This isn't a post about why I haven't written anything here for almost three weeks, because I'm sure no one wants to read about the mundane chores and tasks that have been filling my time and sucking the creativity from my mind. I'm not the only blogger who sometimes has nothing to say, or no time to say it. I recently found tratx's Blogging Without Obligation concept during my wanderings through the blogosphere, and it got me thinking about how frequency of posting affects the blogs I read and what I think of them and their writers. I know that common knowledge says that to succeed as a blogger (particularly a for-profit blogger), you need to post regularly, preferably daily. I think there is some truth in this - I'm much more likely to go look at any given site (and by extension click through on its ads and affiliate or purchase links) if I know there is new and interesting content there. And every new page of content on my favorite blog is a page I will at least glance at. Certainly, prior to switching to a feed reader, I was more likely to regularly check sites that had a regular posting schedule.
Now, however, my reader checks for me and whether there are new posts several times a day or only several times a year, I find them in a timely manner. What I realize is that when my favorite bloggers don't write for a while, I notice and I miss them, but it doesn't make me want to stop reading them. Sometimes it even makes me more eager to read their work (the absence makes the heart grow fonder thing.) In fact, I'm actually more likely to be turned off by bloggers who are too prolific. I'm much more likely to take someone off my list of watched feeds if they post more often than I have time to read and aren't absolutely fascinating 100% of the time than I am if they post occasionally but are usually interesting when they do.
BTW, check out Bedarkened's post here at Writernia for a different viewpoint on this topic - Build it and they will...wait to see if it stays fresh -or- Death to bloggy II: The Awakening
While new to blogging, the excitement of instant feedback has been an addicting shot of energy.
This, from a person who believes social networking is exploitive. The difference is that blogging is a democratic sharing of ideas. And new ideas bring new insights.
Networking (for me) is a form of insincerity for personal gain. Probably like many writers, I am a loner at heart. My circle of friends is most often limited to one or two. And I only contact them if I have something to share, never something to sell.
Must admit that my harsh ethic has led to many lost opportunities.
But it's good to sit alone in the poverty of darkness, with my integrity to keep me company.
Actually the loner loves it.
Arye Michael Bender
Right now I'm procrastinating by blogging about writing, rather than writing the assignment I've given myself -- with real deadline -- that must be written today.
Funny how anything can be used to justify not doing something that needs to be done!
Now I'm going to add the above to Twitter...
Arye Michael Bender
Arye - I have to say, I like the feedback too. Although many of my blogs get little to no feedback at all. (One thing I love about Writernia is that it is such a great community with so much interaction.) I think that both blogs and social networking can be either useful sharing or exploitive and a lot of it depends on the users and whoever may have moderator ability on the site or page.
For instance, Dogster is a social networking site for dogs (well technically dog owners, but the gimmick is that it's the dogs talking.) The service dog group there is one of the two most useful service dog partner resources I've found. The site in general is a good source of dog information as well as fun to use. So, it's not the technology, it's how it is used. I think the big difference is that the site itself really tries to make sure that users follow the TOS and kicks off people who beg for money or do more than mention products they sell.
Blogs too can be misused. There is a whole directory of splogs (spam blogs) now - http://www.splogspot.com/ I think a key difference is that many of the best known blog hosting sites (wordpress.com, Blogger, ...) attempt to enforce their advertising and marketing limits. As far as I can tell, it's only recently that MySpace, for instance, started doing that at all. And even what they are doing doesn't seem to be very sophisticated, because I keep seeing friend requests from users building almost identical "profiles" leading you to some business or the other.
For what it's worth...
Julie
Julie Baumler
Exploring Writing In The Internet Age
...for your clarity.
And I agree on the quality of literary minds at Writernia. I also thank the community at large.
BTW: Tina-the-Beast a service dog, so you've provided me another site to check out, as well as providing your insight.
May we all thrive together.
Arye Michael Bender
My service dog, Pico, doesn't seem to have any concerns or compunction about frequency of posting on her blog. And I think she gets more comments than I do on all my other non-Writernia blogs combined.
Julie Baumler
Exploring Writing In The Internet Age
Along this same topic, thanks to a link from Sharon B's great blog Mindtracks I just read a great article entitled Creating Compelling Blogs - Do You Have to Write Every Day? at Chris Garrett on New Media. Don't miss the comments, there's a lot of personal experiences from different bloggers in there.
Julie
Julie Baumler
Exploring Writing In The Internet Age
I have to confess, at first I wasn't really paying too much attention to the idea that its possible that less frequent blogging (not writing) may actually be a good thing, primarily because my first-hand experience was that my numbers dropped off considerably when the blog was dormant, which my ego did not like (trying to be honest here). But much to my surprise, all I had to do was post a couple of times (a week apart, no less) and the numbers went right back up again. Which got me to thinking that you may really, really be on to something here.
Plus, my obsession with blogging in the last 6 months has overshadowed every other creative endeavor I pursue (music, art, programming, design, etc.), with the biggest return being that I am (I feel) a better writer now as a result of practice. Which is OK with me.
In reading your references above, I came to this article:
What do You Believe is Better? Doing it Often or Doing it at Length?
Very well worth reading, and makes a really solid argument for longer posts of quality, that may be less frequent, rather than short continual bursts of less meaningful information. And I have to say, I agree on this. I have actually moved away in some ways from this site, for example, because of the sheer volume of short, relatively meaningless posts that have flooded the blogs here. Not that its a bad thing; its just not what I'm looking for.
Thanks for the wake up call!
Thank God, I'm not the only one.
And yes, quality is always preferred to quantity. Unless you're MickyD.
All feedback helps.
Appreciated.
Arye Michael Bender
Thank you Julie for this post. I am going to refer back to it again and again. You've linked to great material.
I've been an online content writer for almost a year now. I'd blogged only on MySpace. I'm trying out blogging off and on here, but I'm mainly sticking to writing content.
I would LOVE to have a page to blog regularly from. And once I get that together, I certainly will be using this information and probably bugging you guys who are already regular bloggers.
What I really want is to begin writing magazine articles. I have just begun submitting material to publications.
I've always wanted to write a novel, just never thought I would ever have the time. But hey, a twitter friend of mine told me about the annual event where you write a novel in a month and upload it each day. So I am definitely going to participate in that!
- Judy
I will blog.
Arye Michael Bender
I want a webpage to blog from myself..lol.
You may comment as much as you like, which I am sure you will. hahaha! But hey, I love your comments.
-Judy
Since this discussion (and by the power of the summer to keep me outside more), I've posted about 1/2 of my usual number of entries to my blog. And lo' and behold: For August I have for the first time crossed the 2000 page views mark (2100+ and counting). Not a lot in terms of blogs that are huge, but for me it is an all-time high, and made me happy. Of course, it helped that I had some unique content (my photos of the eclipse alone have netted nearly 600 views). But, I only had to write 9 entries to get that kind of spike, which I think says something about quality over quantity.
So, Julie, I think you're on the right track reasoning-wise - Not posting every day ultimately has not hurt my readership. The flip side, though, is I have very few RSS subscribers (I think only 8), which hurts me in some marketing attempts. That's my next goal: focus on getting subscriber numbers higher. Time for some research.
Anyway, thanks for this entry - it has really had an effect!
Best,
--jg
http://www.metroknow.com
You should always compete against yourself. It's a thing I learned through sales. Don't worry about what other people are doing. Concentrate on doing your personal best and keep making goals that push what you have accomplished previously.
Congrats on the page views.. and that eclipse blog was great!
- Judy
JG - I'm glad posting less often is working out for you! I was hoping you'd have photos of the meteor shower too since we couldn't see it from our house.
Sometimes I wonder if I'm fragmenting myself too much by having too many blogs, and thus limiting how often I write in any one. On the other hand, I really think my various interests are a bit too eclectic to mash together.
Julie
Julie Baumler
Exploring Writing In The Internet Age
