Don't bother looking for the 'social' buttons to share, save or bookmark this post: Leave your feedback in the comments and get the discussion started!
Or how I stopped worrying and started being creative again
Worrying? Yes, that is blogging. Kind of. How do I get the next traffic peak? What should I do to the make the peak last longer? Is my content/title SEO-ish enough? Is there any blog post at all that hasn’t been blogged, saved, shared and bookmarked already thousands times before?
Well, you get the point: it’s hard to be creative with blogging (in your lill’ free time) and make it stand out and promote it enough to get enough traffic back, which should make the time and energy spend worth while.
Very frustrating indeed. So? So, I’ve made the bold decision to blog (a lot) less and to start being creative (again) and to get things done: meaning among others that I should read less about designing and developing and actually start designing and develeoping.
I’m already occupied with two humble projects at the same time and I should get those finished first.
This article kind of gave me the last push to make the decision: Stop Launching Blogs, Start Contributing. If I should need to promote one of my projects, I think it would be more productive if I do that via another blog, which has a decent amount of audience and gets promoted already by the community.
See how I already got rid of all these ‘social’ save and bookmark buttons?
So? So, I heavily customized the Portfolio theme you’re looking at now and made the projects the homepage: The focus is clearly on the projects and I’m not looking for traffic spikes (any more), but trying to get things done.
Expect less blogs (unless project related) and expect more humble projects, which do get finished on the homepage.
I’m actually quite relieved, that I can spent all this time and energy on actually delivering ‘new stuff’ instead of ‘just another blog’.
I totally agree, Dude… The traffic will come naturally as a result of people sharing what they like about your blog, etc. More time to take hold, but much more stable when it does happen.
I agree with you totally.. There are zillions of web design blogs out there, and every one wants traffic. Gone are those days when our RSS Readers where once filled with posts from great writers and those people who inspire us with their thoughts.
These days its only about 100 Jquery plug ins and 500 free word-press themes.. and at the end of the post its Please digg this article… Please stumble my article.. Retweet etc…
Its become so boring.. and its the same junk everyday. I on the other-side have removed the social icons from my blog and kept only a rss subscription feed. I don’t care about number of visitors anymore. If they like it they will be back.
So true: And today I’ve read an article at SmashingMagazine with a similar context: I think everybody is realizing that this has to change…
Cannot agree more with you mate.. I read the article on smashing magazine.. The community is indeed very frustrated. Glad its gonna be over… or at-least hope so!
We just can’t stop any new design blog for popping out. Everyone want quick success which I don’t think many will enjoyed it.
Just curious, any particular reason for leaving out the contact info?
Thanks!
Agreed; as long as new ones are ‘new’ and not ‘just another’…which I was guilty of also, by the way
PS: the menu at the footer was gone…is back again.
These are great thoughts. I have not seen this spoken about much, though I have been wondering if other people were thinking this.
There are so many blogs just devoted to how to blog or how to get rich by blogging. I am starting a new blog now and am purposely trying to avoid these subjects.
I enjoy the blogging community to be sure, and posts about plugins do come in handy. But, there is a feel of sameyness in the community that is kind of disappointing. At least, it is for me.
Thank you for your thoughts – that is what blogging is about from my point of view.