I don’t know about you, but I always have hundreds of unread blogs posts in my Google Reader.
After reading a great post from Stanford Smith last week, I realized it was time to clean up my
blog subscriptions and make it a bit more manageable. Although I didn’t prune my subscription list as far as Stanford did, I did whittle down my blog subscription list quite a bit.
You wanna know the number one reason I unsubscribed from someone’s blog?
Lack of recent post.
I was astonished at the number of blogs I had subscribed to that had not been updated in weeks or maybe even months. If you haven’t blogged since October, why should I stick around? I’m not going to hold my breath waiting for your next post to come out.
I’m not saying you have to blog every day. But, I think it’s a good rule of thumb to post something on your blog once a week.
I know, I know. That’s easier said than done, right? How on earth do you carve out time to blog regularly when you are also trying to build a business?
Although there is not a magic formula, there are some things you can do to set yourself up for success and get in the habit of posting regularly:
Set a schedule.
Determine how often you are going to post something on your blog, which days you will post it. Not only does this help your readers, but it also helps you commit to a schedule to write something.
Start small.
Set a goal to write a new post once a week and see how that goes. After you gain some momentum, you can build up to posting more often if that fits with your goals.
Write ahead.
If you have trouble keeping up with your blog schedule, write a few posts at a time. It’s easier to write when you’re in the flow of it. And, this prevents you from getting behind on theh blog.
Keep ideas handy.
When blog post ideas pop into my head, I jot them down in my notebook or shoot myself an email. That way, when it’s time to write my next post, I’ve got a well of resources at my disposal.
Accept a guest post.
If you know you’re going to have a busy week or if you will be on vacation, it might be a good time to invite a new voice to write for your blog. This keeps your blog moving, even when you can’t be there to share information with your readers.
What is your biggest challenge in blogging regularly? What do you do to overcome it? Share your thoughts in the comments and we’ll help each other get on track!
Image credit: Barry Hoggard
8 replies on “The #1 reason I will unsubscribe from your blog”
L- this is why I do more with email subscribing. I can get them when it’s good for them. But I too trim the fat every once in a while from my reader… mostly due to quality rather than quantity.
You’re right – for the blogs you REALLY want to make sure you catch, email is great. Though, before long, your inbox can get crowded too.
All things being equal, quality content comes first. But, I would argue that if you haven’t posted something on your blog in four months, would you consider that to be quality? The ones that hadn’t posted in a while, I had completely forgotten about. They lost my attention.
I like it! I had the same issue. Subscribed to multiple blogs, and needed to clean the list out! I used the same criteria that you did! I’m looking for up to date stuff! Plus I love talking to people who are consistently in the conversation.
Awesome post!
Thanks so much for the comment, Ryan. I love this – “people who are consistently in the conversation”. I think that pretty much nails it. Good content is important, but you have to show up too.
Laura, before I started my blog, I heard a piece of advice from Jon Morrow, who’s the associate editor at Copyblogger. He said it was better to write one quality post per week – every week – than to write mediocre posts more often.
That’s been my guiding philosophy, and it has really helped. If I have more than one great post idea, I can always save it for a guest post, or write ahead of schedule.
I also post on the same day, with one day leeway for crazy weeks! That sets up a nice writing schedule where I know when I need to write, when I should let it sit, when I can go back and edit, and when I should hit “Publish.”
Thanks for these practical ideas, and for turning things around so blog owners can think about the readers’ point of view.
That
@jonmorrow:twitter
is one smart cookie. 🙂 I think that’s smart advice. I think the trap that so many blog owners fall into is that they only want to post when they feel they have something that’s quality to share. Then, one week becomes two, and you get the idea.
While quality posts are certainly important, I would argue that it would be much harder to build and grow an audience if only post something once a month or less.
It’s a balance for sure. You want to have quality posts, but not let that be an excuse for only posting once in a blue moon. Once a week, as you suggested, is really a good, manageable amount.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts!
You’re spot on, Laura!!
Thanks, friend!