Overwhelmed 

overwhelmedI have to be honest, I am getting overwhelmed by the blogosphere. I have 310 followers here at WordPress, I’ve written 256 posts, I’ve had 7125 views, 2478 visitors and my best day ever was 201 views.  And then add all of the posts of the 310 followers and that’s a huge number! And then add 363 followers on Facebook, 165 on Twitter, 48 on Pinterest (just started), and 729 connections on LinkedIn.  I do not have enough time in a 24 hour day to stay connected like I want, or maybe I should.  I saw one post that had 450 comments. It boggles my mind!

So I’m asking for some help.  What are your tricks to stay in touch with people? How do you manage your time? What time management skills do you employ?

Please don’t say “just do the best you can” or “you’re doing fine”. I really want solid suggestions.  Thank you in advance! You have definitely enriched my life! And I appreciate each of you very much!

Once I get your suggestions, I will update and repost this with your answers. I’m sure that your ideas would help others as well!

36 thoughts on “Overwhelmed ”

  3. I understand what you mean. My blog stays updated due to my special blog segments.

    A blog segment is when you have certain days you can do a special type of post. For instance, my No Whining Wednesdays or Black History Fun Fact Friday. I have a segment almost everyday but you don’t have to. One or two special segments a week can help you stay consistent while working on other things. I also schedule most of my posts (aside from reblogs & randoms). I draft them in WordPress and schedule them to publish 12:00a CST (my time). That way bloggers outside the U.S. have time to read them too. This keeps my blog active pretty much all day without me having to be physically by the PC.

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      4. @adventuresofabusymomcom. Sorry for my late response! Just seeing this When I schedule posts, I didn’t put much thought into it honestly aside from considering that if its late my time its early for the other side of the world.

        Right now its 8:23am U.S. Central Standard Time but I think its about 3am your time. At 12:00am my time though, that would be like 7am your time according to Google 😏.

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      5. Thanks! I’m used to calculating the time zones difference from here and CST (I’m originally from the Midwest). I am still trying to figure out the best time to reach the mainland, Hawaii and other areas like China and India. I’m winging it with trial and error 😂

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  4. First thing I’d suggest a plugin that shares to all your other social media accounts. Once my blog is posted it posts also on Facebook, twitter, Tumblr, LinkedIn, path and Google. It’s an excellent way to reach everyone.

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    1. Great, thanks! I do that now and I am a member of several Facebook groups–probably too many. I don’t get very many comments or likes on Facebook. But most of my Facebook friends are in the Seattle area. So maybe I need to have them posted a different time.

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  5. I write the blog posts in draft and then schedule them in advance. I do this writing when I have time for it. I read the bloggers I am following in the Reader and try to do that once a day if I can. If not I just catch up the next day or day after. I also have selected to automatically post my blogposts on the Facebook page I have for the blog. I am finding the arrival of emails from people following me or commenting or liking or from the posts of bloggers I follow is getting a bit much so I have selected to receive these only once a day between 6am and 8am. I’ll see how that works out. Hope some of that may be of help. It can be overwhelming. I agree with you.

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  7. That’s great that you are getting feedback about managing your blog life. I’m having trouble keeping up with blogs I follow. In trying to keep my reading time to manageable levels, I’ve decided on a few rules for myself. If a post does not load when I click on the title and try getting there through the “comment” button, I delete it. If the post is selling something, it is erased. I’ve now started deleting posts that are reblogs. I follow people because I want to know THEM, not who they admire.

    I’m also cautious about following new people, since it’s hard to keep up with the ones I already know and love. When someone follows me, I look at the three suggested posts on the notification to see if I want to follow them. If none of the posts appeal to me, I don’t follow. Following anyone who doesn’t write in English is a given. I read English and music, and that’s it.

    I will be eager to see what other suggestions people leave for you. There have to be some other tricks to keep us sane.

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  8. First of all, praise God for all the growth that your blog has enjoyed! I’m still fairly new to blogging, so I’m learning how things go.

    I think it’s a fine line between growth and community. I think you may want to decide which attribute is most important to you – the growth of your blog, or a community that you’re trying to cultivate on WordPress or the other social media channels that you are using.

    For me, I’ve decided to focus my efforts just on my blog. I had brief forays into Twitter and Instagram, but quickly felt overwhelmed by both. The pace of these social media channels feels very brisk to me.

    I don’t actively seek new followers for my blog – I believe that God will send the right people at the right time. I do look for blogs that interest me, and try to keep up with them in the Reader as my schedule allows.

    I also had to turn off most of the notifications via email. For any blog that I follow, I only review the content in the Reader. The email volume became too much! So I usually unsubscribe from email notifications, and limit my reading of blog content to the WordPress app.

    I trust that you’ll find a strategy that works for you. Pray about it, and ask God to show you how He wants you to move forward with your followers. He’s faithful – He’ll show you the way. 😀

    Hang in there!

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  9. I would have to say that you would need to prioritize what is important. In general, mine is family > work > friends > everything else. Social media falls into the everything else category. We all have limited time in a day and if the important things in life make it where you need to neglect social media for a short time, don’t worry about it. Most, if not all, of your followers and friends would be supportive. Maybe it would help to set a realistic goal, one that you know that you can accomplish without feeling overwhelmed? When you are able, exceed it (in business this is called underpromise and overdeliver).

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  10. Thank you for sharing this. I, too, have been wondering the same thing and have found this very helpful! Prayers you continue to prosper with your site and receive the right following to spread your wisdom and knowledge through His word. Have a wonderful day!

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  11. First off, congratulations on the success of your blog! I’m a new blogger and I’m so fascinated by it. I can see how it could become overwhelming and time consuming as you said. Sometimes, I find myself getting caught up on “how many people viewed my blog today.” it’s in these moments that I have to remind myself I’m doing this for FUN and I’m doing it to share my love for Jesus and share my experiences with others. When it becomes too much of a chore, I/we need to slow down and refocus on what our purpose of blogging was. This was the first post I’ve read of yours and I look forward to checking out more! Feel free to look at mine as well! adventuresofabusymom.com

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  12. Here are a few of the “rules” I have come up with that work for me — that I didn’t already see in the comments above (especially love DailyThankful’s advice)

    * Don’t try to keep up with the blogging joneses who feel it is important to post something new every single day (or several TIMES a day 😦 )

    NOBODY has time to read even a single daily post from everyone in their community anyway, even if that community is relatively small. EVEN a 3 line post (or meme) takes page load time – and it adds up. Spend time on (and with) content with some depth that makes it worth the click to read. (I rarely comment on single memes and haikus, for example, but I will “like” them from the Reader)

    Posting less often frees up a day or so to connect with other blogs and meet new people (like YOU!) – building community is what is most important to me – and I hardly EVER check my stats. (I have recently dropped from 3x/week to Mondays & Fridays, so Wed. now gives me time to do my research for a post in draft, visit other blogs, etc).

    * Don’t try to visit every single follower or followee every single day (or week, if your list is large).

    Put your time into the folks who have put time into you, along with those blogs you find particularly fun, helpful or worthwhile (I scramble to make time to visit & chat with everyone who comments under my posts – tho’ I MAKE the time to respond to comments as rapidly as possible, and use the WordPress Reader to help me stay as current as time permits.)

    * Don’t waste time leaving comments that say little beyond “good post.” If you don’t have more to add, don’t comment at all – “likes” are supportive too!

    * Don’t add to your own e-glut. If it is possible to follow another way (like on the WordPress dot com sites), do THAT and UN click the email notification box. Unless an active follower has a “self-hosted” site you cannot follow *except* by email, don’t follow sites that you can ONLY follow by email.

    * Comment on sites that make it easy to comment vs. sites where you must “belong” or “prove you are a human”

    * Don’t follow or comment on sites that host so many adverts that your browser slows to a crawl – or have pop-ups etc. you must get rid of before you can read the content – or ads that jiggle and pull focus from the content (or are set to automatically talk TO you the moment you land). Close the tab and move on. (and I’ve found it is worth the time to reboot my browser when one of their scripts hangs – unclicking that site before reloading)

    Hope that helps a bit. You really DO have to figure out what makes it worth it to YOU, since blogging does take a great deal of time you could be spending on non-virtual activities.
    xx,
    mgh
    (Madelyn Griffith-Haynie – ADDandSoMuchMORE dot com)
    ADD/EFD Coach Training Field founder; ADD Coaching co-founder
    “It takes a village to educate a world!”

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      1. Good for you. You’ll probably find, if you take the time to connect, that bloggers are a very positive and helpful community. MOST of us took at least a year to get some traction (longer than that for some of us).

        Slow and steady “wins” the race.

        Pick a pace you can keep up happily and ignore the “how I got a million followers on my first post” and “I quite my job and now make 6 figures blogging” stuff. If they are even truthful, they probably aren’t doing anything you’d be comfortable doing anyway.

        Welcome to the community.
        xx,
        mgh

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  14. A couple of more things that helped me build my community:
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Allow likes and comments (and pingbacks/trackbacks) on every post – especially your “About.” Then visit the folks who visited or linked to you — they liked what you posted so many of them will become part of your “tribe.”

    Make sure you have at least one graphic per post for the Pinners (and pin it to your own boards) — I was surprised to find that many people found me through repins, etc.
    xx,
    mgh

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