Blogging: What motivates us to keep on going?


How do you find the motivation to keep going and have you ever decided to hang up your sneakers?

Comments

Terry said…
Thanks for this one "bloggers anonymous."

We don't expect y'all to blog forever. We expect you to have interruptions in your life, for your tastes and priorities to change - for real life to interfere. But when you quit, I hope you'll leave your content up.

Y'all make me think of all those PTA parents - I was one - dedicated and active at their kids' schools for 12 or more straight years. Then, no PTA. The relief is extraordinary. But it's over and we're doing other things now.

I think most bloggers don't quite know where they are going when they start. Don't know where it will lead. The blogs help folks find their voice, focus their interests and find new interests. That makes it so unexpectedly interesting. Doing a blog changes people more than just reading blogs.

The "power of attorney" issue for blogs, Flickr accounts and the like is serious. You need somebody who knows those things to back you up. My family has all my logons but wouldn't know what to do with them. Not even to tell folks when I get sick.
Great topic today...Now I do have just one little suggestion I see you have your pictures of your self on your header pic...however I would love to know which one is each of you...Maybe put a name to to the face...so as I listen to you I can picture in my mind eye who is talking to me...Just me thinking out loud..as I am a new follower here and don't know one face from another yet...May all of you keep up the great job...I so enjoy coming here and learning new things about this wonderful world of blogging...Hugs and smiles Gl♥ria
I have a tiny book with all my usernames and passwords (hidden silly!) and someone in my family knows where it is...but, as far as quitting..I've fantasized about it..how sick!..like imagining your own funeral..ya know..will people weep or celebrate or finally say all the nasty things they've been wanting to say about me..ha ha...or should I fake it (quitting) just to see how many damn 'begging-come-back' comments I'd get...I just love blogging so much, I can't imagine my life right now without it..I think if I quit blogging, I would give up the internet totally. I continue to adore the blogs who really stay personal and real and authentic and imperfect - the ones with a special voice; a wonderful person who actually lives and breaths and creates and shares. Keep up the incredible radio show!
Funny you should mention this b/c I just told my friend KD at Southern Whimsey that I was getting burned out on blogging. I think I just need to realize that:
a) I will have days that blogging just ain't gonna give me goose bumps.
b) I DO NOT have to particpate in EVERY single meme and event, no matter if I feel like I do.
c) Sometimes a few days away makes you appreciate and miss blogging.

I don't know where my blogging is going or how long I will continue, but I just know that for now it brings joy to me and I would miss all my bloggy friends immensely.

Sorry I wasn't much help or inspiration.
Well, I have to say, I was stunned and very excited to have my little blog mentioned in this illustrious group! I am so glad that "ya'll" brought up this subject, because I do think it's really important. The subject of why we blog is something that plagues me daily. My family asks me that question every time I sit down at my laptop, and I can't answer them. The conclusion I've reached is that I blog because I enjoy the people so much. I often wonder if that means I don't have a "real" life, but I do work a job outside the home 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. Who knows why I need more people in my life. I have never read a blogger who said "I started blogging to 'meet' new people who share a common interest", but I sure have read a lot of them who say that they keep blogging because of the people they've "met". Almost every time I type a post, I think "after this one, I'm going to quit"! Glad to know that all of you have had those feelings also. Again, thanks so much for bringing my "pet" topic to so many people, and Joni the mention of little ole me was thrilling! I feel like a celebrity! laurie
This really is a great talk today. I have sometimes thought about how and if I would stop one day. I'm not thinking I will blog forever, but still. Are we all too far gone into the blogging that we will have massive withdrawals?? ack. more stuff to think about.
xo Lidy
Leah said…
Oh god, I struggle with this issue every single day. It's especially bad on days when I don't get a lot of comments. Even when my tracker says that a couple thousand people have visited, if there isn't much interaction with those readers, I tend to get a little down and wonder if anyone would care if I just walked away. (So readers, please know that your comments are hugely important to the folks who write your favorite blogs.)

I post every weekday, and I also struggle with the fact that blogging has essentially turned into a half-time job (or more), but one with little to no pay. I do it because I love it more than I don't love it, and while I certainly didn't get into blogging to pay the mortgage, at some point I am going to have to make a hard decision about whether continuing to blog is financially sustainable.

Anyway, thanks for addressing this issue. It's some comfort to know that my fellow bloggers struggle with the same things!
I don't know where I found my motivation... like the first commenter, sometimes it's hard to know what we will be doing a few years from now. Right now I love bblogging as much as love ballroom dancing, and many other things that somehow "desapeared" in time. I guess we just change and find new things that keeps us going. Fiding inspiration for blogging is hard and to be honest sometimes I feel silly for a post or two that I post. I think it might be nice to me but it may sound stupid to others. I guess blogging is just a way I found to be in touch with other real women who have the same chores I do and still find time to be happy and enjoy decoarting their home. Best to you all, Vanessa
Hi Ladies, I so understand what Megan was talking about when she mentioned the bubble. It's kind of that feeling you get when you go away from work on a vacation. After several days, when the "trance" has worn off, you start to question why you are doing you job, where are you real values and sometimes even where your life is headed. If I don't blog for a weekend and get involved in hiking or biking or a trip out of town, I feel a bit like I've broken the trance and escaped...but I am always willing to come back and sign back up for the nightly "homework" as Joanie calls it. I do feel a tremendous sense of responsiblity to keep it going because folks are expecting and counting on it...which could sound arrogant...but I don't mean it that way. I do realize their world would continue to revolve if I did quit...but I have this thing about finishing that which I start. :-) Ummmm, a puzzle to continue discussing another day. We still never fully answered the question...why do we do it? Susan
Terry said…
Writing these things is brain exercise. Starting and finishing a post requires discipline and dedication. Showing your post to the public takes courage. Commenting in a helpful way develops tact.

We'd love for our children to write a couple of good paragraphs every day. We know it's good for us too.
72 and sunny said…
I'm so happy to hear other's thoughts on this subject. it's a toughy! terry you were so right, 'bloggers anonymous' we are!
Beth Connolly said…
Another great job. I really look forward to each one. I am a new blogger-both my blogs were started in 2009, and I even have those thoughts of why am I doing this! I was at a Diana Krall concert last night, and all I kept thinking of was what am I going to post about! Another topic idea is time management. Now that I am getting a lot of comments and emails and follow a lot of blogs, I am a bit overwhelmed with the time aspect. All of your input would be interesting. Do you limit your time per day? Do you sit down and do a week's worth of posts all at once? I think this would be quite useful.
Teacats said…
As I've mentioned before -- I would of course hound you all if you decided to quit! (LOL!) And goodness knows I was so worried about Joni and her family going through the hurricane -- and so thankful for her continued and humerous updates! So yes -- we readers DO indeed worry when our favorite bloggers disappear! And why am I so addicted to blogs? For the same reason that I am addicted to decor books and magazines -- home design is an art, a science and a touch of magic all rolled into one. I have seen the results of a basic room design around here -- folks are simply thrilled BUT they cannot understand WHY the design/look/feel of a room is so important. Until they have seen and lived with the new one. And even then they will say "well it is JUST a room" In the same way there are not that many people in my life that understand WHY I care about a paint color, lampshade, artwork or room arrangement. So I turned to decor magazines and books -- and now a whole world of blogs! In the same way that a undersity or college can expose a new realm of ideas in so many subjects -- so can blogs! Different views are literally available at the turn of a mouse. And the mere fact that I (mild-mannered suburban design addict) can "see" your wonderful designs or "hear" about your views or even "talk" with you (on the Comments section) is wonderful! Much nicer than the usual eye-rolling, head-shaking and deep sighs of exasperation from other friends and family about home decor or design! LOL!

Jan at Rosemary Cottage
I don't think I could ever quit. I started my blog because I was spending so much time looking up how-to information, I figured others must be interested in the information as well. Now I have so many people who consistently rely on that list...I don't think I could ever let them down!

The good news is that I don't ever have to worry about inspiration. I just post to things I'm already looking up, so I'm a bit different that traditional blogs in that respect. I've been interested in DIY all my life. I'd have to totally loose interest in it to quit my blog. I hope that never happens.

As far as getting sick goes... Write some posts in advance! I post at the same time each day, so if I'm missing or late, people start emailing. I always have a few posts ready to go that I can schedule into that slot if life gets in the way.

Great podcast ladies! I love these so much!
Linda Merrill said…
So interesting to hear everyone's perspectives! I think there is so much we can learn from each other.
petra voegtle said…
Hi dear Ladies,
while I listened to your podcast I realized that I missed my own anniversary on my very first blog - I started that one in June 2007 and my counter shows more than 50.000 visitors which I find is a huge number for a small niche blog such as this one: a blog about art and everything that's related to it (Images and Imagination on http://vyala.wordpress.com)
The funny thing about it is, that I started it with a post in which I talked about my intent for this blog and it went exactly as intented - to my own surprise - I am still talking about art and everything around this theme.
The funny thing is that I NEVER thought to be able to keep it up for so long nor did I ever assume to have that many readers (for me).

In fact I started it for myself, to keep track of my own thoughts regarding art, to have a kind of diary and interestingly enough there has been quite an evolution in my thinking! To my own surprise! AND I learned so much from other bloggers. The blog was the best means to define my goals, to analyse my thoughts and reactions towards other art, to become more tolerant and understanding about the motivation other artists were driven by. I also learned that it is not good at all to take oneself too seriously. Making fun of oneself from time to time loosens up all ties that you might have spun on yourself.

And this was not even the end but only one month later I was further diving into the blogworld. The next blog I started was a photography blog with random subjects which I just found interesting and which I had snapped with my camera. So the motivation for this one was simply sharing photos and a couple of thoughts - no serious intent (Magic Worlds through the Lens - http://vyalaarts.wordpress.com) but also this blog is still running now for nearly 2 years.

continued in next comment - lol
petra voegtle said…
Continued - part 2

The third blog "Blooms and Blossoms" (http://vyala.blogspot.com) started about 1 year ago - because I loved to photograph flowers so much and I did not want to mix it up with everything else - so I kept it a photography blog about this theme only. Now this one is a very special one to me - because it is all about flowers and colours of course. Amazingly it does not have a large readership at all and I don't know the reason for this. I always thought that people love to see flower photography but apparently this is too mundane. A couple of times I thought to skip it entirely because I felt that hardly anyone was interested in it although there is a lot of work in it too: it has evolved into quite a database as I am trying to find all names in English and German, the botanical names in Latin and colour definition, so that anyone can search for it in the detailed category list or use the search function.
Apparently not many people are interested but I decided to keep it up for myself as long as I can do it.

The 4th blog, started last year also, was a documentary about a feral pigeon couple that decided to live and breed on our balcony. This is definitely a diary with tons of photos but also stories about "our" pigeon family - a very valuable database of close observations and interesting facts which can be called upon by anyone who's interested.

The 5th blog, a German about art and interior design, with the purpose of talking about the creation of my art work and how it could be integrated into interiors started end of last year. I killed it in the meanwhile. In Germany there is no real blogging culture and the amount of work that went into this blog was simply for the dust. It was extremely frustrating to have nearly no feedback. Even if I did it mainly for myself - you expect some feedback from time to time. But on this one came nothing.
In Germany blogging is used either as pure ranting and complaining - the Germans complain too much - against all and everything or completely superficial. People here are generally too stupid to recognize the potential of blogs or are too arrogant to understand that blogging can be more than talking about pets.

So I decided to start something similar about Art and Interior in English with an audience that is much more used to discuss things on the Internet. I love this blog and am very happy to see that more and more people love to read this blog. What could be a bigger motivation to write a blog?

So you see my motivation is to keep contact with the outer world. When I am working I am regularly completely alone. This is necessary sometimes but can be also very frustrating when you cannot find people who are likeminded or who consider everyone else as a potential competitor instead of a team player.

I love blogging and the argumentation with other people. I need it and I truly hope that there won't be any circumstances where I need to abandon it.

Greetings from Munich!
Omg, too funny. Just this week had a nasty fall while picking up beer bottles in the beautiful woods on one of our dog walks... really nasty. (Obit to read: She died picking up trash...) So on the slow walk home I told my husband my blog password in case he needed to make a post that I died picking up stupid people's trash!!!
Maria Killam said…
Very interesting to hear everyone's thoughts on blogging, mine is still so new that I don't seem to run out of things to say, although my Ralph Lauren post I just did last night would seem like an 'easy one' that's for sure. Joni, you probably shudder when you see posts like that that took 4 seconds to do, compared to the time you put into your posts!

Hey, schedule me in for a guest spot soon :)
Unknown said…
Damn, I'd better get my power of attorney ready in case a house drops on me! Who knew? Love it...
At first I started my blog for "me", as with many others, thinking it help me to organize my thoughts, ideas, etc. Then I felt pressure to be more of a promoting site for our family's antique store. This made me frustrated because I couldn't be as honest and expressive about issues I was thinking about. So, I've done some more personal writing too. Actually, I struggle with the "direction" of my blog ALL the time! And it is hard work. I would love to be a bigger part of the blogosphere as you mention, but with 3 small children, a full-time shop and online store, and 1stdibs to maintain it is impossible! So you girls are my heroines, I hope I can write and post such great work as you do more often. Thanks for being there for those of us who can't be.
Olga (Dancing Through Paris)