Thoughts on Blogging Frequency

Robert Scoble is a prolific writer, he averages about 7ish posts per day.  Some are short, less than a paragraph, some are over a pagelong.  I applaud him for being able to do it, it’s clearly some kind of mania gift (j/k Robert!).

Engadget, which is written by a team of writers, posts twenty to forty times daily.

I, on the other hand, average about a post or less per day.  I’ve gone multiple days in a row without blogging.  As a result, I’m sure I don’t get nearly the traffic all the top/”a-list” blogs get.  I’m pretty okay with it too, as I have a different philosophy on the content.

Personally, I can’t keep up with the top blogs.  I miss a lot of what they write, because I don’t really have the time to read it all.  I instead have to scan through titles, picking and choosing what’s interesting.  But when it comes to the “b-list” bloggers I read, I never miss a post.  Further, I tend to read and even get involved in the conversations I see on these blogs, who typically feature one to three new stories per day.

But I’m still a less frequent blogger than most of them.  And again, I’m okay with that.  There are some who think of the blogosphere as a giant conversation – I don’t personally agree.  I think it’s a lot more like a bunch of people shouting simultaneously, hoping to get the most attention.  For example, as I write this post, the “topic of the hour” at Techmeme is Google buying DoubleClick.  At this point, there are 25 distinct posts on it, and that’s just per Techmeme’s logic.  But most of the contribution to this “conversation” is the same theme rehashed.  Is there really much value left for me to add to this topic?  Not so much.

I’ve taken to the realize the following 4 keys to how I blog

1. I try to avoid topics that are being covered to death.  Why?  Because I assume, dear reader, that you seek out your news from more than just me.  If not, well, I’m flattered, but a little concerned.
2. I try to cover topics where I have particular domain expertise.  I’ve spent 10 years dealing with digital media, convergence, digital home, consumer electronics, etc products.  I spent the bulk of the past two years running extremely successful viral marketing and blogosphere/community engagement programs.  When those topics come up, I chime in (again, assuming I’m not the 500th poster).
3. I intentionally leave a story I like above the fold. Last week I wrote a post about why I gave up on mobile email.  I liked it a lot.  I felt that people who are visiting my site for the first time should read it, and didn’t have anything really pertinent to replace it with.
4. I write long posts.  While talking to Om Malik two weeks ago, he advised me to shorten my writing.  He’s absolutely correct, I should.  But I’m not good enough to do it yet.  So essays are just my style for now.  I’ll try to get better about this, but I guess I have a lot (in my mind) to babble about.

So, maybe I’ll never make it to the “a-list”, but I’m okay with that.  I enjoy the blog as it is, and if you’ve made it to this sentence, well, I guess you do too.