Freefall.

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dudefalling
Credit: Dude Falling, albinoblacksheep.com

Although I don’t write this blog to be popular, I like it when my stats are rising and I’m getting lots of views. It’s great when an older post suddenly takes off, too. I always feel motivated to post more when this blog is doing well.

This week my views have been in the toilet. In fact, they’re plummeting. I know this shouldn’t bother me too much because I don’t blog for that reason and it’s probably just a temporary slump anyway, but it’s still alarming. It’s also discouraging and saps my motivation. I tell myself: why bother posting since no one comes here anymore anyway? I know that’s patently, laughably ridiculous. I have lots of great friends who I know are reading and who comment every day. I still get plenty of views, even if they’re not what they were a couple of weeks ago. But sometimes my rational mind is in another galaxy from my emotions. It’s an example of my all-or-nothing thinking. I’ve always gotten discouraged and given up too easily. I don’t seem to tolerate setbacks very well.

If you blog, how do you react when you have setbacks? Do you get discouraged or give up easily? What do you do to combat those feelings?

8 thoughts on “Freefall.”

  1. I used to blog(not here), some years ago, and when stuff like that would happen, I would go through like a withdrawal, and right away personalize the meaning of the drop in numbers and engage in much negative self-talk. But you know, it could be from so many different factors or a combination of them and not have much if anything to do with you. I will tell you this though, it’s good that you care. You’re devoted to this blog and to your readers. You might worry that the ability to produce could cease to be(not that I can imagine that happening to you though). But there is a tide to it and a flow, and one feeds off of the other. So don’t worry too much, just chock it up to a temporary slump and you will get back into it in no time and see your numbers go right up again!

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  2. I think it is natural for your blog stats to fluctuate. I think that as long as you continue to blog for yourself and write about things that are important to you, your core followers will be there.

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  3. I have never once looked at my stats. When I accidentally click on my stats page, I quickly look away and click out of it.

    Why? I really don’t know. I guess it’s just because I’m weird like that. 😉

    I follow over 100 blogs. But I only have ten that I like so much that I have the link bookmarked, and I check it at least once a day. Yours is one of those ten. The rest of the blogs that I follow, I catch up with only now and then, via my blog reader.

    I’m sorry you are feeling discouraged. I know that feeling, though. Even without ever checking my stats.

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  4. I don’t look at my stats at all. It’s in the back of my head that I would like to be seen but if I pay too much attention I don’t know that I would write at all

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  5. YES! I so relate to what you said here. Writing is about the only thing I have going on in my life so I’m pretty sensitive to response. Facebook is like that for me too, I post things I think are important and no one notices or responds but I keep on. This is what helped me to keep posting, I felt it was a calling to write since I got down on my knees and asked God why I was alive, and I heard “write”. When for awhile I got zero readers week after week, post after post, the thought came “okay, I’m writing for an audience of One and that is good enough” Coming to that conclusion was a struggle and I’ve taking down a few websites before in protest of not having readers.
    But t he showing up to write, the effort, the work, the vulnerability is all growth for me. The doing it anyway despite the lack of readers is a discipline I need and God is responsible for whomever does or doesn’t read it. In truth, I don’t yet have the emotional or physical capacity to handle a very large blog. So, I get to build up slowly and God knows how much I can handle.

    By the way, truly awful narc person I know has 900 followers on Facebook something I find astonishing and proves to me that popularity doesn’t prove character! Keep on, if you save one life, and your writing does and will that life will always be grateful

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    • Popularity definitely does not prove character! If there’s any doubt, take a look at our politicians, and people like the Koch brothers, or the popularity of shoes like The Kardashians. (I’m not saying the Kardashian sisters are narcisissts–I really don’t know–but it appeals to the lowest common denominator).

      Remember that it doesn’t matter how many followers you have or don’t have. What matters is WHO is reading your blog, and from what I can tell, your blog has attracted the right sort of people!

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