The Pressure to Post
I read Shel Holtz’s September 4th’s
blog posting with great sympathy. I didn’t post on Monday because it was a holiday. He missed a few days because his 17 year old daughter was in the hospital suffering from a painful kidney stone. I hope she is all right, and I think Shel had a very good reason for missing a few days.
But certainly we all face the pressure to post and the guilt when we don't. Shel’s case, while extreme, does point to the struggle that bloggers have when real life, holidays or just plain fatigue get in the way of writing on our prescribed schedules.
This issue had surfaced last week with a story written by Elizabeth Holmes in the Wall Street Journal about bloggers who debate about whether to post when taking a vacation -- much to the dismay of family members. The article pointed out that several bloggers suffered a decline in readership from not blogging or using guest bloggers.
My advice: take the vacation and put aside the blog. The blog will still be there and so will the readers. That’s what bloggers Mike Manuel and Eric Kintz did this summer. Eric took a self imposed vacation, while Mike took a few weeks off from writing and spent time reading blogs to gain some needed perspective.
In fact Mike Manuel wrote: “Why is it that bloggers freak out at the thought of taking a break? IMO, it takes a seriously inflated ego (or a seriously deflated income) to get overly concerned about this sort of thing. If people enjoy reading your stuff, they'll remain subscribers, hell, they might even appreciate a pause every now and then, just to catch up....”
Giving your readers a break is something that Eric has addressed before. Eric takes exception to the rule that you have to post every day. Among the reasons he gives for not posting daily are that blogging every day impacts quality, loyal readers will stick by you regardless, and he loves his family too much. This philosophy seems to have served him well as he was recently ranked as a top 10 CMO blogger.
I for one have opted for longer, but fewer, posts. When I travel to Peru in November, I will take a blogging break. Sometimes a few weeks off is just what you need to clear your head and inspire better postings.
Of course now that the summer is over, we have fewer excuses to avoid blogging.
Let me get back to you.
But certainly we all face the pressure to post and the guilt when we don't. Shel’s case, while extreme, does point to the struggle that bloggers have when real life, holidays or just plain fatigue get in the way of writing on our prescribed schedules.
This issue had surfaced last week with a story written by Elizabeth Holmes in the Wall Street Journal about bloggers who debate about whether to post when taking a vacation -- much to the dismay of family members. The article pointed out that several bloggers suffered a decline in readership from not blogging or using guest bloggers.
My advice: take the vacation and put aside the blog. The blog will still be there and so will the readers. That’s what bloggers Mike Manuel and Eric Kintz did this summer. Eric took a self imposed vacation, while Mike took a few weeks off from writing and spent time reading blogs to gain some needed perspective.
In fact Mike Manuel wrote: “Why is it that bloggers freak out at the thought of taking a break? IMO, it takes a seriously inflated ego (or a seriously deflated income) to get overly concerned about this sort of thing. If people enjoy reading your stuff, they'll remain subscribers, hell, they might even appreciate a pause every now and then, just to catch up....”
Giving your readers a break is something that Eric has addressed before. Eric takes exception to the rule that you have to post every day. Among the reasons he gives for not posting daily are that blogging every day impacts quality, loyal readers will stick by you regardless, and he loves his family too much. This philosophy seems to have served him well as he was recently ranked as a top 10 CMO blogger.
I for one have opted for longer, but fewer, posts. When I travel to Peru in November, I will take a blogging break. Sometimes a few weeks off is just what you need to clear your head and inspire better postings.
Of course now that the summer is over, we have fewer excuses to avoid blogging.
Let me get back to you.
Great post! I actually truly enjoyed my blogging break; it gave me a number of ideas of new posts and gave me some much needed perspective. One funny thing also happened: my traffic actually increased - not in number of readers, but in page views as people took this opportunity to read and link to older posts that I had highlighted.
Eric (Comment this)
I hope you spend some time is Cusco, Dan, it's beautiful.... (Comment this)
Blog, dammit, blog!
: ) (Comment this)