Why Waiting For Your Muse Will Kill You Blog
Blogging on Steemit is an essential part of my daily life and i can tell you first hand how hard it can be.
Believe me. I’ve been doing it for more than six months now .
At first you are all jazzed up about the rewards so you spend all day pumping out content and the rewards starts trickling in.
A few weeks go by and you get followers and a some reputation, your followers may even start looking forward to your content.
And then you start to realize that writing is hard work.
So you skip a day.
Then three days.
And then you find yourself struggling to come up with topics, so you decide to skip a few more days to draw up a posting schedule.
And before you know it your blog becomes dormant, and you curse yourself every day for it.
Sound familiar? It happens to a lot of Steemians. For all the craze over over post rewards, there sure are a lot of people who fell off the wagon a long time ago.
I get that. I understand. It’s tough work. It’s grueling at times, and for even those who have avid readers like myself, it brings a lot of pressure.
But writing an article day in day out may seem impossible but it is not.
I am not saying that resting is bad, after reading @enjar's last post i decided to take a break yesterday.
But if you want to have the capacity to write a blog post everyday then keep these tips in mind.
Read more than you write
Yep. Just like the Wise man said.
What You feed on, You reproduce
Though for some people it is:
Garbage In Garbage Out
I know that reading takes time but it is what you have to do if you want to write more.
The key to writing has always been reading, the more you read the better the quality of your posts
For me to write this post, I had to read a dozen articles about content creation in other to make sure I cover every angle.
I am a good writer, but I still study available content online to make sure that I touch all bases.
Steemit is a community, and contributing as part of it means you’ll need to read other blogs.
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Drawing Inspiration from other bloggers
I have always found inspiration from other bloggers here on Steemit in different ways, @sandstorm's quotes, @enjar's comments and even @ionlysaymeep inspires me with his consistency.
Since you hacve decided to read take inspiration from what other bloggers are doing
Crowdsourcing ideas is a great way to brainstorm.
See what the greats are writing about. Follow a successful blogger like @stellabelle and find out how she captivates her readers
I start out each day on Steemit by checking @sandstorm's quote of the day and finding out what new thing I have to implement in my Life.
By looking externally for ideas, you’ll broaden your blogging horizons, and brainstorming blog topics for yourself will become much easier.
Create a routine
Like I said, there’s a lot more involved in blogging on Steemit than writing posts and cashing out.
I have a daily routine on Steemit, I don't just waltz in and start roaming around, whenever i login i go staright to my post to check for any new comments by my readers and from there I go to my home page to see what my followings are talking about, read and reply to their posts and resteem the great ones.
After that I drop my post for the day and wait for feedback.
It is a lot easier to write when everthing is running like clock work and you know the current state of things.
Create an editorial calendar
@creatr is a shining example of this, he has atble of content that shows his upcoming posts.
My editorial calendar is a molehill is comparism to @creatr's.
An editorial calendar is great for your blogging efforts like a director's storyboard it gives you an outline to work with and helps you know what's next.
When you have an editorial calendar in place you won't have to be in a constant race to think of what to post, and this will help your blog run more smoothly.
You can always makle adjustments as things comes up.
Listen to Your readers
A simple way to produce more content is to listen and respond to your readers, when replying the comment you may just get an Idea of a post.
This Post is a great eaxample of that, it was a response to the question that was in the heart of every Single Person on Steemit. Getting value from your post after the payout period
If you come to think of your readers as relevant,then you should be catering to their needs, personalizing their experience, and responding to complaints and questions.
If you’ve established yourself as an expert on a certain subject matter, which will be clear from your previous content, people will see you as a trusted resource and ask questions in the comment section.
You can answer in the comments or, if a longer response is required, create a whole new blog post to respond, backlinking to the original question as a resource.
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It’s nice to see we have a similar routine when we get on Steemit. I want to interact with any comments that were left to me. See what operatics this presents itself and then move into my feed and go from there.
I never know about an editorial calendar. I am actually looking for better organization methods right now. That sounds like it could help me on that front and give things a better flow as well. I definitely will need to check into that more.
Habit and consistency are two things I struggle with a lot. My blogs and even comment “days” come in spurts. Like at the start of the week I woke up for no good reason at 1 am. I wrote 4 blogs before 5 am (recorded time for me!). All they needed was some polishing up and images and they were done. I get impatient and I released two that day, 1 the next day after. Today I was going post the 4. Looking at it now I want to repurpose it and do some major rewrites so I don’t think I’ll be putting out a blog today as I have planned.
I really do like the idea of creating an outline for your week in blogs. One of the bigger things I been thinking about for a while now. This would help give those who follow me an idea but also not lock me into only blogging about those things. I’m still not in a place I feel comfortable committing to a schedule like that. I have my easy days where I can write out 900-word replies in 30 minutes and then my hard days where a 200-word reply takes me an hour. Blogs use to take me days now I'm thankful when they take less then a day.
One of the nice things I have enjoyed so far about my weekly routine is I have 2 blogs I created a weekly series out of. I already know “ok” this is what I need to get done for those in the given week. I have a few others I was hoping to make them weekly as well but it just did not turn out. I noticed a lot of successful people have their “go to” blogs every week. It helps them to always write to the audience they have gained. Then for the rest, they can blog about as random things as they like.
One of the sources that can easily give me the ability to create a lot of blogs are my comments. As mentioned, I just love to comment more than a blog. This leaves me with ample opportunity to look back and go “I have a purpose for that comment now!” in fact, I have had weeks where I didn't get around to all the things I wanted to blog about. Most of them being time sensitive and therefore just have no more use. I also have some “long term” ones that I need to put a large amount of time into research and making sure I get things right. Those I find get hard for finding time and I sometimes forget about them.
Thank you very much for the mention!
Hello @enjar
I consider your comments as posts because they often help shed more light on what the post is talking about.
You are the CEO of your blog and it is left to you to discover what works for you, you may find out that posting three times a week would do the magic.
Based on th kind of topic I blog about I know that as my readership base grows I will have to post less so that I would be fully able to engage more with people.
Even though I did not post anything yesterday I found myself online for the a long period because I had to go out and interact with people, find questions that i can answer and provide genetal help while learning at the same time.
Thanks for reading and the feedback. I appreciate.
@ogochukwu
Wow. This article is quite educating and instructive. Trust me, writing is no mean feat but the advice about reading more than you write is just priceless.
It is well spelt out in the maxim, 'Nemo dat non quod habeat' one cannot give what he does not have.
Most times that is what i do when i reach my block, i know it is God's way of telling me to read more. And another thing that works for me when i lose my muse, i write about losing the muse.
Thanks for this work @ogochukwu
It is priceless
Ha ha that's a nice one, writing about losing the muse.
Reading can never be overstimated, most people are struggling to create content because they fail to imbibe a reading culture.
Thanks for reading
@ogochukwu
Thank you dear @ogochukwu for your advices!
Concerning your question:
At the moment I publish a series of posts "Under the impression." Short poem + interesting fact. I try to make it succinctly and at the same time convey my thought. I want the reader not to spend much time. Of course, I think about the next step
Yeah I saw them when I visited your blog a while back.
Keep it up , I love what you are doing.
@ogochukwu
Great post friend. I started on steemit all excited at the prospect people can earn real money doing what they love. I posted on a wide variety of things before I found my groove (which turned out to be fiction and stories). I can only add one thing to your post. When you find your place in steemit, don't forget it's a wider community. Yes you may enjoy writing stories and forget that you have other things to offer.
Maybe a good recipe or a beautiful photo. Remember not everyone will be obscessed with your particular focus. It may just be useful to step outside your comfort zones every once in a while.
Hugs.
J.
Hello @jhagi.bhai
Thank you for reading and for your insights.
Steemit is community driven and acknowledging and working with that will help you to experience growht in the long run.
@ogochukwu
Great post, thanks for sharing
Thanks for reading
Hello my friend , thanks a lot for this lovely post full of great information if someone really want to succeed here!
I post on a daily basis and always my posts cover mainly my passion in life! And also the posts must be fun to read too!
Love this @ogochukwu getting inspired with others work. Yes, yours really inspired me
I am glad my work inspired you @godswill
Great post and a reminder! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for reading @tamacvet
Thank you for your advices!
Totally agree with you dear @ogochukwu!
Thanks for reading @deleni
Thank you. I needed it.
Thanks for reading