For nearly 5 years now, I\u2019ve written for The Future Buzz at a frequency of about 2-3 posts a week (and been publishing online for more than 8 years). I blog for the\u00a0same reasons\u00a0as one of my favorite authors Mitch Joel: my love of writing and my love of sharing.<\/p>\n
In 2012 so far, I\u2019ve blogged less. I actually have a few reasons for that: one is\u00a0moving from\u00a0the agency to the client side. Another is I\u2019ve been working on my next album of music. I do intend to get back to my previous pace shortly.<\/p>\n
But thinking about it today there have been some unintended positive lessons from blogging less. After all, when you\u2019ve been doing something so consistently for so long, taking a break is a good thing and offers perspective.<\/p>\n
Anyway, on to some lessons:<\/p>\n
1. Your audience is not going to leave you<\/strong><\/p>\n Some fear that if you take a break from writing your audience will vaporize into thin air. This isn\u2019t the case, however: that\u2019s one of the benefits of a timeshifted platform like a blog. Readers subscribe because they want updates when they happen, but won\u2019t leave simply because you update less.<\/p>\n 2. External publishing = key to owning the stream<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019ve been updating\u00a0Google+\u00a0and\u00a0Twitter\u00a0more often than writing here the past few weeks. I really enjoy using both platforms: they\u2019re fast-paced, have smart communities and are a lot of fun. However, what\u2019s interesting is even in a stream-powered world, having an asset to share (like a blog post) will resonate far more than updates within any single platform. That\u2019s because self-hosted content is platform agnostic and can more easily be spread across the web. The lesson? Nurture communities in the stream, but when you have something important to say write it on an external publishing platform and ensure it is then shared via real-time.<\/p>\n 3. Taking a break provides perspective\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n After writing less, I\u2019ve had some time to process what I\u2019ve been saying and how I\u2019ve been saying it which provides some much-needed perspective. I think this is important for all content creators in order to advance their craft.<\/p>\n 4. So many people argue semantics \u2013 but no one really cares<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019ve watched people continue the whole \u201cblogging is dead\u201d debate. And no one actually cares except for the people writing the stories. Blogging (which is really just web publishing) is not going anywhere. It is just content, and even if some people only have the patience for snack-sized bits that doesn\u2019t mean others aren\u2019t interested in more in depth ideas.<\/p>\n 5. Blog posts have become (more) important<\/strong><\/p>\n If anything, I think we\u2019ve started to place\u00a0more<\/em>\u00a0importance on blog content precisely because it\u00a0isn\u2019t<\/em>\u00a0as fast as stream-based platforms. Everyone knows it takes more time to craft something outside the stream and because we know the work required we tend to place more value on it. Speed isn\u2019t\u00a0necessarily<\/em>\u00a0better when creating something that\u2019s sharable (even if in some cases it can be for breaking news, etc.).<\/p>\n Hopefully sharing these thoughts with you was useful. We\u2019ll get back to more regularly scheduled posts very soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For nearly 5 years now, I\u2019ve written for The Future Buzz at a frequency of about 2-3 posts a week … <\/p>\n