I’ve noticed over the past 5 years that a lot of people I know start a blog and fail to keep up enough momentum with no new posts appearing for a few weeks, then months, then years.
I even fell into that trap myself with the predecessor to this blog. I am almost ending doing the same with this one.
The problem as I see it, is that the writer needs a message they want to share with the world. It might be something they found out which might be useful for others, like my last post. It might be commentary on an event, some music, a film… Some people just like sharing thoughts and things they have created, like photos.
The blog is a great platform for this, but it often feels like you need to put a lot of time and effort into posts. If your purpose is marketing, then of course quality is important, but so is frequency of updates. I’ve just started using Twitter which liberates me from the burden of time when I want to share something. I don’t feel I have to sit articulating my thoughts for long periods; a simple character limit sets you free. Facebook to a certain extent also allows this micro-blogging approach, but on a much more social, interactive level, and in my case with a wall around what I am saying.
So I end up spending around 10 minutes on Twitter every few days, spewing out a few thoughts. It’s refreshing to get something out there; I feel I’ve created something. The blog sits there with half a dozen half started posts, building up like my Google Reader unread count - it feels like hard work.
I’m wondering where I will end up going with this blog. it might just be links to other things I’ve created. It might be the odd photo I want to share, but Flickr does that for me. All I know is that I feel I need a platform to publish on, not necessarily daily, or weekly; but somewhere that people can go if they want to know what I have to say.