What Happens When You Don’t Blog

If you’ve been following my blog, you’ll notice that I’ve been surprisingly absent the past few weeks. In my two years of blogging here, this is the longest I’ve gone without a post.

I have good reasons why I’ve been absent (business has been booming and I’ve taken a few days off). But, I’ve learned some valuable lessons from my hiatus. And, I think you can benefit from this too.

So, what happens when you don’t blog? Here’s what I learned from my blogging break:

You get out of your rhythm.

I talk a lot about blog post consistency. I think it’s a incredibly important component to keep your readers engaged and coming back.

But, there’s another big reason to write regularly – it helps keeps you sharp.

Getting back on the blogging horse is hard after taking time off.  It’s much like exercise. If I go a week or two without running, that first run back is really tough because I have to coax my muscles back into submission.

Blogging is no different. When you’re writing regularly, you’ll find that you have more ideas, posts flow easier and you can even write faster.

You may miss opportunities.

When someone shows up to your website and sees that your blog hasn’t been updated in a few weeks, your website quickly turns into an abandoned social media ghost town.

This could lead to all sorts of problems when people visit your site. Instead of subscribing to your blog or emails, they’ll move on. Or, maybe they were considering contacting your business about a project, but decided to hire someone else when they saw you hadn’t blogged in awhile.

Although it’s impossible to know if this is the case, don’t let visitors think you don’t care enough to keep your blog updated. It sends all the wrong signals that may negatively impact your business.

Your readers will miss you (or move on).

Even if your blog only has a small number of readers, I guarantee there are people who regularly read your content. You may not always know who they are as they may read without commenting or sharing.

But, when you stop blogging, they’ll miss your content. And, perhaps they’ll find somewhere else to spend their time.

I was lucky enough to get a nudge from a friend who asked me “where have you been? I miss your blog.”

That was just the wake-up call I needed to get back in the game.

Thankfully, I know that friends like John will come back to my blog after taking a break. But, it certainly makes me wonder if other readers moved on because I’ve not been delivering my regular dose of marketing and social media tips here.

I’ve never been one to say that you need to write every day, but don’t give your readers a reason to move on because you’re not keeping your blog updated.

How do you stay on track?

I’m the first to admit that sometimes it’s important (and even necessary) to take a blogging break sometimes.

But, instead of letting excuses get in the way, it’s important to find the rhythm that works best for your blog. That means defining your blogging goals to find the balance that works best for you.

And, if you need some additional tips, here are some ideas for how you can produce blog content faster.

What about you? Have you ever taken a blogging break? If so, what lessons did you learn from it?

Image credit: D. Sharon Pruitt