In terms of article titles, this is about as risque as I get. Perhaps I was inspired by a few of Danny Brown’s recent titles (especially since his blog, which is awesome, gets more traffic than mine!) or maybe I’m just using today’s as an experiment since it’s a bit out of character for me, but no other title I considered using for this post seemed to get to the point as appropriately as this one does.
We’ve all heard the expression “think before you speak” and I think the same can be said for posting content on a blog/YouTube channel/Facebook page/wherever. Whether for yourself or for a client, too often we move quickly to publish something because its been so many days since we last said anything. So what happens? You rush through the production and the content ends up taking a backseat. The result is something that provides nothing of value to the community simply because you wanted to get the job done and failed to consider whether or not what you had to say was actually going to help anyone.
How many of you have been in this position or have done this before? I know I have, and it’s wrong. For example, I try to stay on a schedule and post informative content at least two times a week on this blog. But there have been times that I’ve been up late at night struggling to try and decide what to post on this blog for the coming day, and often I get blogger’s block (the equivalent of writer’s block) and wonder what I’m going to do. Unfortunately, this had led to a few instances where I ended up posting something just for the sake of it and the result was a subpar article.
I’ve come to accept the fact that I’ve probably made some poor decisions at times and ended up posting content that probably didn’t help many people, but no longer will I make that mistake. I will especially take the lessons I’ve learned to help counsel clients and continue to stress to them that they “think before they publish” and not post anything that they aren’t 100 percent behind and proud of.
So the moral of the story is to slow down. Don’t get caught up in schedules and deadlines. Instead, wait until the time strikes, and it will, when you have an idea for a post that will benefit others. If you spend most of your time and energy worrying about frequency and getting the work over with instead of concentrating on the actual importance of the material being published, then not only are you wasting your time and that of your audience, but you are hurting yourself in the process because people will slowly stop listening to what you have to say.
Related Articles
- Why We Can’t Give Up (dannybrown.me)
- The Content Conundrum – Should Bloggers Use PLR Articles? (buildabetterblog.com)
- 7 Ways for Bloggers to Overcome Writer’s Block (bruceclay.com)
PR at Sunrise 
Hi Andrew–Risque? Hardly when you’re calling a spade a spade. It’s reassuring to know that it’s okay to not post if the end result is useless. It’s not helpful to post just for the sake of posting. It won’t generate better traffic obviously, so why not focus on quality content and demonstrate that you know your audience? Either way, I find your posts (at any frequency) are very helpful 🙂
Thanks, Krista!
Good post Andrew, couldn’t agree more.
I haven’t been writing as much lately for my personal blog. My days get too busy nowadays (no complaints though) and I don’t have the time anymore. I don’t want to put something half-a__d up, so I wait until I feel motivated/inspired enough to write again.
When we’re talking about blog posts for companies/brands though—absolutely. Don’t publish unless you’re 100% behind it. Regular content is important, but more important is GOOD content. Content that a company can stand behind. It doesn’t necessarily mean each blog post is going to garner loads of traffic, but make sure whatever you publish, you can stand behind.
You got it, Cristian!
I think you are right, contest makes the grade. If an idea is there than so be it. If not than hesitate but for becoming a new post all together. Do you feel this is the case?
Hi James – If I’m following correctly then yes, post information that is thought-provoking and of value.
I wholeheartedly agree, but at the same time: So much crap is out there because, on some level, it works.
That big blogger who publishes basically the same article, over and over? He makes a lot of money doing that. And he also travels around giving the same speech over and over, making money on that too.
The thousands of scraped or auto-generated content pages that come up when you Google, well, anything? Plenty of millionaires created by those.
90% of everything is crap. Crap is underrated by a lot of smart people.
Holding yourself to a standard is so, so important. But if you want to be big, you also have to be prolific. If you only publish your once-a-month ideas, you’re poking holes in your stream of visitors.
Of course, I’m not following my own advice here. My own blog stagnates because I, too, wait for the ideas that really inspire. I guess it comes down to why you publish. If you want to publish to be big, you’re going to have to accept some crap.
Good points, Rex. I guess my main point was for people to try harder and think a bit more before hitting the “publish” key. We aren’t always going to write a post that hits a home run every time, but we should at least try not to swing at every pitch, if that makes sense?
Good post. I dare to say that this is something that anyone who tries to publish content with regularity has to deal with. Let’s face it unless you are a professional blogger, most of us have full-time jobs, family, friends, hobbies any number of things that demand our attention and energy. This leads to days when we just need to crank out content for the sake of meeting our self-imposed deadline. No doubt I’ve published things that I know could have used a few more revs before being published, but sometimes good enough is well…good enough.
It is all about degrees. I’ve published things that were not my best effort only to have it well-received. I get and respect your point, but don’t think you need to over think every post. Sometimes a half-hearted effort is better than not publishing.
Sorry it took me a few days to write back, Paul!
You definitely make some good points. Sometimes the posts you put so much effort into don’t really takeoff, while other posts that you kinda just spent 20min on and hit ‘publish’ end up getting a ton of views. Guess that’s social media?
I also think that the more you post, the better you get. So even if you have some half-hearted posts once in a while, chances are you going to get better over time and have less and less of those posts.
Soooo true! I try to post articles about once a week, but there have been times where I’m not very enthusiastic or passionate about what I’m posting. Rather than “wasting” a post, I’ll sit it on it for a day or two and try to come up with something else.
I think it’s so important to be proud of what you put your name on! Don’t just post for the sake of posting…
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