I Quit
18. Apr, 2008 
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I quit!
Ok, not really. But how many times have you told yourself that when it comes to blogging?
If you’ve been in the blogging game long enough, you probably know quite a few bloggers who have quit.
Some quit because:
- Subscribers weren’t growing
- Traffic wasn’t increasing
- No money was coming in
- Their page rank took a hit or was too low
- Their site was blacklisted by Google
- They received too many negative comments
- They didn’t receive enough comments
- They were burnt out
- They were too busy (school, work)
- They had personal obligations (child, spouse, parents)
- And more…
Within the past two weeks I’ve read a few posts that I consider rather thought-provoking. One was about a blogger’s responsibility to the readers, and the other was about blogging pains. Both expressed confusion for what the future held for their blog and their readership. And believe me, I share the same thoughts constantly.
And confusion over the future, or lack of purpose, is intimidating. Even Lorelle VanFossen says it’s a good reason to stop blogging:
Stop blogging if you don’t have a purpose: Honestly, you don’t have to blog if you don’t want to, and if you don’t know what to blog about, don’t. If your blog has no purpose, stop blogging.
You can probably relate to Lorelle’s quote. It’s hard to find purpose on a blog. And it’s demoralizing when a purpose can’t be found.
While at WordCamp, one phrase from Liz Strauss was a huge motivator. The phrase? “They come for you.”
You are the one unique value on your blog.
The information is everywhere. But you are the one who molds it, shapes it, and brings your experience to it.
As Liz puts it, readers come to a blog to read your stuff. And if it’s a multi-author blog such as this one, readers come for your writing, and perhaps others’.
Because, as Liz puts it, “Information — straight, clear information — is all over the Internet. But you aren’t.”
Conclusion
People will quit blogging. It’s a fact of life. Some blogs have just run their course.
But for those questioning why they should keep going, perhaps it’s for those readers that are coming just for you.
I’ve thought about quitting many times. But it’s often the readers that keep me going.
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It’s been tough for me personally to decide whether to keep my personal site going. I defined my purpose in one sentence: “I am an opinionated, Christian writer.” My personal site is my opinions, with a splash of religion every once and a while. It’s broad, but it suits me. Does my site have a focus or a niche? No. But it’s me.
Yah, it’s me too (thanks for the link!). I’ll keep at it one way or another. My biggest problem as I posted in the 2nd part of that pseudo series, is that I’ve needed to branch out for a awhile now so I can gently nudge Just Thinkin’ back to it’s more personal self. Soon, I say…soon.
This is so incredibly timely. As I prepare for the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers Conference (SOBCon) in less than two weeks, I was just got an email from someone who came up to me at last year’s conference and admitted that he wanted to stop blogging. He whined that he wasn’t happy, it didn’t give him what he wanted, that he couldn’t find the enthusiasm…many of things you’ve mentioned.
I asked him why he started blogging. His eyes lit up and he talked about his business, about connecting with his clients on a more personal level, providing more than just a service but an education. About reaching out to new people and answering their questions in a relaxed, no pressure way. About connecting with that first commenter, which eventually became a client, and now feels like family. About studying and learning more about his industry and business in order to communicate it better through his blog.
I just stood there for ten minutes and listened. He was smiling and laughing by the time he finally ran out of great things to say about why he started blogging and what he got out of it. I asked him, “So you want to quit blogging why?”
A year later, he’s blogging better than ever and loving it more every day. He’s build a solid community with his blog and finds value constantly. His business is booming, so much so he’s thinking of hiring others. He just emailed me and told me he can’t wait for another dose of SOBCON butt kicking this year. I can’t wait for another ten minute session of hearing him talk about his passion.
Then I see a trackback to this post and think, “Wow, mind reading!” It’s not easy to quit, and if blogging really sucks for you, stop. Before you stop, however, think about why you started and see if there is still value in the concept. As you say, maybe you just fell off the path. You can get back on. Take your time. If not, it’s okay to leave. Not everyone must blog.
Thanks!
This is just like other things in life: you quit them when you don’t like them anymore. I think so many people are unhappy because they stay too long in things which lost their meaning: broken marriages, lousy jobs… blogging. They hang on all these, hoping that one day everything will get better, their marriage will be happy again, they will get a promotion and the job will become great… or they will get 10,000 subscribers to their blog.
All these things actually never happen, because the misery is only in their minds: they want to see their marriage a failure, they want to look at their job like it would be the lousiest of all, they think of their blog that’s not worth reading. With such a mindset, good things will never come. It’s either you love what you have or quit it.
My friends used to say that I was lucky to have only marvelous jobs ever since I’ve started working. Actually I did: whenever the current job was not marvelous anymore, I just quit. It is just that simple. Look at children: when they’ve got enough playing a game, they stop. And they never feel sorry for stopping. Why would we, then?
@Kirk,
Good to know man. I enjoy your stuff (err, the spin you put on things).
@Lorelle,
That’s a really motivating thing to hear as well. As Simonne puts it in the comment below, sometimes people want the bad to happen so that they can look and tell people, “Yup, been there, done that.” It’s really nice to hear a blogger who was down and out, but kept on going and was successful. Likewise, it’s always nice to see that a marriage on the brink of failure can recover (the movie ‘Joy Luck Club’ comes to mind).
I wish I could be at SOBCON this year, but there are too many things going on at the end of April that May would be just too soon if you know what I mean.
@Simonne,
You’re right. Some people want to fail. Even when they hear the advice that will help them succeed. After my divorce, I started attending a small group on marriage to kind of figure out where it all went wrong. One of the things brought up is that some people just love to be the center of failure in order to get the most attention. “Do you see my failed marriage? Do you see my failed blog? Do you see how crappy my boss is?”
Very insightful and thought provoking comment.
Some people quit blogging because they are very self-critical and seeing other successful bloggers they question their own blogging abilities. One of my favourite bloggers quit last year. I keep hoping that he’ll come back, but that didn’t happen yet.
I like how Lorelle put it — before quitting we have to look back and think about the reasons we started blogging, the time we enjoyed it a lot. Sometimes it’s easier to say than do, just like when the marriage goes sour and even the memories of all the good things the couple had before can’t rescue the break up. But it’s definitely worth trying. Also, I think sometimes it’s better to just give it a break, to clear the thoughts, re-focus on the blog’s purpose and start with the renewed energy and vision.
I also think that we do owe our readers, no matter how big or small that number is, at least talk about what’s troubling us before we make that final decision and say we quit. Perhaps the readers comments would become the encouragement that the blogger needs to give it another chance.
And I agree with Simonne, sometimes it’s we who think that something is wrong, that our writing or blogs are not good enough, but the readers might think differently.
I’m glad you stayed here, Ronald. Who else would challenge us to think differently, or actually, simply think…
@Vivien (inspirationbit),
Thank you Vivien. I’m glad I stayed too.
There have been a handful of bloggers that quit and I missed their writing and interaction. Sometimes I’ll think of them and send them a random e-mail just to see how they’re doing.
it’s interesting – for me, it’s almost the opposite. i realized i HAD to cut down some on my blogging. now i’m bursting with ideas and don’t have a place to put them
“the readers are coming for you” – how true, how true, how true. i’m actually just now trying to explain that to someone who’s new in blogging. the information is everywhere. so if it’s JUST about information, it needs to be an unusual package. better yet, talk about what YOU think about it, at least one sentence or so!
great article, as usual.
@isabella,
I’ve cut down blogging on my personal blog significantly. But I think it’s worked out. Typically any idea I have, I can write a post and approach a blogger I know to publish it. Which works out for the blogger, because sometimes they might need a break. Perhaps you can try that approach?