Why I’m Quitting Blogging

I know, I know. Only a few posts ago I was announcing my love for, and return to, the blogging world. However, it turns out I’m actually quitting. At least for a bit. I love it, I really do but I just can’t find any meaningful gravity in it right now; my blogging journey has turned into a fight against an addiction to instant gratification and I’ve decided I’m not here for that anymore. Allow me to explain.

I can’t just create to create. Writing for the sake of having posts go live every week isn’t working for me right now. It feels somehow empty and draining. Like repetitively serving coffees as a barista. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely adore creating, particularly through writing. But each metaphorical coffee I make seems to take away a little more of my purpose as I hand it over the metaphorical counter (the internet). I’ll put it this way: I still feel compelled to make pretty latte art for others but when I get home from work, I’d rather go to bed than make a coffee for myself. Paradoxically, although a hugely creative hobby, blogging seems to be hindering my creative process in general.

Advertisement

Are You Having an Instagram Identity Crisis?

I have a confession to make. I seem to have commitment issues. You know when you have a love for one thing but then something else catches your eye? Yeah, that’s me with Instagram. I am being utterly genuine when I write that I have actually lost count of the number of accounts I have had in the last few years on Instagram.

My Instagram History

I started off like any other teenager out there: one little space online where I posted the odd sunset, food or family holiday photo. Then I became vegan and yearned to feel a part of a community after what felt like such a huge lifestyle change at the time. And so I created a foodie account. This lasted a while but was cut off once I completed school and started travelling. Once you’re relying on cheap food eaten in poorly-lit hostels to survive it is practically impossible to maintain a beautiful food account. And so I did the only sensible thing and started a travel photography one instead. This somehow died a slow death though. I’m sure there have been other, more temporary ones too – like the black and white minimalist profile I had somewhere along the way – but they have mostly faded into insignificance now.

What’s The Deal With Pinterest Then?

For most bloggers, being active on social media is very important. It’s how we grow our blogs, engage with other readers and writers, find inspiration, get feedback, support others and generally take the personal nature of owning a blog into a public arena. As I’ve gotten to grips with blogging over the last eightish months, I’ve slowly introduced each social media platform one at a time.

One month in, I set up Twitter. I think I have an okay understanding of this platform now: I sometimes take part in blogger chats and feel like this is a wonderful place to not only find other bloggers but engage with them too. So many wonderful people have supported me over on Twitter; I recently started my own little project on there, with the aim of giving back a bit of love to the people that have helped get me to where I am now and also create their own amazing content.

Why I Ditched My 1K Instagram Account

A few days ago, I decided to start a new Instagram account. If anyone reading this follows my old one, they might be thinking ‘why?!’ I had over 1k followers on there and a feed I quite liked. I’ve worked hard to get it to that point so why on earth would anyone in that position start from 0 again: especially when it is notoriously difficult to grow an audience on Instagram now. If you’re only here for the short answer then all you need to know is that I wanted a fresh start.

Not satisfied by that answer? Then stick around for the long story…

Two Months In: My 2017 Blog Stats and Reflection

In case you haven’t noticed, 2017 ended a couple of days ago, and that inevitably means it’s time to reflect on the past year. I thought I’d take a moment to have a look back on my blogging journey so far.

My blog was born on 7th November 2017, and in the 54 days between then and New Year’s Eve, I published 40 posts which amounted to around 23,500 words. I toppled over 200 WordPress followers around the start of the year, with over 1000 visitors to my blog worldwide, primarily from the UK, USA and Canada, and a total of 2700 views.