May
29
I know when I have a great idea for several posts, that sometimes I make the mistake of blogging until I can’t blog anymore, then posting them all in one day. This is not a good habit to get into, mainly because what if tomorrow you can’t think of a single thing to write about? Then what? Perhaps then you’re putting up what I’d call “garbage posts” just because you have nothing to talk about.
If you’re having a creative spike, then write if you’re so inspired. Put the brakes on hitting the publish button, though. Edit that timestamp for tomorrow and the next day, and so-forth. Otherwise, you’ve got terminal bloghorrhea one day and nothing the next.
Why not make a series and schedule those posts out throughout the week? Your readers will thank you by continuing to read what you have to say. Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket, so to speak.
What do you think?
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My name is Roberta Ferguson and I’ll be putting my two cents in here and there regarding the very basics of blogging. Even though a lot of you already know about some of this stuff, some don’t. My normal haunt is music blogging at Earsucker, but what I’ve learned in my journey in blogging, I’ll be telling you here.
Popularity: 15% [?]
I quite agree. I rarely post more than 1 post per day. I usually write posts in batches of 3 or 4, and post them over the course of 3 or 4 days. I don’t have time to read more than one post per day, and a lot of my readers don’t either (most are not even on RSS).
Of course, anything time specific (such as a news article) gets posted on the relevant day. But I’ve tried and do “themes” of posts per week (last week was “Make Money”, this week is about my impending trip to Portugal – with the exception of tomorrow, as it’s my 5 year blogging anniversary)
Spread them out … I have a great Pay Per Click Management Series I wrote at my blog and I keep my readers wanting more because #1 it’s way too much info for just 1 post and #2 it keeps them hooked to my blog!
http://www.darin.cc/pay-per-click/pay-per-click-management-part-5/
That is the last post in the series so far … I still have 5 more posts to go!
It keeps your site sticky … if people like what you have to say … they will stick around and wait for your next posts!
So spread those large thoughts out in a series and keep them coming back for more!
Darin
Hi Roberta,
I agree; I only post 2 times at the most (3 times is an exception for something like the Problogger group writing project….that’s not often) each day.
I have an “article ideas” list that I maintain with a ton of ideas for future topics, but I wouldn’t post a bunch of these in one day. It would be too overwhelming for the reader.
I totally agree, JoLynn. I have a hard time focusing (as a reader of many many blogs) on something that may be newsworthy if the blogger posts over three or four posts in a day.
That’s a great idea, make a list of ideas for future posts.
Can anyone tell I wrote all of the blogging basics posts in one day? Sometimes I just hit a spike of personality or creativity, and just post, post, post.
I agree, Darin, it definitely keeps your site sticky. People will come in thinking, what’s the next part of the series?
Great comment, Rhys, themes are a great idea to keep people interested in your site. I’m going to have a looksie
If you are blogging at a fixed schedule, I think it’s important to have a few quality posts sitting in your hard drive as “emergency posts.”
Sometimes you will go through writer’s block or are just too busy to update when your readers are expecting a post. If you have about 3 good posts ready, just update it with that.
Great idea, Charles, because maybe someday, you won’t feel up to blogging because you’re sick or you just don’t feel inspired.
I completely agree – spread them out. Mashable drive me crazy now; if I miss a day, I have to scroll through about three pages of articles!
Series are a great idea – I am running one on link building over at my blog which is going down great.
- Martin Reed
This is true. Sometimes I go on a dry period running out of what to blog.
So save your post for the next day.
I just keep a list of ideas saved as posts for when I’m ready to write them. That idea came from my partner Jason
Well said, It does happened to me sometimes. I blog and blog in one day. One day I blogged ten posts.
A fantastic idea to flatten out the creative ups and downs that can torment any blogger, new or experienced.
I’ve been working on a lengthy article for a few days, but am realizing that posting the whole thing would be an exercise in frustration for my readers. I find this kind of advice to be of great usefulness, thanks!
I totally agree because I think everyone has those days when it seems like the possibilities are endless and then they have those days where it seems like there is nothing left to write about anymore, as if everything is already done. Another tip if you have a lot of ideas is to atleast jot down the key points so that in case you don’t write the post that day you can remember them later on. One issue with the timestamp method is that WordPress pings as soon as you publish it (even with a timestamp) so that the sites which are pinged visit your site only to find 404 errors. So, if you use a timestamp make sure you turn off autoping for that post (and then manually ping the sites after it is published). Courtney Tuttle figured this out and it is something all WordPress users should be aware of; hopefully there will be a fix for it soon.