Comments on: Blog v website. The distinction.

By: Jan

Jan — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 01:14:04 +0000

If you want readers to visit your site more than once or twice then you would do better not to write a blogpost until you have something that’s really worth sharing. If you blog daily because you think you “should”, but have only trivial observations to share, who is going to want to revisit your blog? I think honesty, integrity, sincerity, and a definitely generous point of view are the things that will build your readership over time, regardless of how often you write.

At least that’s what I think is helping me build my own readership; I’m still trying to figure out for sure how I’m slowly but steadily managing to attract more readers myself at http://jrduffy09@edublogs.org/ I write for web 2.0 “newbies” and “oldies”, techies, teachers, (including dance teachers), ballet and modern dancers, choreographers, dance afficianados, parents, and “gifted” kids and adults-including those who have been diagnosed with ADHD. Many school media specialists tell me they always find links to things of interest on my blog, which feels great, because I know they reach so many more people than I can by myself.

It seems that as long as I share something I’ve recently discovered, or that I’m really interested in, on a fairly predictable basis-say every week or two, perhaps on the same day of the week (?), I do
notice a spurt in readership-and though these people don’t always comment- I can tell from my Clustrmap that many of them are return readers, which is very gratifying. And I have to say that’s what keeps me blogging.

By: Sandi Maki

Sandi Maki — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:19:28 +0000

HI Stephanie,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. One of the main reasons I would recommend blogging daily is because with the ability to automate distribution via social media it is very important to be showing up in each of the venues, daily, so people know you are there. When you are present, sharing your story, on a regular basis, you have top of mind awareness. Not to mention the keywords you are able to create traffic from via search engines for publishing regular content.

The beauty with blogging, and social media, are that people can do what works best for them. Thank you for sharing some alternative choices for putting it all together!

By: Stephanie Booth

Stephanie Booth — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 05:19:10 +0000

I beg to differ on the frequency you suggest — I think saying “once a day at least”, even for “commercial/corporate” blogs, is setting the bar really high. (Personally, I have very little months in my nearly ten years of blogging where I have published “at least once a day”.)

One of the beauties of blogging is that it’s completely flexible. If you want to start out by publishing one post a month, do so! I have a client who started out with two posts a month, and who is now looking to increase the count. My suggestion was 2-3 a week, and their jaws already dropped to the table because it seems too much for them. Nevermind: in a year from now, with a bit of luck and patience and training, they might get there.

In short, regular frequency of publication is not something I’d insist on for somebody who is considering opening a blog — quite the contrary.