Don’t you get annoyed by people who think they know everything? They seem to think they’re always right and anyone who disagrees with them is an idiot. In reality, the idiot is the person who thinks they know everything because no human knows everything and one size does not fit all.
If I asked 10 people what the best restaurant in town was I’d probably get several different answers. I might recommend some steakhouse but if I made that recommendation to a vegetarian they probably wouldn’t like my choice because one size does not fit all when it comes to restaurants either. Some people like beef, some people like chicken, others prefer fish, and still others don’t even eat meat. None of them is wrong. Different strokes for different folks.
There are so many ways to make money that it would be hard to count them all. I’m a proponent of making money online but some people can’t stand computers and would rather deal with live people than websites. An Internet business probably isn’t the right answer for them. They’re not stupid or lazy just because something else works better for them.
You can make money in real estate too. It’s very different than making money online. There’s a lot more personal interaction & negotiation. There’s a lot of money to made both online and in real estate. But for someone to say the Internet (or real estate investing) is the one & only answer for everyone would be ridiculous. It just isn’t true.
Take blogging for another example. Ryan Healy made a good post on different blogging models earlier this week titled Does Frequent Posting Encourage Bad Writing?. Some people say it’s best to post every day and some people prefer to post a few times a week. It’s a personal decision really. You can’t possibly say one way is better than the other…especially without knowing someone’s objectives.
But there are people who think they know it all and insist you should post every day. If less is better they argue, then not blogging at all would be best. That’s a BS argument. Let’s take it in the other direction. If blogging daily is good, then posting every hour is better, and making a post every minute is best.
Both extremes are ridiculous. Having a blog and not posting at all is useless but it would also be a waste of time to make a post every minute. No sane person would read 60 posts an hour. The answer lies somewhere in the middle and the owner of the blog is free to decide what works best. The right answer will likely be different from one person to the next. One size does not fit all when it comes to blogs and the frequency of posting either.
Everyone has different skills, different desires, different strengths & weaknesses, and different levels of motivation. Ultimately it’s the responsiblity of each individual to figure out what the the right answer is. There is no definitive correct answer. There is only a right answer for YOU.
Fred Black also made a good post about blogging the other day: Will the Real Blogger Please Stand Up… He talks about ghostwritten posts and he mentions me. I know Fred well enough to know he wasn’t picking on me and we traded a few emails about his post. In any event, I do have interns write blog posts but I can count the number of ghostwritten posts on this blog on one hand. I believe the number is 3 and I’m approaching 300 posts so 99% of the posts are written by me. I don’t see any problems using ghostwritten posts. There’s a place for them and that place is up to the individual blogger. One size doesn’t fit all there either.
I’m curious what blog readers think. Did you even notice I’ve only been posting 3 times per week lately instead of daily? Should I switch back to posting daily?
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9 Comments
“If blogging daily is good, then posting every hour is better, and making a post every minute is best”
Spot on there. Great post. It is down to the individual blogger and his objectives.
Great post, Robert!
I believe just as important as what the blog writer/owner prefers in terms of blogging frequency, is what the majority of blog readers prefer.
Some markets, such as the Online Marketing crowd, seem to be eager to read new blog posts daily… assuming the posts offer valuable information.
That would most likely be FAR to frequent postings for many other markets.
Cheers,
Tom
Robert:
How does blogging 7 days a week or 3 times a week affect the traffic your site is getting?
That is one critical concern for me as a blog owner.
Robert - Thanks for the mention, and for expanding on this discussion. I agree with David: that line about blogging every minute is priceless.
I noticed you had slowed down your posting because I always check post dates when I visit a blog. I just do the math. It gives me an idea of how much of a commitment it will be to read a blog.
Whenever a blogger I enjoy reading slows down a bit, I feel relieved because now I have a chance to actually stay current with the conversation that’s happening on the blog.
I feel like I miss out on a lot of good posts when a blogger posts too frequently.
Likewise, I think bloggers miss out on valuable publicity because their most influential readers don’t have time to read and link to the blogger’s best posts.
[Ryan,
Good points. I can't even keep up with all the blogs on my blogroll and I don't think any of them post daily. Anyone could spend all day reading blogs just as they could spend all day in forums but it's probably not the best use of time and it actually takes up time that could be better spent building your own business.
It's probably a good idea to post every day for the first 30 days to get your blog noticed but after the blog is established, it's a personal preference. If some people want to post every day, that's great. There's nothing wrong with that. It works for some people. I made the choice not to post daily. It's not lazy. It's personal preference based on my own experience and your comments only serve to reinforce my decision.
Robert]
I’m subscribed to nearly 40 blogs so if people start posting daily, I start skimming or altogether skipping the content.
The ones that post closer to weekly (like John Carlton or Bill Harris of Centerpointe) get my full attention once I’m ready to read them.
Anything in between gets a variable amount of attention depending on the quality. If I happen to know that most of the posts are written by interns, that gets less attention than someone writing their own. I’m not really interested in reading more posts about not watching TV if you know what I mean.
That said, I wouldn’t usually notice if someone went from 5 posts to 2-3 per week. I do notice if someone posts more than once daily. I don’t feel like there’s anyone online I need to hear from more than once a day.
[Louis,
Thanks for your comment. You're reinforcing my decision to post less frequently. I figured a post every day might be too much for most readers and that appears to be the case from the responses.
When you say "I'm not really interested in reading more posts about not watching TV if you know what I mean." I know what you mean. How many times can that horse be beaten? I disagree anyway. I watch SportsCenter almost everyday.
Robert]
Hi Robert,
Your current blog posting schedule is more preferable. As a long time reader of your blog(been there since the beginning), I like the fact your posts allow for a days break in between blog post.
Not only does this makes for more interesting reading, but I WILL read every post instead of making a choice about whether I should read it based solely on the headlines as is currently the case with other blogs I’m subscribed to who posts not only everyday but several times a day.
As Ryan said, I don’t feel like I’ve missed or will miss something if you post everyday.
[Jen,
Thanks for your comment and thanks for reading. I know you've been around since the beginning. You seem to agree with others who have left comments that most readers prefer posting a few times per week over daily posts. Thanks for your input.
Robert]
Robert,
Your points are very good, and obviously resonate with others as well as myself. I’ll take quality over quantity any time. A good glass of wine vs a mediocre bottle…
I think that regardless of who makes the posts, too many just become a blur… Like speed metal (music) going a 100mph, it quickly becomes repetitive noise, instead of quality content.
I also find it disingenuous that some bloggers that talk about “forum junkies” are basically using every means at their disposal to distract people from actually doing something. I mean, it seems like it might be just as bad in some ways to be a blog-junkie, especially to just one source of information–no matter how well it works for him/her. As you say, one size does not fit all.
As for the name calling… I started writing a long rant on this, but instead will contribute one of my most important lessons from way back. I’d read Wayne Dyer’s first book “Your Erroneous Zones” (his best book, in my view) during a particularly stressful time in my life. It helped change the way I talk to myself, which is much more important than how others talk to me. In a super quick nutshell, with a little practice, I stopped calling myself stupid, idiot, dumb, etc.. Instead I simply replaced it by saying that “I did a stupid thing”, or “that was a dumb thing to do”. Instead of owning and being the idiot, I was just human and made a mistake–since I’m not an idiot, I’ll learn from the mistake.
Anyway. There are many, many great points in the book, which really helped change my life for the better. Hopefully I didn’t stray too far off topic.
Be well, and keep up the quality!
[Tim,
Thanks for the comment. I'll have to check out that book.
Robert]
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