Are You Wasting Time Blogging?
One of the things I’ve been wondering about lately is if I’m spending too much of my time writing posts for this blog. Even a quick glance through the archives will probably convince you that significant effort is required on my part to keep posting quality material on such a frequent basis. While I love writing for this blog, it’s also been distracting me from other, more paying ventures. (Remember, this blog started primarily as a marketing vehicle for my first AdSense book, now long past its prime in terms of sales. And I’m not sure it’s done much to spur sales of Uncommon AdSense, either.) And since I’m not 20, I can’t stay up all night doing a dozen different things at the same time anymore!
So I’m at a bit of a crossroads here: I think I have to cut back on my frequency of postings, because I don’t want to cut back on the quality. Instead of daily posts (and sometimes more) I’m thinking of switching to once- or twice-a-week posts. Instead of posting multi-part series, for example, I’d simply write one (long) post on a given topic. Maybe I’d even skip a week or two once in a while.
As always, I’d love to hear your feedback on this topic. I’ve heard stories of some blogs losing readership once they switched to less-frequent posting, so this could be very detrimental to this blog’s health. Maybe that doesn’t matter. Feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts.
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Eric Giguere is the author of Uncommon AdSense and the award-nominated (that just means it lost!) blog Make Easy Money with Google and AdSense.
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18 Responses to “Are You Wasting Time Blogging?”
Nah, my favourite waste of time is worse than that. It’s sitting on a forum hitting “New Posts” repeatedly
No worries. We will wait for your posts, whenever they are posted!
You wont lose this reader. I have learned tons from you. Besides, it doesn’t take much effort to allow a feed to remain!
I’m with Michael on this one. Your posts are excellent and whilst I don’t comment on them I always read and digest! You have to do what’s best for you and keeping an RSS feed is easier than deleting it
I agree with you. A while back, I did a close examination of where I was putting my time and estimating ROI (or, return on time invested, ROTI), and found that blogging had the lowest ROI out of any activity I had been putting any amount of time into. I’m sure the same is true with you, the return is much higher on other projects.
Well my favorite posts are the reviews of products. They have been extremely helpful to me. I do hope that you will continue to provide those reviews when and if you can. Otherwise I don’t think it’s necessary to post every day about a subject; I can understand how tiring and distracting that can be.
Agree with others that you won’t lose many readers, if any. Sometimes fewer postings make them more appreciated.
I know that’s the case with a couple of other blogs I subscribe to via RSS - I look forward to reading new posts when they appear, even if that’s only once a week or fortnight.
Thanks for all the comments, everyone! I agree that readers who are subscribed (by RSS or by email) to the blog probably won’t mind if the posts are less frequent, I’m more worried about the other readers. That’s why I’ve been pushing people to subscribe lately.
Does anyone else like the reviews I do? I really don’t get much feedback on those.
I like the reviews, but I don’t really have anything constructive to offer for comments on them. That myth-busting tear-down you did of Black Mask was great (I think I did comment on that one). Some people want to believe the B.S. and don’t want to hear there’s no magic bullet, but I really liked the expose style of that review. I do little to nothing with affiliate programs, so maybe I’m not really your target audience for most of your reviews.
Eric
Your posts are well thought out and enjoyable. (I read the RSS feed rather than visit the site though).
I ask my self the same question about blogging, but find it far more enjoyable than building and promoting web sites/sales pages/landing pages, etc.
Keep it up, but make a living!
Thre’s too dam(n) much to read online anyway, with emails and sletters and now videos. Post good substance once in awhile and make us aware - your readers will still regularly trust and buy your affiliate recs and fully appreciate your objective contributions.
Keep it Ron Paul and everything is cool.
Listen, I’m sure every one who reads this blog feels and understands what you’re saying and feeling here. Believe me I’ve often felt the very same things. I think though everyone who’s been a successful blogger will agree that its definitely a combination of both. I huge compilation of content is definitely important and if the quality suffers a bit its okay I’ll still come click on some random ads on your page. If you ever need some inspiration check out http://www.monetizationweekly.com
I’m asking myself the very same question. I run two blogs, one message board and have a full time job. The money I make form the sites just isn’t worth it.
BUT!
That doesn’t mean quitting. It means finding other ways of making those sites work for me. Same for this site - don’t give up on it. Find a way for it to make money for you. Make the blog work for you rather than the other way around.
I created a blog at blogger.com. I am trying to place the ads in between my posts. But i cannot get that ads displayed. Do blogger.com allows scripts between blogs?
It should be possible, but I haven’t used Blogger in a long, long time. Read up on the Blogger AdSense help.
[...] or a wannabe, we can’t use that as an excuse not to update our blog. Maybe I should do what Eric did. Just abandon his blog and focus on the more important stuffs, like creating niche sites and [...]
If you do decide to post once or twice a week, then so be it. It’s for the best. Have you seen Puma.com. They use the same ‘Peel Away’ Flash technique that you have. Did they purchase the technique from you?
- Luke
No, no, that technique’s been around for awhile. Someone was just smart enough to license it from a programmer who developed a version of it and start selling it….