Blogging is extra work. There, I said it at the beginning of the post. I am a new blogger; a month old and I just completely drown in things that I have to learn to do one blog post. From thinking on a topic that will attract traffic, what is the good key phrase, what are other things bloggers write, what gaps I can identify from their post so it will benefit my reader, and the list continues.
Then comes the next part. The writing part. For a completely new blogger like me, the idea and the concept of writing didn’t come naturally. Yes, I do talk a lot inside my head and I thought my idea is good enough but when I start writing it, I can feel myself cringing hard. Then when I show my content to my unwilling editor aka my husband, his unjust face is telling me, Yes, it is THAT BAD.
So I’m in complete paralysis. I want to call it the new blogger paralysis. I call it paralysis as the feel of overwhelms and desire to be perfect leads to a lack of outcome. The thought of ” can I do it this way? Should I do it that way? ” then write and delete, write and delete has left me with.. absolutely nothing. And I need to get out of this slump as soon as possible.
I think the idea of writing a ‘perfect post’ have kept me the new blogger and maybe people like me stuck in the process of creative writing in the virtues of being ‘perfect’. If you’re like me, the complete new blogger the new kid on the block, I have summarised some of the blog posts and the idea that they suggest being more productive when it comes to blogging.
This is of course from the new blogger perspective that I am planning to implement to myself, the new blogger. I am hoping this list of suggestions can give the new blogger like me, stay on track and stay focus on our new journey.
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The article written by Beth van Der Pol on Postpone Perfection is spot on.
Writing at that point became a matter of pride. I wanted the pieces that I put out in the world, to be inspiring and perfect.
Like how toddlers learn how to walk, how we learn how to ride the bicycle we just need to do it. If fall we get up and just do it again. Try and try and perfecting our moves each time. If all toddlers giving up after the first fall, we all probably just end up crawling and moving using a walker until now.
That’s why I feel like it’s best to just dive into the process of creative writing and learn along the way. It might not be perfect at first (Hey, this is my fifth post) but if we learn along the way, I’m sure we will get better over time. The sooner we get out of this “new blogger paralysis”, the better.
2. Focus on the producing quality rather than quantity
This advice coming from the ultimate guru, Neil Patel. I swear lately I spend time watching his Youtube video and reading his article more than I spend time with my husband. But his content is soo good, especially for a completely new beginner blogger.
If you haven’t watched any of his videos, please do. But his advice on quality content creation is gold. In the pursue of chasing traffic and ranking on the first page of google, people like me, the new blogger might miss out on the point that the blogpost we do is actually to help the reader and give valuable information to the reader. That should be the endpoint and target for each content we write.
The production of quality content might take some time. However, if that content is beneficial to you as the writer it might be beneficial to others too. And I think that’s an important concept for a new blogger to understand.
An important take-home message from Neil Patel on producing quality content writing is to define the target audience. What does the audience want? What is their problem and what we are solving?
For me this content right here is targeted me myself, the new blogger and I want to highlight the problem that I, the new blogger facing and to summarise the advice & tips given to us by the new blogger.
3. Find your people
When I try to find suggestions from a new blogger perspective, I stumble upon this one post from a thinking closet article back in 2012. 10 tips from the new blogger to the new blogger. I like the raw advice she gave as I feel like I have friends who are in the same boat trying to figure out how to do things.
I don’t know about you, but finding the voice from the people who are just about to begin the blogging journey helps me a lot. Maybe the advice is not too technical like the experienced blogger but somehow it’s easier to agree and follow their tips.
Think of it like when we are young and we refuse to listen to our parents’ advice but somehow when our friends share the same advice or suggestion, it’s easier for us to listen and feel like it makes sense. Even though the advice is the same, it’s relatable when it’s given by our people. It’s a good feeling “OMG, you think about it that way? Me too!”
Maybe it’s a psychology trick. Or maybe it’s just me.
Most of the posts is coming from experience and veteran blogger with valuable advice. But yeah, it gives me a sense of comfort reading tips from a completely new blogger.
Unfortunately, I don’t find many tips from new bloggers. It could be most of the new bloggers like me feel like we are in no position to give advice. (Like what I currently feel like now). Or maybe I don’t do a detailed search. Ha! it could be one of those two. But I do feel like it’s the first one.
4. Productive writing for new blogger
I learned about productive writing when I write my doctorate thesis. Well, scientific writing is not the same as creative writing. But the process is almost similar. The important key point that I learned is as follows:
Create a writing schedule and stick to it to create a habit
Your writing schedule can be early morning, a late night which is up to your preference. The important key is to be consistent with the timing you write. When we write at consistent timing it’s easier for us to enter the flow state
Flow state is the state where you are fully immersed and absorbed in the activity that you’re doing. In simpler terms, you’re in the zone.
- Use Pomodoro technique
- Even if you don’t feel like writing, sit down at your designated time and just do brain dumping or just do editing. The idea is to just sit down at the designated time and do something
Let other people read your masterpiece
Get other people’s perspectives on what we have written. Sometimes I just share my half-baked content with others to get a fresh idea of what to elaborate on. When we are to fix on a certain point, it’s hard to get a view from other perspectives. So I enjoy hearing comments from my husband cum Editor on my writing. Usually, he will just said ” Everything OK ” just so that I stop bugging him for opinion.
5. Enjoy and trust the process
Cliche, but it’s true!
As new bloggers, we don’t want to feel a burden or overwhelmed with the thought of writing a blog. This tip I get from my ultimate favourite, Aisha Preece. To be honest, because of her vibrant personality and engaging advice, I feel like I can do blogging. And most importantly to enjoy the process.
Like any learning process, there is a learning curve that follows. The mastery of skill and concept is directly proportional to time. Meaning to say, if we do continuous learning, we will get better over time. Of course, we can accelerate the curve with good strategy and intervention. However, the keyword I want to highlight here is the word processor.
Blogging is a skill. Skill can be learned. And to learn, we have to follow the process. Unless you’re the geniuses and super famous, to begin with, a new blogger like me has to trust and follow the process. And we have to understand that it will take time and it’s okay. Most importantly, having fun as we learn a new skill.
Like in school or back in college we can perform better when the subject is fun when the lecturer is fun and interactive. We will not even realise how fast time flies because we are having fun. If we applied the same concept, we can only do so much better when we are enjoying the creative process of writing the blog post.
To have fun, we should know our limitations & strength. When to stop and when to push through. Schedule your break time from writing. Find inspiration from your surrounding, people around you or events that currently happening. Remember, the creative process takes time especially for new bloggers with no experience in writing, like me. As much as I want my post to rank high in google search, I must abide by the process.
This is only my fifth post and I found real joy as I’m writing this post. Hopefully, it will as long as I’m writing this.
