To Be or Not To Be | Bloggers Lair | Yakezie Forums

First off, let me put this out there: has anyone else experienced a huge change in traffic over the past few days? The floor really fell out from under me recently. Over the last three days, I've had fewer pageviews than I did on Friday.

Paired with this is the fact that my domain is up for renewal in a few weeks. Even before the issue with my traffic started, I had been questioning if I should even bother.

I remember commenting once that before I started blogging, I had a life. I had free time. I could read, watch tv, try new recipes, crochet, and play the occasional video game. Now, I can't remember the last time I played a video game. I pretty much seem to do two things these days: work and blog.

And I don't have much to show for it. Affiliate income has been negligible with AdSense not much better. Private advertising has dried up completely. So a lot of work and not much to show for it. In short, I'm feeling burnt out. And now I'm struggling with the decision over whether to just quit and have free time again or try to muddle through it.

Well, I started blogging to talk about my job search. I eventually changed focus to personal finance to join Yakezie ; it sounded like a neat idea.

The answer to the second question is apparently no, but I can't figure out what it is that I'm doing wrong.
Because I'm not going to want to renew my domain if I'm quitting, I feel like I should answer this question within the next two weeks.

Hey Edward,

Debt Roundup is my fifth blog since I started years ago.  I know what you are going through.  There is a time when you understand that you really aren't making strides like you thought you would.  When I got to those points, I would think long and hard about why I started blogging.  It seems to me that you just switched to personal finance because you thought joining the challenge would be fun.

As I mentioned on my site about closing down my profitable business, when you realize that the blog has taken over your life and is affecting it, then it might be time to move on.  There are more important things in life than burning your fingers to the bone on a blog.

Since domain renewals are cheap, why don't you take some time to think about it and let the blog stay around.  Step away, do things that you enjoy and think about why you continue to blog, not why you started.  Visions change and it might not matter why you started, but why you are still doing it.  Good luck!

Edward, I feel your pain. I don't have any words of wisdom other than few have said on their death bed that they wish they'd spent more time blogging. 

I think you need to parse your feelings. Are you discouraged because your blog's visits and economic success aren't what you want, or are you discouraged because you're tired of blogging?

If the latter, time to move on to something more fun and rewarding for you!

If the former, perhaps a makeover is in order, preceded by doing your best to answer the sort of questions Maria proposed.

Regardless of your choice, I wish you the best!

I would at least renew your domain name, and back up your entire blog (contents + database) in case you want to restart in the future or use your domain for something else.

Barbara Friedberg said:

My thoughts, take a break and do nothing. No pressure. Give yourself a break. 

 

Then reevaluate later.

 

Best of luck.

 

Oh, and a question for the masses???? Who hasn't thought of throwing in the towel?

I haven't.  Not yet anyway.  Of course I'm on day 53 of blogging.  

After giving it careful consideration, I decided to sell my personal finance blog. I'm one of the authors for Penny Thots, so I won't be gone from PF writing entirely, but I think this is the best path for me to take.

Thank you for everyone's support.