Good morning and happy Monday (or good evening or good night and here’s to a great Tuesday for you, depending on where you are as you read this).
You may not have noticed, but for the last couple of weeks, Waxing UnLyrical has not been publishing over the weekend.
The three main reasons for this are:
1. While I love blogging, the blog community, social media, etc., more and more I’ve been feeling the need to decompress and stay offline as much as possible during the weekend (just as I’ve been trying to do on vacation). Now, when it comes to blogging, you could certainly tell me that I can schedule posts ahead of time and do just that.
That is true. But then, if the weekend posts got comments (which they didn’t always, but sometimes they would), I’d feel terribly conflicted as I had to choose between replying to those comments immediately and doing boring offline married people stuff with my husband (not to mention paying a little more attention to my dogs).
2. Recently, while looking at Waxing UnLyrical’s analytics, I found that over the last year, visits to the blog have increased dramatically. But pages per visit and the average time on the site have fallen; not dramatically, but enough to make me sit up and go, “Eh? They’re not liking what they’re seeing here enough to stick around for a while?”
3 . A few weeks ago, I got an email from one of my readers asking me to take her unsubscribe her from the email subscription list. Why? She likes the blog, but was doing a general cleaning up and there was “too much” coming over the transom from WUL.
Ouch.
Quality and consistency
I know we have this “quantity v. quality” debate over and over again. Most recently, Erica Allison talked about it. For me, it’s not so much “quantity” as “quality and consistency,” because all said and done, there is comfort in consistency, both from the publisher’s point of view as well as that of the reader.
In publishing a post every day (whether it’s written by me or by a guest blogger), I’ve been aiming for consistency. But quality is really really important to me too. I’d like to think that the quality of WUL posts is consistently good-to-very-good, with occasional excellence.
And I’ve been learning that I can’t sustain that (because even when I don’t write the posts, I do edit them) if I publish over the weekend as well. Because I would feel pressure to publish something, anything, just to get it out. And that is the surest sign – to me, at least – that I’m giving in to quantity instead of quality.
So while I want to continue to build blog readership to WUL as much as I did before, a couple of weeks ago I decided to hit the “reset” button on WUL and stop publishing over the weekend. My goal is to maintain consistency by publishing one post Monday through Friday, and hopefully they will be good ones.
While it’s too soon to draw any definitive conclusions, I’ve noticed that visits are still coming in over the weekend, posts published during the week still get comments (assuming they’re good) and I’m a little less stressed.
Hitting the reset button has, so far at least, been a good thing, as far as I can tell (please tell me if I’m wrong and you’re desperate for the weekend posts, because then I’ll bring them back!).
Given that WUL is slightly over two and a half years old (who woulda thunk it?!), I imagine this is something I’ll do periodically. I imagine you will too, if you’re a blogging grasshopper like me.
And it’s a good thing, because if we kept doing the same things, over and over and over again, without stopping to evaluate them and see how they were working, I don’t think we’d get anywhere. Whether it’s in our personal lives, work, or blogging.
Repetition without evaluation leads to stagnation.
What do you think: good move/bad move? And what about you? What have your experiences been in hitting the reset button? Did you learn something new? Find a new lease on life?
Do share, you know the comment section is yours.
Image: cosmocatalano via Flickr, CC 2.0
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I would consider this “testing” a hypothesis.
Quantity is typically a good thing at first because it helps you build a solid index in the search engines. However, once you’ve reached a certain level, other strategies become more effective.
@Shonali@3HatsComm Hitting the Reset Button, Taking Tomorrow Off, Commenting fiend. One of these things is not like the other. I realize your commitment to reading and commenting on blogs is way beyond work but honor your down time as you honor your plugged in time. Not that you need another mother, I’m just sayin’
@Shonali I miss SO many posts, Reader is always ‘marked as read’ – I am out here, I do read a lot but just can’t get to everything.
@3HatsComm Confession: I saw your headline in my Reader, starred the post, and then haven’t gotten to ANY of them yet. I’m taking tomorrow off, though, so might be a commenting fiend then, LOL.
@Shonali I’m a little guilty of the crap, a silly iPad app post today just to have something .. and that’s only posting twice a week. (Next week is a holiday, so I’ll probably cheat and do only one post.) I know what you mean, the set schedule has forced me to write more, great for discipline and yet I do wonder as I review the drafts, what’s really worth a read, what should I be writing instead.
@3HatsComm I kinda like the discipline of posting daily for myself… but I’m absolutely with you on the quality. What’s the point in a crap post, right?!
Reset, just like measuring and tracking, has to be done (and we all need a break at times). Gotta go w/ what works and change what isn’t. I’m another one who doesn’t subscribe to the ‘must post daily’ edict; think if you produce quality posts with a decent structured frequency, readers will come, enjoy, comment, RT, maybe share a few posts at parties. :) FWIW.
@TheJackB@Shonali Like all these words. :)
@Shonali I care more that someone reads what I write than the person comments. The rest seems to work. @Marcus_Sheridan @ginidietrich @KenMueller
@Ari Herzog But you also say in a reply to one of the comments on that post that you don’t really care about comment count… so is the other cool part of Livefyre (IMHO), i.e. the tagging, working for you? @Marcus_Sheridan @ginidietrich @KenMueller
@bdorman264 Are you telling everyone about my diet?! :p
@Shonali Maybe your comment count increased with livefyre but mine surely hasn’t, evident by the link below.
@Marcus_Sheridan@ginidietrich@KenMueller
@Shonali I like piffle. If I may be so bold I’ll share a link to a post I wrote about vocabulary. Actually it is more of a list of words, but there are some good ones in it.
*blushing* Thanks–that is high praise! @Shonali
@Shonali@livefyre You writing did seem nice, tight, and trim today; I thought you must have done something………..:)
@laurenllawson LOL. I don’t know any other way to be.
@KenMueller That’s a very good point. Except that I do have a good reason to explore your site… to see what you’ve done with it, tips on making mine better etc. But I absolutely agree that the other kind of visitors are the ones who will likely result in business. Yet another great tip, Ken – thank you!@Marcus_Sheridan @ginidietrich
@Shonali@Marcus_Sheridan@ginidietrich I think bounce rate is overrated and deceptive. Why? I have two main audiences. There are those of you who are in the same field as I am. You come and read my blog regularly, but have no real reason to explore my site. You aren’t going to hire me. Then there are the small business owners who come to me via search engines. THAT is the bounce rate you want to check. Search traffic vs. blog link traffic. I care more about the search traffic because they are more likely to be actual prospective customers.
@TheJackB So this isn’t quite the same level as defenstrate and insouciant (which I also love), but this is one of my faves: piffle.
@KenMueller I’ll have to look again, but I’m pretty sure my Bounce rate has gone up a bit too. So that’s another thing I need to get down.@Marcus_Sheridan @ginidietrich
@bdorman264 I know it’s tough to get here every day and I absolutely don’t hold that against anyone! I don’t even get to all the sites I want to every day. And I don’t think it’s selfish at all to being open to being mentioned in a comment… that’s why I love @livefyre so much, and I use the “mention” feature sparingly, when I think the person(s) I’m tagging will be interested in the conversation.
And YES to living life! Btw – I *did* do #mybootcamp today. It was so great!
@SushilPandit Well, at least someone noticed. :)
i read your article & you have given some resin on ” UnLyrical has not been publishing over the weekend”.
i hope soon i will see it . i would say really you have wrote wonderful article which helped me same times . i hope to get some more article . Thanks publish great article .
i read your article & you have given some resin on ” UnLyrical has not been publishing over the weekend”.
i hope soon i will see it . i would say really you have wrote wonderful article which helped me same times . i hope to get some more article . Thanks publish great article .
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Have you ever thought about writing an ebook or guest authoring on other blogs? I have a blog centered on the same subjects you discuss and would really like to have you share some stories/information. I know my viewers would value your work. If you’re even remotely interested, feel free to shoot me an email.
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@Shonali It is one of my go to words- can’t use it enough. It is up there with insouciant.
Hey, being a not pay attention to most things important kind of guy I might not be the guy to ask. I’m going to stop by because it’s your site so you can call it anything you want to. What I do have a difficulty in doing is coming by every day, so whereas I take the chance of missing that really great post, I just have to pot luck it at times.
I know it would be selfish on my part, but I don’t mind being mentioned in a comment especially if you think it’s a post that will resonate. I try to stay organized but sometimes it doesn’t work so well. And like you, I am limiting my weekend activities quite a bit.
Probably no right way or wrong way, but you still have a life to live, huh?
@Shonali@Marcus_Sheridan@ginidietrich I just checked my Google analytics and my average time on site has dipped ever so slightly since I installed Livefyre. And my bounce rate is about the same, and you would think the Bounce rate would go up for the same reason average time goes down, correct?
@Al Smith Aw, thank you, my friend!
@Marcus_Sheridan I love that dating analogy. I suspect we all have tales to tell along those lines. :p
That’s a very interesting point about Livefyre, Marcus. Hmm… maybe, though I don’t know. @ginidietrich @KenMueller have you noticed a correlation between Livefyre and time on site? I do know that the comment count has increased significantly, and I’m very happy about that.
Marcus, you write KILLER posts. And you know I mean that in a good way. I literally have to stop and take a deep breath as I read through your posts, to absorb what I’ve read so far, and then carry on.
@barryrsilver Thank you!
@TheJackB “Defenestrate” is my word of the day now.
@Shonali@ryanknapp@mdbarber You got that Shonali!
@ryanknapp Oh my gosh, Ryan, you are a man after my own heart! @Shonali knows how much I do not believe in “balance”, and I always speak in terms of ebb and flow, up and down…a perpetual state of adjustment and micro-adjustments (that’s my kinesiology background speaking:)
I love the idea of starting from scratch periodically and I’m going to do just that, once a year. Thanks for the suggestion!
More power to you, Shonali. I say, whatever works for you. And to me, it’s working.
Al
@brandfuzion Thank you very much for sharing.
@Shonali The people make it fun and when they don’t I defenestrate them. Kind of an aggressive response, but I blame it on my Chicago roots.
@shonali You are definitely most welcome.
@Shonali Okay maybe that hug shouldn’t be quite so tight. I proposed something I know nothing about. I did mean an auto response for the blog. I figured there are 40 bazillion ways to auto follow auto find and auto respond on Twitter, there should be at least one bounce back mechanism for a blog. Off to the search engine, I’ll let you know what I find.
Such an interesting conversation Shonali– this idea of ‘what is too much’?
Here is the thing about blogging 7 days a week: To me, that almost feels ‘over-committal’. Kinda like dating a girl/guy you really like but they want to spend 24/7 with you, and because you’re not allowed room to breath, it becomes too much.
You mentioned your time on site has gone down. Could that have something to do with Livefyre? I say this because livefyre leads to people jumping back on your site to leave a comment/reply, and then jumping off quickly again. Thus, the ‘time on site’ and ‘page views per visit’ are significantly less.
For me, I write two days a week. I’ve got plenty of reasons, but I’ve never wanted to feel like there was a gun to my head with writing. Plus, my posts get to simmer, which my readers have come to understand. This means many quality comments day 2 and 3.
Just my thoughts though. This is one of those subjects that is completely debateable.
Thanks so much,
Marcus
@barryrsilver Thank you and what a kind comment, so double thanks!
@Shonali Excellent!
@FrankDickinson Thank you! You know, I do feel much better having “said” that. Even writing this post made me feel much freer.
@barryrsilver Did you feel the big bear hug I just gave you? Thank you!
I love the auto response idea – you mean for the blog, right? How would I set that up? Or do you mean for email?
@marianne.worley That’s a really good point about commenting; I’ve seen that my comment activity has definitely decreased, and I don’t like that. One of the reasons for this is that I’ve been getting up early to exercise/work out, and that used to be the time I’d get online. But I’ve also been focused on getting my posts written/edited, which means I focus less on the commenting. And I don’t like that, because it makes me feel selfish. People take so much time to come here and comment, I want to reciprocate. So the last few days, I’ve been trying to do more of that, until I get back into a “good” pattern… even if it’s 2/3 comments a day.@MattLaCasse
@TheJackB Well, hello there, Guy Noir. :p (re: “traffic, accolades & fame”).
I think you’re right about the fun bit. When it stops being fun, and starts being drudgery, that’s when I have to do some serious reevaluating. Fortunately I’m not there yet.
@ryanknapp I’ve never had the guts to completely delete my RSS feeds, but maybe I should work on that in a few months. I do periodically go through them and unsubscribe from some that just don’t work for me any more… like you said to @mdbarber , it’s not because they’re not good, they just deliver what I’m looking for at that point in time.
I really like your point about finding what works for you as opposed to balance… I suspect @KDillabough will too!
@mdbarber See, that’s what happens with me too. Your posts (and Gini’s, Erica’s, Kaarina’s, Bill’s, etc.) all come into my Reader, but sometimes it takes a few days for me to get to them (outside of those that are set up in Triberr, those I go through every day, since I’ve switched to manual mode). Then I want to think and comment, which takes time…
@Shonali@KDillabough@EricaAllison well, i can’t argue either of those. but…um…I must be better at something. I’ll get back to you when I figure it out. Dang.
@KenMueller See? Prettier AND smarter. :p @KDillabough @EricaAllison
@jenzings Well, you are one of the deepest thinkers I know. Every time I read one of your posts (and I know I don’t comment that often, but I do read them), I go, “How did she come up with that?!” You’re incredible, Jen.
@Shonali@KDillabough@EricaAllison Doggone it, I just lost some street cred because I had to look up “chuffed”. How did I not know that? The problem is, it sounds like a bad thing (perhaps “chafed”?) when it’s a good thing!
@elizabethsosnow You were so kind to say this on G+ as well as here – thank you! I’m going to stick that up on my wall where I can see it every day: “Be Honest.” Actually, I’m honest to begin with (to a fault, just ask robinhlane or laurenllawson ) so maybe I’ll change it to “Blog Honestly.”
@MattLaCasse Not to mention that you are responsible for filling at least one of those quality days a month, my friend… :p
@ginidietrich Well, I do want to have one post a day, whether that comes from me, or from a guest blogger. I love my guest bloggers – and I’ve seen that their posts are so good, they challenge me to try to do better. Competition in the good sense.
I like the way you say you have only three quality posts. To that, I say, “Ha Ha and More Ha.” (Actually, I stole that from my sister, but if it works…)
@KDillabough Love that quote!
@KDillabough I can’t tell you how chuffed I am that WUL is a must-read for you. Thank you for saying that! I have pretty much the same approach to my Reader. I haven’t purged it in a while, though I feel that day is coming! @EricaAllison @KenMueller
This says it all for me:
“Repetition without evaluation leads to stagnation.”
You have evaluated and discovered a different path – one that is effective and allows you a certain, needed, freedom.
You have avioded stagnation.
S,
WUL does come in over the transom a lot. Sometimes I have to just let it pile up and then sweep it out, unlooked at, because that’s what my week(s) has been like. Anyone that unsubscribes because WUL comes in too often merely needs to be comfortable with their own priorities. Taking Sat and Sun off and unplugged is a good idea. The blog is supposed to work for you, not the other way around. Makes it easier for those of us falling behind, too. BTW, if you’re unplugged on the weekend, why not auto response a comment about getting back in detail during the week? Allows you to live up to responding but lets you be with family.
@livefyre Thank you very much for sharing. :)
@mdbarber No need to feel guilty. People’s habits change. The first blogs/websites I read on social media are no longer relevant for me, but that doesn’t mean they are not relevant for others.
In fact, I love to find completely new topics to follow as it broadens my horizons.
@ginidietrichbut you also craft policy for the National Security Agency which has you really busy.
Publishing less may also increase commenting activity. As a reader, I find that it’s difficult to join every conversation when new content is posted 7 days a week. Like @MattLaCasse I often use the weekends to catch up on blog post reading, and it’s much easier to do this when the flow of new posts is on pause.
@ryanknapp love this idea Ryan, and the formality of it. I have noticed my reading habits change as well. And we don’t need to feel guilty if we unsubscribe someone.
If it impacts quality of life and hurts your relationships than don’t do it. My philosophy with blogging is different than most. I don’t do this for traffic, accolades or fame. Sure, I am lucky because all of these things happen naturally.
It is a burden sometimes, the thousands of fan emails, publishers banging on my door begging me to write a book for them, brands showering me with free products. I even had one of my blog groupies touch my blog in a most suggestive manner- it is really embarrassing when they get a rise of out your ‘e’ key.
To me it boils down to fun. If it isn’t fun than it is too much work and I just don’t do it.
Once a year I hit the complete reset button and delete all of my RSS feeds (minus ones I monitor from work), unsubscribe from everything and start from zero. This lets me find new, fresh ideas and perspectives.
One comment: I see everyone talk about ‘balance’ but IMO it’s not balance, it’s really what works for you. Balance implies there actually is one side which weighs the same as the other. Let’s face it, our lives are completely unbalanced, but if we find the point in which our unbalanced lives work for us, we have found what we are looking for.
Hitting that reset button is so important Shonali amnd I think we can all forgive you the two days off. That work-life balance is what makes us happier and live longer. Personally, I think you could probably take a couple more days off and be okay too. Hwever. Your analytical mind will probably look at that in a couple of months as well.
Yur posts always make me think, but often it’s a fw days later when the information puts itself right in front of me again. They are useful and welcome in my everyday plans.
I have long advocated the carving-time-out-for-your-life posting frequency. It’s vital, and I wish more would do so. I rarely even Tweet on weekends–I know myself well enough to understand that I need the down time. You should do what works best for you from both a creative and personal perspective.
My problem is not going too overboard in the “quality” field–I have a tendency to make the perfect the enemy of the good, and it can cause inertia in getting posts actually written and posted!
Shonali, I’m a new subscriber to your blog, but the reason I’m sticking around is the honesty of posts like this one. Kudos!
Elizabeth
I like this move. I find that if I’m reading blogs on the weekend, I’m catching up from what I missed during the week rather than looking for, or even expecting, new content. My bet is that this actually increases the quality of the posts from WUL since there are fewer days to fill now. That’s not to say there aren’t quality posts ALREADY coming from WUL, of course. :)
@ginidietrich@Shonali@EricaAllison Gini, I don’t think there’s much that’s “too much” for you:)
@Shonali@EricaAllisonkdillabough Ha! And I just posted above that you really only get three posts from me a week. And without my team, I wouldn’t have guest bloggers. It’d be too much for me.
If this fits your work and personal goals, I think it’s a great move. Everyone’s blogging strategies are different. For instance, I’m using Spin Sucks to attract as many potential PRO members as possible. To do that, I have to use guest bloggers every day. But you also notice I really only three quality posts (M, T, W) that I write. The others are the Facebook question of the week, that doesn’t require me to do more than a video (which is much easier than writing a blog post) and Friday I do #FF and Gin and Topics. Again, widely read posts, but don’t require much thinking from me. So if three posts is all you want to do, more power to you!
@EricaAllison I could never see you taking a hall pass or not getting off your duff Erica. I do think that posting “quality” is important, and I can’t imagine any of us or those we admire posting drivel, just in order to stick to a schedule. So for me, it’s always quality over quantity…and that applies to those who are on my “must read” list. Cheers! Kaarina
Ah, @Shonali you know how I don’t ascribe to the whole “balance” concept, but I DO ascribe to setting priorities and livin’ life to the max. So I think your decision to reset is a wise and healthy one. And it doesn’t mean you can’t or won’t change things up as time goes along. Monitoring, evaluating and adjusting is what business and life is all about.
And you know what they say: “Insanity is doing the same things over and over expecting different results.”
So here’s and cheers to the re-set button! We all need less stress in our lives. Cheers! Kaarina
@Shonali yeah, it’s a tough call. That’s why I’ll go with content that might bring a few people in, and might even help a few discover me, so to speak, without having to do too much other work.
@Shonali@EricaAllisonginidietrich Ah, Shonali, you have me smiling like a cheshire cat on the balance thing. You know me well, my friend.
I don’t think it’s an issue of having enough to say. I’m constantly amazed at people who can publish every day. Between the writing, commenting, running a business and “having a life’, I don’t know how people do it. I know it’s something that I choose not to do. I love my life, and I’m not willing to sacrifice the beauty and quality of “living” in order to adhere to a schedule that for me, would be unrealistic.
I’ve recently started to cull and purge my reader, and I’ve been able to now determine the places in the blogosphere that are “must read” places (like you, @EricaAllison and @KenMueller , to name present company), “nice to read” places that I visit (but not necessarily regularly) and “read once in a while” places that I still enjoy, (but there are only so many hours in the day.) Cheers! Kaarina
@KenMueller I hear you on the increase in traffic. That was my reaction as well, initially. But then I started going deeper into my analytics, and thought, regardless of the traffic, is that a good thing in its entirety if people aren’t clicking around as much? I’m sure there are other reasons for that as well – maybe I don’t do enough internal linking, maybe LinkWithin isn’t pulling up the best posts at the end of each post – but still.
The one thing I’ve seen about weekend posts – speaking for WUL only – is that if they are thought-provoking, people do come by and comment. But the weekly roundups, etc., that I was doing – not so much. I’m not saying those weren’t valuable, maybe they were to some people, but I don’t know how much else they were doing. But when I wrote a post on “digital death,” for example, that was over a weekend – and it got a TON of comments.
@EricaAllison My pleasure, Erica, and thanks so much for taking the time to stop by!
Yes, it’s that balance (though I know kdillabough doesn’t like that word!) between rest & push that’s tough to get, isn’t it? I also find it interesting that every time I *think* I’ve achieved that balance, boom, something will come along to throw me off! Or maybe that is just part of my evolution… isn’t that usually what it is, when we experience a similar state in life?
The truth is, I am not at a point where I can blog every day either. The reason WUL publishes a post every day is because of the great guest bloggers I have, both regular and one-time. I don’t know how ginidietrich manages to post every day in addition to have a guest blog every day. I really admire how she always has something to say… so maybe the problem is that I just don’t have enough to say!
This is something I’ve been thinking about as well. For me, I’ve been enjoying the increase in traffic, so I’m hesitant to stop. What I did notice quite awhile ago is that traffic on the weekends was a lot less than during the week. So I felt like I was wasting good content by publishing it on weekends. So I made the decision at that point to keep publishing content, but to shift gears. For Saturdays, I would post something light, such as a fun video that I found (I have since drifted from that, but might have to rethink it). On Sundays, I got a friend who does comics to come up with an original comic for me related to social media. that way, I would have SOME content on weekends to help maintain the flow of traffic, but that way there wouldn’t be as many comments, and if so, it wasn’t a big deal to either comment or wait to comment, since it wasn’t “heavy” material.
So I will continue with the comic on Sunday, and will probably look for more fun videos for Saturdays. Just a way to drive a little traffic my way, have a little fun, and keep the workload down on weekends.
Great perspective, Shonali. I pondered my post and the comments associated with it for quite some time afterwards and again went back to quality over quantity.
However, I also felt like it was a bit of a cop-out for me to say I’ll only post when I have something of “quality.” By doing that, I’m giving myself a hall pass to skip out on class or take a little break. Granted, breaks are so important and I’ve definitely taken advantage of that this summer, but I also think it’s vitally important that we push ourselves. Sometimes that might mean we need to get off our duffs (mine, not yours) and put some extra effort in, as opposed to just opting out because we didn’t work a little more to put something of quality out there. As a result, I’m pushing myself to get back to the twice written post/week and the once/week vlog, making sure that it is the best I can make it. To do it everyday as you do, well that’s not in the cards at the moment!
Like you, I’m also (for the most part) completely offline over the weekends. I realized my family wasn’t getting quality time from me and that’s never ok! Thanks for including my post, Shonali. Thanks also for your very valuable, continued perspective.