Passion, Consistency and Momentum: 10 Years of Blogging
A lot has happened in my life in the last 10 years—most of it hasn’t been on this blog.
When I started, I had envisioned becoming a digital marketing influencer (it wasn’t called that back then) and thought leader. I imagined that through content marketing, clever topics, unique perspectives, and engaging writing, I would become like my online marketing heroes.
That clearly didn’t happen. My career, interests, passion and life went in a different direction.
Being a content creator takes a lot of time and effort, and most importantly, consistency. Consistency that I just did not have. I am passionate about the topics I write on and the work that I do. However, being a standout writer online needs more than just passion—something I’d argue is more important—consistency.
Publishing as frequently as the algorithms require can feel like a grind—whether it’s meeting daily posting schedules, writing on trending topics, or reworking your existing content to keep it relevant.
Passion fades quickly when you are writing yet another article, stuck in the middle, knowing that not many people will read it. The futility of feeding the algo-beast can be soul–crushing, let alone passion extinguishing.
This is where consistency comes in. You just need to keep doing it. Keep showing up. Keep putting in the effort to succeed. Feed the beast—consistently.
Be smart, learn, improve, publish, promote, repeat.
- Consistency makes you a steady voice in your field.
- Consistency helps you become familiar and recognised.
- Consistency means you are reliable, dependable and predictable—people may even start to anticipate your next piece of work.
- Consistency builds trust—with trust comes authority.
- Consistency creates opportunity.
Consistency generates momentum.
And you need momentum.
Think of pedaling a bike: to move forward, you need to keep pedaling, maintaining a steady rhythm. In the same way, consistenting creating, writing and promoting content keeps your audience engaged, algo-beast fed and ideally, platforms growing.
Without this steady effort momentum and progress can falter. Pedalling consistently creates the momentum that drives you forward, while pedaling sporadically doesn’t.
Momentum stokes your fires of passion. It gives you the energy to endure the grind of consistently creating content and putting yourself out there.
Consistency is key. But consistency is hard.
I ride my bike to work every day. If it’s rainy l’ll ride. If it’s 40°C I’ll ride. It is my only way to get to work, so I ride.
At first, it was exhausting. Over time, it got easier as I became fitter. Ass I noticed my fitness improving (and clothes becoming looser), I was motivated to ride more and push harder—which made me fitter still, generating more momentum and fueling my new passion.
The act of consistently riding my bike has genuinely transformed my life. It wasn’t the passion that did it but consistency.
I have not had that consistency with this blog, and as a result have not generated momentum. I have gone multiple years without publishing a single article. I am unpredictable.
Without momentum, my passion for this site is sporadic—it comes and goes. Right now, I’m particularly invested in improving my writing, and working with my Astro+Sanity CMS development combo brings me joy (I’m a nerd OK). Is it a spark or a steady flame? I’m not sure.
I’ve written a number of these reflection type posts over the years. You can follow my journey through time:
- The first steps are the hardest (2015)
- Fresh look and fresh ideas (2016)
- Lessons from an abandoned blog (2020—one of my favourite articles I’ve written)
- People don’t care what technology your site is built on (2023)
- Write content that brings value to your readers (2024)
Let’s see what the next 10 years bring. Hopefully, a lot more consistency—and with it, momentum.
Remember: consistency is key.
