5 Advantages of Blogging as an Introvert

I was presented with an interesting question by one of my email list members.  She asked if I’ve ever posted about blogging as an introvert.  The interesting thing is that I consider myself an introvert because I feel awkward and uncomfortable in social situations, and find it hard to come up with words to say when speaking with people that I don’t know.  I also am more internal, prefer working behind the scenes and don't thrive in social settings. I do, however, still make new connections with other bloggers and interact with them often.  Though I am an introvert, there are ways to still blog and meet new people if you are one, too.  Today I will be discussing 5 advantages to blogging as an introvert and things that should put you at ease if you are one, too.

1 / You're online

The first and biggest advantage is that you’re online.  You're not in person talking to people or feeling pressured to talk to anyone.  You are posting words and people are reading those words.  The internet works as a shield in a way.  It is the thing that separates you from having to talk to people in real-time because everything is digital.

2 / Interaction is controlled by you

If you talk with someone on social media, through blog comments, etc., you have the luxury of planning out a response before replying.  When someone asks you a question on the spot in person, you may not have an answer right then or get so tripped up on your words you completely flop.  By having the internet as a buffer, you can do the necessary research to respond appropriately and on your own timeframe.
You also have the luxury of not having to respond at all.  If the question or comment you receive appears to be from a troll, you can completely ignore!  It’s more difficult to ignore someone in person than online.

3 / Videos can be previewed before posting

Video content is huge right now and happens to be an area that introverts fear.  You don’t have to worry about mistakes when posting video content because you can view and edit your videos before posting them in most apps these days.  This also applies to Instagram stories.  The advantage of previewing content before posting has put me at ease and I’m more comfortable posting video content on Instagram now.

If you want to go Live, however, preparation is key.  As long as you have an outline of what you want to talk about and practice it before hand, you will be more prepared and there will be less room for mistakes.  I suggest getting comfortable with short videos on Instagram Stories first and at some point considering live video.  Going live with a friend also helps!  My first IG live was with my friend Katrina and it was great!

4 / Sharing common interests

When I find myself in a situation discussing a topic that I’m not well versed in, I feel nervous and anxious.  When I’m talking about a topic that I’m passionate about, I’m a totally different person! I’m not as anxious and feel more confident when speaking. The great thing about blogging is that you control the content and essentially the audience that you attract. It should ease an introvert by knowing their audience is looking for and excited to read their content. It’s easier to communicate with people that you can relate to and share a common interest.

5 / Bloggers are friendly

I have met so many amazing people through blogging!  The blogging community as a whole is very friendly and can be super helpful.  The funny thing is that there are so many introverted bloggers out there, so they may face the same issues as you.  These introverted bloggers may be looking for someone to connect with, too, and more often if you are the first person to reach out, they will welcome you with open arms.  Feel comfort knowing that bloggers are looking to connect and make new blogging friends all the time!

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So these are my 5 tips on blogging as an introvert.  I hope they helped you feel a little more at ease about online interaction if you consider yourself an introvert.

What are some ways that you have gotten over your fear of blogging because you are an introvert?  Let me know in the comments!

5 Common Blogging Problems (+ their solutions)

I have been performing market research for my blog for over a year now and it has been tremendously helpful in finding out what my audience struggles with the most and in turn how I can help them out by offering my advice.  Every blogger has their own set of problems that may differ from person to person, but in my research, I have found the same 5 problems that constantly come up in my search results. Today I will be sharing these five common #bloggerproblems and my solutions for them.

 

1 / Daylight Savings or cloudy days

This is one of the most common problems that I find people posting about.  Either daylight savings time is over and it gets dark at 5:30 pm or it’s a cloudy day (not ideal when taking photos because natural light is preferred).  To these problems, I suggest using a light kit! I stockpile photos on the weekend to use for my blog and Instagram. Since I only have two days to get it done, my first move is to take photos on the day that it’s not supposed to be cloudy.  If both days are projected to be cloudy, I use my light kit. Since I have a small time frame to get my photos taken (within a two hour block when my daughter is napping), I can’t fully rely on the weather because tasks need to get marked off my list, and the tasks don’t care what the weather report is.  A light kit is used for taking photos indoors when you need extra light sources. The bulbs that are used are daylight bulbs so it mimics natural light. Here’s the light kit that I use; it has been such a help in keeping me on track regardless of weather conditions.

Along with using a light kit, you may still need to add a touch of brightness to your images during post photo editing.  Bumping up the brightness in your photo editing program is the second step when you’re taking photos with a light kit. You may also need to adjust the temperature of the photos to make them cooler if your photos have a yellowish tint to them (this can occur when shooting with artificial lighting sometimes).  The brightness and temperature settings are in different locations across editing programs, but they are common so they should be available in all of them.

2 / Too tired to blog in the evening

I can totally relate to this.  I work a 9-5 and am on the computer all day. The last thing I want to do in the evening is look at the computer again let alone use my brain again when it’s drained from a days work.  However, sacrifices need to be made, so a compromise is to compose blog posts laying on the couch using voice dictation. At least Google can do the typing for you! Here’s a post all about using voice dictation to create blog posts.

An alternative solution is to dedicate you work breaks and lunches to working on blog posts.  At least this way it's not the end of the day so you should be more alert and have great thoughts to still work with (thoughts that haven't drained from your brain yet due to the 9-5!).

3 / Don't know what to blog about

This could be a problem if you haven’t really determined what the purpose of your blog is or if you don’t plan out your content in advance.  If you are blogging on the fly, meaning, you sit down at the computer and try to think of something to post about, you’re doing it all wrong. You should be planning out your content in advance.  You do this by performing market research.  Here are a few ways how:

• Use Google Trends to find popular niche-related content
• Set up an automated task to research twitter hashtags/keywords for you (here's the link to the free resource that I used to create this task for public use).
• Check niche related FB groups for questions

If it's still difficult to find topics to post about, maybe the niche that you are in isn't the right one for you.  You may need to go back to the drawing board and determine what your area(s) of expertise are and build from there.  This isn’t a bad thing because it may help you discover an area where you can be of better help to a different audience.

4 / Too many ideas creating overwhelm

On the other hand, you may have too many ideas for blog posts and get overwhelmed.  This is an awesome boat to be in because this is where planning content in advance comes into play. You may have 25 ideas for blog posts and not know what to do about it.  Here’s what you do:

1. Seamlessly organize your thoughts using Evernote (here's a post all about this).

2. Preplan/Schedule your blog posts out by adding them to your editorial calendar (If you have 25 ideas and post weekly, that’s 6 months of blog content, sis!).

Yep, just two things, it’s that simple.

Related: 5 Reasons Your Blog Needs an Editorial Calendar

5 / Not posting on schedule

I get so tired of seeing people tweet apologies for not posting in a long time and giving a million and one excuses for it.  Honestly, spare us the details and give us the goods. Life happens and you're not going to post consistently all the time. People know this. So rather than opening a post about why you didn’t post in a long time, just write an amazing post to make up for lost time.  Rather than tweeting about your absence, tweet that you have an awesome post up and share the link.

So do you deal with any of these common #bloggerproblems?  Tell me all about it in the comments!