Blogging Ebb and Flow

Posted September 12, 2016 / Discussions, Features / 8 Comments

I’m sure I’m not alone when I say that my blogging goes through a lot of ups and downs. There are some months where I have SO many ideas for posts and discussions that I find myself moving things around so I can post them all ASAP instead of waiting. I’m excited, eager, and creative.

Then, there are some times where I wonder where that energy went. I look at my month and it only has a bunch of reviews from books I read forever ago, plus a few TTTs and wrap-up posts. These months make me loathe myself because I regret not pacing out some of my discussions a little better, and beefing up later months. I’m usually the person who has too many posts scheduled (especially because I always read ARCs super early then write and schedule my reviews as soon as possible). There is absolutely no in-between for me.

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My biggest issue in general is how much I schedule ahead. I read a book in April and wasn’t able to schedule the review post until June because of the amount of ARC reviews and other posts I packed in. I love having a full schedule because it means I don’t have to worry. I sit back and chill. AND THEN all of a sudden I look at the calendar and the next few weeks are empty. I don’t have much scheduled because I used it all up. It’s an endless cycle my friends.

Sooo instead of continuing this cycle, I’m going to try some of the following ideas to break out. I want to better spread out my posts and even leave some flexibility in my schedule to move things around or add something in at the last minute.


Fixing My Problems

1. Remember THIS ISSUE when I try to post a discussion right away instead of waiting.

Most of my blog readers probably aren’t going anywhere. They’re never going to know or probably care that I wrote a post three weeks ago and didn’t post it right away. It’s my blog to plan around and make posts for, whenever I want. I need to just remember how annoyed with myself I become when I try to push something up for no reason. Don’t waste the post if you don’t need to! It’s okay!

2. Continue to combine reviews for multiple books into one post.

I read about 180 books per year, which means that I would have to post 3-4 book reviews each week if I wanted to fit them all on the blog in that year. I don’t like posting too many reviews because I love wrap-ups and TBRs and Top Ten Tuesday and discussions and other things on my blog instead! I have a lot of fun features that I don’t show enough because I usually have 3 review posts per week. It’s kind of annoying. I love being able to consolidate similar books into one post. Lately, because I’ve been somewhat binge-reading series, I start the post and leave it in my drafts until the books are done. You’ll see this soon with Throne of Glass and recently (2) saw it with A Series of Unfortunate Events. I didn’t want to post reviews for all 13 books individually, so I combined them all.

3. Remember that it’s okay to post on weekends.

For some reason, I don’t like posting 7 days a week. I do it sometimes if there are things I really need to add in, like a sign-up for something or a wrap-up that falls on a Saturday or Sunday. I have to remind myself that if I really want to squeeze in that extra post or review that I CAN feel free to use Saturday or Sunday or post! There are countless people that post on the weekends. What is wrong with me?

4. Conversely, it’s okay to leave days open.

I always feel like I need a post every single weekday too. I can’t leave anything open. It’s a weird quirk of mine that doesn’t make any sense. Even if I have something on a Saturday, I feel like I need to put things in other spots. I’m not sure what my issue is, but I hope I can move on from that stupid feeling.

8 responses to “Blogging Ebb and Flow

  1. I’ve gotten into a similar habit of posting every weekday too! I used to have the time/energy/content to do that and I’m running a little shorter on all three nowadays! Every once in a while I’ll leave a day empty but it’s SUCH a weird feeling. And then I’m like oh right, no one will even notice hahaha

  2. I know exactly what you mean, I schedule ahead and then before I know it, I realize I have no posts scheduled and I have NO ideas. Argh, it sucks. I have tried to cut myself a little slack. If a week goes by with no discussion or if I only post one review in a week, it’s not the end of the word.

  3. I know I am not going anywhere and will continue to read your blog even if there are not many posts for a bit! I feel like we all go through that issue where some times the blog posts just flow from us and the other times there is nothing. Right now I have been reading more than blogging, and I don’t regret it but I do miss it. My puppy is finally napping and I have today off so I am catching up on reading everyone’s posts and commenting back on my own…and then hopefully I will have some time to write some new posts!

  4. It really IS an ebb and flow, you described it perfectly! I mean, mine is more ebb generally, but still 😉 I used to feel like I *had* to post every day except Sunday (Idk why I cared about Sunday hahah, just seemed like a good day to skip?) but then I’d end up having something inevitably fall on a Sunday and I was posting 7 days a week and it was a mess. Because TIME, you know? Not only time to write all the posts, and format them, and make graphics and what have you, but then to comment back and respond to comments and deal with social media and I seriously almost lost my mind. Now I try to do 4 times a week. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

    I have to say, I am super impressed with your scheduling! I schedule basically NOTHING. If I am lucky, stuff gets scheduled a day or two before, but most likely, I am rushing to finish at midnight haha. A for reviews, my backlog is obscene. I couldn’t do it without mini-reviews, which aren’t even really mini, I just throw several in one post- because like you said, otherwise I’d be posting at least 3 or 4 reviews every week, and that would never work! The struggle is definitely real, I hope some of these ideas work for you!!

  5. Yeah, I don’t like posting everyday either because I know it’s hard to keep up with for readers. I love posting on Sundays though because I feel like it’s more relaxed for fun posts? This is a great post Lauren! I scheduled ahead too but when I started spacing out my posts and only posting 4 times a week, things eased up a bit for me in terms of blogging stress and focusing on quality posts too!

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