The Twitter Writing contest was so challenging because we had a whole week to write a story limited to just 140 characters. This post is rather the opposite - I could write as much as I wanted (theoretically), but I've only got about 4 minutes before I'll be jumping in the car with my family to go to an open house celebration for the university graduations of my brother Josh and his girlfriend Megan. Ok, make that 3 minutes now.
This post by James over on the great blog Men With Pens, couldn't have come at a more fitting time. In it, he moderates a debate about whether bloggers should be able to take a break, and what the consequences can be if they do (lost readers, etc.) He doesn't exactly come to a consensus, but he does relate many fears those in the blogging community have around being quiet for too long and losing those subscribers they had worked so hard to hook! Wow, 2 Minutes and counting already?
Well it should come as no surprise that over the past two days, the exact time that I am home enjoying a great visit with my family, celebrating my brother's achievement and as a result, not paying as much attention as usual to this space, I would be flooded with half as many visitors here as I had received in the entire month since I launched combined (thanks to the links graciously directed here from Brian at Copyblogger and Josh at ReadWriteWeb and the residual linkage those produced.) Less than minute? Yikes!
But some things are more important even than blogging (hard to believe, I know), and family is definitely one of them. So I hope you will be patient - I promise I have some great material on deck and I will get it up as soon as possible. Stick with me, I'll stick with you.
3, 2, 1...
3, 2, 1...
[Yes I came back and fixed the typos from the original, speedily-written article. 'Cause I'm a perfectionist like that.]
I am wit chu. I believe quality trumps frequency. You writing conveys a passion to your readers, while giving us useful and fun information. Keep on blogging. 1min. 39 secons.
Lawrence - thanks for the encouragement! I too believe in quality over quantity and I hope it shows in the content (this light-hearted post aside) on this blog. I'm not going anywhere!
Daniel
This topic relates to the essential quality of blogging -- and journalism. Daily newspapers are daily. Broadcast newscasts are on the hour (except when there is breaking news). Weekly and monthly publications of course also thrive, but these are not in the realm of twitter. Blogging, of course is journalism without the worry of an editor or publisher breathing down your back (unless you are blogging in the corporate world, where the bottom line is all that counts, or you have the (mis) fotune of working for a boss who, himself, is also a blogger!)
Quality, of course is more important than quantity, but consistency is a vital part of quality. Vacations are mandatory, but I don't know of many successful self employed people who completely dissociate from their work -- since they do what they enjoy. They have to ensure they contribute to the bottom line of their (their own) businesses, of course.