Since the beginning of the year my subscription rate on this blog has doubled. I’ve gone from 75 subscriptions to over 160. I will admit that I’ve been working towards the goal of increasing my readership. The two key principles I’ve been using are trying to have something worth saying, and saying it regularly and consistently, and I hope I’ve been meeting those goals. In case you actually haven’t figured it out, while I may be up between 6am and 7am most mornings I’m more likely to be practicing QiGong than blogging, so the vast majority of my posts were written 1-3 days earlier and are just set to post between 6am and 7am.
However some thing happens when you start to accumulate a regular reader base. You feel the obligation to post more quality posts, throwing up off the cuff posts with any frequency becomes a bit scary. Secondly you feel the obligation to get a new post up almost every day. Keeping up with this pace often conflicts with saying something meaningful. So you have to be creative, interesting, and entertaining on a regularly scheduled basis. If you don’t have your act together this is a sure fire recipe for blogger burnout. If you’re doing any client work, or working against any real world time sensitive deadlines, the pressure can magnify.
I’m well aware that the world won’t cease to exist if I don’t blog for a few days, or gasp forever, but if I let things slip too much, people will understandably unsubscribe. So lets see if I can keep things cruising here. I’ve had some more requests for some more case studies, which I will start to work on. If there’s something you’d like to see more (or less of) let me know. I have a few vacations and travel plans this year, I’m thinking I’d like to try letting some guest bloggers give it a go. I’ll give some advance notice when the time comes something to think about if you want to increase your exposure.
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Yup, once you develop a readership you certainly feel compelled to write more and more… sometimes to the detriment of the other things you’re doing. There are strategies you can take, of course, like splitting up a topic into a bunch of smaller posts (like I’m doing with my high-paying keywords series) and spreading out the work. But it’s like all of a sudden you’ve given yourself an extra job that no one’s paying you for (not directly, at least).
That said, if you dropped out for a few days at a time — especially if you give warning — I don’t think it’s necessarily bad. You gotta take a vacation sometime!
Yep a few days here and there aren’t bad, and can even be overcome if you plan ahead, but playing with momentum is a dangerous game
I felt the same a few months ago, and I feel the opposite now.
- Every site I read or visit show a constant growth in readership, and this is a side effect of feeds and feed readers wider adoption. Good stuff a year ago meant 80 readers, same good stuff now means 200 readers. It’s not better stuff, it’s just that feed readers are getting used by non-techy people.
- I know sites that didn’t update for several month now, and they still show the same number of readers. Another side effect of feed readers : once they subscribe, people don’t unsubscribe unless you disapoint or offend them. Don’t update ? People mostly won’t notice. Get back to posting good stuff after a 4 week break : people will get back to reading you
In my opinion, feed readers free bloggers from the compulsory once a day update that’s needed to keep readership.
I’ve got to agree with Ozh. The only time I unsubscribe is when a feed starts to feel like mostly filler. Some of my favorite blogs are highly sporadic, but I stay subscribed to (for instance) William Gibson’s blog because the monthly updates are interesting. Otherwise, out of sight – out of mind.
I for one wouldn’t mind guest blogging (not that I’d be invited…)
I totally agree with Ozh and PavedWalden. Bad content leads to people unsubscribing. So does information overload. Better to stick to producing quality content that cuts through the noise of 100+ feeds and actually provides value.
Michael – Believe me when I say that I feel your pain. I’m sure Barry and Danny and Aaron do too – the multi-post per day bloggers in this field have quite a job indeed.
I think it’s not a matter of folks unsubscribing, but of entertaining your audience, building your brand and accessing ever more readers, searchers, linkers, etc.
The alternative is someone like Todd (Stuntdubl) who posts once a week but everyone links to him every time he does post because the articles are so good.
Curious how many of you feel posting almost daily isn’t an requirement. Wonder if it plays a larger role with “consumer” related blogs such as engadget.
I think it doesn’t really matter when you post, I have you bookmarked and because I like you I check in a couple times a week. Nothing against Aaron Wall but reading his stuff is sometimes tedious and it lacks a sense of humor. I really like people who are not afraid to throw their blogs in the trash, they have nothing to lose which makes them extremely amusing…blogging with purpose is getting old, blogging with feeling is very cool in my seobook.
I’d like to be considered for a guest blogger spot when you’re ready! In an attempt to understand business on the internet, I try to post a case-study of an internet info-only business model once a week. I think it may be something that interests your readers…
If you’d like to talk, send me a note! travis AT giggy DOT com.
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