Blog Breaks and Getting Over People
Louis Gray, multi-diem-poster and everywhere-at-once social media mastermind, has some encouraging words for bloggers who have succumbed to the all-too-common blog ennui that has been plaguing the blogosphere of late:
Relax. The web won’t stop spinning if you take some time off. OH–and you don’t need to announce every potty break.
…while I understand the occasional self-assessment, I believe many are feeling pressure to hit a certain number of posts in a given time period, or are feeling challenged to keep pace with much more visible, prolific, people for whom this is much more aligned with their career.
See:
The truth is that unless you’re being paid specifically to blog:
- You don’t need to blog every day.
- You don’t need to post more than once a day.
- You shouldn’t feel guilty about “gaps”.
- You don’t have to explain yourself to anyone.
Unfortunately for many of us who participate in the tech blogging space, there are many examples of blogs or individuals who can crank out more than one post a day, every single day.
Louis pot-calling-kettle Gray has a point there. Most non-a-list bloggers don’t have the content management systems that some of the big blogs use to space out posts and keep the content flowing. For us, a post is a post between babies crying and bill paying, between real work and real life.
For the pros, though, frequency is frequently more important than quality. Just. Keep. It. Flowing.
How is the Always Be Posting approach different than, say, the business-as-usual broadcast model we’ve always known and abhored? Maybe it’s not.
Too many bloggers don’t know when to take a breath. As I’ve said before, the net’s biggest problem is that it can’t shut up for five minutes. Too many self-publishers are using the pixel blast approach, taking as many dumps as possible in as many social spheres as possible, so as to be — above all else — noticed and get the attention (and ad clicks) that make this little exercise worth while.
Meanwhile, the attention-getting-tricks and trollops are nothing new. They’ve been here for years, and from time to time have sent me ranting, as in this memorable “there are no headgames with hamsters” (even though that wasn’t the title) post.
People that pretend to be who they aren’t really chafe my scrote, in the words of the illustrious wonderpoultry. I am so fed up with people who pretend so often in their daily goings on that they don’t even know they’re pretending anymore. They don’t know how rediculous they sound as they tell their secret stories to you–and you already know them–and they shove pretense down the throats of the unwary. I am so overwhelmed by them. I am so sick and tired of the up and the down and the be my friend, be mine not, let me be around you so I can chafe your scrote, just so you can let me know who I can shit on today. Well no way. I say no damn way. You know what, you motherfuckers? You go iritate and subjugate your own selves and the horses you rode your selfish asses in on. You chafe your own scrote. You listen to your own self for five fucking minutes and see if you can believe yourself without vomiting forth your very heart and soul–as if you HAD any heart and soul. And if I let them, OH people make me crazy. OHH they make me crazy. And they wonder why I shut down. What do you expect us to do–every one of us worth a damn? What do you think we’re going to do–that’s right, we’re going to take your motherfucking cues and shut it down. I look at the hamsters. That’s as complex as it needs to be. She takes care of them. They learn to take care of themselves. Their is compassion, concern, correction, respect, fun, play, eat, sleep. NO FUCKING HEADGAMES WITH HAMSTERS. You see? Sure their brains are the size of what, a seed?, but that’s not the point. The point is that they are not pretending animals. They are real animals. They are instinctual not coniving. They know that survival is optional–they use their time and attention wisely. COULD YOU TAKE A CLUE? They eat their young for a reason.
Remember that, okay? They eat ther young for a damn reason.
If you don’t get it now, I can’t help you.
So essentially that’s what it’s all about.
Blog, don’t blog, take a break, don’t take a break, blast posts, post judiciously — whatever your style is, go for it.
Just don’t chafe my scrote.
August 13th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
I also get really tired of bloggers who complain (let’s call it like that) about the pressure to post and be out there. At least that’s one problem I don’t have (proof of it my regular — well, over the last 8 years — over-a-week blog breaks that I didn’t even realise I was taking).
Oh, I do the “I need to blog more” thing, but that’s more for me than because I feel pressure.
And just recently, I wrote something called About Visibility which is about something you touch upon in your post: the attention-getting-tricks. Basically, if your reputation is built upon those tricks, then you’re right to feel under pressure to keep them up.