I put the question mark at the end of the headline for the sole purpose of attracting attention as I think more people will come visit than if I don’t use it.
Been blogging for about 19 years now and if I am not mistaken been at this particular location since about 2010.
I imported most of what was written elsewhere so this serves as a pretty good collection of things I have written but it is still incomplete.
Don’t write here as often I as I used to but it is very important to me for multiple reasons and it is absolutely the first self-hosted blog I ever had.
Since I got into the game earlier than many and built up a decent reader base I don’t have to post every day to maintain traffic but there is no doubt it is nothing close to what it once was.
That is ok with me and I am not sure if I could get it back to that level even if I wanted to. It is not because of an inability to push multiple times a day or even daily because if I wanted to it would be easy.
But because there are 10 million other distractions now.
When I started there wasn’t any competition from Twitter, Facebook, Medium, Pinterest, YouTube, TikTok or so many other content providers and news sources.
Comment sections were wildly active and if you put a little effort into engaging with others online you could build your own community.
It is much harder to do that now, though not impossible.
The Answer Is:
The answer for me is to post as often as it feels comfortable, reasonable and important.
I write here less than before because of time constraints and focus on other things and because some things get different coverage than they do elsewhere.
There is nothing I couldn’t cover in these other places because semi-anonymity means recognizing that some people know I am not Bruce Wayne or Clark Kent in real life.
Not all of them would recognize me on the street but they know me and plenty who know me in the important ways do too.
Writing is a profession, hobby and tool for my sanity. Sometimes it is nice to blow off steam and mull over thoughts and feelings in print in a place where I am less likely to be challenged and questioned.
Not afraid to be challenged or questioned on almost anything but if I am writing it down here chances are it is because I am working on something.
If I want or need someone to know my thoughts and feelings you can be assured I will find them and make sure they know it.
You can’t do what I do and be shy.
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Anyhoo, the real purpose of this post is tied to the headline and that is to say you ought to post as often as it serves the purpose of your blog.
If you are interested in building a community, acting as a brand ambassador and or anything related you probably need to be consistent.
Or at least consistent enough that your target audience knows how often to visit to receive new content.
BTW that Golda Meir quote is a personal favorite and a reminder to myself that no matter how good I think I am not everyone will see me that way.
Blogging brought that to the forefront to me because I have seen some very popular blogs that I thought had awful content.
Used to make me crazy to see some of them do so much better when I knew my work was better. Might have some typos and errors in it but it wasn’t riddled with crap.
But I learned that sometimes there are other things and some had it where I didn’t. Just part of life.
Ryan Biddulph
Hi Jack,
I like your reasoning. Publish based on your clarity and inner pull versus following some strict schedule rigidly. This makes sense.
Ryan
Jack Steiner
Thank you sir. It just works for me.