For nearly 5 years now, I’ve written for The Future Buzz at a frequency of about 2-3 posts a week (and been publishing online for more than 8 years). I blog for the same reasons as one of my favorite authors Mitch Joel: my love of writing and my love of sharing.
In 2012 so far, I’ve blogged less. I actually have a few reasons for that: one is moving from the agency to the client side. Another is I’ve been working on my next album of music. I do intend to get back to my previous pace shortly.
But thinking about it today there have been some unintended positive lessons from blogging less. After all, when you’ve been doing something so consistently for so long, taking a break is a good thing and offers perspective.
Anyway, on to some lessons:
1. Your audience is not going to leave you
Some fear that if you take a break from writing your audience will vaporize into thin air. This isn’t the case, however: that’s one of the benefits of a timeshifted platform like a blog. Readers subscribe because they want updates when they happen, but won’t leave simply because you update less.
2. External publishing = key to owning the stream
I’ve been updating Google+ and Twitter more often than writing here the past few weeks. I really enjoy using both platforms: they’re fast-paced, have smart communities and are a lot of fun. However, what’s interesting is even in a stream-powered world, having an asset to share (like a blog post) will resonate far more than updates within any single platform. That’s because self-hosted content is platform agnostic and can more easily be spread across the web. The lesson? Nurture communities in the stream, but when you have something important to say write it on an external publishing platform and ensure it is then shared via real-time.
3. Taking a break provides perspective
After writing less, I’ve had some time to process what I’ve been saying and how I’ve been saying it which provides some much-needed perspective. I think this is important for all content creators in order to advance their craft.
4. So many people argue semantics – but no one really cares
I’ve watched people continue the whole “blogging is dead” debate. And no one actually cares except for the people writing the stories. Blogging (which is really just web publishing) is not going anywhere. It is just content, and even if some people only have the patience for snack-sized bits that doesn’t mean others aren’t interested in more in depth ideas.
5. Blog posts have become (more) important
If anything, I think we’ve started to place more importance on blog content precisely because it isn’t as fast as stream-based platforms. Everyone knows it takes more time to craft something outside the stream and because we know the work required we tend to place more value on it. Speed isn’t necessarily better when creating something that’s sharable (even if in some cases it can be for breaking news, etc.).
Hopefully sharing these thoughts with you was useful. We’ll get back to more regularly scheduled posts very soon.