I am an addict.
I’m an all or nothing kind of guy.
This is a problem!
When I do things, I do them with everything I have in me. When I don’t do things, I just don’t do them.
This has been a pattern in my life for as long as I can remember.
The problem I have with blogging is that I throw myself into it and then I get obsessed with my blog stats and spend every spare minute of every day, and lots of minutes that aren’t really spare checking my stats, seeing how
my latest post is doing, who has read it, whether they responded etc etc.
I just can’t switch off.
So then I get obsessed with finding ways to promote my blog and with writing blog posts every day. I find as many different ways as possible to get statistics on my blog and try to employ different strategies to promote my blog.
Some of this is pure vanity but much of it is down to the fact that I’m thinking to myself “I’m doing all of this work writing and I truly believe that I’m writing what God gives me to write so I’d love for more people than just me and my imaginary friend, Bob, to read it.”
On top of all that, my site starts doing OK in Google searches and I’m getting people arriving every day from search engines because they have been searching for things like:
- ‘More of Christ and less of me’
- ‘How to show Christian love’
- ‘How to die to yourself’
- ‘what the bible says about hating people’
- ‘How to find a church that actually loves God’
- and for a while, every week I was getting people searching for where President Obama went to church that week – why they got sent to my site I have no idea!
Every day people are visiting my blog looking for the answers to these and many, many other questions – and I’m feeling the pressure of maybe not having to give them the right answer but definitely not giving them the wrong answers.
All of that leads to pressure on me. Pressure to write better posts, pressure to find more readers, pressure to interact with readers who comment. Pressure which is all imaginary.
On top of that, I cant be in the blogging world without reading blogs – and there are SO many great blogs out there to read. There are currently 46 blogs in my feed reader, the majority of which post every day. It takes a long time to read all of those and then comment on all of them. Then I have to check back every 15 minutes for the rest of the day to see if anyone has replied to my comments.
Before I took my little sabbatical, which I don’t really seem to be back from yet, I was probably spending 6 – 8 hours a day reading blogs, writing mine and monitoring stats and responses.
That was on top of being a pastor, being a full-time stay-at-home dad to 3 kids, trying to be a good husband, running a web-hosting business and trying to find time to have a life.
I burned out and I don’t know what the answer is. It has taken me weeks or even months, I don’t remember how long it has been, to get to the point where I can even write this.
Blogging is such a great cognitive tool for me and the replies I get to my posts are so helpful, they help me see more clearly and learn more of what God is trying to teach me but how do I blog without becoming addicted and obsessed?
I’m really lost here. I don’t know how to go forward in 34 years of life I have not yet worked out how to have a balanced approach to things. How do I stay in the blogging world without committing every moment, every fibre of my being to it? How do I do that with anything?
Any suggestions?
Well, I for one enjoy your blog immensely!
I know Bob, I know. Thanks for commenting at last though!
Okay (snort), I couldn’t help myself!
I feel sort of guilty. I don’t really have any lofty goals in terms of my blog. Yes, it’s kind of cool to see more people reading it, but it’s not as if I am expounding on any great truths there. I just write about what’s on my mind and/or on my heart. But I’m not a pastor, I’m just a goofball.
I would just encourage you to continue to write from your heart. For me, anyway – that is the mark of a great writer, regardless of the content.
Thanks Katdish. I appreciate you.
Hey Peter. I know I have not commented much (or at all that I can recall), but I do enjoy your blog. One of the ways that I have stopped, or at least lessened the temptation to stat addiction is to find ways to get your message our which cannot be tracked.
For example, I send my blog posts to be notes on facebook automatically. I do not track my subscribers (don’t even know if I have any). The only stats I use are the automatic ones on wordpress.com
I have purposely sent my message out in ways that I cannot track. I trust that God is blessing people and that he will do with it what he will.
Another way to limit the time spent, is not commenting on every blog post. I know, I want more comments on mine too, and I feel guilty about being a lurker, but I know that I do not have the time to invest in the other stuff. When I find something that really touches me, I blog about it and send a pingback.
This is just how I have done it, hope it helps.
pastor chad
Here’s what I had to do with the blogs I read. I had to discipline myself (because it sounds like we’re in a similar boat). I made folders in my favorites- one for Monday, one for Tuesday, one for Wednesday, etc. then I also have an “occassional” folder. I now have my regular blogs broken up by days so that I check them once a week instead of every day. There are a few I check every day (like yours), but I couldn’t keep up and it took too much time.
Yeah, I may be missing a few things, but I trust God will show me. By the way, my stats are in one of those folders and I just check the “last seven days” option once a week (usually). This may or may not work for you, but you’re right, you can’t keep up with all of it! It’s a wonderful way to share your heart, learn, and grow, but it’s not supposed to be bondage!
As for comments, I must not comment as much as you do but I do check back when I remember during the day. I don’t know if any of that helps, but it did help me so I thought I’d throw it out there. 🙂
Blessings to you and whatever you do, figure out how to keep on writing because you are a blessing!
Hoo boy! You nailed me, at least several months ago. I do not obsess on my blog stats anymore. But I did, and behaved just as you described.
I think I finally do my blogging for what is burning in my heart and rattling in my head. I try not to worry about what people are searching for, the only one who has the true answer to that is Jesus. So I talk about my faith in Him and let Him do as He would with it.
I do not worry about comments or lurkers, I just write. It was a liberating moment when I got there. Sometimes I do not check my stats for a day or two; and I try not to be surprised anymore, one way or the other.
My only other advice, stay away from Twitter if you do not want to track stats. Sheesh.
Spin. Crash. Burn. Been there – done that.
The comments to this post are filled with great advice. For me, the really liberating moment came when I discovered that absolutely NONE of the tracking software (Google Analytics, WP, you-name-it) were fully accurate! They all differed. Sometimes, they differed by 2-300%.
So – I quit using them. Now the only thing I use is a plugin called Statpress (or something like that) that only lists a few details about some of the most recent visitors. About once a month, I’ll download the stats that my web host provides just to get an overall idea of the traffic (I now only pay attention to long-term trends).
It’s really easy to get addicted to trying to analyze the stats. For me, it was all a huge waste of time – I knew it, but just couldn’t quit for a really long time.
About the time I learned just how inaccurate the stat programs really were, I came across a relevant (at least for me) question that I’ll pass on. It changed my personal outlook completely:
“Are you a Christian that blogs – – or are you a Christian blogger?”
Great to see you posting again.
The answer is very simple. You do what God tells you to do, and those other task to His grace. This concept is so simple we refuse to give it time or merit.
In that God is very specific with what He assigns and our yoke is easy. People with a gift of mercy often “enter nto the rolls of the burnout,” because they have yet to learn that God manages our gifting, not us. To see a need does not equate to being personally responsible to meet.
Ideas, use others and their thoughts and placce on your own blog. It has the same merit of sharing, of thought, teaching, etc.
Adios!
Peter, not to offend you, but I am not looking for deep answers when I visit your blog, just checking in with a fellow on the same path. Forget the stat programs. Do you write because you need to, because God places things in your heart that need to be uncovered, or do you write because you want to please us? I read bloggers for what God is saying to them. Not even for what he might say to me thru them.
Grace!
Hi Jaime, Thank you for the comment, I really appreciate it (and everyone else who commented too)
I write because I believe God gives me things to write. I fret because I’m human and male and insecure.
I guess that’s why I wrote this article, as a kind of therapy, a way of exposing my craziness.
Thank you for reminding me of the truth.