So I decided it was time to take stock and compiling a list of:

You know you have been blogging too long when…

Someone tells you an interesting piece of news and you immediately wonder if you can submit it to stumble-upon.

You go to your child’s parents evening and you ask to see their stats instead of their books

Your partner asks you to do the washing up and you really wish there was a plugin to do it for you

You don’t even notice anymore when someone has a typo

You smile sideways…

OK I want lots more of these please, this blogging lark is very serious isn’t it? Lets liven it up a little and have some fun. So please get commenting below and give us all a sideways smile! (Don’t forget I stumble those who comment).

Chris Brogan - at the top of his game

Chris has been in the business of creating digital relationships out of social media now for over 10 years. He speaks, writes and blogs about it all with such a passion that he is in demand to speak at marketing and social media events. As busy as he is already, he manges to find time to be on the advisory board for Utterz, The Conversation Group and for Hubspot. Chris also serves as VP Strategy & Technology at CrossTech Media and was the co-founder of the PodCamp new media conference series. Being so busy I was thrilled when Chris agreed to the 5Q interview and amazed at how quickly he responded.

Chris can be found here:

www.chrisbrogan.com

1. Who is Chris Brogan and what is www.chrisbrogan.com all about?

Chris Brogan is this guy who used to be a software engineering type, who blogged and made media as a hobby, but then one day in late 2005, it clicked just how important this type of communication was going to be to other people, and so he stepped up his game to try and bring what he was learning to other people. chrisbrogan.com is where that gets put out there for the world to see.

2. When and why did you start blogging?

I started blogging in 1998 back when it was called journaling, back when there weren’t comments or blog software, and we had to edit things by hand all the time. I did it initially as a place to share my fiction and also as a place to get my thoughts and feelings out into the larger web world. I just found that it was so cool to have a voice. I could say what I wanted to say and it was up there on the web, just like other online magazines.

3. Is your blog also your day job?

Yes and no. I don’t make money directly off my blog, but my blog is where people get the idea to hire me for speaking and education. It’s a way to show what I know, and what I’m capable of, and how people can figure out what’s on my mind before hiring me. Technically, I make my money the old fashioned way. I earn it.

4. What challenges did you face and overcome when you set up chrisbrogan.com?

It’s strange to think of any of it as challenges. Setting up my site was a learning experience. I spent a lot of time viewing the source code of other people’s pages to backwards engineer how they were doing this or that. When I started getting under the hood and editing little pieces of my site, I would break it all the time. But hey, we learn as we explore, right?

5. What is your one killer piece of advice for a new blogger?

Write the blog for other people. Yes, this runs counter to what people say about blogging, that it’s personal, that it’s all about finding your voice. I say this: your voice is much more powerful when it’s actually heard and absorbed by others. Why not learn from the start how to do it in a way that gives you a community?

<UPDATE: as I’m writing this the ‘vaporware’ has materialised, but it’s rubbish, so back to square one.>

So, without intentionally doing it I haven’t posted on my blog for about two weeks. This has meant two things have happened, the first is my stats have taken a nose dive, where I had been getting a nice upward stats gradient, I now have a graph that looks like it’s got heart failure. The other thing that’s happened is I’ve become very disillusioned with it all. It’s taken me two weeks to try and solve three parts to a puzzle, OK that’s not two weeks solid – I have to do my web development too, but come on… it shouldn’t be that difficult and it wouldn’t be difficult if I hadn’t had to rely on others for help and their services.

Also because I was concentrating on putting my three piece jigsaw puzzle together I had neglected to think up any future posts, again adding to my feeling of blog fade. It’s amazing how quickly you can go from full pelt to full stop in your blogging life and it seems to be when you start adding other people and their services into the mix. Now I realise that outsourcing is the right thing to do, but from my first attempt I can tell you it’s bloody difficult. If you get the right people involved at the start then you are very lucky and here’s a tip once you do find them, hold onto them.

I started writing this post about Blog Fade but I realise it’s about a wider issue. Now that I am two weeks along I’ve still got my jigsaw in pieces around my ankles, but they are now in the right order. I have realised now that what I set out to achieve wasn’t the right course of action, for example one of the items I wanted to produce would have landed me with requests for support further down the line so I’m solving this now with an off the shelf product that already has a support network. So my wider issue is a lesson learned really, I need to plan further ahead, I need to realise when to let go of an idea that isn’t going to work (instead of spending days on research), I need to be aware of the issue surrounding the execution of my ideas and I need to stop feeling sorry for myself when things don’t go my way.

Now that I have cleared my mind of what hasn’t worked in the last few weeks, I have to ask myself ‘Where am I now?’ Well actually I’m no further forward, I still have the same challenges as I had at the beginning, but now at least I have a starting place. You see even though I haven’t achieved anything tangible, I now know what isn’t going to work and what can’t be done, therefore I also know what will work and I’ll focus on doing that instead. I’ve had a two week false start but I’m on track now, I’ll soon have my jigsaw finished… and when I do, I shall superglue it together, nail it to a board and hang it on the wall from a great big hook – safe in the knowledge that I shan’t be doing that again!

In a way it’s good that I had this minor meltdown it’s given me a little more positivity in what I’m doing. I’d love to hear from you if you’ve had a blog fade episode too, please leave a comment below and be an inspiration for others.