Blogging tips #9: Quantity

(NOTE: this is part of the “Blogging tips” series)

It is often said that quality is more important than quantity. That is true, too, when applied to blogging.

However, those two factors are not necessarily related – or, indeed, inversely proportional. In other words, while there are certainly human limits to how much you can write in a certain amount of time, until you begin to approach that (extreme) limit, you can write more without it turning worse.


And so, this section of the series is about the importance of writing “often” – assuming, of course, that you want your blog to be popular, but then again, this whole series assumes that much – you wouldn’t be reading this otherwise, right?

So, admitting that I’m still relatively new at this (I learn quickly, though :) ), I suggest this bare minimum: one post every day in each of your blogs.

Now, I know that it just sounded… well, “artificial”, as you’ve read the paragraph before. It almost sounds like work, doesn’t it? With deadlines, daily minimums, and so on…

But no, it’s not work. It’s being a “lively” blog. Trust me, one post a day per blog isn’t that much – in fact, after a while, you should be striving for more than that. Not only does each post attract new visitors (due to, among other reasons, notification pings – I’ll talk about them in the near future), but many people, especially those not using RSS aggregators, “give up” on a blog if they visit it after a while (say, 1-3 days) and the newest article is the same as last time. That’s a lost visitor – possibly forever.

Trust me, people like the blogs they visit – especially those they visit regularly, comment in from time to time, and consider themselves a part of – to be “lively”. They like knowing that there will be something new every time (or almost every time) they go online. That’s what causes them to keep coming back.

Of course, this isn’t a “hard” rule – if you really don’t feel like writing right now, or are tired, or have some personal problem, or are on holidays (and far away from any computers, unless you’re insane like me and still blog using something like a Nokia 6630 :) ), don’t feel like you have a “duty” to post something that will probably be uninteresting (like an “I’m bored” post in a personal blog – who doesn’t hate those?). Save yourself for tomorrow, in those cases.

Related posts:

  1. Blogging tips 1.5: Your blog’s language
  2. Blogging tips #17: when to start another blog
  3. Blogging tips #2: Being interesting
  4. Blogging tips #9.5: separate your posts in time
  5. Blogging tips #10.5: Be a good host

3 Responses to “Blogging tips #9: Quantity”

  1. fantababy says:

    I see ur blog post has been copied by someone else from this link http://www.problogger.net/archives/2005/09/09/introducing-a-shoddy-blogger/#comment-117873

    Is there any way to find whether my posts are copied by somebody else? Is there any way to find the thieves?

  2. Dehumanizer says:

    It was I who posted that comment in ProBlogger. :)

    A sure way? Probably not. Looking at your logs / stats is a beginning, like I mention here. But I may write a new part of this series with more detail about that, and other ways to find out when people rip off your work.

  3. [...] To be successful – and profitable -, a blog will require regular posting. Not a couple of times a week. You should aim for 2-4 posts a day. They don’t have to be long ones, and they don’t have to be “works of art” – sometimes (depending on the subject) a link to a new, related article, plus a couple of paragraphs with your opinion, are more than enough. But what makes people come back is regular posting (I’ll talk more about this in part 9 – Quantity). Are you ready to commit yourself to this? Yes, this includes weekends. Unless this is fun to you, it will feel like work. Even then, it can be one of the most interesting “jobs” out there… but don’t fool yourself, it does require commitment. [...]


Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Portugal
This work by Pedro Timóteo is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Portugal.