Is it the weekend if the week never ends?
A friend told me that most professional bloggers don't blog on the weekend. I didn't realize this, because every piece of advice on blogging that I've read says you have to blog very regularly to blog effectively as part of your business.
So last night — Friday — instead of blogging, I read blogs looking for weekend posts. I found it is generally true that big ones don't post on the weekend. So I thought, okay, I'll take a break. And I settled into the sofa to I spend a night reading blogs leisurely, with no pressure to post.
Then I came across Seth Godin's list How to get traffic for your blog, and No. 43 was "post on the weekend because there are fewer new posts." (No. 1 was "write lists.") So here I am, posting on the weekend, to test out the rule.
It's actually no big deal for me because I work forty hours a week spread over seven days, reflecting my love for uninterrupted routine. But I like the idea that the new frontier of work — the blog — has a large following of people who refuse to work nonstop.
I am a big fan of sitting around doing nothing. (As one who obsesses over routines, I build this into my daily schedule.) If you feel guilt over taking a break, check out Doing Nothing: A History of Loafers, Loungers, Slackers and Bums in America by Tom Lutz. Wait, no, instead of reading the book, read the review of it by the most hilarious columnist ever, Dave Barry, who wrote a very funny but true homage to the act of thinking titled, Inaction Heroes.
That's all for today's post. It is, after all, the weekend.
Blogs that link here
4 Comments »
A responsible opposing viewpoint about the need to post frequently:
http://blog.marketingprofs.com/2006/06/w_why_blog_post_frequency_does.html
Posted by Mike Duffy | June 10, 2006
Interesting post link above. One thing I did when I first started getting comments was to comment to the comment. I thought it was a polite way to acknowledge the presence of my new commenters. Plus I had seen it done on other dog blogs like Fur Kids in Hong Kong and I liked the tone it generated. If I know a blogger comments to comments, I will go back to see what he or she said. If they don't usually comment, I will still check to see if my brilliant riposte generated some appreciation. Just a little obsessive. :) Some bloggers get hundreds of comments per entry and I wouldn't want to have to respond to all of them, that's for sure. Since I am still at the meagre handful of comments stage, I don't have to worry about that.
Posted by Julia | June 11, 2006
I launched my blog the same day you did last week and struggled with the same question you did this weekend. It's sort of addictive - particularly if the new post-to-be has already formed in your mind. I'm enjoying your blog and would be perfectly happy backtracking on your week-day posts during my weekend hours.
Posted by Stephanie Roberts | June 12, 2006
I took a look at the link (first comment in this string). It's an intersting discussion which I decided to add to, on the MarketingProf blog itself.
After reading the article and the comments I come to the conclusion that the frequency of your posts should correlate directly to the ambitions you have for your blog.
If you want to be in the top hundred blogs on Technoraiti, for example, you need to post a lot.
–Penelope
Posted by Penelope Trunk | June 12, 2006
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