Let me be honest, I’m not your typical, words free flowing “out of the box” blogger. By that I mean I always find it difficult to pull topics of interest out of that proverbial hat and most times I just write according to my gut feeling on something that I feel might be important. However, due to this level of spontaenity, I’m often second guessing myself to the point where most posts (or articles) that I write end up on the cutting room floor.
The reason for this is that 99.9% of the time I convince myself that whatever I had to say has been said numerous amounts of times in one form or another. For example, the other day I wanted to write about what I called “The Yin and Yang of Pastries”, wherein I’d rant about the immediate gluttony as a result of Krispy Kremes making their way into office environments.
After getting about halfway into the post I highlighted the bulk of it and promptly hit the Delete key. Whether I knew it or not at the time I had convinced myself that noone in their right mind would be interested in reading about how I believe donuts are a leading factor to gluttonous office workers.
Along these lines of thought, Keith just wrote about what he’s learned from blogging for the past 3 years. To summarize; blogging takes time, effort and in the scope of things it’s wonderfully rewarding. I couldn’t agree more, however, in the past 2 or 3 years since I decided to give this blogging thing a try I’ve realized that receiving feedback on posts and building a community of regular readers is not only rewarding in the sense that “Hey, people like reading what I have to say”, but also it adds a layer of meaning to what would otherwise be equivalent to having a conversation with a brick wall, or writing in a diary that gets shoved into the corner of drawer that’s never opened.
Blogging is certainly not a “lock and key”, all eyes diverted kind of activity. In most cases, the blogger wishes to share information with whomever seems interested and the feedback is what extends the thought, idea, observation, tutorial or lesson into something with more impact and substance that far exceeds anyone’s expectations.
Yet, there’s also a deeper truth here that what lies on the surface level. There are those who can keep a consistent schedule of posts and there are those, like me, who post irregularly. Is there a right or wrong to the amount of posts that should be written on a monthly, weekly or daily basis? Should an individual write only when something needs to be said, or should a blog be a freeflowing medium wherein the blogger posts whatever comes to their head?
At one point I believed that a blog should in its most concrete form be a constantly updated journal, but in recent years other things in my life have taken priority. Even then I almost feel that I need to write about something, for fear that whomever keeps my feed around is waiting for fresh content. Yet, I don’t want to lock myself down to only pleasing my readers when in fact this site was started as a personal project to fuel my love for writing and my knack for observing the lighter and darker aspects of life.
Erik you are not alone in wondering about the frequency in which you blog or what subject you blog about. I have asked myself these questions on numerous occasions thus far and I have only been blogging for just about a year. I find myself, as you do, second guessing a current article and asking “Who would want to read this?” I just have to keep reminding myself why I started doing this to begin with.
To sharpen my writing skills and to please myself. Sure I’ve wrote a few fluff articles just to put something fresh up, but overall I think people frequent and subscribe to sites because there is a common interest in one thing or another that you have written. Of course not everyone that reads your site will post a comment on every article but I like knowing that there is a diverse group of people that read my site and my various nonsense. I for one enjoy the subjects you write about and thats why I keep visiting. If I don’t see anything new for a couple of days/weeks thats ok, there is a whole lotta life out there to live and no one should expect something fresh everyday.
I think on the days you don’t put up fresh content, you should offer a fresh PIZZA to the first person who mentions it.
Like me.
Deep dish, Dominoes. Pepperoni, please.
I write two kinds of entries on Binary Bonsai. One is fast, takes less than 30 minutes to write and is meant to last no more than a day at most. The other is the exact opposite and takes me sometimes a week to write. The second is what I enjoy the most, the first is what usually gets the most traffic.
As for publishing schedule… I just throw things up whenever I feel like it. I try not to think too much about it, though after 3–4 days of not posting anything, I start to get the urge to do something about it again.
As for targeting an audience, well I just write what I’m interested in, and hope for the best.
Finally, in terms of writing or not writing about things that have already been mentioned (perhaps better) elsewhere: Writing about something, is often more than putting down on ‘paper’ thoughts you are conscious about. It’s also exploring, on your own, different aspects of it.
Thus: Write about what you feel like, when you feel like it and it will find itself an audience.
PS: Audiences are more (but not exclusively) about successful PR than content.
And hey, the PIZZA idea is pretty good, I’ll take deep dish with minced meat and extra cheese.
Well, that’s two extremes. When you’re gonna post only when you “need to say it”, then there’s hardly any positivity. That’s bound to happen. You’ll only feel the “need” to post about the bad things.
I like it when you just write when you like to write, because I hardly subscribe to blogs that don’t have passionate writers.
I have had the same problem you described with starting a post and then halfway through deleting it because I think no one will be interested. But I guess sometimes we just have to post it anyway. The good thing is that we can always edit it.
I guess ideally it would be good if we could all blog consistently but there are times when we won’t be able to because of work, family and other commitments. Sometimes we may just need a break as well.
Werd … and what’s with people who comment on how frequently you post?
Personally, my favorite blogs are ones like this, where whenever you post it’s actually worth giving it a read. I’d say 80% of the other blogs I subscribe to just fill my reader with noise. Frequent, empty, postings.
What do you want as a subscriber? To have to weed through dozens of posts about nothing? Or to have something to read when we do actually post?
I thought the whole point of RSS was that we could tell you when we’ve new content so you don’t have to waste your time checking back when there’s no new content?
Infrequency of postings is such a silly thing for people to complain about.
Completely unrelated… Doughnut Porn.
I watch that when I’m sad.
I like reading posts that come from the heart. When I post topics, I speak from the heart. If you get to the point where you don’t know what to post because your tired, you don’t know what to say, your afraid waht you have to say is not important, etc… the maybe you are expericing a little blogging burnout.
I typically want to have a minimum of 1 post every couple days at worst.
For my lifehut website, I plan on making it 1 post per day, or 1 every 2 days. JuicedThoughts has been slow, but in fact I have some errors with MovableType right now, so thats my excuse
Majorchampionships.com gets a post every few days. Sometimes a week has gone by with nothing though.
But speak from the heart. If you feel like writing about how donuts are making us fat, then write about it. Some readers will turn away, some readers will be enticed. Heck, you might gain new readers.
I find people think WAY too much. Just go with the flow and let the blogging happen. Too many people are concerned with the quality of their writing thinking they have an expectation to live up to.
Everyone has a style. Of course we want to improve upon that style, but if you start setting your personal goals too high or trying to meet an expectation, your going to fail or get burnt out.
It sounds more like you are at a crossroads of what you want to do.
Follow your heart Erik, thats about the best advice I can give.
Hey Erik
I’ve often found myself thinking about the same stuff, and it’s something that often has created conflicting emotions. On one hand I want to share everything and write all the time, and on the other hand I have to balance my life so I don’t burn out and have to go live on the beach (which sounds mighty nice right now).
My take is that you just gotta do what works for you.
You certainly don’t owe anyone anything, and your readers sure as hell don’t know what’s going on in your life (unless you tell them), so they’re not really in a position to say anything or complain.
Some days I go through my feeds and all I want to do is comment and write about what I think, other days all I want to do is eat chocolate and veg in front of the TV or on the couch with my girl.
What I have found strange is that I’m now starting to think “I need to write for my readers” which is crap — I need to write for me, and post stuff for me — otherwise there’s no love in it, and that’s a sad, cold, dark place to be in.
My 0.0002 cents amigo
How often have I wondered as I begin a post, is this post so simular to someone elses that I will be accused of stealing material? Trying to write humor also presents problems in that, by the time I mull a post around enough in my head that I feel it’s time for publishing, it often times no longer seems funny to me anymore. I am also surprised that the posts that I feel are second rate and just created out of desperation, are often more popular than ones that I consider to be my masterpieces.
Whatever you’re doing, keep it up. Your writing is interesting, and that’s all that matters (for me). The nice thing about RSS is that I’m notified that you’ve got something unique you want to share.
So don’t worry about a keeping up a schedule. If someone’s visiting on a daily basis it’s because they’re interested in the comments.
I’ve been getting that same feeling for a couple of months now. It’s a phase, you’ll snap out of it
.
I’ve contemplated the same things on occasion. I find myself feeling forced to stick to a certain style of writing when in reality there are a lot of different styles I’d like to explore, and sometimes I find that when I sit down to write an entry I just can’t get the words to sound right on paper. Of course, true inspiration comes at the most inopportune times, like when I’m merging onto the freeway.
Sometimes it is hard to find topics to write on. I normally just read the news or some blogs to see what’s new, what’s interesting, or what is weird. Then, I start writing. I’m not the best writer, so I just write what I’m thinking.
About this site overall, I thought it was cool how you have all those cartoons as the theme of the site. Nice work overall. If you get a chance, check out my site: http://dragotown.com
[…] With Molly saying it takes courage, with Erik not too long ago mulling things over and me having a tendency to get a bit emotional about it, I began to wonder how blogging makes you feel. […]