes. Every one different, unique, all in the same way. It’s the human condition frozen into an eighth-inch of wonder.

Julian Colton - Snowflakes

It’s amazing. In some respects (like, to dogs), we all look the same. Two arms, two legs, two eyes, etc. Bilateral symmetry rocks.

But the the odds of two people who are not twins having identical DNA are like a million billion trillion to one. That’s pretty low odds.

Even more important: however you’re feeling right now, someone else has felt it in the past. Likely, someone else is feeling it right now. I know this is true because if you can describe your emotion in words, someone had to feel enough the same way to invent a word for that feeling. QED.

If you’re at the stage of blogging where it all just seems soo dreary, you’re in good company. It happens to everyone, whether they write about it or not.

And just like everyone else, you can 1. choose to quit in disgust, or 2. choose to just get on with it (possibly in disgust, that’s cool).

Get with the program. Jobify your blog. Unblog it.

So.

It’s a nice day out there, and you just don’t feel like working on your blog. But money doesn’t grow on trees.

It’s not nice outside? It’s really crappy out there and you just want to stay in bed? Money doesn’t grow on trees!

On days like these, blogging is part of your job. Deal with it. Like a job. Here’s a few jobification tips:

Get the maintenance work done. You should have a checklist for “unblogging,” boring, bloggy chores like these:

1. Clean up spam.
2. Moderate and respond to comments.
3. Make sure plugins and themes are up to date.
4. Make sure everything is backed up.
5. Check your server logs or redirection logs for 404 errors, redirect as needed, or drop posts you don’t want indexed.
6. I’m sure you can think of many more. What’s your least favorite blog chore? Tell us in the comments (then go do it).

Get a load of this stuff done, right now, then call it a day. Everyone who matters will be here when you get back, promise.

By the way, I wrote a little whitepaper on daily blog chores, and I show how to handle all these chores (and more) in Blog Maintenance Challenge. But this isn’t a sales letter; if you want in to BMC, email me or leave a comment, I’ll send you a link and set it up.

Remember: you don’t have to feel like doing something to get it done.

You just have to get it done.

(And tell us about your least favorite blog chore in the comments!)