I started blogging in late 2008 and I confess I felt a little like I was jumping on a bandwagon. There were a lot of blogs out there, why should I add another one to the pile?
This blog was started because I felt that there was something missing, a place for employee and customer and community stuff to collide. I’m motivated about making work better in order to deliver better service. I didn’t think about it much more beyond that – but I’d built up a few ideas to get me started and felt sure those and my passion for these connections would see me through. I was wrong. There’s a whole bunch of effort required to keep the train a rollin’.
Now it’s 2012 and it seems every Tom, Dick and Harry met Sally is just piling in. One of the by products of piling in is that after the euphoria of your first few comments and retweets comes the onset of frequent infrequency. It becomes clear that this blogging lark can be hard work, and the temptation to let it drift is often too seductive. The excellent A Better Mess blog says this about infrequency:
‘We crap rationalize with things like, “I’ll only write when I have something really important to say,” or “I’ll get back to blogging once I finish this project for work.” Rather than course correcting, the average blog dies a slow, painful and lingering demise. It’s a death march that not only disappoints your readers, it’s a public commitment that you’ve essentially neglected.’
And if you want people to read your blog, then frequently infrequent ain’t gonna get ’em. And don’t give me any of that ‘I’m only writing for myself’ crap. Were that true then you’d be ‘blogging’ on one of these babies:
So get real y’all. Blogging takes guts, sweat, persistence and a depth of madness most folk can only dream of. And to that end, have a listen to this (lyrical kudos to @workessence for another musical collaboration):
Fury at people having a go at blogging? Fury at frequent infrequency? Fury at there being more bloggers out there?
Don’t get me wrong, it’s important to know why you are blogging – what you want to achieve. However, it’s the blogger who decides the purpose of their blog. In that context they decide the content. In that context they decide the frequency. They determine their own success. If we the audience don’t like it we move on.
But you’re right, so many bloggers seem to let themselves down without making their blogging commitment public – they set no expectation other than their general area of writing. What’s the “contract” with the audience for comments? What’s the expectation of how often they’ll blog? What’s the purpose of the blog? Lesson learnt for some of us but look around many popular bloggers still don’t make this explicit.
For all people thinking of starting a blog, I’d say do it. Try it out for size. Write about the things that you are passionate about. Be yourself. Find people who can support & help you. Make mistakes and learn from them. Listen less to others bloggers and listen more to your audience. Forget blog stats. Forget comparisons. Find your own reality. Enjoy it & if you don’t enjoy it stop!
The gauntlet has been thrown.
Although since comments below the line on the internet are meant to be abusive I’ll say this: you should have recorded yourself playing AC/DC’s “Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘n’ Roll)”. Complete with bagpipes. Poor effort.
No different to writing a book, just more public.
In fact, no different to joining the gym, eating your five a day, going sober, starting a new hobby…..just human behaviour. The rationalization is called cognitive dissonance.
Bloggers are up their own arses, the more frequent, the more up their own arse.
Nothing new, nothing to see here, move along…..
Great song Doug. We must find a stage to do something before I die.
Sex is no better for doing it more often. The same goes for blogging. Frequency is a myth. If you have to be frequent to be interesting then its all gone horribly wrong.
Blogging has been around since before anyone read them. For some, its a form of self expression – which doesn’t need an audience. It is simply expression. for (increasingly) others, its a marketing platform. A way of making money. Promoting product.
I guess you have not had sex with me Gareth – only joking of course ! 🙂
I find regularity more important than frequency ( I am now discussing blogging).
Peter
Who makes the rules?
Is the hierarchy:
Authors
Journalists (payrolled)
Journalists (freelance)
Bloggers
Infrequent Bloggers
Inexperienced Bloggers
People who post funny stuff on Twitter
People who post funny stuff on Facebook
People who do none of the above
Spammers
I hate hierarchies 🙁
Thank you all for your feedback.
This blog post is an interesting and ugly car crash. It may be hard to believe but it was forged from a handful of good intentions, and yet somehow I’ve conspired to weld it together into something quite unpleasant. I’ll leave it here to serve as a reminder and hope no one treads in it, or should that be puts their foot in it?
I’m late to the party on this, mostly because I’ve been thinking about it ever since you wrote it. And what I’ve been thinking is that I totally get where this is coming from.
I enjoy blogging. I have ambitions I want to achieve, and I’m finding useful ways to get there through my blog. I’m not ashamed of that.
Your post wasn’t an ugly car crash at all. You had something to say, you were clear about it, but it got a bit messy in the delivery. That’s pretty good if you ask me. We live and learn. Not everything we write is palatable, and we’re not always articulate, and what better way to hone the craft of writing.
It does take guts to keep the blog going. In reference to David’s comment above, there might not be a public commitment to what the blog is for, but in keeping it regular (as Peter mentions), our readership identifies what that commitment is. @TheHRD is a good example. We knew he’d post from Monday-Thursday without fail.
Blogging is hard work. It’s always on my bloody mind. Because I’ve committed to writing and sharing. In doing so, I want to give people something worthwhile reading. That’s my commitment to my readers. I don’t stop thinking about what that looks like. I’m constantly fiddling with bloody widgets and stats and themes and what-have-you-nots because I want the experience to be better and better for my readers.
You want to write a blog? Jolly excellent, and I’ll try support and encourage where I can. You want to give up? That’s fine too. We all have our wares and wherefores. Me? I’m doing this for me.
Thanks Sukh, your comment is much appreciated and it’s very helpful to me. This post and the subsequent dialogue and feelings has been a great lesson, I like that.