October 13, 2006
Blogging tip: Have a schedule but don't let the schedule halve your publishing (or staunch it completely)
If you've spent any time at all reading hypocritical over the last four months, posts have been extremely haphazard. So first and foremost, thanks for sticking with it. If you're a recent reader, thanks for giving me a chance.As I mentioned when I started Return, I wasn't sure what this new venture was going to do to my blogging.
Looking back, it's been an interesting experiment.
Funny thing is that it was very much planned in very different manner. Very. Did I say very? Well, very. Ahem. Very.
I started out with the best intentions, but they veered off-course. I'd like to explain why, so that maybe you don't fall into a similar trap.
Discipline is good.
Any writer will tell you that writing takes discipline. I know that. And since writing a blog is, well, writing, I was convinced that serious blogging deserved similar discipline.
So I did my research. I analyzed my traffic. Tested some timing for publishing. And looked for the times when the publishing and traffic seemed to form a nice symbiotic tango. When I found that time, I decided to set that particular time of day as the time I would blog. (It happened to be between 8 AM and 10 AM Pacific Time.)
With me so far? Great.
So, here I was. I was going to be blogging regularly in the morning. And that was going to bring me traffic. And that was going to improve my subscription base. And that was going to extend my conversations beyond what I would have the capability of pursuing without blogging.
All seems good.
Being beholden to a schedule is not so good.
There was my first mistake. When I was thinking discipline, instead of "goal" I thought "schedule."
Oopie.
Immediately, one problem became excruciatingly obvious, and that was that when I wanted to write, when I was inspired to write, was often 12 to 16 hours away from when my readers wanted to read.
So, being in the heat of the moment, I decided to try to force myself to write at the time when my readers would be listening. It shouldn't be too difficult, I told myself. Just save your ideas up for that time and write then.
That's when the second problem arose. You see, the time my readers wanted to read was not the time that I wanted to write, it was the time when I wanted to work on my projects. The time when I was extremely efficient at banging out the work that was paying the bills.
Now, did I want to stop (enjoying) my work to do some writing that I wasn't really in the mood to do?
Nope. So I pushed the blog entries off.
I'll get back to it, I thought.
Wrong. Because that's when it would come full circle.
In the evening, I would feel a desire to write, but I would suppress that desire, telling myself that the timing was off. So, I'd squirrel away ideas and jot down notes. But by the time I got around to the "writing time" there was no fire. No desire to write. And so the ideas--that were full of passion and thought when I was in the moment--festered in mediocrity by the time the "writing time" arrived.
For me, rather than the schedule helping me, it was hindering my performance. Rather than a means of adding discipline, it became a spiraling trap.
(Now I know some of you are out there saying "write whenever you want and publish when the folks are reading." Yeah, I get that. But there's something about publishing just after I've written it that appeals to me. It's the closure. If I waited, most of these posts would still be drafts. I have to strike while the iron is hot, or it's not going to happen. And I might miss my window.)
It just didn't work for me.
One other cautionary note. And, mom, you can skip this part. This is one of those times that your son admits one of his shortcomings. Yes, I do. Mom, I do. Everybody does. Sigh. Okay, mom. Just skip it. Okay? Okay.
I'm sorry where was I? Oh yes, my failure. What I failed to realize was that this "discipline" was driven, not by the desire to become a better blogger or the desire to please my reader base, but by something far different. This edifice of discipline was driven by an addiction to increasing subscriber base number. An artifically inflated number of "fans" that appeared when I published at the the right time.
I was driven by the quick fix.
When I published at the time my so-called readers (not you schnookums, those other charlatans) were reading, my subscriber base grew more quickly. And that was invigorating.
But I couldn't sustain it. Because the timing was off.
So what happened? The traffic that was there quickly went away just as quickly. Fickle. Fleeting. Not in for the long haul.
But here's the silliest thing. You know that traffic number I was chasing? When I wrote when I wanted and published when I wanted? That traffic came in droves. Over a long period of time. And, eventually, that traffic far surpassed the quick hit.
Why? Search engines, gentle reader. They're the real key to the traffic. Pinging the blog searches will get you the quick hit, but unless you're a breaking new blog, they won't stay. It's the search engines that are going to bring the solid subscriber base.
And they're the ones you should be looking to please.
So, if you're anything like me, here are some tips that might help you:
- Figure out when you like write.
- Write when you like to write.
- Avoid the temptation to schedule your writing. Instead, set a goal for number of posts per day/week/month and stick to it.
- If and only if it works for you, publish just before your traffic tends to peak.
Me? I'm getting back to writing when I want to write. When I feel it. Because when it comes write... err right down to it, that's what the majority fo this self-serving blather is all about. That, and pleasing you.
Hope that helps.
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Blogging tip: Have a schedule but don't let the schedule halve your publishing (or staunch it completely)
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