Comments on: Why Daily Blogging Usually Is a Bad Idea

By: keven johnson

keven johnson — Wed, 22 Jun 2005 04:21:49 +0000

This is great. I don’t feel so lame now. I can’t count the times I have read that daily posting is something you must do if you want to keep your blog alive. But now I see the light. Posting just to post something does not seem that logical as I previously thought. Great post!

By: Daldianus

Daldianus — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 19:14:50 +0000

What you write is so true. There’s too much noise already out there. But sometimes it’s stronger than you and you have to post anyway … perhaps also because you think if you wouldn’t people would lose interest?

By: Heidi Miller

Heidi Miller — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 21:26:02 +0000

Well said as usual, Amy! “Drivel” is exactly why I no longer read many blogs.

By: Steven Streight

Steven Streight — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 05:49:43 +0000

I applaud you for scolding bloggers who think they “must” post daily or several times daily. Of course, it depends on the blogger, the purpose of the blog, the target audience, etc.

But to “post” just to “improve writing skills” is silly. That’s what spiral notebooks are for. To force yourself to post daily, and to then post a bunch of ill-considered, trivial, irrelevant writings is just decreasing your blog’s overall value.

Very Important: if blog posts pile up, several times a day, and the posts are “essays” (not like Instapundit, Robot Wisdom, or other extremely brief link logs, listing URLs with little comment)…

…it gets to be too much to swim through. Almost nobody is so bored they’re going to check your blog several times a day. I have done that with The Red Couch, because I was posting comments, and wanted to see what reactions I’d get, NOT because there were mulitiple postings each day.

Valuable content is so important.

Thanks for doing your part to decrease the drivel.

Nice work, Amy!

By: Bibi\'s box

Bibi\'s box — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 02:17:57 +0000

Articles about blogging, guide for bloggers and more
It’s a relief find the kind of opinion that Amy Gahran, from Contentious, presents on her posts Why Daily Blogging Usually Is a Bad Idea and Yes, Daily Blogging Really IS Usually a Bad Idea. I felt much better after read that, but not at all, I still…

By: Clair

Clair — Mon, 13 Jun 2005 07:25:55 +0000

Personally, I think that each blog has its own merits. After all, there are people with varied reasons for blogging. Personally, I use my blog as: a personal journal, a message board, a place to air out thoughts that are of a varied nature (political, religious, cultural, etc.) and every once in a while I find out that people drop by my blog and I don’t even know them in real life. I started blogging so I could share my thoughts with my friends who live in various parts of the world and also to get feedback on things work on: fiction, poetry, personal projects. I suppose there is indeed information overload but as I said, each blog has its own following.

However, there are people who seem to be overly conscious about having a following. Now that I think is something that has to be studied carefully. After all, not everyone puts comments on blogs all the time so some people whine about not getting any feedback, etc. I find that sad and, if carried to an extreme, irritating.

Anyhow, I like the points that you have raised because it makes bloggers more conscious about what we write. =)

By: Roger Benningfield

Roger Benningfield — Mon, 13 Jun 2005 06:47:20 +0000

Amy: I certainly agree that mindless, heedless quantity doesn’t do much for anyone. But I think it depends upon your audience and goals, so “most bloggers” is probably overstating things a touch.

A couple thoughts:

(1) I’ve never actually seen the search engine angle presented when someone suggests daily blogging. Most folks (in my experience) suggest daily posting because constantly writing makes you a better writer, and because it helps ingrain the process of blogging in your life.

(2) I depend upon many bloggers for their minimally annotated linkposts. In fact, that’s some of the most vital, important stuff in the blogosphere. And I generally don’t want to bother with subscribing to a dedicated linkblog feed. I’m interested in the whole person, from their Deep Thoughts to something as simple as “this caught my eye”.

By: Amy Gahran

Amy Gahran — Mon, 13 Jun 2005 06:15:13 +0000

Wow -- thanks for supporting me on this, Dave and Lee. I appreciate that especially since I respect the work that both of you do quite highly. To be clear: I'm not entirely opposed to mentioning links. However, I find it more useful and generally easier to segregate my links for recommended reading onto my del.icio.us page, where people who are interested in such linnks can find them easily. That not only has its own feed, but it leverages the value of being connected via tagging to the entire del.icio.us system. To me, that's a more valuable way to make connections by offering links. - Amy Gahran

By: Lee Hopkins

Lee Hopkins — Mon, 13 Jun 2005 06:05:10 +0000

I agree wholeheartedly with you, Amy, and have just posted on my blog to that effect (http://bettercomms.blogspot.com/2005/06/amy-has-it-right.html).

Content is King on my website and will now be also on my blog. The ‘search engine’ argument is also a waste of time — does no-one think that Google et al will change their algorithms to compensate for the skewing of the search results that blogs are currently creating?

By: Dave Taylor

Dave Taylor — Mon, 13 Jun 2005 05:21:30 +0000

Oh, so well stated, Amy! I can’t tell you the number of times I am slogging through my aggregator, looking at these “link entries” that consist of “here’s a neat article: LINK” or similar, and just grit my teeth and long for real writing, actual opinions, and valuable insight into whatever they’re interested in talking about. Sheesh. Thanks for saying what needs to be said!