If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ll probably have noticed that I’ve recently been auto-publishing my del.icio.us links. Lots of other sites do this and I’ve often found good tid-bits of information through links posts.
I try to keep track of around 80 blogs via RSS feeds and, although I often don’t have time to properly post about something I’ve read, I do usually just about manage to bookmark it.
Recent changes in my job mean that I’m now significantly busier at work than ever before and being the father of an eight month old means I don’t have much time to blog in the evenings or at weekends. All this combined means I have less and less time to write posts at the frequency that many regular visitors will have been used to.
So here are the questions I need your help with:
Whilst I’m at it, I might as well phrase the question this way: I no longer have time to post something original once a day but I can almost always bookmark a few things. Would you rather come visit this blog and find a) a new post containing delicious links b) no new post at all?
Your thoughts and ideas in the comments please – and thanks for your input.
You spot good links. I normally find at least one to follow through on. However, I normally, but by no means always, click thru on your links from the RSS feed and not the blog.
There’s really no need to apologise for any future downturn in the frequency of posts. Blog when you can, when you want to. Real life stuff is (usually) far more important. I won’t remember fretting over my blog when I’m 64 – at least I hope I won’t :)
And blogs don’t really follow daily, weekly, whatever schedules. Scaling the schedule argument up a bit – this RSS thing has really destroyed the notion of any kinda publishing deadline – but I hardly need to tell YOU that.
Thanks Graham. You’re right, of course, about RSS. I came across a post somewhere a week ago that suggested that the most important thing to think about when setting up a blog is it’s design. I had to laugh since I had only come across that site via a delicious link on an RSS feed. Sure, I see the design the first day, but often times don’t even notice when a site changes it’s design because I don’t see the changes for weeks!
I do occasionally get emails from people thanking me for the links and the traffic they got from them. I guess that means that some people do click through them. I don’t mind if it’s via RSS or not – I’m not terribly concerned about site visitor numbers.
Thanks again for the feedback. Hopefully some more regular readers will chip in too.
Thanks for asking. I prefer not to receive daily links in my RSS feeds. I subscribe to a blog to read original writing, and don’t care if there are long gaps between posts. If I wanted to receive links I’d subscribe to a load of del.ici.ous feeds.
I read via RSS, and I find your selection of links usually has something of interest, so I wouldn’t change what you do there, even if there are less frequent full posts
I value links if they have a line of explanation
I also read via RSS (and I read Martin and David’s blogs – Hi David). In fact this is the first time I think I’ve visited the site but I do like the design! I agree with David though, I like to know why the link is important to you and a little bit of context does no harm at all.
Happy to answer your questions. I don’t generally find del.icio.us links of great interest – several other sites that I subscribe to also publish daily links as you do, and I tend to skip over these posts when I see them in Bloglines. The fact that you publish them doesn’t make me any more or less likely to visit your site, but I wouldn’t miss them if they disappeared.
I agree with the commenters above about not minding if you post less frequently…I’d always favour quality over quantity.
Thanks everyone. I think we’ve heard mostly from the RSS brigade. What about people who read via their browser? What do you think of the links posts??
One more from the RSS brigade: I do find the links useful as there’s so much interesting stuff out there these days and, at least for my part, too little time to read everything all the time, and easy to overlook things when life spins too fast (I sometimes ‘go for a stroll’ to the different blogs I read as well, don’t rely exclusively on RSS, depending on time and what type of blog).
Thanks Kristine. I linked to a post you recently wrote on freesheets and noticed you linked back. Not sure if you’re watching the whole “why do newspapers blog” debate as well, but do check back if you are – I’ve got something almost ready to go. ;-)
Thanks everyone who posted comments on this. I’d be delighted if a few more people chipped in. It seems to me that we’ve mostly heard from the type of readers who probably use delicious themselves and, perhaps, place greater value in delicious links because of it.
Anyone else wish to comment?
The bookmarks are great – I think you have the balance just right. Keep on posting!
I still read this site via a browser, and i have to say that I prefer the posts that are original content, it doesn’t matter if your posts are less frequent. There are far too many blogs just reposting other blogs, its the original posts that actually make the site.
Yes, thanks for the link. Your post about freesheets and bird flu made me laugh out loud, despite the serious issue. As I’m following the Scandinavian and UK media market indepth, I am constantly reading nightmare scenarios on the possible outcome of three different freesheet wars, so your piece prompted me to write the story where I linked to your bird flu post. And yes, I’m also keeping an eye on the ‘why do newspapers blog’ debate. Andrew Grant-Adamson is a former lecturer of mine, and Richard Burton, whom I did some work for at the Telegraph online, had a pretty interesting comment to this debate (both blogs are under media stuff on my blog).