101 changes: Change 3 – Slow blogging Movement

I wrote this article originally when I was blogging for less than a year, a few years ago. I believe in slow blogging movement then and I still do now.  I blog for passion and not as a business, so it makes it easier for me to do that. As a mother for 2 young kids, my priorities are different. I rather write when I have time and something worth while to say. Read on and I feel it is still relevant as it was then.

I have been blogging at Heart and Mind  at snail’s pace. Recently someone asked, how come I do not post every day.  I said I am into “slow blogging” jokingly, not knowing how much time we can spend doing blog related activities.  Here are a few things that are in blog time black hole.

Many of us are busy bloggers and also blog readers. Blogs are now easy to set up for free and for a few lucky ones have became very famous and made some money in the process. With social network sites such as twitter, facebook, digg, stumble upon and many other social media out there, many bloggers are working crazy hours on internet. Starting a blog is easy but Being a successful blogger is not, as one needs to be out there to market themselves and their blog.  A few bloggers have quit their 9-to-5 job and make enough money to survive just from blogging. Good for them but are they burned out? Can they relax for a few weeks without posting on a vacation or take care of Family in time of need.

Here are a few ways we blogger can spend long and crazy hours on our blog and blog related work; If we are not careful, we can easily spend over 60 hours in a week, that is more than a full time job!

1. Many blogger post article once a day, and some other hard working people like Trent at Simple dollar posts articles twice a day, including weekends and Trent does long posting and great quality content posting. That is lot of writing time! I am always impressed by sheer quantity and quality posts on his site. And there are many good blogs are like that, who are posting good quality content regularly.

2. Many blogger write original content, that requires a some research, typing up and proof reading and editing each post before it goes live. It generally takes about 1 hour to 5 hour for each post as I read it somewhere over the net. (I am unable to find original link, so can not give credit, if you know it, let me know)

3. Many blogger, often write guest posts for other popular and similar niche subject blogs. Generally Guest posts are the best of best stuff and requires great research and time. Also, asking and getting approval of guest posts takes some time.

4. One way we keep in touch and market our blogs is to comment on other blogs, in similar niche subject. That means, really going through RSS or feed burner feed, or actually going on the website to read and leave, thoughtful, maybe helpful and relevant comment on the blogs you read. If you are like me, you read lot of blogs, commenting on each one can take lot of time. Some time I see many commenter leaving generic comments, and one can tell who really read your post and who browsed through it 🙂

5. Many bloggers are on social media, I am told it is part of necessary evil of blogging world. Many times we follow people, read and comment and reply to tweet and face-book fan. It is very easy to spend hours a day on it, if one is not careful. That is one of the reason, I am not on ANY social media for now.

6. Maintaining your own comments, spams, emails takes time each day and must in your blogging-to-do list.

7. Adding new plug-ins and features and looks on your site can take up lot of time. For example, my website, even though Zenguy and web designer did most of the work, I had to supply and give ideas on what I wanted. That meant, I needed to know what features and plug-ins and features are available.

8. For people who have advertisements on their blog, will have to maintain in that area as well.

9. One of my blogger friend is obsessed with Google analytic and keyword search and other site statistics, he is always tweaking and seeing stats, that can hinder creativity and put focus on wrong thing such as traffic, ad revenues and Alexa ranks, instead of following creative writing juices.

10. Some people also attend blog conventions, get together and social in-person meeting, that can be fun to really meet people only you know through their blog only but requires time. If you are doing only as strict business sense, you may miss out on true friendship.

11. Many blogger can create e-books or other valuable content to sell, which requires either time or money to get it written by someone else.

12. Reading and browsing through many blogs, this is my biggest weakness. There are so many wonderful blogs out there, and I have interest not only on personal development, self improvement but also food/cooking, parenting, crafts, news, finance, blogging itself and much more. I may not comment on each blog I read, but I spend lot of time reading cool blogs out there. I am always learning something from everything I read, and there is so much to learn.

As we can see, there is many ways to spend so much time on the blog or blogging related activities. I blog about once or twice a week at Heart and Mind , not because I am not serious about my blogging but I do not want to make blogging a chore, it should be fun or something you value.  No, I am not telling others to stop writing everyday, I enjoy all these posts, but if you think, you are being burned out, you can choose to slow down. I am sure, many loyal readers will stick by you, if your blog content is good enough.

There is also slow blogging movement going on that I was not aware of, read the New york times Article Slow Blog here. Apparently I am not the only one who feels this way. Do what works for you but give a slow blogging a try, you may like it, or at least get some much needed rest.

How do you blog, if you have one? If you are reader, how many blogs do you read and how often? I am curious to others point of view on this.  Are you in to slow blogging movement like slow food movement? I am doing it since I started about 9 months ago, so far I am satisfied but am I am successful? Only time will tell. But, I am enjoying the pace and liking it so far.

To see previous post on 101 changes click here 101 changes -Getting to email Zen and next post 101 changes: Change 4: Plant something .

Blog Related Resource:

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Theme: There are many free and premium themes out there for blogger and websites. Heart and Mind uses Bavotasan Theme. Some of the neat things I like about them;

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Web Design and Customization: Many of bloggers like me are not programmer, if you need a help with colors, logo, transfer your blog from one platform to another like I did, I would strongly recommend Krissoft Web Design . They are friendly, affordable and reliable and I have used them personally for my site here and very pleased with the result. They are still my go-to-team even now. I do not make money on this, I am simply a happy customer.

• See their services hereKrissoft Web Services .
• Very affordable and reliable, a few I had called were charging 10 times of what they are asking
• Friendly staff, who answered my silly nitpicks without making me feel like tech-fool that I am

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How to Organize: I would not be able to survive without my to-do list and planner. I have taken Franklin Covey Seminar and since then I use for organizing my life with it.

• I use it for my family organization planning, but you could use it for work/job or business
• It comes with quick start guide, 52 weekly compass cards and pouch page finder plus more

Zengirl

101 changes: Change 1- Reduce Drinking Soda

101 changes: Change 2: Getting to email Zen

101 changes: Change 3: Slow down- Slow blogging movement

101 changes: Change 4 – Plant something

101 changes: Change 5 – Smile when you wake up

101 changes: Change 6:: Read a book – Benefits of reading

101 changes: Change 7 – Watch less Television and Be more productive

101 changes: Change 8 – Stretch your comfort zone

101 changes: Change 9:  Drink to your health- Benefits of Drinking Tea

101 changes: Change 10: Bring out the artist in You AKA be creative