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8 Basic Characteristics To Sustain Long Term Blogging

8Time flies when you are having fun. And blogging has been fun. What started off as short updates in Multiply has gradually turned into blogging through Blogger and now, having self-hosted blogs spread over different niche areas – personal, recipes, blogging, financial & legal matters and hotel promotions. Is it as easy to blog as it sounds?

 

I guess many new or even not so new blogger would ask how do I keep up with my blogging stamina. To be frank, there are times when I have practically nothing to write about, what some define as a blogger’s block. There are times however, when the inspiration just keeps coming in and I had to filter out what is bloggable instead. You don’t just put anything and everything that comes into your mind into your blog – especially when your blog is also read by people who personally know you.

 

Some of my friends who don’t blog asked me what blogging is all about and they seemed kinda interested (especially with the possibility of making a little side income through blogging). But when I explored with them what I deem the basic requirements, their initial enthusiasm seems to die off.

 

By analysing my personal experience, I think the following 8 Basic Characteristics of mine played an important part in my blogging stamina for these 2 years or so, culminating in the birth of different blogs across different niches. Let’s see if you share the same characteristics of mine.

 

SHARING

I am quite open to sharing my experiences with others most of the time, especially when it is something which could benefit others. Coupled with the intention to improve my mastery of written English, sharing my experiences and knowledge through blogging became natural.

 

PASSION

When someone does something with passion, you bet he’ll be doing that thing seriously and satisfyingly. Adding on to my openness to sharing and my intention to benefit others, the passion to see this aim of mine bearing fruit resulted in a natural motivating factor for me to continue blogging. For instance, the intention of sharing family recipes with others became all the more satisfying when positive feedbacks were received in the form of comments. This drove me further to explore more recipes to share with others. Needless to say, cooking IS one of my passions.

 

BELIEFS and INFLUENCE

I don’t live as a hermit. Rather, my life is in constant touch with others and I am being observed all the time. Much influenced by my walk as a disciple of Jesus, I believe that blogging enables me to interact with others and to bring forth my viewpoints on matters – whether it be religious or not. I do think that as a disciple of Jesus, what I do and how I interact impacts others, however subtle it may be. Hence, you will see that my blogs stay away from topics promoting gambling, pornography and the like but focuses more on how I can contribute to others.

 

INTERACTION

Blogging cannot be sustained without an earnest effort to interact with others. I love receiving comments and replying to comments left on my posts (Hint! Hint!). It still thrills me to receive comments from complete strangers thousands of kilometres across the globe on something that I have just written. I guess my early days of having pen pals (yes, I used to write letters to pen pals across the globe) have now modified itself into having blogging pals. Lately, I have begun to indulge into social media and have made a couple of new friends. I mean, if I could visit Melbourne one day, I would love to meet up with fellow bloggers whom I know – Darren Rowse, Skellie, Ryan (he’s no more active in blogging but he’s one of my earliest blogging pals) and Wuching. The world has indeed become a smaller place.

 

VOCATION / HOBBY

My blog with the highest traffic so far is my food blog at Hochiak! Delicious Asian Food. As I have mentioned earlier, cooking is one of my passions. Meanwhile, I am a full time lawyer and I author Financial & Legal Matters. It thus becomes natural and easy for me to blog about the very thing which excites me and which I am doing daily. I can never run out of topic on those two! And the beauty of blogging about something related to your vocation or hobby is that your contents become more credible by reason of your real experience.

 

KNOWING THE REASON/S

I think it is important that a new blogger ought to know or be able to answer the question why he / she decides to blog. It is like having a mission statement, not unlike a mission statement in life. What you think your life on earth represents would shape the way you live your life. For me, to live here on earth is to glorify God in the things that I do. So, I live my life aware of the reason for my existence. Likewise, I decided to blog so that I can share my life experiences for the benefit of others. That helped to shape the direction of my blogs, how I blog and the things I blog about.

 

NEVER STOP LEARNING

It’s quite obvious, isn’t it? You can never stop learning. The day you stop learning, you will deteriorate. Blogging is no different. If you wish to take your blogging to a higher level (whether it be in the way you write, the way you design your blog, etc), you have to continue to learn and read. I read a lot from other blogs, some of which continues to amaze me with the amount of information and resources. When I now look back into the early days of blogging, I see a change in the presentation and perhaps, for the lack of a better word, professionalism (though I must be the first to say that I don’t profess to be a pro in this blogging business) in the way I blog. My personal blog, however, remains much like how it was used to be as that is the character of the blog. Nevertheless, despite the obvious difference between my early days of blogging and today, I still feel proud of having improved over the months. So, don’t feel inferior in any way on how you blog. We all start from scratch and learn our way up.

 

BEING IN CONTROL

I am in control of my blogs. I decide what I want to post, when I want to post and how I want to post them. Sometimes, I post on consecutive days, sometimes once every 3 to 5 days. I would be lying if I were to say that I don’t care how my readers feel about it but I take comfort in the fact that despite some of my erratic schedules at times, my loyal readers remain who they are, loyal readers. It takes time to build loyalty and friendship but you know that these people are always there in waiting. Being in control of my blogs frees me as I do afterall, have a full time and quite demanding job. That remains my priority as it brings food to the table. Being in control thus gave me less pressure to blog. You’d be surprise to note that there are bloggers out there who feel pressured and obliged to blog just to keep others happy.

 

As you can see from the above, I think a majority of the factors which helped me sustain blogging for almost 2 years are inherent factors which require little learning. I would say that blogging does in a way, reveal a little (or perhaps a lot) about one’s personality and character, if the above analysis is taken as a measure.

 

How long have you been blogging and what kept you blogging?


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. 02 Nov 07 | About Beginners, About Blogging

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Intelligent Replies

  1. Edrei | November 2nd, 2007 at 10:57 am

    4 and a half years of blogging and still going.

    Your purpose has to be the biggest reason you keep blogging. For those of us who just keep blogging, ultimately you have to be somewhat of a hermit. It’s hard to keep up with all the Joneses and for the most part I feel that if you get caught up with all the fads, you will eventually get sucked into all the fads and many lose an important part of themselves in the process.

    Once that reason has been lost and the fad dies down. Blogging isn’t the same anymore and people just trail off.

    The next biggest way to keep blogging is to live life. To make your blog about your life rather than making your life about your blog. Every influence, every lesson learnt, everything that is everything about you, no matter what you write, is reflected on your blog. For that at least, there is no greater teacher and inspiration to mirror than the life that you go out there and live. There is always something to write and the moment you stop going out there, you stop being original about it.

  2. Giddy Tiger | November 2nd, 2007 at 3:39 pm

    And you only get better and better… I like to read blogsreview posts Pablo. Very insightful and to the point. Bravo!

  3. Wayne Liew | November 2nd, 2007 at 6:37 pm

    I can’t deny that you really have all the stamina and enthusiasm for blogging. I only started blogging last year so I don’t think this little feat is called long term yet.

    I can feel myself getting deeper into blogging and hopefully I can go deeper. ;-)

  4. pablopabla | November 6th, 2007 at 1:25 pm

    Edrei : You always come in with thoughtful comments. Much of what you have said mirrors an online personal diary, which is what your blog is about. The only way you will stop writing a personal diary is when you’ve outgrown it as a part of your life.

    GiddyTiger : Thanks :D It took me some time to get this post ready. With your kind of comments, it’s worth the time spent :D

    Wayne : Seek your purpose for blogging and you will know whether you would go far or not ;)

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