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I am conflicted. Yes, conflicted. Web site design and development and all its associated technologies are changing at the speed of light. Literally almost everyday there is some new addition to the tool box of technologies we are currently using. One of the things I recommend to new site owners is the development of a blog to help direct traffic to their site. Now I understand that not everyone is interested in keeping up with yet another thing, so it’s not something I push people into, just a recommendation.

I have noticed lately that while perusing Blog Catalog how many blogs get started, the authors make one or two, perhaps a few posts, then that is the last you hear of them. I was very much interested in several sites/blogs I looked at, only to be let down when I look at their last post date. July 2006-rats another dead-end. This can be extremely disconcerting. There are several potential reasons for this.

1. ‘I-Gotta-Have-That’ syndrome:
Ok, c’mon, you can admit it. We have all suffered from this, going through the hoops signing up for an account, spending hours setting it up, and the first couple of posts come easy. Too easy. You first find your self using the thing several times a day, then every couple of days, then once a week and the next thing you know you have a practically brand new Bowflex gathering dust in the garage. Yes a blog looks really cool, all nice and shiney, but you may not think how much of a commitment it is. Keeping the content new and refreshing is difficult and at times brutal work. Just like the buyers remorse that can set in after making a substantial purchase, so can the acquisition of a new blog.

2. Multiple Blog Disorder
This is awesome! You say to yourself as you get your first blog under your belt, things are going great, you even get yourself a few readers. Man I can get a blog for everything!! So you set out and start creating blogs for every portion of your life. One for your amazing child rearing skills, one for your work place, one for your fishing hobby, and oh ya, you like to garden so create one for that…..next thing you know the care and maintenance of ONE blog has now multiplied itself and you find yourself posting semi-annually at best. Sooner your later you begin to find yourself overwhelmed and give up blogging altogether. (I’m a victim here.)

3. Feed Reader Apathy
This little problem starts the day someone discovers what blogs are. The idea of a free subscription is just way to overwhelming to resist. Before you know it you have downloaded a reader, installed it, and starting piling on the subscriptions. Then it’s only a matter of time before you spend less and less time reading per day. The reason why is that ‘reading’ takes work, and labor, and we as a human species do not necessarily enjoy work. It takes work to manage your readers, and feeds, then you pile that on top of the blog and the next thing you know, you are sitting in a corner, rocking back and forth wondering why this lady in the white outfit keeps feeding you little bugs in a jello cup.

4. Hope Deferred
This is the most painful final sword to put an end to the blog enchantment. You spend a bunch of time getting a blog together. A blog isn’t something you just mash together, and boom, you are successful. Oh no! You have to put in your projects, your connections, your backtrackers, feedtrackers, google analytics, feedburner analysis, and put in just about everything you can name in a widget or sidebar. Then after a few weeks, you decide painfully that 1. Keeping up with the blog requires time, 2. Posting to a blog requires thought and creativity, 3. The realization that nobody is reading you, or paying any attention to anything you say is more than just debilitating, its mind numbing and hurts a bit. So the blog is given up, after all you have better things to do.

I new a guy who used to train boxers, and when a kid would come into the gym and profess his love for boxing and wanted quality professional training this training buddy of mine, would smile and say ’sure’. On the first day he would tell the kid,
“Ok, now are you serious about your training?”
“YES!”
“Are you sure? No going back right?”
“Right!”
“Ok, good. Your first training is to prove to yourself you really want this. So I am going to punch you in the chest until you start crying. Then I am going to punch you in the chest till you stop.”

Sounds brutal huh? But it really makes perfect sense. The idea of boxing is not to avoid getting punched, the idea of boxing is to minimize the effect of being punched. This is the same for anything in the world that requires, commitment, dedication, longevity, etc, etc. Blogging requires this, a commitment to keep on blogging even if you think the only attention you are getting is nothing but wind. Writing, keep on writing, write all the time, write every day, work that cerebral muscle and do something creative. Blog till it hurts.