The Writer’s Coin

After discussing the idea with some other, more established bloggers, last week I decided to make a conscious effort to write fewer posts of “higher quality,” whatever that means. In practice, this meant writing just one post per day, as opposed to the usual two or sometimes three posts per day I was writing before.

Believe it or not, the difference between the two is huge. Instead of getting everything you want to say off your chest, now you have to be selective. It also feels like you have to give the post more meat, more thought, and more words so it’s substantial enough to “make up” for the fact that you aren’t posting as much.

Which is crazy because no one’s looking over my shoulder here, it’s just me. I’m my own boss here and I’m the one putting pressure on myself to make sure what I write is “good enough.”

Here is what I liked about last week:

• I went deeper into each topic I wrote about
• It felt like I had more time to think about each post (and more time in general)
• I could pick and choose my “best” ideas to write about
• It felt like I was writing magazine stories, which I haven’t done in a while
• I think every post last week was a really good one

Here’s what I didn’t like:

• It felt like I was holding back good ideas, leaving some on the table
• It felt like I wasn’t writing enough, or doing enough to get my blog “out there”
• Each post was on my mind throughout the whole day, nagging at me
• I couldn’t really “write ahead” because I had to “go deeper” into each post, which meant I had to write “for the day” each morning

Overall, I think my fellow bloggers are onto something when they said that more traffic sometimes accompanies fewer posts. It makes sense that the posts will have more of your focus and attention as you brainstorm/write them. So I liked that. But I still feel like I can provide a mix of the two: deeper articles as well as shorter, informative/entertaining articles (snack-size) that will keep my and my readers happy.

Did anyone notice any difference between last week’s posts and the previous material on the blog? 

Tags: Blogging, quality over quantity