When the Blog Inspiration Fades: A Blogger’s Reflection

Hello everyone,

A year ago, I had the idea to start my blog. From experience, I’ve known for a long time that an idea is only 1% of success. Starting to implement it is about another 4%, but the remaining 95% is the real resource we need to invest in our idea to develop it. And that usually takes time: it could be a month, or it could be 10 years—it depends on ambitions. And it's even harder to maintain the initial pace and continue, even when "you don't want to and can't." Since childhood, I’ve had problems with those "95%": I always have many ideas, I start implementing them quickly, but I don't have enough inspiration for a long "marathon run." At 20, I attributed it to my zodiac sign, Gemini, known for its inconsistency. But with age, working on myself, I became more consistent and responsible, though there are still nuances 😊

This is what happened with the blog. Recently, several close people asked me why they hadn't seen my posts in a long time. I started telling them about my busyness (which is also true), but after analyzing it, I realized—I was losing interest. Having had a lot of plans and ideas at the beginning, after 8 months of actively running the blog, I ran out of steam. Also, when I started the blog, I didn’t have a clear goal: was it for monetization or for my enjoyment? So I decided to create a blog because I love "writing," and then we'll see. So I "watched" for about six months. I wrote when I wanted and what I wanted because monetization, like any business, requires discipline and consistency. The goal never materialized. Nor did I have more time; on the contrary, the Serena Villas project completely consumed my attention and time. After all, it's a business, not a hobby, and it requires planning, process organization, control, and much more.

So the posts became rarer. Thoughts began to arise: "Why this blog at all? Who needs it? Maybe I should stop blogging?" And for the past two months, I lived with these thoughts. I made several attempts to write something, but it didn’t go well. And I let the situation go. I even stopped looking at visit statistics, seeing which countries, cities visit my blog, how long they spend, which posts are most popular. Even though I always loved doing that.

Before I started my blog, I took SEO courses, read a lot of information, watched countless YouTube videos about creating websites and blogs. Although I didn't have a goal at the beginning, I knew for sure that I wanted to do the blog right so that not only my relatives and friends would read it, but also other people from different countries looking for information on the internet.

So after a certain break, I returned to my blog. I opened the statistics. I was sure that during my absence, it would be completely stagnant, but my blog is alive. SEO and keywords work (those who know, know what I mean 😊). New subscribers have appeared. People from different countries of the world visit it. The most popular search queries that lead people to my blog are: "where was Eat Pray Love filmed in Bali," "Brigadeiro cake" (I’m amazed by the number of views on this), also very relevant today is "real estate investment in Bali," and others. Users also love reading interviews. I'll be honest; I love them too, even though they are the most time-consuming in terms of time and organization. Arranging a meeting with the interviewee, conducting the interview itself, then writing the text, approval, selecting photos, posting on the site. I opened my list of people I want to interview, reviewed the content plan I diligently made at the beginning of my blogging career, and decided—I’ll continue blogging.

Today's post appeared spontaneously, based on the emotions I've been feeling lately. I wanted to be honest with myself and open with you. Yes, I had a downturn, I didn't know what I wanted to do next (or rather, I forgot), but after giving myself time to think, I’ll continue to implement my idea.

So, I remind myself now, and also in the future (I'm sure it will happen again, maybe more than once 😊), when I want to quit again, to give myself time to rest and rethink, remind myself why I'm doing this, and continue.

And I also realized that even if I haven't yet figured out the long-term goals of my blog, I still need some measurable short-term goal that I'll strive for in the near future. And I've defined it. It's the number of subscribers. So, if you're reading this post but still haven't subscribed to me, please do. You’ll be the first to know about new posts, and this month I’m planning to develop something exclusively for subscribers.

And of course, soon expect a new post about our trip to North Bali!

Photos from our daily life to set the mood 😊