Well, I’m not sure how much truth there is in that, as I have been posting at least once a day recently and find myself laid up at home with a stomach virus. But I am sure you get the point.
I have been reading on a lot of blog recently about how important it is to post every day. I have been trying my very best to do this, and over the last few weeks I have forced myself to write something every day. With Friday as the exception as this is solely for Fiction, and last week I had nothing.
While I have certainly seen a rather sharp rise in my stats as the days have gone by, I am often found myself asking the questions, or rather making the statement. I am a writer, not a blogger.
Could these daily posts I am writing be spread out during the week, say one day on one day off? There has to be a balance right? I mean, let me break it down.
Do I enjoying blogging? Hell yes, it is great fun, and at time can be very therapeutic.
Is blogging taking up a lot of my time? Yes and no. The posts themselves don’t take too long to write, but most of the time I have a really small window to get all of my writing done in. So yes, I could argue that blogging every day it removing key writing time from my schedule.
Is blogging raising my profile? Without a doubt. My stats are small compared to a lot of others bloggers I know, but they are not only consistent but also increasing at a similarly consistent rate. Which I see as growth and a sign that I am doing something right.
Am I making many sales as a result of my blogging? At the end of the day, that primary goal of any writer, indie, traditional, or as my, 100% solo published, is to sell books. We build an author platform, gain recognition, but at the end of it all, selling books is they key to being able to quit the day job and write for a living. On that scale, I have to say no. I am not making many sales via my blogging. I am sure there are some, but my sales are so low that the actual figures are unimportant.
On the note then, should I be spending more time on marketing? Yes
Why don’t I? Because I have no clue where I am, what I have to do or how to do it. Plus, I have $0.00 to be able to invest. I live from paycheck to paycheck and most of the time the last week of the month is tighter than tight. We pay the bills and buy the groceries, but anything above that is just not an option.
So what do you do instead? I blog… hmm, I see where this is going.
At the end of the day, I do enjoy blogging, but I am, and always will be a writer. I understand the importance of having a blog and an author platform, and in essence, blogging is marketing. Only rather than marketing my book, I am marketing myself.
I have always worked on the theory of ‘if I have something to say, I will.’ However, I will not force myself to post every day if I cannot think of something useful to say. Besides, I have a novel and two short story collections to finish editing, and am more than aware of advantages of having more than one novel / collection available.
Official Site of Alex Laybourne - Author 
Great post Alex. I couldn’t agree more. It’s either feast to famine when it comes to my blog posts. These days, because I’ve chosen to focus on the novel that I can’t quite seem to finish, it’s been mostly famine. My question with blog posting has always been ‘how much is this helping my bottom line?’ and ‘does anyone really care enough to read a post from me everyday?’. Like you, I understand the importance of blogging, but only if there is something really important to blog about. I suppo it would be a different story if I had the luxury of writing all day, but like 95% of us out there, I don’t. So I have to prioritize. Kudos to you for finding a way to balance it all. You just may inspire me to try a little harder!
Thank you John, I am on a hot streak now, but have had periods where one post a week was as good as it got. Also, I tend to get a bit stats obsessed with things, and blogging was no different haha
Alex, do you remember that I told you I had a streak of 11 days of 400 plus page views? Well, it finally ended after a 15 day run. Does that get me down? Maybe a little; but I will continue doing what I do and posting as much as I can. I am one of those people who just loves hearing himself write.
A 15 day streak was incredible. You comment and streak was what inspired me to go on my own streak. As you said, it will end, but the blog goes on. The sound of my own words always sound sweet to me too. Thanks for stopping by.
I started out by posting once a week and have settled into a nice three times a week groove. I’ve noticed that I tend to have my highest viewership on the first and second days after I publicize a new post, but drop off on the third, so posting regularly combats the trend. I’ve also focused my blog posts – I have a three weekly themes, one of which is centered upon building the awareness of my forthcoming book. Since different themes attract different viewers, this has helped to diversify my audience. Blogging is great, since it does require a writer to develop the ability to write something meaningful while working on a deadline, but I agree with your thoughts that it shouldn’t be allowed to take over your regular writing time!
I have often been tempted to settle into a real schedule like that but often fall adrift by the end of the first week. I tend to be much more all or nothing haha. I love the idea of posting everyday and will see how long I can keep this current hot streak running.
I also use the blog as kind of a dumping ground. If I’m having a bad day or whatever, I’ll rant and get it all out.
Well, I’d say you’re doing well with 1500+ followers. I have 6 on one blog and two on the other. Of course, I find it very, very difficult to blog everyday – the whole “something to say” phenomenon. Was a great post today though, thanks.
dk
Thank you for stopping by DK. I have to admit the followers confuse me, I think it include my twitter followers. Becuase wordpress itself only lists 55 who follow the site.
I chuckled at the irony about writing about posting every day on a day when I was tired, ill and not in the mood to post haha.
I have been blogging Monday through Friday. My posts don’t take that long, but…I am also unemployed. So! 😉 that explains my ease. I am also rewriting my novel, and I know that when I do find a job (god help me let that be soon!) I will prioritize and focus more on that instead. Which will be good, because even though I’m blogging more, I get very few comments. Which pisses me off. Which makes me blog more. And the cycle continues!
I was exactly the same, until a few weeks ago I got next to no comments. There is nothing more satisfying than seeing that steady improvement. Just keep on pushing forward and you will get there. I am sure of it.
Thank you for stopping by and leaving a comment.
If you can manage one post every second day I think that’s enough Alex. Perhaps consistency is the key rather than anything else. And at the end of the day you /are/ a writer 🙂
Great post, Alex. It’s a difficult one. I know that as a reader there’s no way I’d read all of your posts if you posted every day (sorry!) just because I read so many people’s blogs and that would quickly turn into a full-time job.
I only post every 7 – 10 days or so which I know is not what the ‘industry’ would deem enough but 1. it’s all I have time for and 2. I worry that I’ll dilute my readership by blogging more often 3. I worry I’ll start posting for the sake of it. When I’ve done blog challenges and found myself posting every couple of days, the page views for each specific post have been less than usual, even though my page views for the month might be up slightly. Maybe it would be different if I’d self-published but currently I’d rather post less and know that each piece has more readers than it might if I posted more frequently.
I suspect there’s a happy medium to be had. Perhaps around every 3-5 days would give people a chance to catch their breath but keep you in mind.
Just my thoughts! But I do agree that you mustn’t post if you don’t feel that you ‘have anything to say’.
Dilution of readership, that is an idea I hadn’t thought about. I may just have to turn that into a post. With kudos going to you of course. It is true, posting every day you do risk becoming another face in the crowd, or god forbid even considered a blog spammer.
Thank you for taking the time to comment Jackie, it is very much appreciated.
very interesting posts thank you! I am making a note of them. I have recently started blogging – on http://gardenofedenblog.com but I have heard that it can take a long time to be ‘picked up’ . I doubt I could blog daily and would not want to, I suppose because of what Jackie says about dilution of readership.
I am on a hot streak at the moment in terms of daily posts, but I know it will end at some point, and, I am ok with that. Good luck with your blog, I’m off to check it out now.