Last Updated on May 7, 2021 by Fabrizio Van Marciano
Are you thinking about quitting your blog? Before you do, please read through this post carefully. I'll explain why I think bloggers quit. I'll also share some advice on how to not become another statistic as a failed blogger. Let's go. If you've been following my journey, you may know that I started myblogging adventures way back in 2010. My first blog was called Magnet4Marketing. Within a few years, I built a great community and started to make a living from the blog. Then came Google's algorithm change, Google Panda and Penguin from around 2012, and, of course, by the start of the 3rd year of running my blog, my traffic tanked. I lost rankings, income, and my readership stopped growing. In late 2013 and early 2014, I finally decided to take the blog offline and declare it dead. It was also the time that I considered quitting blogging. In fact, I was sure that I was done with it. I had other projects that I was excited about starting. Recommended: You can read the full story of how my blog was destroyed by Google in this blog post. After a few months of not really doing anything, I actually began to miss my blog and be part of something I was really passionate about. Most of all, I missed serving my audience. I was receiving emails from readers asking what happened, where had I gone and why? I finally decided that quitting was not something I wanted to do. I needed to relight that blogging fire in me. I started with a fresh new slate in March of 2013 and launched Magnet4Blogging (This blog). I literally felt that quitting was the easiest option, and I didn't want the easy option. More importantly, I soon realized that the passion would never go away. I was pumped when I started my first blog. I remember the feeling. That feeling is still with me today, ten years later. Sometimes starting over is not a bad thing at all. If you're struggling with your own blog and perhaps finding it hard to gain traction. Or maybe you feel as if you're failing or simply not making progress as fast as you'd like. Please, don't quit whatever you do. I know the feeling you're experiencing, but if you have passion and belief, you'll bounce back. Just keep at it, keep producing great content. Connect with your readers and continue to build your readership, that's very important. You'll soon start to gain some popularity. Something else: Blogging is often a solo effort, but get yourself connected and get the guidance you need. Don't be afraid to ask for help. Invite others to write for you. Connect with readers and like-minded bloggers in your niche. Enable comments and open your blog up to the world. I've been running Magnet4Blogging now for over eight years (As of March 2021). Yes, it started as a simple, one-man operation, but it has transitioned into a profitable online business over the years. Both my wife and I write here, so I'm glad I stuck at it. I want you to stick to your blog, too,because someday you'll look back and be glad that you did. Hopefully, you'll remember reading this post too. Now that I'm done with the motivational speech, let's look at some of the reasons why bloggers quit. Hopefully, if you can relate to any of these, you can divert yourself away from quitting too. Let's start with one of the most common reasons why bloggers eventually give up. They simply picked the wrong niche. They didn't know this at the time. At first, they truly believed they've picked the right niche to blog in. I know a few bloggers that have started blogging in a niche they know nothing about or don't care too much about. In my opinion, this is a bad idea. Sure, you'll be all fired up and ready to start learning and writing about your new topic. After some time, however, you'll soon realize that this was a mistake. Here are some reasons why bloggers quit after choosing the wrong niche. The last one is a pretty big one. Passion. When starting a blog, the important thing to do is pick a niche or topic that you truly care about with your heart and soul. I love sharing my knowledge and experiences as a blogger here at Magnet4Blogging. I'm passionate about it, in fact. I consider myself to be a WordPress power user too. So I love nothing more than to teach about WordPress and provide tips and tutorials. That's my passion. You have to decide what you're truly passionate about and stick with it. Even if you've already started your blog, it's never too late to start over again. Or, even better, simply start a second blog. Looking up to the bloggers that have already made it is great. Admiring their achievement is uplifting. It's inspiring, right? I agree, but remember, it's so easy to be dazzled by the lights and glamor of these blogger's lifestyles. Just don't let it stop you in your tracks. Be inspired, by all means, but don't become distracted and lose focus on your own journey.Passion: The key ingredient
Are you struggling with your blog right now?
11 reasons why bloggers quit!
1. Started blogging in the wrong niche!
2. Expecting too much too soon
What usually happens to bloggers that are desperate to mimic the success of successful bloggers is that they expect to reach that level quickly.
Work really hard for a few months, or maybe even a year and you should make it, right?
No, it's not that easy I'm afraid.
Realizing that blogging success comes after many years of hard graft makes most bloggers want to throw in the towel and quit after a few months.
They were simply expecting too much too soon.
The rewards of blogging come with persistent hard work and time. You have to be patient.
I've been blogging for 10 years and I'm still nowhere near the level I'd like to be at. It might take me another 10 years, or maybe 20 years. I don't care, I'll still be blogging.
Why?
Because I'm in absolutely no rush to get there quickly. I'm actually enjoying the process of building my blogging business. Making more money, saving more money, and ultimately getting closer to my ultimate goal.
Don't expect too much too soon; just focus on being persistent, consistent, have patience, and enjoy the process most of all.
3. Not willing to put in the hard work
Yep, here's another big one.
We live in a time where we expect things to happen instantly. What did Simon Sinek call this? Instant gratification. What is it with some people nowadays not wanting to put in the hard work to get where they want to be in life?
Nothing extraordinary in this life is granted to anyone without persistent hard, hard work, absolutely nothing. Unless, of course, you're lucky enough to inherit a ton of money and other materialistic things. Even so, hard work still pays off.
If you want to become a high-flyer blogger or content creator, living the dream, making money and everything else, you'd better be prepared to work your darn butt off right down to the bone.
You have to be ready to sacrifice some of the things that you love too.
And I don't mean sacrificing spending time with family and loved ones. I mean putting 'working on your blogging business' first before going to hang out with your friends down the pub. Or before spending endless hours playing Call Of Duty all weekend long.
It's all about perspective and being ready to go in with everything, to work on your blog, super hard and super smart.
Here's a little inspiration from the one and only Gary Vee -
4. Too much competition
Do you know how many new blog posts are published every day?
Well, there's no accurate way to measure how many, but the figure is estimated to be around 2 million posts per day.
So there you have it. What's the point in going on, the competition is far too high, right?
Wrong!
Why?
Because I'm safely betting that around 75%, or more, of that 2 million blog posts each day are either going to be mediocre or plain fluffy garbage content.
Let's say (for argument's sake) that you're only competing against 25% of the highest of highest quality stuff out there.
And, if you're blogging from a perspective that's unlike anything out there, providing unimaginable value and resources at the same time, what competition have you really got to worry about?
Noneis the answer.
And also remember:
Not everyone out there will have the same incredible passion as you, so go forward and beat the competition by creating 1000 X better content. It takes time, but you can crush anyone as long as your content is super awesome X 1000.
5. Lack of comments, social media shares, and engagement on blog posts
One of the ways to see how great a blog is doing, or not doing, is to check the number of comments, social shares, and level of engagement on a few posts.
Those metrics alone can tell you everything about the popularity a of a blog, right?
Nope!
Wait. What? I hear you ask...
In many cases, comments, social shares, and engagement aren't always an indication of anything.
Yeah, it might show that a blog is popular and engaging and whatnot, but there are more accurate ways to measure the success of a blog's content.
Conversion rates is one of them.
If your blog content is overwhelmed by comments and social shares, but your conversion rate suck! Then that's a problem.
As an old friend once told me, 'shares and comments doesn't pay the bills.'
Converting visitors into subscribers and sales is your priority. You need not worry about the number of comments, social shares, likes, followers, and other vanity metrics.
All those things are easily manipulatable in many cases; growth, revenues, and profits are not. So, don't give up on the sign that your blog isn't getting any comments or shares.
Most of the blog posts here on Magnet4Blogging doesn't get many comments and shares as it used to, but my revenue is still growing. From a business standpoint, that's important.
6. No focus or goals
Listen up:
Let me ask you something.
Do you go to the gym?
If you do, why do you do it?
To get fit and to improve your health and wellbeing, I imagine, right?
You have a reason, a purpose, a goal to become fit, healthy and to feel better about yourself.
Now let me ask you another question.
You're blogging, why are you doing it? What is your purpose for blogging?
Are you struggling to answer that question?
Blogging without aim, focus, or a goal is like doing something really important but you have no freaking idea why.
To not get bored and inevitably end up quitting your blog, you need to set yourself some realistic SMART blogging goals.
How do you do that exactly?
Well, firstly, you need to be 100% aware of why you're blogging. What is the purpose of your blog? Then decide where you want to go with your blog or where you want to be in X amount of time.
When you figure those things out, you can sit down and begin setting small incremental goals to help you reach your primary objective or define your purpose more.
Check out my Ultimate Pro Blog Planner workbook to help you set SMART goals that will keep you on the path towards success and not want to quit your blog.
7. Slow traffic growth
Slow traffic growth is another huge factor in why bloggers quit.
When I started Magnet4Blogging in 2013, I was getting hardly any traffic. Maybe 10 or 20 visits per day at the most, and it pretty much stayed like that for the first six to eight months.
After my first year of being fully focused on creating lots of great content for my blog, I began to see growth in my traffic.
By the end of my second year, I was getting around 100 to 150 visits per day. By year three, I was getting 250 visits per day, and my income was increasing incrementally too.
Today my blog receives anything between 600 and 1,000 unique visits per day. So what? What s the point I'm trying to make here?
The growth of my traffic has been incredibly slow but steady. None of it came overnight! Eight years later, it's still relatively low compared to many other blogs in this industry.
If your goal is to grow your traffic, that's OK; that's a good goal to aim for. But don't be put off when you see slow traffic growth. It actually does take time.
My goal, from day one, was never about growing my blog traffic anyway. My goal has always been to keep creating great content and make my readers' experience on my blog a pleasant one.
Traffic was just an afterthought, for me anyway.
8. Low motivation
Have you ever tried watching paint dry?
No, it's not a trick question.
The reason I ask is that if your motivation is so low that you can't even pull yourself together to blog, you might actually enjoy watching paint dry instead. Boredom is a motivation killer, period.
Here's the deal:
Motivation sucks 9 times out of 10.
Why?
Because it comes and goes like the changing seasons.
You can wake up Monday morning feeling motivated to work on your blog. By Wednesday, you might feel as if you couldn't give a damn, putting it lightly.
What you need to be is driven.
And yes, I realize you need to be motivated to be driven; however, to help you feel more motivated, you first need to help your motivation grow.
This is why having a focus and setting goals in blogging is so, so important.
It's also important to look after yourself and take the time to reward yourself when you reach a milestone.
Here comes the cliche -
Eat healthily, drink plenty of water, get 8 hours of sleep each night, read motivational and inspiring books, do some Yoga or exercise, work on your personal development. You know the drill, come on.
Cliche or not, it works to boost motivation and drive.
If you're interested, I really recommend you read the Miracle Morning book by Hal Elrod. If no book can motivate you, this one will.
9. Spending too much time procrastinating?
Are you? Don't worry we've all done it:
I've lost count of the number of times I've procrastinated, online and offline.
Did you know that statistics state that40% of people have experienced financial loss due to procrastination?
I used to be very bad at procrastinating. There was a time when I would scour YouTube for Elon Musk and SpaceX videos. I'm a big fan. I still do this now, to be honest.
However, it was a lot worst than that. I would also switch on my Xbox and grind an hour or so playing The Division 2. I'm actually obsessed with that game.
Hey, I'm being honest with you. I'm no one special. I've not figured out the secret of not procrastinating.
However, I am a lot better these days.
These days, I allow very little to distract me. I turn off all notifications on my computer, laptop, iPad, and iPhone.
There are things you can do to help tackle procrastination too, here are some ideas and suggestions -
- Use a productivity app. I use the Focus Keeper app. It's awesome.
- Switch off from the outside world.
- Switch your smartphone to flight mode, or disable notifications.
- Go offline, so you can't access the web when writing blog posts. Just ensure you've got all your research material at hand first.
- Use a distractive free writing app like Byword (Mac App).
- Set small incremental goals when writing. For example, write 1,000 words before taking a break. Or, proofread and edit a blog post once fully before taking a break.
10. Low income created from blog
If the purpose of your blog is to make money, regardless of everything else, then that's a poor reason to blog.
Making money should result from your efforts to work hard to create amazing content, offer great products, and serve your community, customers, and readers the best you can.
It took me two whole years of working on my blog before I started to see any real significant income.
What to do instead of focusing on making money?
When you don't see much revenue for your efforts, you'll feel like giving up, so focus on a different goal or objective entirely.
Don't make "making money" your primary goal, aim, or objective for blogging.
Sure, go ahead and structure your web content and add resources and elements that will help you monetize your blog effectively, but don't make it your ultimate goal to monetize the tripe out of your blog to the point that it looks like a haven for spam.
11. Because quitting is easier, right?
Finally, if you really think that quitting your blog is your only option because you really see no hope, please, oh please, sleep on it for a few nights before you decide to end it.
If you need to chat to someone about your blogging struggles, goals, plans, visions, aspirations, desires, or whatever else, I'm here to listen to you and provide some help and guidance based on my own experiences.
Feel free to get in touch with me here. A blog is for life, not just a few months.
In the meantime, I wish you the very best of luck.
Plan to make 2022 your best blogging year yet!
Learn More
Power Guides
How To Create A WordPress Blog From ScratchThe Complete Beginners Guide To Building An Email List10 Powerful Marketing Tactics To Grow Your Blog TrafficHow To Promote Your Blog On InstagramBest SEO Tools For Bloggers And Marketers For 2021How To Get Your Blog Noticed Without Google Or SEOBest Affiliate Programs For BloggersHow To Make $1,000+ Per Month From Your Blogview more posts
Top Reviews
SiteGround WordPress Hosting Review: 5 Years Of Flawless ServiceBluehost WP Pro Hosting Review: Is It Really Worthy It?Thrive Theme Builder Review: A New Simple Way To Build WordPress SitesThrive Leads Review: The Complete List Building Toolkit For WordPressThrive Suite Review: Conversion Tools For Growing Your BlogSocial Snap Review: The New Kings Of Social Sharing PluginsFusebox Podcast Player Review: Tools To Grow Your PodcastPayhip: The Perfect Platform For Selling Your Digital Products
