Teahon-Freelance writer For all writing services and advice.

Blogging, and the Dangers of Self-Indulgance

If you are a regular blogger for something you are passionate about, you are probably carving a nice little readership for your blog.

Around the time you start to feel your blog is, or becoming successful, is when you are most at risk of becoming self indulgent. This creates a problem as your content's usefulness and relevance is replaced with rants and opinions that have little universal appeal.

As you can imagine this leads to all sorts of problems from loss of readership and related income, to simply not being taken seriously as an authority in your field.

Signs That You Are Becoming Self-Indulgent.

Comments are largely negative or nondescript. This goes further than controversial opinion, and lean toward disinterest of what you have written. In short your readership have lost interest in your blog.

Loss of Readership. If you find readership numbers are falling, then this could be due to self-indulgence. Other factors could be at work as well, so self-indulgence is just one part of what you will have to explore to identify what is going wrong.

Your Mindset. If you feel what you have to say is more important than content that is relevant to both your subject and your readers, then it is fair to say your ego is out of control and this is damaging you and your reputation.

What to do?

Ask a person you can trust to review articles that you may feel were written in a particularly self indulgent tone.  If possible, get them to read them out loud. Take an honest look at them and ask your trusted guide what was self indulgent about them.  Do not try and defend them, but think about what the person has said.  If you conclude differently that's fine, as long as you have considered your trusted friend's opinion.

If possible, use that person as an editor for future articles.

Make a list of relevant articles to the topic, and focus on these with your audience in mind. Refrain from giving an opinion on the subject at least until your ego has stopped spiraling out of control.

Look at your first articles and try and recapture the tone. This will be before your self indulgence started to influence your work.

Good luck.

Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.