A couple of weeks ago, I had a clash with a friend of mine and fortunately everything ended well. However he said some stinging words to me that at first I chalked up as he didn’t really know what he was talking about. But it caused me to think and eventually change some things in my life. I didn’t remove things from my life or add things to my life. I just reorganized and took a different approach. His comments revolved around my priorities in life and specifically mentioned how I have spread myself thin with blogging. And you know what? He was right.
The changes that I’ve made have been reflected in the past two weeks. You have heard a whole lot less from me in terms of blogging frequency. I don’t push myself to write every day on every blog. Instead, I focus on writing longer more infrequent posts. On average, I’m looking for two quality posts a week here at Technosailor.
What this has done is two-fold:
- It opens me up to write more frequently elsewhere. For my other blogs such as Squib Kick, Emerging Earth, and That Damn PC, this approach has allowed me to blog more frequently.
- Traffic is up 150%. While point one might be predictable, I never would have guessed that my traffic would be up by over half! And it’s not just a peak. Every day this month has had 1000+ unique visitors, and in some case, near 1500 uniques! I don’t know how to attribute this, but it’s an interesting trend.
Striking the Balance between Posting Frequency and Posting Quality
It seems everywhere you turn, bloggers have different opinions on which is better: quantity or quality. So which one is right? The answer? Both of them!
Both models of blogging seem to have their success stories. For instance, Instapundit basically links to a lot of stories. He posted 30 entries yesterday! Then there’s really quality posting coming from bloggers like Chris Pearson (We need to open up a frequent flier program for Chris here at Technosailor – I do link him a lot!) who may not post a lot but post really good stuff when he does.
In other words, something can be said for both. So based on my limited experience and limited observation, let me offer my own opinion to the noise.
To start a blog, unless you have developed a profile already, you need to blog frequently. That means once a day on weekdays at minimum. That means linking to other blogs (as in a link) blog but also writing thoughtful original content yourself. At this stage of blog development, the more times you can ping Technorati and Google, the better. You want as many instances of your blog in front of as many people as possible. This does not mean spamming. It means writing stuff people want to read and writing enough of it that they remember you! This is building a profile for yourself and it is as much an investment in your blog as it is an investment in yourself as a blogger, writer and subject matter expert.
At some point though, you step back and evaluate what you’ve done, where you’ve been and what you are doing and at some point you realize you have a core reader base. Hopefully it’s a big reader base, but as long as it’s a core 10-15 people that read your blog all the time, you’ve got a basis to start with. I think that scaling back to a less frequent, more quality type posting regiment works particularly well when you have 50+ RSS subscribers. If you’re a really good writer that captures the imagination of readers you can probably scale back earlier. For others, you need to do the time to make it work.
This is what is happening at Technosailor as I have scaled back to a couple times a week. Hope you’ll forgive me! ;)
What’s interesting is that as I’ve been working on this post, Darren published an entry called No One Links to the Linkers which in turn points to an Andy Garrett piece with the same name. Earlier in the week, Brian Clark wrote Business Bloggers Rock which surmises that one or two quality posts a week is all that matters.
Chew on it. Am I wrong?
{ 32 comments }
Well Aaron, whatever you do it’s working isn’t it? It’s atleast my hope to post frequently as opposed to the quantity of posts. I know that sounds contradictory, but I think as long as the content is recent and fresh, your readership shouldn’t suffer too much (famous last words).
:)
Well I don’t mean to make it sound like frequency is equivalent to poor quality.
Well Aaron, whatever you do it’s working isn’t it? It’s atleast my hope to post frequently as opposed to the quantity of posts. I know that sounds contradictory, but I think as long as the content is recent and fresh, your readership shouldn’t suffer too much (famous last words).
:)
Well I don’t mean to make it sound like frequency is equivalent to poor quality.
Nice post Aaron. I think whatever works is a good rule of thumb. But, I think the “must post every day” mantra is hurting the viability of business blogging breaking into the mainstream, and also that readers have got to be overwhelmed out there. I know I am, and I find myself ignoring otherwise excellent content because there’s just too much of it.
There’s also a lot of bad content too, unfortunately. :)
I think it depends on the blog personally. If you’re known as a blog that built itself on writing more content than it’s readers can handle and that’s it’s selling point then to decrease posting frequency is probably not going to go down too well. If your blog is one that makes its name on link post style posts then stick to it, if you make your name writing long in frequent pieces then stick to it…. etc
Nice post Aaron. I think whatever works is a good rule of thumb. But, I think the “must post every day” mantra is hurting the viability of business blogging breaking into the mainstream, and also that readers have got to be overwhelmed out there. I know I am, and I find myself ignoring otherwise excellent content because there’s just too much of it.
There’s also a lot of bad content too, unfortunately. :)
I think it depends on the blog personally. If you’re known as a blog that built itself on writing more content than it’s readers can handle and that’s it’s selling point then to decrease posting frequency is probably not going to go down too well. If your blog is one that makes its name on link post style posts then stick to it, if you make your name writing long in frequent pieces then stick to it…. etc
Interesting post Aaron. You have some valid points up there. As Darren says Frequency vs Niche Quality depends on what are you blogging about and how you have built your blog. I believe in a good blend of post. I post lengthy quality articles sometimes or link to a good article the other time. However, a minimum frequency is a must for maintaining the interest of your readers.
Since Technosailor is more like your Personal blog (not exactly!) I think along with articles you must post your thoughts on a recent issue and stuff like that.
Interesting post Aaron. You have some valid points up there. As Darren says Frequency vs Niche Quality depends on what are you blogging about and how you have built your blog. I believe in a good blend of post. I post lengthy quality articles sometimes or link to a good article the other time. However, a minimum frequency is a must for maintaining the interest of your readers.
Since Technosailor is more like your Personal blog (not exactly!) I think along with articles you must post your thoughts on a recent issue and stuff like that.
I’d much rather read quality posts, instead of posts that seem like you’re trying to get it out to reach that “one post a day” goal. People can tell the difference.
As for links…well, I tend to read blogs where I get to “know” the author, opposed to blogs that simply link to stories in the Washington Post or CNN. I can read the news just as well as the next guy — I’d like to read your opinion on the news.
Right on dude! I have always been proud of you no matter what.
Carol: Yeah but the WaPo will get you free Technorati link backs! It’s free publicity! ;)
Uh-huh.
Stand outside your house naked, holding a sign that says “WILL WORK FOR CLOTHES” — betcha that gets you a lot of “free publicity” too.
Quality. I’m all about the search for quality.
I’d much rather read quality posts, instead of posts that seem like you’re trying to get it out to reach that “one post a day” goal. People can tell the difference.
As for links…well, I tend to read blogs where I get to “know” the author, opposed to blogs that simply link to stories in the Washington Post or CNN. I can read the news just as well as the next guy — I’d like to read your opinion on the news.
Right on dude! I have always been proud of you no matter what.
Carol: Yeah but the WaPo will get you free Technorati link backs! It’s free publicity! ;)
Uh-huh.
Stand outside your house naked, holding a sign that says “WILL WORK FOR CLOTHES” — betcha that gets you a lot of “free publicity” too.
Quality. I’m all about the search for quality.
I don’t think it’s so much a question of volume as a question of quality.
There’s a line between making inspiration come to you, and forcing yourself to write something just because it’s been some arbitrary number of hours since you last wrote.
I don’t think it’s so much a question of volume as a question of quality.
There’s a line between making inspiration come to you, and forcing yourself to write something just because it’s been some arbitrary number of hours since you last wrote.
Excellent observations. I think I’m still in the stage of trying to write something of value every day in order to develop a profile and a reputation and build readership. But I was interested in your comment that eventually you can step back and write fewer but higher quality articles. Not sure whether I want get to that stage or not. It seems to me that there is room for both kinds of blog – the daily newspaper equivalent and the weekly magazine equivalent. Or perhaps one person can be be both – short daily items and once-a-week longer in-depth items?
Excellent observations. I think I’m still in the stage of trying to write something of value every day in order to develop a profile and a reputation and build readership. But I was interested in your comment that eventually you can step back and write fewer but higher quality articles. Not sure whether I want get to that stage or not. It seems to me that there is room for both kinds of blog – the daily newspaper equivalent and the weekly magazine equivalent. Or perhaps one person can be be both – short daily items and once-a-week longer in-depth items?
I tend to do both, and it tends, in my mind, to make it difficult. The RSS and Feedblitz options make it easier for people to get my content, but most of my traffic comes from search. It’s a weird mix.
Carol: Yeah but the WaPo will get you free Technorati link backs! It’s free publicity! ;)
I totally agree. But I want to read more than just a link to the story. Why did the author think the story was important enough to post? GIVE ME CONTENT!!!! Please?
Yeah, but it’s a source you can tap for original content AND links. :) Nothing wrong with linking.
No, not at all. I just want more than a link farm, I guess. You always do a good job of balancing links with content, so my complaint doesn’t apply here. Thankfully, since I read your blog all the time.
I tend to do both, and it tends, in my mind, to make it difficult. The RSS and Feedblitz options make it easier for people to get my content, but most of my traffic comes from search. It’s a weird mix.
Carol: Yeah but the WaPo will get you free Technorati link backs! It’s free publicity! ;)
I totally agree. But I want to read more than just a link to the story. Why did the author think the story was important enough to post? GIVE ME CONTENT!!!! Please?
Yeah, but it’s a source you can tap for original content AND links. :) Nothing wrong with linking.
No, not at all. I just want more than a link farm, I guess. You always do a good job of balancing links with content, so my complaint doesn’t apply here. Thankfully, since I read your blog all the time.
Hei there.
What an excellent advice for the newbies and others. I have been blogging now for eight months and am aiming to do these days ‘quality’ over ‘quantity’ as I have my regular plus new ones daily readers.Thanks.
Hei there.
What an excellent advice for the newbies and others. I have been blogging now for eight months and am aiming to do these days ‘quality’ over ‘quantity’ as I have my regular plus new ones daily readers.Thanks.
Comments on this entry are closed.