A couple of weeks ago, I read an article on LinkedIn that argued the antidote to burnout is progress. I’ve been struggling at times lately, finding it hard to stay motivated and positive about working on this blog, so the post really struck a chord with me.
I’ve been blogging for about nine months now and much as I love it and have no intention of giving up, it can be hard, soul crushing work at times. It’s painful to spend hours of your precious time carefully crafting a blog post, only to check your analytics and see it’s only been viewed a handful of times.
The LinkedIn article observes that the reason we start to get burned out with work is when we hit a plateau and no matter how hard we try, we don’t seem to be able to get any closer to our goals. In the case of bloggers, that means more visitors, higher page views, better engagement and so on. Striving for that but seeing little or no improvement is a depressing experience, let me tell you.
But it’s amazing how much impact small things can have. Over the last week or so, I decided to run a Facebook advert to promote my Ten Penny Dreams blog page. I’d been on the fence for a while as to whether it would be worth it. Sure, I’ve used Facebook ads for my day job in the past and know they can be successful, but it didn’t seem right for my little blog page. But then Facebook offered me some advertising credit, so I thought, why not?
I’m so glad I decided to go for it. In a little over a week, I’ve seen over 100 new followers come to my page and my reach has gone up about 100%. That’s huge for a relatively baby blogger like me.
And finally, it feels like progress! Cue huge smiles and me annoying my husband with constant updates on how many followers I had on Facebook.
Of course, now the advert is over I’ve got to work extra hard to keep the momentum going. My Facebook page is no longer the domain or friends and family, there are now plenty of other people to entertain and engage.
But that feeling of progress was exactly the lift I needed!
Liselle Chisenhale-Marsh says
I rarely have time to stop and we are just about to open our accommodation. You do a fabulous job and I’ve enjoyed reading your posts since the Blogcademy. I thoroughly enjoy reading your thoughts and sorry I don’t pause long enough to comment, but I’m one of your stats! Bravo and well done you! Keep up the great work. Liselle x
Amy says
Thanks so much Liselle, that means a lot! Good luck with your own project, I’ll look forward to hearing about your progress! x
Mrs D says
I hear you! I’m in that exact same spot at the moment…
Amy says
Good luck with whatever you’re working on – sure it will go great!
Jessica | Color Overboard says
That is so AWESOME! I am super excited to see that it worked out for you! I have been thinking of doing that too and you may have given me the push I needed to go through with it. (:
Amy says
Thanks Jessica, you should go for it! Good luck!