Today’s post is going to touch on why it is so hard to blog and why you need to keep pushing through. As you can see, it has been a while since my last blog post on Another Girl Named Ashley. When I first started blogging, this would have made me feel awful. Why can’t I just stay consistent and write and schedule extra posts when I can’t come up with content? The reason: my motivation for this blog. You see, I chose to pick up blogging as a hobby because I felt empty after college. Gone were all the essays and research papers. Gone were all the needs to acquire knowledge. And I really struggled with that empty void in my life.

Enter Another Girl Named Ashley. This blog was my new outlet to express myself and keep myself writing. And it really has worked, for the most part. But, the reason I’m not as consistent as I should be is because I didn’t start this blog to make money or gain fame. I started this blog for me.

Now, I often feel stuck in a rut with this blog now because I have decided to try to read more and work on a novel (which, is not moving quickly at all…) I have to decided what I want to dedicate my time to. And often, my blog falls last. Which is perfectly fine because I don’t want my blog to become a stressor in my life. I want it to relieve stress.

So here I am, babbling about my lack of blog motivation, while trying to offer you advice for your blog or starting a blog if you’re thinking about it. Let’s review what’s hard:

1 – Creating content

It is HARD to think about content to cover in your blog! This is why I have a sticky note that I keep in my daily planner to add blog notes to as ideas come up. That way, when I finally give myself the time to blog (yes, I said give myself the time, not find time. You can make time for whatever you might want to do in your life), I have some topics to start with.

2 – Beefing up your content

I’m talking photos, videos, quotes, research, anything that would beef up your content. It’s hard to stage photos and videos (or find the perfect ones online). It’s hard to research for your blog topic when you only have 30 minutes to crank out a post. BUT, you can always do these things in stages. Take a ton of photos one day when it is nice outside and edit them when you’re in the mood. You’ll then have a whole line of photos to choose from when you build your next blog!

That method doesn’t work for you? Write out posts in your 30-minute span and then spend the next day doing 30 minutes of “beefing” and schedule your content to go out! Sometimes, I spend 5-10 minutes a day on pexels.com just downloading tons of photos and saving them in different category folders (fitness, organization, writing, OCR, etc.) so I’d have a library to choose from when I was in a rush to get an idea written and posted. You need to figure out what works for you.

3 – Staying motivated

Motivation is 100% on YOU. Nobody else is going to make you write. Nobody else is going to make you develop content. You need to want to blog. And if you don’t, then don’t write for a while. Take a break. But, my one recommendation would be to never fully quit. Don’t defeat yourself. Don’t think that because you left your blog go for a while that it isn’t worth coming back to and people won’t read it. Always give yourself a chance to get back into it. That’s what I’m doing right now with this post!

Long story short, blogging is HARD. If you want to make money off your blog, it’s even harder because you need to work and then put in full-time hours with your blog too. It’s exhausting but rewarding. My best advice is stick with it, take breaks when you need to, and don’t put too much pressure on yourself. Blogging is a fun hobby and can turn into an awesome business. But it doesn’t have to, and that’s perfectly okay too.

And don’t forget to schedule and build out your time for posts. Organization is key for motivation and productivity.

Ta-ta for now!