Write When and What You Want To: The Rest Is Bologna

Write what you want and when you want to because the rest is just bologna. I read posts all the time with hints, tips, and these grand thoughts about blogging. They instruct you on how to grow your readership, encourage visitors, and some even give pointers for monetizing your blog.

You are either adept at writing interesting content or you are not. Some people are good at writing and some are not. I read blogs that are absolute CRAP everyday. I love FriendFeed and enjoy the noise to a certain extent but let’s get real. The river of noise is full of poorly written bad content. That is fact. Crap existing in the stream of the blogosphere. But it is ok, this is what can distinguish your blog from the noise.

Blogging is more about luck than anything. These hints from the blogosphere are just pointers to increase your chances to be successful. It really is all about luck. Don’t believe all the problogger & copyblogger stuff. Did you read the words let me type them again: It really is all about luck!

I read several blogs not in the tech field that are very well written but not very interesting to most. They have a consistent readership under 20.

Does it matter what they write about? Not really they write because they want to. They are not in the obsessed tech blogger mode of checking stats 10 times per day. They could care less about publishing breaking news or timely posts.

They write to record their thoughts. What they post is thoughtful and interesting to their small audience. But even with readers under 20 because the content is well written all 20 readers hang on that bloggers every posted word.

So how does that apply to tech blogging. Write what you want to when you want to. If you write content that is well thought out and well written you will grow a following. But it will take time and luck as well.

Another thing I read about is posting timely. This really does not matter.

I posted today right after a product enhancement roll out and announcement. I posted literally 1 minute after the launch time. But I am a small blog. My exposure is limited.

I feel like I posted a well thought out solidly written post but it did not really matter. The posts later in the day by more well known bloggers got the majority of the page views. Post when you want. Even if it is old news if your insight or take is different and interesting a well written post can do well.

I was first today but it didn’t matter. Perhaps I should have posted tomorrow. Do page views matter? What is your goal as a blogger? Ultimately to grow your blog. I was happy with the post and the traffic was ok.

However last week I wrote a quick post about a Firefox extension and the post ended up on Scoble’s Google Reader shared items feed. That was the single best traffic day ever for this blog.

This is just a perfect example of the luck involved in being a new blogger. A post that you spend the most time on may not be the highest in page views while a quick post may go viral. You just never know.

But what you can control is quality. If you have the God given ability to write well then write well. Produce quality content.

Now another thing I read about being a successful blogger is to post more posts. Post daily or even more often. Well look unless you are blogging full-time this is not very realistic. Post when you can what you can. I have a day job. Blogging can become a hobby but as a hobby daily posting is nearly impossible for me. Do what you can when you can.

To be successful you need a lot of luck. But what you can control is quality, interesting, well written content. But don’t worry about readership your audience will arrive just be patient.

Always write what you want and when you want to because the rest is just bologna.

16 thoughts on “Write When and What You Want To: The Rest Is Bologna”

  1. I agree with you here. Thanks for the link back, but I think I actually come to the same conclusion as you here, that for a small blog it doesn't make a lot of sense to post an insane amount in a short period of time. It's better to concentrate on quality.

    I alluded a bit, but didn't cover a lot of the tips you cover here.

    I would like to add something: When I started my blog, I decided that I would not try to 'break' a story. I decided I wanted to concentrate on writing more in-depth posts about products and services.

    That said, I admit that I got caught up on the excitement of the Toluu updates and kinda forgot my rule. I am glad I could contribute to running up some well-deserved publicity for Caleb, but it really was well covered by some big names.

    Finally, I'm sorry I didn't get you re-added to my RSS reader until today.. as you know I dumped all my feeds and I am re-adding them as I 'rediscover' them. That oversite has been corrected, though, and you are back on my reading list!

  2. Franklin,

    I just have to say, we saw a solid amount of traffic because of your post and the shares and other distribution. Toluu is where it is because of many fantastic bloggers like yourself, and so I want to make sure you continue to have the opportunity to see what we are launching so you can post something thoughtful (like you did) rather than just something reactionary.

    I know a few people in Toluu are now subscribed to your feed and I hope we can help you grow your readership 1 reader at a time!

    Caleb
    Toluu

  3. I'm going to disagree with a couple of points. You wrote a good post and you had a day that's much better than average. How was that lucky? Luck helps but it certainly doesn't matter more than anything else. The bigger blogs got more views because they are bigger. People aren't going to wake up and ask themselves if Toluu had any new enhancements and then go hit Google (you'd win if they did).

    Posting timely can be important too, it can certainly help w/ Google and lets you promote your post on the people that follow later on or they might even link back to you – with services like Zemanta providing related link suggestions, getting your post out there first can be beneficial.

  4. I'm not sure that's really the point though. If you write crappy content, it's just noise. No one really cares about it. Sure you might get some hits or something but is that the point? Some blog about life and their thoughts. Others actually think through those thoughts to form rational opinions or even theory's about how some thing should or could be.

    I guess were edging on the fine line of what exactly is the difference between journalism, blogging, and noise?

  5. Well I'm taking from your first post that you blog everyday for SEO purposes. My question is why do you care about SEO for a blog? Is there some kind of financial gain to be had for you that motivates this? If so, yeah you missed the point completely. If not, never mind.

  6. I find your overly judgmental attitude, naivety, and poor reading
    comprehension refreshing! Do you perhaps have a political radio show or
    newsletter I could subscribe to?

  7. Let's start again. David, your two points were that:

    1- Luck, does not play as big of a part as I stated.

    2- Posting timely can help.

    I agree with Ben in part. You did kind of miss the point. When you try all the blogging gimicks out there its easy to lose sight of why you are blogging in the first place. My point is that what you can control is blogging not for SEO but because you want to. You can also control the quality of the content you put out.

    Which leads me back to the luck part. It is not easy to predict which content will be successful and which content will not. Certainly there are factors involved that increase your chances but then you risk losing perspective. Are you really adding that much content value to the blogosphere if you are just posting to be successful. I do not think content should be geared solely around SEO.

    My point was and still is write good content about what you want when you want and the audience will arrive.

    The rest as I said is just bologna.

  8. I find your overly judgmental attitude, naivety, and poor reading
    comprehension refreshing! Do you perhaps have a political radio show or
    newsletter I could subscribe to?

  9. Let's start again. David, your two points were that:

    1- Luck, does not play as big of a part as I stated.

    2- Posting timely can help.

    I agree with Ben in part. You did kind of miss the point. When you try all the blogging gimicks out there its easy to lose sight of why you are blogging in the first place. My point is that what you can control is blogging not for SEO but because you want to. You can also control the quality of the content you put out.

    Which leads me back to the luck part. It is not easy to predict which content will be successful and which content will not. Certainly there are factors involved that increase your chances but then you risk losing perspective. Are you really adding that much content value to the blogosphere if you are just posting to be successful. I do not think content should be geared solely around SEO.

    My point was and still is write good content about what you want when you want and the audience will arrive.

    The rest as I said is just bologna.

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