Blogging When Times Get Rough – Sandbox To Success Episode 038

Today we’ll be talking about how to recover from blogging when you’ve had a really rough month. This episode will be a little different, and I’ll be a bit more personal with you. This podcast is all about helping each other, and I couldn’t help you without sharing this particularly rough month that I’ve had. I’ll tell you about mine, and tell you what you can do with your blogging game if you have a rough month. Whether you’re part time, full time or blogging for hobby… it doesn’t always go so smoothly. Sometimes personal things affect your blog and you’re not sure what to do about it.

The Background To This Post

For us, here at TOTS, January was a very rough month.  At the end of December, my blogging partner Cat was in a car accident. She’s fine, but she had to recover. That led to a shift in responsibilities and I tried to cover as much as I could (which is the reason we have a partnership, right?).  There were other things that came into play in December as well, making it a really sucky month. The corporation that I worked for prior to becoming a full time blogger asked me to come back and work on a project for 6 months. I went from blogging full time throughout the day, to working a 9-5 job. That made things tight juggling my family and other obligations.

Next, we switched our web host. We were hosting with Green Geeks on a shared host, but we switched to a dedicated VPS. We had many migration issues. I’m talking 200+ emails and many hours on the phone. Our site was down off and on and I couldn’t access our site for almost two weeks. This was very frustrating, particular with my limited time.

In the midst of all this, my very good friend was murdered in a school shooting. The student, who shot him, shot him first. We went to university together and it really impacted me. He was a very good teacher and good friend of mine. He was doing everything he had dreamed of, and his life was going as he wanted. It took a toll on me, and it really impacted me, as you can probably imagine.

On top of all of this, the normal stress of day-to-day task continued. I think we all have those days, weeks, or even months where it seems like things just keep happening one after the other.

How Do We Get Back In The Game Blogging After That?

There are a few different ways. You may just throw yourself into your blog and block everything else out. I do that sometimes. It feels productive and that I have control over something. For me, it wasn’t an option this time around since our migration issues.

Another option is to delegate. We are fortunate enough to have a great team of people with post scheduled for the entire month, so we were doing pretty well before the issues hit. If you don’t have a team, you can still hire someone. Search for VAs or VAs for Hire and you’ll find several groups where you can find virtual assistants for hire. You can hire people to write post, do recipes, and more.

You can also choose to automate more things. We’ve been using “Meet Edgar” which kept our post constantly going so there was never a lull.

Pause and Evaluate

Times like these are also a great time to stop and reevaluate whether you want to continue blogging through your issues, or if you are going the direction in blogging that you wish to. We all have our personal issues. Some deal with depression. Some have family members or spouses struggling with cancer or other things. You may not want to go on blogging through this, and that’s okay. You don’t have to announce it to your readers. I thought about writing about the shooting, but I don’t normally write about tragedies. I wouldn’t’ know where to begin, or how I could help.

If your blog is a personal one, you may want to drop a message letting your readers know that something has come up that has led you to take a break for awhile. I suggest you allow them to drop their email address, so that you can let them know when you’re back up. Whether or not you want to share in this way is up to you.

It’s also okay to temporarily pull back, when dealing with temporary issues. The downside of this is that sponsors are expecting you to come through for them. We have to make sure we are fulfilling our duties to our sponsors and readers despite what is going on in our life. That can look really different though.

Have Plans In Place

Cat and I have systems in place that allow us to pitch in and help the other out whenever it is necessary. I suggest you write down a list of what you do from day to day so that it’s ready if you ever need to hire someone to do the work for you.

I’d love to hear what you’ve done in rough months. Have you let it sit and collect dust for a while, then resumed? Have you pushed through it? I’d love to hear.

Sandboxtosuccess.com. We have a contact page, or if you’re listening

In Memory Of Adam

One last ask I have before we go. In memory of my friend Adam, I’d love it you’d take a few minutes out of your day to just go outside with your family and enjoy nature and all it has to give you. Adam was a shining light we lost in this world, and he loved the outdoors. His greatest joy came from teaching and sharing with others what you can do outside. Canoeing…hiking. He loved all sorts of those things and connecting. I think he was the first person that taught me how to portage. So go outside… hike… hug a tree. Anything. Whatever you decide to do, I’d love to see pictures of where you went and what you did.

So that’s it for this week. Next week on episode 39 we’ll be talking about food blogging and how to get better views with our recipes.

“Until next time, thanks for listening to the Sandbox to Success podcast, with your host: Katrina M. Thom. If you like what you just heard, leave us a message at ITunes or Stitcher.  We would also love to hear what you have to say. Use the hashtag  #totspodcast to connect with us on twitter. Don’t forget to check out the show notes, which can be found at www.totsbusiness.com. Join us next time for another edition of the Sandbox to Success podcast. Have an AWESOME day!”