6 Ways to Bore Your Blog's Readers

It turns out that it is surprisingly easy to be boring as a blogger.

I've done it. There are old posts that I've read and cringed at, posts that I'm not really shocked got zero comments or a handful of views, because even I can admit that they were bo-ring with a capital everything.

(By the way, don't bother trying to look for those posts. They are deeply buried in the trash bin of my Blogger account along with some typoed comment replies and that dead body I promised I wasn't going to talk about.)

Oops. *continues with post hoping nobody called the police yet*

But when I can actually force myself to read the whole thing before pounding on the delete button, I can often put down the cringeworthy boringness to one of six things that I did wrong. And, because I am an incredibly charitable overlord, I figured I'd share those things with you, so that you can make boring content too!

Or ... not make boring content. If that's what you fancy.

#1 ~ Give Yourself An Imminent Deadline
Deadlines ... can be a good thing.

They keep you focused, they mean that you blog at least semi-regularly, and it's a really nice feeling when you meet them. But when deadlines are unrealistic, they are one of the most unhelpful things for a blogger to have.

Why? Well, this is what tends to happen when I set myself a ridiculous deadline.

Firstly, I will procrastinate. Procrastination is your brain realising it doesn't know how to deal with the task you've tried to give it, and buying itself enough time to try and figure everything out - as a creative person, you likely experience it a lot. The problem is that this process will usually happen for longer when you have a more difficult problem, like a shorter time frame to complete the task in ... you see where this vicious cycle is going, right? The procrastinating monster has even been known to make pretty reasonable deadlines impossible much quicker than you'd think, so do watch out.

And then, when I finally decide what I'm doing and sit down to write, I have no option but to rush everything. I don't research, my graphics are horribly sloppy if they exist at all, and the actual post, if it makes sense, is mind-numbingly dull.

That's what we're trying to avoid here, I guess.

#2 ~ Stick Too Closely To A Blogging Schedule
I love schedules, but I never stick to them.

They represent organisation, which is one of my favourite concepts, but also structure, and structure can very easily become - all together now:

BORING!

One of the great things about having a blog is that it's yours to do whatever you want with, and if you keep yourself limited by some abstract framework that might not fit as well as you want it to anymore, then you're denying yourself that freedom. That'll make you fed up, let alone everyone else.

Not only that, but if you tell yourself you have to post on certain days or a certain amount of times, there will be times when you end up having to write posts with zero ideas or inspiration just because they're due, and often (in the eyes of your readers, anyway) a yawn-worthy post is worse than none at all. Sure, have a schedule - go ahead and do your best to post three times a week - but if you're regularly not living up to that, it's time to reconsider either how much content you're trying to create, or the way you're trying to create it.

#3 ~ Isolate Yourself
If you ask a blogger what their favourite part of blogging is, I can bet with almost complete certainty that they'll tell you it's the community they're a part of. Hey, if you're desperate enough to read this, then you're probably one of us too. You'll understand how amazing it is to make friends and interact with the other people that are reckless enough to engage in this crazy little hobby.

So why (WHY? WHY?) would you keep yourself to yourself when it comes to your art? It's only by surrounding yourself with different styles, different opinions - different voices - that you are going to broaden out, to decide where you want to go with your blogging and stop yourself from staying in the same stagnant position the whole time.

(Yeah, you guessed it. That stagnant position is MEGA-boring as both a blogger and a blog appreciator.)

Feel free to go on Twitter or Bloglovin' or whatever super-secret online blogger collectives I haven't been invited to yet. Share your ideas. Those close online buddies, the ones you'd trust to see work you're not quite sure about? Email them. I'm sure they'll be okay with it. If you take the time to use the support system that's available to you (and, of course, keep your voice shining through), it will be incredibly tough to be boring.

#4 ~ Mess Up Your Timing
As a blogger, you're basically a magician, except you use words instead of rabbits and top hats. Which, of course, means that timing is everything.

If your readers are anything like me - with the amount of blogs I find myself on daily, one of them probably is me - then they get bored by seeing the same things in the same place all the time. It doesn't make any difference that you only participate in blog tags twice a year if those two posts are within a week of each other. You're going to get scapegoated as "that one that only posts tags" and no-one gives a second thought to your insightful discussions or how helpful your tutorials are. If your content always seems the same lately, then just take some time to think about what else you could be writing. Try something new.

And remember - what you're working on isn't the wrong idea or the wrong piece. It's just the wrong timing.

#5 ~ Take Yourself Too Seriously
One thing you will, always, always have to remember is that BLOGGING IS SUPPOSED TO BE FUN.

It's not about agonising over your niche and whether your posts properly fit into it 100% of the time, or forcing yourself to write when you really don't want to. It's about getting joy from your craft, and if at all possible, using it to give other people some too. It probably sounds cliche, but readers really can tell if you're having fun or not - and if you're bored stiff, then they're just going to follow your lead.

So ... just have fun with it. Post the even craziest ideas that come into your head. Laugh as you type. Don't you dare think about playing it safe. 

Not only will 99% of your readers be having just as good a time as you are, but the ones that don't hardly matter anyway.

Sorry. I just couldn't write a whole post about boredom and not fit this GIF in somewhere.

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In the comments: Do you catch yourself doing things that make your content boring? How do you stop yourself? What tips do you have for others to avoid making the same mistakes?

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Labels: Tips & Tricks