This week’s mini series of blog posts are for those of you who write blogs like mine. We have the ability to share experience that others can benefit from.

It is our right and maybe even responsibility to writing about what we know and hypothesizing (without intention of presenting hypotheses as undoubted fact) out loud about what we don’t completely understand yet.

Every day this week I am going to write about the five main reasons why so many blogs are dying out.

1. Lack of Time / 2. Lack of Content / 3. Lack of Focus / 4. Lack of Response / and 5. Lack of Tangible Benefits

Lack of Time

I am starting with this one because for the first time in 18 months I completely skipped my blog post last week. The reason that so many like me who love to write still end up falling short of their own expectations is because we get tripped up by the bar we set for ourselves. No matter how much we are all fighting it, we are all burdened with the limitation of 24 hours to each day. So we try to plan out as much of that time as possible and whether we like to think about it or not, we all have missed out on spending enough time on one thing or another that we could have really made a difference with.

3 Bottom-line Dependent Questions with Variably Correct Answers:

1. How often do you have to post to your blog?

COMMON ANSWERS: Once a day, every day? 5 times a week? Every other day-ish? Once a week? Once a month?

REAL ANSWER: It depends. No. Really.
It depends on purpose. Some businesses use their “web log” for press releases which may only get released semi-annually. I still only blog once a week. Except for this week because I am not going to spread this particularly important tidbit over a span of 5 weeks. If I have learned anything from all of the blogs business or otherwise it’s this: quality and consistency that beat bulk and fluff.

2. How long should blog posts be?
People get stressed while over thinking each blog post. They get hung-up on the false belief that all posts should be massive blobs of words rich (or cluttered?) with a massive wealth of details supporting your idea. In truth, you just need one main topic for each post and between three and four (at the very least) sentences or references to other content supporting your topic of the moment. And as long as that topic is relevant to the blog’s main idea then it only adds value.

3. Should I limit the amount of time I work on it?

ANSWER: YES
This is another difficult question. I am so picky about my writing and I often have so many ideas that it is a time-consuming effort to articulate those ideas without overly complex details or overly vague statements. I’m working on that. I am trying to keep my entire process to under 45 minutes.

I failed horribly on that time limit today. Tomorrow I’ll do better.