Marketing for Solopreneurs

Too Many Blogs, Too Many Posts?: Busy Readers and Fatigued Writers

Where is it written that blogging is rewarding only when you post 5-7 times a week? The experts tell us that more is always better. But I've never been convinced.

Since I started this blogging thing, I've subscribed to six of my favorite blogs. They range from daily posts to once a week, 1-2 times weekly and twice a week, all the way to no particular schedule.

That means I read between 34 and 40 posts a week. And I am on the conservative side with my RSS feeds. I only subscribe when I positively can't do without a particular blogger's wit and wisdom.

Imagine Reading Hundreds of Posts a Day

Some bloggers (admittedly hard-core subscribers) are receiving 50, 100, 200 posts a day.

But are they reading all of them?

A few days ago, one of my favorite bloggers, James Chartrand from Men with Pens, announced that he was cutting back his posts from daily to three a week.

He wanted to know what his readers thought about his decision. Know what? Of the 60+ responses, more than 90% said, "Yippee!"

Did it mean they didn't like his posts? On the contrary. Most said that the posts were of such high quality that they wanted more time to read, to ponder, to take all the ideas in.

And one reader even said that the fact that the posts were piling up, with no time to properly read and digest them, brought him to such a state of frustration that he actually unsubscribed!

What's the Answer?

When it comes to posting, I think it comes down to the question: Are you a full-time blogger or do you have another business to run, too? Certainly some of us can't spend every waking hour blogging.

But even more important: Don't your readers have other things to do, too? Like serving their own clients and customers. Making a buck. Paying the mortgage. Hanging around enough so their kid still recognizes them.

What I've figured out: I blog when I have something important or interesting to say. May be three times a week. Most often it's once or twice a week.

Tell me. If you are a blogger, do you post five days a week? If so, is it a difficult schedule to keep? Are you finding enough unique and useful things to say?

And if you are a less frequent blogger, how's that working for you?

If you are a reader, do you find time to read a blog that has daily posts? Or do you like less frequent posts with time between to "ponder" the ideas?

I really, really want to know how you feel.

Why Many Profit-Driven Blogs Fail

I am a fan of marketing guru and author Seth Godin and regularly visit his blog. Godin talked a couple of days ago about the questions he gets from beginning bloggers. Invariably the most common one is how they can make a lot of money blogging. I hear this a lot, too.

The other day an acquaintance of mine called and asked me to check out her new blog. She had read a book on the benefits of business blogging, got all excited, and within days her blog was up. Unfortunately, the two posts that were up were miniature sales letters, with links to click on for many of her products and services.

Godin’s point, well taken, was that the best, most successful bloggers did not set out with the purpose of making a profit. Though it turned out that they made money, it wasn’t their reason for starting up. They just had something to say and a service they wanted to provide.

It’s one of those things that’s true in most aspects of our entrepreneurial lives. The monetary benefits will eventually kick in, but we start with our passion, our reason for creating our business and our desire to make our customers—and ourselves—happy. And the rewards flow from that. If you have a blog, what’s your purpose?

The Power of Blogging

You are reading this blog right now. And guess what? It might pop up in the search engine quicker than you think. We recently did a post on the dot-mobi industry and how it might affect small business. Three hours later our editor was doing a search in Google and when she entered "dot-mobi and small business," our blog came up number 31 in Google. Top of the third page! Okay, maybe you might be more impressed with seeing it on the first page, but we're talking 120 minutes later.

Don't underestimate the power of blogging.