The Problem With Only Blogging When You Have Something to Say…

August 21, 2012 By Sarah Arrow Filed Under: Blogging Tips 37 Comments

Baa, a sheep with a megaphone …is that it’s the most egotistical thing you can do.

Blogging only when you have something to say means your blog is centred around you and not your audience.

Okay, you’re used to controversy on this blog and strong opinions, so I am fortunate enough to know that one or two people may read this post.

To those that do, thank you. Please agree or disagree in the comments, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this aspect of blogging.

As I mentioned in a comment here a few days ago, it’s pure arrogance on the behalf of the blogger to assume her audience reads every single post, and then every single word that they write.

We all have more than one ideal customer and we write to different ones when we blog on a regular basis.

One thing I am 100% sure of is that regular means different things to different people.

Staying true to your inner and outer blogger

For some regular blogging is once a week, for others it’s once a month. For some it’s every day and for others it’s once a quarter. But only blogging when you have something to “say” and being proud of that just a variant of blog puking. It’s not pursuing your own original thought or expanding upon another persons.

We’ve all read it’s not about you the writer, it’s all about the reader yet some people insist on only blogging when they have something to say.

As an expert in your niche you’ll have a sound bite ready for a journalist, but you can’t have a blog post ready for people who are interested? Oh give me a break!

Today is my anniversary. I’ve been posting at 4BBB for a year. Every Tuesday I have something to talk about. Some weeks it’s better than others, but each week I show up and each week I get to learn a little more about you, the reader.

Sure, it’s tough. It’s hard to write a post when your peers are Judy & Bob Dunn, Brankica Underwood, Danny Brown, Joey Strawn and Frank Dickinson. But I still show up, because this post and this entire site isn’t about me or them, it’s about the reader.

For some, blogging is ego-centric. The blogger is at the heart of their blog with their thoughts, their feelings and their opinions and they do not want to share them. Perhaps they think they are not worthy?

Yeah I can understand that.

Perhaps they think the 30 people a day that check out their blog don’t want to hear their expertise?

A huge amount of thinking, yet not a lot of asking.

When was the last time you bribed your readers to take action? For me that was last week, I offered up a $750 a month advertising slot in exchange for two comments and a tweet. That email generated an additional 200 tweets for the post in question.

If you don’t add a call to action, if you don’t guide your readers… well you’ll still be in the same place you are now, 30 readers a day and a blog that only shares what you deem worthy. Yeah, that demon you word again.

We all know blogging isn’t about You, but there are still people that just don’t get it.

As it’s my one year anniversary here, I have some gifts for you. They may make your blog better, but that depends on you using them. They will help you get around the blogging only when your ego permits you.

People who blog regularly will like them too, getting stuff out of your head and onto paper means you do more with that stuff.

Enjoy.

Blog Goals Checklist <— right click the link and then “save as” to a safe place.

Monthly Editorial Calendar Planner <—- right click the link and the “save as” to a safe place. It will help when you open the PDFs to bring them down to 100%.

photo credit: James Clayton

Buffer

Filed Under: Blogging Tips Tagged With: blogging mojo, blogging tips

About Sarah Arrow

Sarah Arrow is the managing editor of internationally renowned Birds on the Blog, listed by Forbes (3 times) as one the top websites for women in the world. In her day job she blogs about very unsexy transportation issues in her role as communications director of a same day courier company and social media marketing. Her goal is to get on the AdAge blog list. Her first love was Twitter, it's now G+. Shhhh! Don't tell Twitter she's left...

http://www.facebook.com/keith.davis.96199 Keith Davis

How dare you accuse me of being
egotistical, I’ve never been so… so…. actually maybe you’ve got a point.

I’m slowly upping my output and I’ve got about 3 posts on the go at the moment so I’m not perfect, but I’m getting better.
Every day in every way……

BTW – happy one year anniversary Ms A.
- http://www.sarkemedia.com/ Sarah Arrow
  
  Thank you
  3 posts on the go, wonderful, anything for Easy P? (you can tell which of your blogs is my favourite)
http://www.ryanhanley.com/ Ryan Hanley

Sarah,

If you only blog when you have something to saying then you’re not really providing a service to your readers? You’re journaling… And yeah a couple people may find your content grand or engaging but it’s not valuable service…

Blogging/Content Marketing… It’s work, it’s effort, it’s adding value to constant and continuing conversation.

Love this…

Hanley
- http://www.sarkemedia.com/ Sarah Arrow
  
  Journaling has it’s place but the person it’s valuable to isn’t the reader. Blogging is work” Don’t say that or I’ll never do any
http://authenticlifejourneys.com/ Penney Fox

If there was a LIKE button here – I would hit it and give you a thumbs up!

It took me awhile to get my posts from one a week to three but it wasn’t until I worked out a plan that fit my schedule that I was able to make it happen. I’ve also learned that the more I write, the better my writing becomes and it helped me find my ‘voice.’

Happy Anniversary and thanks for the cool free stuff
http://authenticlifejourneys.com/ Penney Fox

If there was a LIKE button here – I’d hit it and give you a big thumbs up!

It took me awhile to get from one post a week up to three but it didn’t happen until I figured out a plan to fit my schedule. I also found that the more I write, the better my writing gets and I’m able to really develop my ‘voice.’

Happy Anniversary and thanks for the cool free stuff
- http://authenticlifejourneys.com/ Penney Fox
  
  Looks like I accidentally posted this twice – sorry about that
- http://www.sarkemedia.com/ Sarah Arrow
  
  I think frequent writing is perfect for developing your skills as a write and for perfecting your voice, it’s the only way you’ll improve. Glad you liked the free stuff
jasontoheal

great post
- http://www.sarkemedia.com/ Sarah Arrow
  
  Glad you liked it
cognitionetc

Something seems wrong with this. I only blog when I have something to say because it keeps the quality of the posts high. If I was to force myself to write any old shit every day then the quality of the posts would go down. My site features rather long posts and complex content; posts that I couldn’t just generate every day with little effort. If anything, forcing myself to post every day would be more likely to turn readers off my blog.
- http://www.sarkemedia.com/ Sarah Arrow
  
  No one says anything about posting every day, so you read into this post what you wished to see. How often do you post, is there any structure at all or is it when you’ve finished one of these long and complex posts?
  - cognitionetc
    
    I didn’t mean to come across like I hadn’t read it, sorry; “every day” was just a hypothetical posting time. It could be every other day, every week etc. My point is that unless I have something decent content worthy to write, I don’t post, because it would lower the quality of the content. I understand the need to have regular posts to retain readership, and that’s fine if you can regularly generate decent content – I was just pointing out that in some cases this just can’t work, and it’s better to post less than to post poor quality content just to have regular posts.
    
    In the case of my site, there is little regularity in posting, and I do recognise this is a problem. The issue I’m struggling with is that I absolutely don’t want to lower the quality, and it seems that unless you have a large team of good writers (or can spend 100% of your time on the blog) it is very difficult to keep things both regular and of decent quality.
  - cognitionetc
    
    “Every day” was just a hypothetical posting time – like you say, it could be every other day, every week etc. My point was that there can be a trade-off between regularity in posting and quality of content. It doesn’t seem right to force yourself to post regularly if you can’t generate decent quality content. Some people are able to, and in some niches it may be easier than others, but in some cases it will just lead to worse content.
    
    I’d love to impose restrictions on myself and force myself to blog at a regular time but I’m certain my content would suffer. I produce better content when I have something interesting to say. In one way it’s not great for retaining readership, but in another way it keeps the quality of the site high, which is better in the long term for my particular niche.
    - http://www.sarkemedia.com/ Sarah Arrow
      
      I understood your point about keeping quality high, I am also wondering what niche you are in? Where do your readers go when you post so sporadically? Could they be getting their information etc elsewhere, as they view your site differently from others in the niche? Do they view you differently due to your posting schedule? Of course we’ll never know the answers to these questions, but they are worth asking.
      
      As to your content suffering, you’ll never know until you try. It’s easy to say something will suffer, but you just don’t know until you’ve tested that out.
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http://www.talkingrealestatepalmsprings.com/ Vic Yepello

I’ve taken your advice in the past and I heed your teachings but as a Realtor, what could I ever offer in exchange for some Likes or Tweets? There are laws prevent ing me from doing more than an ebook or some other unexciting ditty.
- http://dannybrown.me/ Danny Brown
  
  Could you offer free staging advice? Or a private video with a Best Practices walk-through on how to make your home as attractive as possible when it comes to finding potential sellers?
  
  Just a couple of ideas that come to mind.
  - http://www.talkingrealestatepalmsprings.com/ Vic Yepello
    
    Funny you should mention that Danny. I’m just working on a partner page with a stager…..a video is a possibility or even an hour with the expert.
    - http://dannybrown.me/ Danny Brown
      
      Cool – win-win for two people, good luck with the project, Vic!
- http://www.sarkemedia.com/ Sarah Arrow
  
  Realtor, you guys have it easy (joke!), like in our transport business a good ebook only goes so far. That’s when I discovered the power of the checklist. Your moving home? Here’s a checklist on 3 months before a move right up until moving day. Moving into a rental? Here’s a checklist to make sure your landlord is ultra cool. Packing? Here’s how to plan your labels so you never lose a thing…
  
  Just so you can see how it works, here’s mine http://arrowlighthaulage.co.uk/arrowblog/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Moving-Checking.pdf it gets several downloads a day, and we often get calls from people who have this checklist, but didn’t get it from our website (it was shared).
Carmelo

So, what do you say when you have nothing to say? I’m just sayin’ …
- http://www.sarkemedia.com/ Sarah Arrow
  
  Not happened yet
  - http://www.sarkemedia.com/ Sarah Arrow
    
    (Now sit back and watch me get bloggers block)
    - Carmelo
      
      Hahahaha … nooo. don’t wish that on anyone! Now, bite your tongue … and keep those fingers flying!
LindaAW

Good evening, Sarah!

Oh dear me, I am so in serious trouble. I’m one of the worst – I only blog when I have something to say. I’m surely a blog puker!

No, that’s not entirely true. I’ve cut back recently and don’t even do that anymore.
At best I only manage 6 not 7 posts per week…..

Whether anyone ever reads them is a different matter.

If you love your subject and have any kind of knowledge at all, having enough to say is never a problem. Knowing when to shut up is.

Kind regards,
L
- LindaAW
  
  Just checking to see if I exist..
  - http://www.sarkemedia.com/ Sarah Arrow
    
    Yep, you do exist
    
    The wise person knows when to shut up, I’m still learning and I’ve only been blogging 5.5 years. I think when you have the right niche and love what you do, articles and posts flow out of you.
    
    When you can’t share your joy in a subject I think it’s time to get out of that business. Perhaps explore another niche or do something different like podcast or video (that’s my excuse for the lack of video, I’m still loving blogging).
    - LindaAW
      
      Thanks, Sarah.
      
      When I put the first comment on, no image showed up… so I wondered if I’d been zapped by the big techno wotsit in the wider web world.
      
      I’m only a baby blogger by comparison with you and I sincerely hope that another 5 years down the line I too will still be in written not filmed form. But then I don’t think there’s likely to be a camera that can cope with more than a quick shutter snap of my mug!
      
      You on the other hand, chere, are much more photogenic.
      
      Regards,
      L
http://www.onourbikes.com/ Jon Stow

Yes, the other day I saw a tweet about only blogging when he had something to say. I thought it was odd. We should write for our readers and try to be helpful, whether they are 100,000 or just the one.

That is not to say we can’t have opinions but blogs should not be for pontificating. Gosh, that’s quite a long word.
susie

Really good advice and I am taking it for myself immediately. I was concerned about too much “fluff” if I posted on uninspired days, but I like your perspective that it is not about me, its about the reader and what the blog has promised them. (at least that’s my take on it.)
Thanks once again FBBB!

recoveringchurchlady.com
Keith Davis

Sarah who? I’ll take a look anyway… is she any good?
Keith Davis

Sarah who? I’ll take a look anyway… is she any good?
Danny Brown

She has her moments…
Keith Davis

Yes… I’ve heard the rumours.
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