My friend Easton Ellsworth posted a neat article yesterday…When Is Blogging A Waste of Time? 10 Nasty Examples.
- When you publish a blog post that provides little or no value to your target audience.
- When your blog has no clear target audience.
- When you are only pretending to be “blogging” (you’re reading, you’re looking at email, you’re surfing YouTube, etc.).
- When you should be talking to individuals by phone or email or in person instead of producing blog content.
- When your blog posts are not indexed in major Web search engines and blog search engines.
- When you are mean.
- When you plagiarize.
- When you merely echo, rather than respond originally.
- When you overedit before publishing.
- When you blog before you think
Easton gets us off to a good start. I can certainly relate to #1 (I used to do that), #3 (I can get distracted looking for references), #9 (sometimes).
Here’s what a few others are saying…
- 5 Reasons Why Blogging Is A Waste of Time
- Is Blogging a Good Use of Time?
- 10 Reasons Why You Should Keep Blogging
What are some other ways that I/we waste time blogging? Repeat after me…Blogging is a waste of time…
- When I should be updating my client records (project management software, task lists, accounting)
- When I should be troubleshooting and debugging code
- When I should organizing my files
- When I should be cleaning my desktop – real and virtual
- When I spend too much time thinking about the post I want to write
- When I try to be perfect
- When I get too interested in my traffic stats
- When I do any kind of meme-linking that doesn’t add content value to my readers
- When I don’t answer my comments (luckily, I’m doing okay on this one)
- When I speaking to myself and not my readers
- When I should be doing my taxes (happened this year)
- When I should be with my family (does happen from time to time, though not often)
So there a bunch more to consider. How do you waste time blogging? Is it on these lists? Or do you have your own, special formula for wsating time blogging?
“When you are mean.”
I don’t agree with this one. I recently posted an entry on my blog slating a recently developed javascript events handler.
Some people might see that as mean. But how could possibly write about how something someone took time to write is wrong without coming across as mean?
I don’t think it was a waste of my time writing it as I’ve had some good feedback and the post itself has had a decent amount of traffic (hopefully saving a few people from using the code in question)
So maybe rule #6 should be changed to “When you are mean for no reason.” or “When you are mean about someone/something which doesn’t deserve it.”
But then who decides what reasons are good enough or who deserves it?
Great tips. cheers!
I have to echo Easton’s first point in saying that blogging is a waste of time when you post just for the sake of having a post go up EVERY day or 3 times a day or whatever schedule you’ve determined you want to post on, but actually have nothing of real value to offer your readers. People don’t want to waste THEIR time reading shlock and will tune you out and if you post it just to stick to some self-imposed schedule. I will delete someone from my reader even if they sometimes have posts of real value if they start to regularly waste my time.
Hi Dawud
Now I’m following in The Monk’s footsteps I’m afraid but I like to add:
If it doesn’t bring you clarity
And boy, has blogging (writing and reading) brought me clarity!
Karin H. H. (Keep It Simple Sweetheart, specially in business)
Aaron,
Who does decide? Great question.
I haven’t read your post, but my guess is you were pointing out some faults. Is that really mean? Or is it an accurate description of what happened? If you meant to just be honest but not rude or personally attacking, would that be mean?
CHAN,
Thanks. Anything to add?
Randa,
Yes, I feel the same way. And I don’t want to waste my readers time, nor my own. Funny, I’ve had the same experience in my reader. Sometimes I’ve even emailed the person to let them know that xx% of their posts I love but the majority are wasting my time. Interestingly, seldom I’ve gotten a response.
Hey, great to hear from you. And if you ever feel I’m wasting your time, please let me know.
I agree with not posting for the sake of posting…wasting readers’ time.
Could swinging to the other side of that pendulum be an issue? I think for me I don’t post as often because I’m too critical of what I am saying…maybe it’s not important enough, maybe I’ll come across as “just another parenting advice site” and not what I am…so I am not posting regularly…
My heart’s not in it (it is focused elsewhere now, to be true…so would posting on my blog now be ‘fake’?)
If I post with what’s going on for me, and how it *might* relate to my target audience, is it going to be come across as contrived? Forced?
I’m a beginner blogger – I see the benefits, but am holding back due to what I see as the pitfalls (some of what is listed above)
Thanks Dawud, questions like these are helpful for me.
You and Easton nailed it! 🙂
I spent way (WAY) too much time on thinking about what i wanna write, instead of actually writing. Way too much time, i can easily spend 4-5 hours just thinking about it, it’s not procrastination or anything, or a lack of focus, but too often i find myself thinking instead of writing. Good thing i have a lot of posts waiting to be published or to edit or finish writing, it helps a lot when i spend 4 hours thinking about something, i usually end up editing a post, and hitting “publish” and voila! 🙂
Karin H.,
Absolutely. I wrote about that a while back. Basically, one major advantage to your blog is that it can help you clarify how you speak about your business and who you’re speaking too.
I’m with you, not only more clarity for me – but it’s helped me further my business development.
Randa makes a great point that resonates with me. Just because you want to publish a new article every day (or whatever your schedule) doesn’t mean you should.
One superb post every three or four days is much better than a mediocre post every day.
I notice your change of logo, Dawud. So Healthy Web Design is no more?
Dylan,
Hi my friend. I pray you’re well.
What I find to be most important in blogging successfully is to first know your passion. If you write from your passion – everything is different. The other thing would be clarity about who you are, what you’re doing and who you’re doing it for. Take your passion and combine it with clarity and now you have something that can engage readers. Truthfully, it’s not as hard as it seems – and it takes effort.
Because I know you well I don’t feel you should have ‘another parenting advice’ blog. Your knowledge and passion are well beyond that. All you have to do is figure out how to share it.
Jonathan,
I go through that sometimes, too. Some days it’s just not there. Other days there’s way too much to write about. Balance…I guess.
David,
I agree. I’ve thought of the same thing. I think there’s a balance, though. Sometimes my best post have come out when I’ve had to really work for them.
Yes, Healthy WebDesign is going by the wayside. More changes to come. I just changed my ‘logo’ now mostly so people would identify with me as Dawud and not Healthy WebDesign.
Thanks Dawud, and everyone else…
This is really helping me. I think I over edit – not what’s actually written, but I try to “think of the perfect topic” to write about, when maybe I could just WRITE.
My passion is clear to me…who it’s for is clear to me…
I guess sometimes I wonder how to distill down a small nugget of what I want to share…it feels SO BIG that I can’t do a short blog post.
Anyone else have that problem?
Dawud –
I am guilty of some of the things on your list (I won’t mention which or how many)! Some days more so than others.
The longer my sites are up, the less I stress over how frequently I post something new and the more I am focused on the usefulness.
Love all the little tweaks to your site that we are seeing.
As a reader of blogs, I would agree with what those of you who write say. I would rather have excellent posts once or twice a week rather than mediocre posts every day with one good post once a week.
Again as a reader, the way I waste time with blogging is to follow all the links in the articles I’m reading. Those lead me to more links and more links and then I’ve just wasted 3 hours reading unrelated information. However useful or interesting the other links may be, it’s not what I set out to do (a short break from work to read a post or two at my favorite blogs). I’m not saying don’t link in your posts, it’s more of a discipline problem on my part! I’m too interested in learning; perhaps not the worst of vices.
Dylan,
Sure, I do from time to time. Sometimes I just write a huge post. Other times I’ll focus on one part of the topic and write on it. Then save other points for later posts.
Char,
Me too. There are days I still feel a bit unfocused – not on blogging itself – but on the topics I want to cover. But that’s getting less
Thanks on the tweaks….there’s going to be more. Really, I’m buying time; adding some things I want while I work on a rebranding of my entire business.
LaurenMarie,
Yeah, I’ve followed links too into tab oblivion. But I, too, really love to learn. I know worse vices.
Hmm.. I am guilty too. Sometimes my mind went blank and other days, I had no mood to write something. At times I spent too much time thinking of what to write or to be perfect.. then I thought I shouldn’t be cos my blog should be a personal space where I expressed my opinions and thoughts freely. I spent too much time worrying about what people might think or say… that could be a waste of time 🙂
Doris,
Hey, are you living inside my computer?
LOL.
Doris,
Glad I could make you laugh.
My friend told me about this site. What a great site! I will recommend it to all my friends.
Sylvia,
Great. Thanks. Let me know how I can help.