Being a blogger means that you face struggles quite often, sometimes even on a daily basis. To our non blogger friends and followers it might look like we just type up a few words, take a few pics and press publish. Then we will Tweet the links to our new posts and get 1000s of new followers, brands will notice us and send us lots of free stuff. Oh and of course we just take a few pics for Instagram of what we are wearing, eating and travelling to where we will get lots of likes, comments and lots more followers. If only it was this easy!!
Instead us bloggers; try to come up with content, spend an age typing it up, take 1432 pics to get just the one suitable image for the post, publish the post then tweet about it, also promote it on our Facebook page where the insights show us that around 5 people have seen it, not forgetting Insta where we might promote the post on there as well as on the stories then we show off our breakfast/new outfit/new cocktail bar that we went to. It doesn’t all end there though! Oh no! Here are the struggles that only bloggers will understand.
Struggles That Only Bloggers Will Understand
Blogger’s Block
There will be days where you are churning content out non stop. You are on a roll and are so full of wonderful ideas on blog posts and then one day there is nothing! You have an idea but then end up staring blankly at the screen as the words just aren’t coming out at all. Or sometimes you just can’t think of anything to write about. When this happens look around for inspiration as something might grab your attention, you could try updating old blog posts or if you are really stuck I have some seasonal blog post ideas for Spring, Summer and Autumn.
Unfollowers
While it’s not all about the numbers it does give you a little boost when you get notifications of new followers on Instagram and Twitter. It makes you think that “yes, people do like my content!” and then when you go on you will notice that your new followers are named something like Fr33 F0ll0w3rs, they are selling Juices or that they have 6785335 followers and are following 25 people back. Or even you have gained 10 followers overnight (yaaay) then discover that you have lost 20 (boooooo), then your heart does sink a bit and you wonder what you have done wrong. Probably nothing it’s just that there are quite a lot few people out there that play the follow/unfollower game which is annoying!
Analytics
Bloggers do love to check out their page views, bounce rate and which posts are doing well, I know that I love to see how my blog is doing on Google Analytics (even though I don’t understand everything on it!) and when a post you spent forever writing up and perfecting the images on doesn’t get the amount of views you felt it deserved it is easy to feel very disheartened. It can also go the other way and a post that you didn’t think anyone would be that interested in can get 1000s of views. The blogging world is weird like that!
Natural Lighting
In the Spring and Summer when we have lots more natural light taking pics for your blog is not a problem but now that we are approaching Autumn it’s going to start getting more and more difficult as the nights start drawing in and the daylight hours dwindle away. Unless you have got soft boxes or the like at home there is only going to be a few hours of daylight a day to use your camera. It’s even worse if you work full time as when you get back home it is too dark to take any pics, so you end up bulk taking 3658976 photos at the weekend as it’s the only time you see daylight. Then you spend the rest of the week editing them before repeating the process again!
Events
Unless you live around London then blogger events are probably very few and far between. You can only look on with what can only be described as pure envy as you read someone’s latest blog post, watch their Insta stories or YouTube and see what they got up to at the latest event that would have given your right arm for.
Emails
Sometimes an exciting email ends up in your inbox inviting you to a launch of a new restaurant or a collaboration with a company you have always wanted to work with. Other times emails from people who “love your content” and “could they post a guest post on……….” a topic that has absolutely nothing to do with your blog, want you to review their £6 product with a blog post (including links) that they want to review first, use your own images with your child in it, actively promote on all social media platforms 2378865 times all for free (the amount of times they wanted it promoted might be exaggerated but the rest is all true!) or even the ‘opportunity’ to purchase their product (that you probably wouldn’t normally buy) and leave a review on Amazon, they will refund you the cost once you have done that! Yeah, no!!
What Bloggers Say
I asked a few bloggers what they found their struggles to be:
When you find the stock photo that works perfectly on your latest post, and then see it on six other blogs a week later ?
Gemma @ Mummy’s Waisted
Finding the time to create content when working full time (my day job is 9-5 plus evening plus weekends) and also finding the motivation to sit at a computer and write when I have spent all day at my day job sitting in front of a computer writing. There is such a thing as too much computer!
Kirsty @ Kirsty Through The Looking Glass
Finding time for natural light when you work full-time (even more so in winter months)
Amey @ Teacups and Buttondrops
Taking photos of food in a restaurant before my husband destroys the composition with his impatience claiming that it’s because the food gets cold.
Iga @ Iga Berry
There are plenty more I could write about but alas, no time to write them up (another blogger struggle!). What struggles have you found as a blogger?
.
