Some Blog Posts Deserve More Time

Those of you who visit this blog often know that I often have a new post every 2 to 3 days. I always have something I want to talk about so writer’s block isn’t a problem I have. Sometimes even I have things that get in the way of keeping up a heavy blogging schedule because not only do I have the 5 blogs to keep up with but, as an independent consultant, every once in awhile I need to concentrate on other things for awhile to bring in some cash so I can play around for awhile.

3D Cause Awareness Ribbon
Scott Maxwell via Compfight

The gap this time around had nothing to do with either of those, although I’m writing this from another city in a hotel room with a relatively slow “high speed” internet connection. But it’s free so I’m not overly complaining.

Many of you saw my last post titled Don’t Be Bullied About Your Blog Or Web Space; if you didn’t see it please check it out and the blog and video that’s linked to it. In my opinion it was a post that deserved to have some time to catch on without a lot of other stuff getting in the way. I could have had a post ready to go the next day or two days afterwards, but the way I saw things it would have done a great disservice to the post.

Here’s two realities. The first is that if you write more you get more traffic. A few years ago I tried an experiment where I wrote 2 posts a day for two weeks. My traffic jumped nicely, and I proved my point. I also proved another point; the traffic I got for one post was different than the traffic I got for another post. That means those posts got almost no comments, even from people who were regular visitors. Thus, I didn’t quite get what I wanted even though I got what I wanted; you get that?

The second reality is that sometimes you have to step back and let a post germinate. When that happens, when you really touch a nerve, you can end up getting more traffic from one post in a particular week than you might get from combined posts.

In a 2-week span the post I linked to above got more visitors than the next three posts combined. Only one other post in the top 10 had people staying longer, and it was a pretty long post that also had a video at the end, but I wasn’t in that video, although I wouldn’t have griped much if I had been because the ladies in that video were pretty attractive. 🙂

Sometimes you have to recognize when you write something that you feel might be important, or you have to be cognizant in paying attention to how a post is being received and decide to hold off on when you want your next post to go out. The way I see it, that post had some legs, needed some time for its momentum to play out a bit, get some comments, and then be ready to move on. I think at this point it’s had its run, even though it’s still getting comments. And people have been supportive of my friend, so much so that a lot of you have gone to her blog and made comments; thanks for that, as it proves that we bloggers really are a community that looks out for each other.

Have you paid attention to your blog posts to recognize when one might need more time? What about posts that need less time; have you ever thought about that as well? Let me know; meanwhile, enjoy the rest of your week!
 

27 thoughts on “Some Blog Posts Deserve More Time”

  1. “I didn’t quite get what I wanted even though I got what I wanted;”

    Yeah I get it.

    I have experienced a different situation where I’m not really sure what or why certain posts are popular on my site these days.

    The posts that I spend the most time writing get ok attention but the posts that I put together quickly to solve a problem seem to get MORE attention.

    Example my video about Google reader alternatives got the most plays on my channel because I had it out FIRST.

    It’s like the interview series I started.

    You might be shocked if I told you which Interview was the MOST popular.

    1. You’ve peaked my interest Darnell. lol I think few of us know which posts will really take off, but I’m betting many of us look at a post and say “man, that was good work” every once in awhile. I’ve written a few posts that I knew would touch a nerve but when I look back on the bulk of my posts I know that I haven’t always achieved what I thought I would.

      But I can live with that.

  2. Mitch, I write when something triggers off an itch in me to write about it. Say like my latest on Interfaith Marriages got off the ground because I read about it in the NYT and I had had one myself. I wrote about it, edited it, re edited it and at a point of time almost junked it but finally published it yesterday. I write mostly to satisfy myself and so it works for me. Sometimes, some other blog posts, like your 30 questions on music gets me to write and so, I really just write when I feel that I must.

    1. You write a lot Rummuser, which means things are triggering a lot of itches on you. lol But you’ve had to have written a post here or there where you said “now this one needs time to percolate”… well, maybe, maybe not, but I’ve certainly had that feeling here and there.

  3. Hey Mitch, you know I probably should give some posts more time than others but I just don’t, probably because I have a routine and that would stuff things up. I don’t want to do that because then I may not be able to get back into the swing of things.

    Gonna go check out that other post of yours now.

    1. Sire, you’ve given some posts more time than others, but I think those times were unintentional because you had other stuff going on. Thing is, you write different types of things than I do, and I’m thinking it’s even different types of things than what you were writing just 3 or 4 years ago as well. So it might not work for you as readily right now.

  4. Hey Mitch

    I currently only publish once a week and I keep things organised with the editorial calendar.

    It means I get a consistent amount of comments but also a consistent amount of traffic. I don’t want consistent though because that’s not going anywhere.

    I’m toying with the idea of posting more than once a week again to see how that works out.

    1. Tim, writing a bit more often will bring more traffic but as I said, every once in awhile having certain posts that stand by themselves for awhile isn’t so bad either.

  5. Most WordPress templates lack this functionality, but a good option is to have some kind of “featured post” slider or widget that holds hot topics at visible area.

    1. I’ve seen that in the past Carl and I think it could do wonders for some people. Thing is, most people aren’t writing posts ahead of time so I’m not sure it would do the majority much good even if it did exist.

  6. I have always preferred quality instead of quantity; I don’t write posts really often, blogging is just a hobby and a diary for me. But I can picture myself that there are some people who can manage that to write really much with a valuable content.

    1. Elisabeth, it all depends on what you want for yourself and your blog. Since yours is a hobby & diary, your editorial schedule is just fine. For others who are either trying to make money or promote themselves (I’m the 2nd), rarely writing is detrimental to the ultimate goal.

    2. Elisabeth, you and I don’t know much about money making through blogs as yet. It’s best to sit and learn from Mitch 🙂

  7. I write once a week whether I want to or not.

    The streak is still alive at 87 in a row. Though, one of these weeks I know I’ll take a break.

    I’m not overly concerned about comments though it would be nice to see more. Though, most people don’t like to write comments.

    Though, people comment via email or social media to say they liked this or that post.

    In the end, I’m striving to become a better writer.

    1. That’s a good goal Steve. I’ve also written at least once a week since I started this blog 5 1/2 years ago, sometimes 10 to 12 times in a week. I won’t say I’ve gotten better, just that I’ve found my particular voice. Something that might be neat to explore at some point is having a multiple writer blog that has more content more traffic, and thus has the opportunity to actually generate true income, which we’d all have to split. But that’s on the back burner for now.

  8. This of course is truth Mitch, some posts need more time than the rest. But that doesn’t make them bad or low in content quality. I believe it’s the fate of each blog post to get its destined number of comments.

    1. Jack, I certainly never made any claim to anything being either good or bad. I said “important”, and there’s a greater distinction on that word in my opinion.

  9. Hey Mitch,

    Well, I guess it’s pretty normal to skip days to post your articles. I mean, for me, it works fine since I want my previous blog post to be noticed first before posting another fresh post. Though it’s also good to constantly post on our blogs, but for me, it’s like depriving your previous blog and not giving a chance to be viewed by readers.

    1. Farrell, most of the time I only skip a day or so but I’ve let the last couple of article go longer, one because I’ve felt each was important, the other because I’m out of town on business and my time is short lately. I think it’s made me write differently; I’ll have to investigate that one a bit more though.

  10. Yes I agree with the number of posts will increase your traffic as well. But I really can not make the post very quickly, because to get ideas is not easy. Because of what I write I want the original thing.
    thanks for this useful article

  11. Time you need to give to a post depends on the topic of the post – you can not give more time just for the sake of it….

  12. Mmm… when I started this blog I had intended to blog very regularly, and to blog just for other people – an entertainment blog only – but as time has gone on, I’ve changed and so have my needs. So I’m slowing down now. It went to a week on/week off blogging schedule and even that’s gone now. (In a way, I think I might be slowly moving away from blogging altogether, but time will tell if that’s true.)

    But while I was doing the regular blogging, one thing I halted other posts for was my one on Sandy Hook… (called ‘Forget Me Not’, if you want to look for it. I won’t give a link here) as, like yours on Bullying, I wanted more attention given to that. Also, of course, I felt that a space was needed out of respect.

    1. Val, I remembered the Sandy Hook post; it was poignant. As for me, I find that one continues to learn things about blogging over time. Going from someone whose goal was 300 posts a year to deciding I wanted more participation from others and realized that here and there I need to leave some time between posts is quite the learning experience.

  13. Thanks for sharing. I’ve been scheduling myself to post 3 – 5x per week. I received an email from one of my readers who thanked me for adding more content. I used to post only 1x per week. So, I think I’m moving in the right direction.

    1. You’re doing great stuff Yasmin. Make sure you keep promoting your stuff often enough to get more visitors to it all and you’ll rule.

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