Over the Christmas holidays I have been bombarded with essays, assignments, group work, application forms and exams, so it is somewhat obvious that I have not had a lot of time on my hands to blog. Bizarrely this has left me feeling guilty, like I am somehow depriving my (albeit few) readers of my views and opinions. But this is surely not the case; there are so many blogs out there that it has become very difficult to keep up with them all (just try working your way through feed demon having left it for a week) and therefore blogs who don’t have frequent posts can just fall behind. This doesn’t seem to be a major problem, all blogs can be picked up again when time allows, so where is this feeling of guilt coming from?
After thinking this over whilst not being able to sleep last night (insomnia is a wonderful thing isn’t it?) I realised the pressure I appear to be feeling about my lack of posting comes from the overwhelming amount of posts written by others. There are blogs I visit that have up to eight posts a day and I’m aware other blogs have even more; but what is the reason for this?
Personally I blog when there is a reason to, when I want to have a little rant about something or offer helpful tips to other students for example. I never blog for the simple sake of blogging. I can’t help but wonder if others do?
In my opinion blogging should serve the purpose of an online diary, personal to you whilst providing interesting and insightful reading for others. It should not be “oh crap I haven’t written one in a while”, “”what will people think of me if I don’t?” or ”I don’t want to lose subscribers” posts. These tend to be rather obvious, dull and frankly pointless. Bloggers need to stop worrying about their number of subscribers and Technorati rankings and just write what they think- it really will be a lot more enjoyable to read than the “oops, sorry I haven’t written in a while” post.
I wouldn’t worry too much about knocking out a bunch of unnecessary posts. From where I sit you are doing all the right things for a big future in PR. In fact I show you off as what PR students should be. Keep up the good work
Thanks Kane, that’s great to hear! I’ll try keep up the good example then!
the ‘bloggosphere’ can easily be broken down into three tiers these days, more if you look at it in real detail, but as a top line, you have;
tier 1 – non-professional consumers who blog about a passion
tier 2 – semi-professional monetized bloggers who blog about a passion but receive income from ad revenues
tier 3 – professional blogs with teams of bloggers that receive considerable revenue from advertising etc
tier 1 people can rarely, if at all keep up with the content put out by tier 3 outfits, just the way it is.
i never get down about not posting ‘all-the-time’ my blog expresses my passion, sometimes it dips, other times it’s rife, that’s just me doing what i want
Rather than looking at the number of posts, what about the ratio of posts to comments? On that score, this has been a successful blog post.
That said, you did write this in Behind the Spin, just at the time when your own blogging slowed down:
“I think a main pointer for anyone who is thinking of starting a blog is to always remember to spell check, and to write frequently (at least once a week).”
It’s about expectation management. No one expects an amateur blogger to post with guaranteed frequency unless they’ve made some sort of promise to do so (explicit or otherwise).
If the primary purpouse of blogging is to create conversations, then Richard’s argument about comments to post ratio works out pretty well. I would just include pingbacks in it too.
Expectations are important, but what is even more important is the reason why you are blogging in the first place. On one hand, if you are blogging to share ideas that matter to you, timing is pretty much up to you. On the other hand, if you are blogging to improve your writing skills, chances are that one post in 3 months is not going to cut it.
I think you have done a good job explaining WHY you actually blog, which sets the bar for expectations. Good job, Natalie!
Some good points here. I think yopu are right, there are too many bloggers out there who put qualntity over quality. Whether this is for SEO optimisation or a need to look busy I don’t know. All I know is that blogging is quite an individual practice and a platform to shout about things you care about. It is for this reason that I think you are right – quality of content is far more important that frequency.
Hi Natalie,
I completely agree with you. I don’t have regular access to a computer and whilst maintaining a blog I have noticed how much interaction goes on between bloggers. The fact that I am unable to keep up or further any interaction worries me and makes me feel sorry for my own blog.
Although I also feel that it is mainly an outlet for nagging issues and the creation of discussions with those of a similar mind… So not sure where that leaves me.
I’m a part time blogger, I enjoy it, it allows me to climb upon my soap box and it is a great way to interact.
See you next week…I’m starting to consider Public sector after this placement! Never thought I would say/type that!
Totally agree with the conversation element, the ratio of posts to comments is important as, although rudimentary it is more of a measure of quality rather than quantity.
As a student, I have to admit I feel the same way! I’m usually bogged down between uni work and my internship so I feel there is a pressure to blog, but I’d rather only blog when I actually have something to say!