Let this be a cautionary tale. A tale about what happens when you don’t follow your own advice.
In the past six months, I have lost over 40% of my traffic. It was remarkably easy; much easier than increasing my traffic by 40%. I really didn’t have to do much. In fact, I did nothing at all.
And there it is.
That isn’t to say I’ve been sitting around staring at the wall for six months. On the contrary, I’ve never been busier; I just haven’t written a single blog post. Not surprisingly, that’s all it takes. I’ve preached to numerous clients over the past few years that they need to continuously produce fresh and relevant content “because that’s what search engines like and that’s how you build a following.”
Being busy is a lame excuse. What does it really mean to be too busy to stay on top of something important? Does it mean that my mind is too distracted to come up with ideas? Nope. Currently, I have 32 drafts of would-be blog posts waiting to be written. 32. I know that once I sit down and get two sentences written on just one of them, the rest will flow and I’ll have a post cranked out in no time. It’s pretty easy to make time for no time.
The fact of the matter is that once you break a routine once, it becomes incredibly easy to break it a second and third time. Before you know it, you’ve fallen far behind and you’re not sure how to pick it back up. And then that becomes your excuse. You watch your traffic steadily decline along the way, knowing fully well the reason why it’s happening, but other tasks and responsibilities continue to take priority. Stupid, really.
At some point in your life you had to burn yourself before you knew not to touch something hot. Not that I needed the proof, but I suppose this is a good case study on why you should stay on top of your blogging and content marketing. Don’t rest on your laurels and don’t make assumptions.
Staring at a blinking cursor can be daunting, but remember why it is necessary to put some words on the screen. More importantly, remember how it feels to write something you’re proud of. Lastly, try to think about how great it feels to hit that publish button, which I’m about to do for the first time in far too long.
Scott @ Kawntent
Mar 21, 2014 -
The writer’s block, huh? I hear that sometimes the best thing to do is have a schedule when to post something, no matter how crappy it looks. In my opinion, at least your being slightly more productive than doing nothing. Regular updates, even if they’re not very interesting, act as reminders that you still exist.
David Veldt
Mar 21, 2014 -
Not so much writer’s block, more like writer’s avoidance. Sometimes you just rationalize that just about everything is more important than sitting down and writing (in the short term, those things might be more important, but in the long term, the writing probably is). But great point about scheduling posts; not only helps for writer’s block but also for holding yourself accountable to actually write it.
Nick Chertock
Nov 3, 2015 -
Now it’s been 18 months. I know the feeling. But maybe the 40% decline is driven by the fact that blogging on the whole is becoming less relevant.
David Veldt
Nov 4, 2015 -
Very true. For reference, the Analytics screenshot above compared September 2013 to February 2014. I’ve written just 6 posts since this one, and none in well over a year, and my traffic is now down 26% when compared to September 2013 instead of 40%, and it is up 27% when compared to February 2014.