I am a Terrible Blogger

I am a terrible blogger.

I don’t mean that I can’t write.  I’ve always been able to write well, at least academically and for business.

I don’t mean that I don’t have anything interesting to say.  Though I guess that is for others to judge.

I don’t mean that I don’t have any good ideas.  Again, that’s subjective, but I do have dozens of ideas for post topics jotted down in the notebook I carry around with me for that purpose.  And many of them have moved beyond the idea stage and are in various stages of completeness.  I just haven’t completed them.

I’m a terrible blogger.  When it comes to writing I’m a perfectionist (believe it or not).  My perfectionism manifests itself in dissatisfaction in what I’ve written,which leads to uncertainty, hesitation and endless rewrites.  And stacks of unwritten blog posts.

The worst part about this is that I know better.  I spend my days telling clients and anyone who will listen that when you establish a blog you need to be consistent in your tone, timing and subject matter but that it doesn’t need to be Literature.  You’re not writing the next great novel or going to change the world with one blog post no matter how eloquently written.

You need to establish the general subject matter that you plan to write about and stick to it. You need to decide how often you will post a blog and then be consistent.

The “how often’ question can be dictated by a number of factors:

• Subject matter -  e.g. if you’re writing about new trends in your industry you are guided by the emergence of those trends.

• Purpose – why are you writing a blog?  What is the aim?  If you are updating people on the progress of a charity project, raising awareness about your business, helping people learn how better to use a service (Facebook for business, for example), etc. the purpose of the blog will inform how often you write.

• blogging style – some bloggers like to write short “riffs” on things that grab their attention.  These bloggers often post daily or even multiple times a day.  Others write longer posts that delve deeper into a subject matter, often with extensive research or direct quotes from third parties.  This type of blogger tends to post less frequently, maybe every two weeks or monthly.  Others fall somewhere in between.

• time constraints – Unless you are making (or intend to make) a living from your blog, you will have to balance your blogging with other activities, professional and personal.

You need to be consistent; once you decide on/settle into your subject, style and frequency you need to maintain that as much as possible.  You’ve essentially made a promise to your readers about what they can expect from you.  Keep that promise or they will lose interest and stop reading your blog.  If slashfood started posting infrequently and haphazardly or started writing about mobile technology how long would its foodie readers hang around?

So, the message is “be consistent”.

Actually, the message is “just write”.

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