I’ve run my business all my life, so I’m only too well aware of the peaks and troughs, the ups and downs, and the rewards that sometimes follow your efforts.
But one thing that’s very hard to shake, even when you know business is cyclical, is that when it’s down, you often get this sinking feeling of wanting to just give up. Which, of course, you can’t do when you’re self-employed.
So yes — this is very much a “down in the dumps” blog.
Not all bad, mind you. My short stories are coming along well. And my referrals from search engines have gone up incrementally — from 20 a week eight weeks ago, to 50 five weeks ago, to 75 last week. Not huge numbers, but a clear 150% increase in eight weeks. And since I’ve allowed myself two years to get to grips with blogging, if it carries on at that rate I’ll end up being a very successful blogger indeed.
That said, it may well be that traffic only increases by 50 every eight weeks — which would still be fine. That would mean search engines alone would be bringing in 700 views a month in two years time. Nothing to be sniffed at.
Losing the Plot ( and Finding It Again)
So what’s eating away at me?
I’ve been tired, psychologically exhausted, really, after my 12-day break of excesses. It’s totally normal, of course, but I haven’t had a break like that for decades, so I’d forgotten how long it can take to recalibrate. Don’t get me wrong: I like coming back from holiday. I love running my business and my home life. But you can’t beat the physics and chemistry of your body, and right now it’s all led to a bit of hardcore negativity and dog tiredness.
The Fine Art of Forgetting Why You Did It In The First Place.
I originally decided to start writing, content creation as a hobby. I told myself: just keep going on WordPress, keep producing evergreen posts, and eventually upgrade the blog. That was the plan. If I stuck with it, I’d build up a solid and steady readership. I know I will as I did with my niche football blog.
But like anything, you check your stats… and you get addicted. You want the numbers to grow and fast. That wasn’t the deal I made with myself. I ended up sucked into wasting time on social media instead of doing what I enjoy: writing.
As I said in my last blog, I know I can use Facebook to generate a decent number of views. But at what cost? The “cost” is having to constantly interact with multiple Facebook groups. I’ve ended up in 20 different groups related to my interests, and even trying to keep up with them would be four to five hours a week. That’s time I don’t want to give away.
I enjoy Reddit, but again, it’s a black hole. Pinterest, LinkedIn, Substack, even trying YouTube — it all takes up so much time. Honestly, if I had nothing else to do and wanted to become a full-time blogger or “content machine”, then yes, I’d master them all. But this was supposed to be a hobby, and I’ve lost sight of that.
So I spoke to my mentor — ChatGPT — and explained how I felt. I told it my aims, that I hated social media, and it came back with this:
“If your readers from organic traffic have gone up 150% in eight weeks, then you clearly don’t need social media — especially if this is a hobby.”
That hit home.
So I’m going to ease off social media for a few of weeks and settle back into writing. According to ChatGPT, it’s the fresh content I’m posting, and the way I’m nailing my hashtags, that’s bringing in the traffic. It also reminded me that there’s a lot I can do to improve my WordPress blog, structurally, if I take the time to learn. I’ve already made gains with SEO and tagging, so maybe my only real focus should be writing short stories and blogging on WordPress, while quietly mastering the platform itself.
The truth is, some days you just feel flat about it all, and I’ve found that’s often the best time to rethink how you’re doing things. Sometimes going through a rough patch is how you end up taking one step back and two steps forward.
I feel frustrated with myself that I got caught in the social media trap again. It’s just not my strength. What I am good at is running my vintage business across various online platforms. And as I’ve said in previous posts, the original subject matter for my The Rights of Fans blog — Lewes Football Club — has been a very successful stream of content, built organically, with no gimmicks. So I am not a hick with social media, I just can’t relate to it.
Paradoxically, I’m launching this blog post today not because I’m having a meltdown, but because writing it helped me sort my head out. Writing things down often unravels the anxiety, and things never seem quite so bad once you do.
This week I’m aiming to complete my third short story, and write a dozen quality blogs, starting with this one. Social media, for now, can go on the shelf. I’m not writing it off entirely, I may dip back in later, but for now…
Writing is king.
And when I asked ChatGPT why I hate social media so much, it replied:
“Most bloggers hate social media.”
So maybe that’s not a fault.
Maybe it’s a credential.
Weeks 1-6 can be read here:
#Content Creation #Learning To Blog #Learning To Right #Creativen Writing #Social Media
The Rights of Fans. 