The annoying thing about blogging is that the hard work never stops

Time is so important to me. I’ve always dreamt about the whole 4-hour work week. This idea that you work your arse off for a few years and then you reap the rewards by creating something that can be pretty much self-efficient. There’s a lot of examples of this in blogging, YouTube, social media. That once you hit a certain point, a certain amount of followers, subscribers, page views, everything kind of snow balls leaving you needing just to create content rather than all the things we must do to keep our blogs growing.

Most of us want more. More followers, more page views, more wine (in my case).  But in my experience, that snow balling effect never happened.

I think because when we talk about it – the examples are always those very few that really do make it big. Whether they go viral by fluke, or put out some really great content, or have just been doing it for years and are one of the originals – it’s a rare thing that happens.

Let’s face it, it’s not going to happen to you or to me.

So the hard work never stops. Unless you want your growth to stop.

I’m a great example of that. I’ll share some stats with you.

Instagram:

On the 1st January 2017 I had 6309 Instagram followers. Today I have 5987.

So what’s changed? I quit all Instagram pods I was in because I hate them. It was too much effort and I didn’t want fake comments just because I was in a pod. I’ve also stopped using hash tags because I’m so fed up of Instagram and I just use it for fun now. I find any followers I get through using hashtags are just the accounts the use follow bots and then unfollow a few days later. So whats the point.

Wonder if I’ll ever hit 6k again? Ha.

Twitter:

On the 1st January 2017 I had 10921. Today I have 11281.

That is a slight growth, I guess. But I did actually get up to around 11.5k but then over the past few months I’ve been slipping down. I gained 5k in 2016 so I’m mega behind on growth.

So what’s changed here? I hardly use Twitter anymore. Due to lack of time and being a bit fed up with everyone getting offended at everything. I don’t run my Twitter chat anymore and I don’t join in others. I used to be all over Twitter which means you get seen more and more likely to get followers, likes, and RTs. I remember the days when I would get loads of RTs a day, now I’m getting next to nothing.

This is probably because I Tweet out the same stuff over and over again but if I’m completely honest, I just can’t be bothered.

Worse blogger ever.

Pinterest:

On the first of January 2017 I had 3741 Pinterest followers. Today I have 3845.

I’m actually surprised to see I have a growth because I’ve completely stopped using Pinterest. I used to Pin all my posts and other peoples plus schedule pins. But it’s another thing I got fed up with because I had to put in loads of effort to grow and as soon as I stopped I’d get loads of unfollows so I found the thing really unproductive.

Bloglovin:

On the first January 2017 I had 3885 followers. Today I have 4096.

Again, I’m surprised I have a growth here too. I’ve not looked at Bloglovin in months or put any thought into it. I have been able to grow Bloglovin in the past using these techniques. That also cost me around an hour a day which is time I just don’t have anymore.

I think this is why blogging gets a bit addictive. Once you start doing something that works, you need to keep doing it or your growth stops. Bloggers feel pressure to get higher numbers. I’m to the point where I don’t really think it’s worth it.

I’d advise new bloggers to work on their following for a few months but then settle down into a routine where you get a good blog/life balance otherwise you spend years building up something that just halts when you want to have a life again. Plus who knows when another social media site might open and gain popularity, leaving your current one redundant.

How do you feel about things? Do you see a difference when you stop working on your following?

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