There comes a time in a blogger’s life when time for writing is a bit too sparse, and you can only post once in a while. And one mistake that most bloggers make is to do those “I’ve been busy …” and “Sorry I haven’t posted much lately …” posts, or something to that effect, where you detail practically everything that makes you busy, to the extent that you miss the point of your post, and focus only on why you weren’t able to post for the past few days/weeks/months.
I’ve been reading through Stephane Grenier’s Blog Blazers (my review at Performancing) and one of the common blogging mistakes cited by the interviewed top bloggers was exactly this. The point is that if you’ve been busy, then you shouldn’t have to explain yourself. Just write. Just publish. Just blog.
But then the deeper issue is that the fact that you haven’t been blogging lately probably means you’ve lost interest or focus in your blogging. For a casual blogger, this is probably all right. But if you use your blog for monetization or marketing, then this makes for a bad blogging habit.
The solution here is to set a schedule and stick to it. Find a good pace, so you won’t have to force yourself to write when you aren’t at your best. If you can publish one good post per week, then do so. Quality trumps quantity. But regularity is important, too.
I have made this mistake many times, myself. Not only have I had dry spells in my blogging. I have, one time or another, written a “Sorry I haven’t posted lately …” post, trying to explain why, and trying to point to other sites I’ve been active in. I know I’ve tried to avoid trivial posts by focusing on meaty, substantial blogging. But by being too much of a perfectionist, I had deprived my audience of updates they deserve.
So don’t make excuses. Just publish. Just blog.
