Blog Post Quality vs. Quantity: the Debate Rages On

I’ve blogged before about the importance of posting regularly on your blog. In fact, it’s so important that stale blogs are the first to go when I clean up my blog subscriptions. If it’s been a month (or several) since you’re last post, why should I tune in?

That said, there’s another side to the blogging debate.

Quality.

With so much content on the web, churning out the same old stuff will just get you ignored anyway. If you’re not going to knock your readers’ socks off, why bother?

So, which should you focus on – quantity or quality?

The truth is, it’s a delicate balance.

And you’re not the only one struggling with this. In fact, I’ve seen a number of posts lately about bloggers who are grappling with this very issue.

Don’t let quality be an excuse

All too often bloggers let quality be an excuse for not posting regularly. If we all waited around for inspiration to strike, many business owners would never blog.

Blogging isn’t a cake walk. You have to put in the work. It takes time, effort and focus. While some blog posts may come easy, other times, you may have to wrestle a topic to the ground to get it written.

The problem is we often walk away from our blog when we’re not overflowing with inspiration. We tend to think we have nothing in the tank. However, we likely have plenty of blog post ideas in our well of resources, we’re just not looking hard enough.

Blogging breaks aren’t all bad

On the flip side of the coin, there are definitely times when you should take a break from blogging. Burnout, family issues, or other business priorities may be good reasons to pull back or refocus.

For me, you’ve likely noticed it’s been a few weeks since I’ve shared something here with you. Getting my husband’s new law firm up and running has been a priority, along with a lot of client work for my business. Although blogging is very important, sometimes, other things have to come first.

The trick is knowing when to push forward and when to pull back.

Defining Balance

Setting goals for your blog is the only way to strike the balance between quality and quantity.

If you haven’t already determined goals for your blogging efforts, do it now. With the new year right around the corner, now is the perfect time to figure out what you want to accomplish with your blog and develop a plan on how to get there.

If you’re not sure where to start, here are some questions to ask yourself:

• Why are you blogging? Your blog is an important tool in your marketing tool box. But, for it to be effective, you need to determine the “why” behind your efforts.
  
• What are your goals? Do you want to generate leads, drive sales, increase web traffic and get newsletter signups? Whatever it is, write it down so you can measure your progress.
• What has worked for me so far? Look at your website analytics to see if you can determine patterns for what has been successful. Are there certain topics that resonate with readers? Are there certain days that get higher traffic? Digging into your analytics and testing out different options will help you find the mix that’s right for you.
• What do my clients and readers think? Talk to clients and readers to find out what they want to read about and how often they want to hear from you. Conducting a short survey can help you get a pulse on reader perspective. Also, paying attention to blog comments and social media traffic can also be useful.
• What can I reasonably accomplish? Once you’ve determined your goals and what approach seems right for you, you also need to factor in what you have the bandwidth to accomplish. I think posting something once a week is a good, reasonable place to start. If you get in the habit of doing that successfully, you can consider doing more. The point is to start small and build on it instead of having to scale back from biting off more than you can chew.

Answering these questions will help you get you and your blog on the path to success for 2012.

Do you struggle with posting on your blog regularly? Or, do you have trouble coming up with quality content? Where are you getting tripped up with your strategy?

Let me know in the comments and I’ll help you through it!

Image credit: Adam Tekoa