Be Yourself in Blog Land: Don’t Join the Rat Race Unless You Like the Bait

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Blog posting frequency and setting the right rhythm - Be Yourself in Blog Land

This article is part of the series
Be Yourself in Blog Land
which includes:

  1. The Face That Launched
    a Thousand Ships
  2. Embrace the Fanboy Within
  3. Don’t Join the Rat Race
    Unless You Like the Bait
  4. (Wo)men of Mystery Wear
    Cheap Spandex Suits

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Ever since blogging became the exciting new “serious” thing to do on the internet, it has turned into a bit of a rat race. Granted that blogging is not exactly like the 9 to 5 carousel. After all, you blog because you want to blog, because you’re passionate about something, because all your friends are doing it, or simply because you want to be famous! Sounds nothing like employment to me, but in the world of blogs the rat race I’m talking about is the pressure to post often. If you have ever been serious about your blog you have definitely felt this pressure looming. There is an important question you must ask yourself when you experience this familiar pain: Is my posting frequency dictated by the publish or perish hysteria?

Most of us who read up all the material we can on blogging and hope to take our blogs to new heights of hotness are very much in the grasp of this phenomenon. It is natural considering everything we’ve been told, because the common wisdom is that a higher posting frequency automatically means more readership and a more popular blog. That makes some sense, in a brute-force sort of way, but it is not necessarily the only answer. In the long run blogging is about consistency. So before you decide to take on posting at least ten articles a day to ensure that your popularity is in the bag, here are some things to keep in mind:

  1. Rhythm

    One post does not make a blog, just like one beat does not make a drum solo. Think of your posting frequency as the rhythm of the music that is your blog. Everyone suggests you have a regular daily rhythm and if possible post many times a day. That is ok if you can sustain the pace, but if you can’t it is best to never start down that road, because a broken rhythm doesn’t make for good music.

    Your posting rhythm can be rapid and your blog could be a great techno tune or some really high-tempo rock, which can be good. Your frequency could also be slower and you might have a great ballad on your hands, which can also be good. But if you have a couple of seconds of spirited back beats on the drums and then 30 seconds of silence, it is safe to say you’re music is not going to be climbing any charts. In stead of forcing it, find your natural posting rhythm and stick to it. A bit of variation can make a rhythm interesting and break the monotony, but random chaos mixed in with long silences is rarely appreciated by your audience.

  2. Standards

    We all have standards, as do our blogs. Let’s hope they are high standards, because these standards need to be maintained. In your quest for posting once a day or thrice a day or whatever be your poison, you push yourself to come up with more and more content, but is it any good? Posting regularly but posting weak and mediocre material, or worse – bad material, is not going to win you any fans.

    If you find that the need to post on a daily basis has made you resort to putting up hollow rubbish, you need to step back and rethink your strategy. There are literally millions of blogs in the wild and thousands of new ones joining the ranks on a daily basis. It goes without saying that there is always someone out there who is blogging on the same topic as you and doing so at a faster pace. But quality content is difficult to beat. When you come up with content to meet your self-imposed deadlines, take a strong hard look at it and ask yourself if it is good enough to go on your blog. If it isn’t, don’t put it up. It is better to break the schedule and maintain your blog’s standards than to succumb to the simple programming of posting regularly.

  3. Freedom

    Blogging is being called a new era in publishing, a new high in the expression of the freedom of speech. You might be free to say what you want, but in taking on the race for posts, have you given up the freedom to not say anything when you don’t want to? What ever happened to your freedom of silence?

    A twice daily or daily posting frequency once started can be a very tough act to maintain. There are many who do this and achieve great success and a consistent quality of material on their blog, but that is not to say that high frequency content creation is for everyone. Many of us get into blogging as an act of liberation, and some of us consider it as a full time activity because of the freedom it offers. If you are one of those people, be sure to evaluate how you manage the regularity of your posts, because beyond a certain point the obsession to publish posts regularly takes away any freedom that you might have thought you had.

Blogging can be an enjoyable experience but serious blogging is a lot of hard work. The question is how hard do you want to be working at it? It is important to realize that you set your own pace, and you should make sure you’re comfortable with the posting frequency that you impose on yourself. Blogging at a professional level of excellence must be done at a comfortable but consistent rhythm, while maintaining a high standard of content, and while ensuring your daily freedoms are not infringed upon to the point of burn-out.

Artificial schedules are imposed upon us all from the moment we are born. If you are blogging with passion, make sure you do not impose a schedule on yourself which you cannot live up to because that can only result in pain, suffering and a complete depletion of your passions. Instead be yourself, run the good run, and with some diligence, perseverance, and a little luck, you will reach your desired destination. But if you decide to plunge headlong into the rat race, make sure you really adore the cheese that’s hanging at the end of that hectic posting schedule, and the cage that goes with it.

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Comments
  1. Hi Samir,
    thanks a lot for the articles in this series and the help you provide with them to the blöogger community! Your articles are very encouraging. Some points confirmed me in my way of blogging, some other gave me new insight for some changes I have to do.
    Thanks again and greetings from germany,
    Marion

    1. Hi Marion,

      I’m happy to be of service and thanks for commenting. I write these things to clarify my own thoughts as much as share it with other people, so it’s encouraging to find out some else found it useful.

      I paid your blog a quick visit, and it sounds very intriguing. If I knew any German, I’m sure I would find it to be an interesting read. Maybe I will explore it with an online translator and see what I can fathom.

      Thank you once again for dropping by, and hope you find reasons to come back here often. Friends from Germany, or anywhere else for that matter, are always welcome. 🙂

      Samir


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