I’m no great almighty wizard of blogging, but I have been doing this a while. Long enough to put together a short list of the biggest “real” challenges that I think bloggers face with their work.

Note: I do not consider having boring or very infrequent content to be “real” problems. I consider that just you being lazy. There’s too many things in the world for you not to find one to be excited about.

Problem 1: “I took down my only interesting post” - I recognize that for a lot of people blogging is an emotional outlet first and foremost. And good for you. That can certainly provide a lot of interesting and compelling content. Conversely, it is responsible for some of the sappiest stupidest drivel other times. If this is going to be your path though, at least be committed to it. If you think you’re going to regret posting something personal when you wake up the next day, then just hang onto it. It’s simple. I’m tired of seeing posts by people that read something like “I finally wrote about something real and personal and crazy that happened to me, but I decided to take it down because I’m afraid to share my feelings with the world.” Just come out with the ugly truth and people will respect and identify with it much more than they will with a lot of retraction and apologizing.

Personally, I think most people who get caught in this predicament at some point could do well to keep in mind that old writer’s maxim, “Show, don’t tell”. It’s much more interesting (to me) if you reveal who you are by the things you write about and how you write about them. Any time you write about anything, you’re invariably also implicitly writing about yourself. And a lot of times, that’s much more interesting than a play by play of every little thing that happened to you.

PS. I couldn’t give less of a shit about what “mood” you are currently in.

Problem 2: “But my audience won’t like this…” - The next big problem I always see - and sometimes still battle with in my own writing - is curbing what I’m going to say before I say it, because I know how people will react. And it won’t be pretty. But guess what, nobody else is writing your blog. You are. It’s a record of your own weird slant on the world. If they don’t like it, they can suck on your digital genitals. You’re constantly going to be letting people down and confounding people’s expectations and hopes. Writing for an audience can be totally thrilling and invigorating, or it can be crippling and aggravating - especially if you’re not totally comfortable with your content (see Problem 1 above).

Problem 3: “That guy just said my mom was ugly!” - I absolutely love a good online argument, especially when it spans several blogs and multiple commenters. But it can also be really fucking annoying and time-consuming. By time-consuming, I mean that I spend time away from my computer being indignant or on my computer making rebuttals to points that are retarded, when I could be using this time to make new and better content. Steps I’ve taken to change that over the past few months: I’ve been trying lately not to flagrantly shit in other people’s yards - as tantalizing as that is. I may prod or poke here and there, but I try not to just go on somebody’s blog I don’t know and curse them out. Things like that. But if people do that on my blog, I see that as carte blanche for full-scale retaliation. Also, if I have something to say about your blog, I’ll try to say it there. Unless it’s a really good topic, then I’ll post it on my site. Or, if you don’t have comments enabled. Also, I’m doing my level best to stay away from the full-on personal attacks. Just because I’m jumping on something you said doesn’t mean I’m jumping on you. It’s all just fun and games.

Also Note: Whenever I write an extremely general post like this, people seem to think I’m talking about THEM in particular. I’m not writing about any one person. I’m just writing about the experiences I myself have had, and have seen lots and lots of other people go through writing online.

Anyway, those are the biggest problems I’ve come across time and time again, although I’m sure there are other good ones too.