I wrote this a while back when I was going through a rough patch, I had just moved my blog over to WordPress and was feeling particularly overwhelmed, disorganized and in over my head. I randomly wrote it one early morning, and then the post sat in my drafts folder for quite some time, ignored (see Step 6).
Then last week I went to this bloggers retreat, and while I never actually sat down with anyone and discussed how to wreck your blog, these points were discussed. They popped up in conversation, and in the moments between conversations, in what was said and in what was left unsaid. So I thought, heck, I’ll publish this, because I think many of the ladies that I was chatting with last week will understand what I mean when I say, here’s what not to do.
Get depressed.
Instead of writing just stare at the screen.
Don’t actually publish blog posts.
Spend your time online randomly working on things “behind the scenes”.
Flit from one project to the next without completing anything.
Create thirty-three drafts, but, and here’s the key part, don’t actually complete or publish any of them.
Stare at the screen some more.
Watch cat videos on Facebook.
Compare yourself to everyone else.
Pay others to teach you how to blog.
Spend hours reading up on all the things you should be doing.
Argue with your spouse about the time you spend online.
Aim for perfection.
Remember you’re never good enough.
Take on a bunch of sponsored posts.
Leave everything to the last minute. Kill yourself trying to hit deadlines.
Only publish sponsored content.
Feel stressed. Feel overwhelmed.
Sit and stare at the screen some more.
Try to do what everyone else is doing.
Remember not to set priorities.
Don’t have a niche.
Write on seventy-two different random topics.
Don’t publish consistently.
Don’t schedule things in advance.
Don’t promote that piece you just published, instead jump on to the next thing.
Or, conversely, waste all your time worrying about promoting your content and don’t actually spend any time writing.
Write five posts in two days, and then don’t publish any real content for a month.
Come up with fantastic blog post ideas, but never publish them.
Listen to podcasts that tell you about SEO, social media growth and time management.
Waste your time time checking and rechecking your statistics.
Stare at Google Analytics. Worry that your page views are down.
Worry about your photography skills.
Waste hours searching through stock photo sites looking for the perfect photo instead of just taking your own.
Remember that nothing you’re doing is good enough.
Second guess yourself.
Join dozens of Facebook groups.
Worry about Pinterest, Yummly and StumbleUpon.
Instead of focusing your time, start a second blog.
Spread yourself even thinner, start a third blog.
Spend all of your time on Instagram.
Come up with an elaborate, and unrealistic, editorial calendar that involves publishing eighteen times a week.
Spend a minimum of six hours on every blog post you write.
Remember, nothing is ever good enough.
Spend hours making to do lists, setting unrealistic goals, and coming up with wacky new time management schemes.
Be sure to keep an eye on the competition.
Worry about the number of comments your posts receive.
Don’t focus. Never work on just one thing.
Do not plan ahead.
Try to do all of the things, and do them all at once.
Try to be be everywhere. Try to be active on every social media platform ever invented.
Sign up for every new blogging network.
Say yes to everything.
Fail to meet obligations.
Constantly feel guilty.
Spend more time scrolling through Facebook.
Take lots of photos, spend hours doing photo editing, then don’t use those pictures anywhere.
Don’t organize your photos in any consistent way.
Spend hours searching through your pictures trying to find that one shot you took six months ago.
Shot lots of short videos.
Don’t actually publish these videos, or even take them off your camera.
Keep odd hours.
Convince yourself that you don’t need sleep to think, or write, coherently.
Ramble. Rant.
Ignore your children.
Feel guilty for ignoring your children, and instead ignore your blog.
Wonder how the house got so damned dirty.
Be indecisive.
Do not ask for help.
Feel like a failure.
Get depressed.
Rinse and repeat.
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