Signs of Blog Overwhelm and How to Combat It

Last Updated on August 11, 2024

I recently joined several Facebook groups to connect with other bloggers. It’s always fun to look at other people’s websites and see what they’re passionate about! But for every happy post, there’s an equal amount of those begging for help and showing signs of blog overwhelm.

I’ve seen some patterns in the people that struggle with starting their blog, so here’s a warning guide for anyone just getting started (or thinking about it)!

Causes of Blog Overwhelm

Of all the people I’ve seen complain about the difficulty of blogging, they all seem to have these few things in common. Let this be a warning signal screaming “Beware! Turn back!” in case this sounds like you…

• Don’t have enough time to devote to it: I don’t know about you, but writing a blog post could take me up to a week. I have to do keyword research, my own research, create an outline, then write the thing. Not to mention proofread…the list could go on and on! If you don’t know how to balance a busy schedule with consistent writing, you may struggle.
• No background in digital marketing or writing: There is a lot of writing involved. There is also a steep learning curve when it comes to social media marketing, algorithms, and copywriting. You don’t need to be an expert fresh out the gate, but you do need to either enjoy the learning process or have a baseline passion in order to avoid blog overwhelm.
• Aren’t technologically savvy: Something will go wrong, and you will have to fix it on the backend. I use WordPress (which I’m obsessed with) but it can be a beast. Some hosting platforms may be easier to use, but you’ll still need to have some curiosity and tech savvy to get started.
• No patience: It. Will. Take. Time. This is not a process that you can rush, at least without losing valuable traffic and readership. If you don’t have the patience to see this through, you’ll likely struggle.
• Just want to make money: It takes a lot of time and hard work to monetize a blog. It may even take several years before you actually get the hang of everything! If you’re in it just for the money, you might have to put in more effort than you’re prepared for, leading to blog overwhelm.

Signs and Symptoms

Even if you’re loving the process of owning your own blog, you still may be showing signs of burnout. Here are the 4 main signs to watch out for!

Inconsistent Effort

The writer puts out 5 articles in two weeks, turns those into 30 different Pin designs on Canva, posts about it on their personal social media, and then…

Crickets.

Now, all of a sudden, your audience can’t find you anywhere and the blog looks borderline abandoned. Sound familiar?

I’ve been in this exact same place before. Content creation burnout can be difficult to recover from, and in my case, it took me almost a year!

If you’ve had to take a break from the blog or social media for awhile, that’s okay. The important thing is to acknowledge that you’re overwhelmed and to take a break from the specific tasks that led to it.

In the next section, I’ll share ways to prevent this type of exhaustion well before it happens again.

silly mistakes/typos

Please remember this: at its core, a blog is meant to be a resource of information that powers Google.

Blogs should be credible, authority-building, and a place where people go to learn from experts. (And if you’re really good at marketing, you will balance all of this with personality so it’s actually fun to read as well!)

I don’t know about anyone else, but I start questioning a website’s credibility if there’s a ton of typos and easily fixable issues. For example:

• The formatting is inconsistent: some headlines are capitalized, other aren’t. Some posts have subheadlines, others don’t.
• Pictures are carelessly placed and/or slapped in the middle of the content
• Dead links that go nowhere, fast.
• Grammar mistakes: no one’s perfect! Do yourself a favor an get the free version of Grammarly.

If the writer behind the blog isn’t bothering to do a basic proofread before publishing (or updating) their content, it could be a telltale sign that they are suffering from blog overwhelm.

You won’t link to your blog

The name of the blogging game is to get people looking at, and gaining value from, your posts. In order to do that, you have to create links to them from your social media accounts. The most common form of this is creating Pins on Pinterest, and links attached to Instagram Posts, Stories and Reels.

It can be scary to share your beginner blog for people’s eyes to critique, I know! Keep in mind that you are still learning. If someone doesn’t like your website, they are more likely to forget about it, than actively start hating you and what you do.

By not linking back to your (valuable!) posts, you’re self-sabotaging…

You’re venting to strangers

It may sound obvious or silly, but it’s a pretty easy indicator!

During my first month or so of blogging, I wrote an article called Try Something Like No One Cares…Because They Don’t. The writing was extremely cynical, kind of abrasive and coming from a place of obvious frustration. I’d just started along on this journey and had told everyone I knew about it…

Leading to a grand total of 8 sessions.

I was sad, hurt, and confused on why no one was reading my content. Naturally, the best place to talk about it was on the internet…

If you feel your writing taking a bitter turn for the worst, it may be time to step back and reassess your efforts.

How to Prevent It

Now that we’ve gone over all the sad ways that blog overwhelm can take over a beginner’s mindset and efforts, it’s worth mentioning that all of this is preventable. Being overwhelmed or working yourself to the bone is completely avoidable, actually!

Here are 4 ways that you can either completely prevent or push back this type of burnout.

Take a break

Simple, but effective. Unless you’re having the time of your life and completely comfortable embarking on this new writing journey, you can’t expect to watch 5hrs of YouTube how-to videos and feel great after.

Everyone needs a break from time to time. As a beginner, you may not know where to most effectively put your efforts and energy in the beginning. You will reach a lot of dead ends or failure throughout this process.

Do yourself a favor by taking periodic breaks. Here’s my rule of thumb: for every 1-hour put in, I take about 30-minutes off. Maybe you work on your blog every evening for several hours. If so, get in the habit of taking the weekends off, or one a day a week where you don’t touch it at all.

Hydrate. Sleep. Take care of yourself. As my mentor once told me, “This business is nothing without you. Take care of you.”

have real passion from the start

You will hit a lot of speed bumps, pot holes, and downright dead ends throughout this process! You may have a specific destination in mind when you start a blog, but if you hate the journey, you won’t be happy with the final result.

Blogging can be a very polarizing hobby/profession. I don’t know of anyone who’s truly felt indifferent about it: you either love it or you hate it!

Make sure that you’re ready to put the work in by having a clear ‘why’ and passion from the start. For example:

• You started a blog because you love writing and want to use it as a portfolio for future clients…
• You want to help other parents with special needs children navigate America’s healthcare system with ease…
• You’re passionate about traveling on a budget and want to share your tips and tricks with the world…
• You love learning about microbiology and want to share credible, cited, informative articles with other college students…

You see what I mean? Your ‘why’ doesn’t have to be huge like ‘world peace’, it just has to be meaningful to you.

By having a meaningful mission, you’ll make the writing process easier, create more enjoyable content, and have much more stamina through any challenges you may face.

outsource the things that overwhelm you

If you take nothing else from this article, know this: you do not have to do everything.

There are a lot of moving pieces when it comes to having an online business, and just as many shortcuts!

Are you a prolific writer that often misses small typos? Get someone from your network (or Upwork) to proofread for you.

Have you spent the last few hours or days (or weeks) trying to make Pins that people will want to click on? Stop! Just buy some Canva templates from Etsy! (You can get some high-quality designs for as low as $5 USD.)

SEO making absolutely no sense to you? Download a WordPress plugin to tell you whether or not you’re doing it right. My personal favorite is Yoast, which has an amazingly useful blog and courses for beginners.

Struggling to take crisp and beautiful pictures for you blog? Stop! Use free stock photo websites like Pexels or Pixabay. I also just learned this week that there are premium stock photo memberships for beautiful templates, videos and more! If you have the budget for it, check out providers like Haute Stock or Styled Stock Society.

Build Your Community

Last but not least, build a supportive community around you. At the beginning of this post, I mentioned Facebook groups. Join them! There are plenty catered specifically to beginner bloggers, and lots of experts there to answer your questions.

It can get lonely doing everything by yourself. Share your wins, frustrations, and progress with a community that gets you.

Summary