Apr 10 2007
Do I Write Too Much?
A friend emailed me and suggested that I slow down on my postings. He wrote that while it is great that I am posting so often, it might be overwhelming to have so much to read, especially if you fall behind.
He also suggested that I might want to write a post regarding the number of posts I write!
I usually write daily and take a break on Sunday. Lately I’ve been adding what I think of as a half post.
The half posts are under my new “Intermission” category and are small musings that I just want to toss out there.
Based on my other friends’ comments, they either read me daily or read every so many days and catch up. I have only had the one friend mention that I may write too much.
I change my reading habits depending on the blogger. If I know that the blogger writes daily or even several times during the day, I’ll check daily.
If I know the blogger posts a few times a week, I may just check in twice and catch up on posts. In my case, I usually wish a favorite blogger would write more!
How about you?
Do you think I write too much? How often would you like me to write?
The optimal posting rate supposedly is 2-3 times a day. That’s the rate at which you don’t lose readers. I would suggest that your friend get a RSS Reader to catch up at his/her own pace. Keep on doing your thing, but if you feel like you’re going over 2-3 a day, I would highly recommend using the timestamp feature on wordpress so it can automatically post for you the next day!
Unknown to Ms. Q, I actually probably visit her site 3-4 times a day. [Well, now you know =)] My commenting on the “slowing” down on postings was more in reference to try to build up comments and building a community around the posts. By having these rapid postings, interesting topics that are not in the top 5 are mentally considered old and results in people stop commenting on the topic.
As for the RSS Readers, I haven’t one that I like. I still like firing up my browse and visiting my sites one by one. I’ve come across alot of interesting things that I probably would have missed if I used an RSS reader.
Sewell: Yes, Ms. Q had no idea you were so frequent a visitor. She figured you were too busy coding at your dual-monitor workstation!
Gary: I barely have enough time to write one post, much less 2 or 3! Most of my posts take at least 1 – 2 hours to complete taking into consideration the writing, editing, actual posting, and reviewing to see how it looks.
I spend quite a bit of time thinking about what I want to write and have several rough drafts covering different topics. I can dash out an informational post but anything else takes me a while as I consider things like approach (funny, serious) tone of voice (3rd person or first person).
I want my writing to be easy to read and to take the reader somewhere, however briefly. I touched on this in my comments for “Can You Run Out Of Words?”
I’ve started the “Intermissions” posts to try my hand at short quick posts.
I’m down to posting about once a day.
Well, I’m the opposite. I post once a day and sometimes only one post on weekend. Even then, I’m struggling to find topic to write and then work doubly hard to make sure there is minimal error. English is not my mother tongue – which makes it even tougher.
Wish I was you.
Calvin: So you wish you were a four-foot-ten-and-three-quarter-inch ABC? Couldn’t resist!
I generally post just once a day. English may be my first language (I used to be fluent in Spanish – those days are gone!) but I struggle with posting daily. I can’t even imagine what you go through and bravo for making the effort!