Recent Blog Entries
Great Blog Traits: Consistency
Written by Scrivs on April 25, 2006
It’s hard to pin down what the first thing we look for in a site when evaluating it for inclusion into the Network, but one of the top traits has to be consistency of writing. Consistency can mean a couple of things, but the two big ones for me are:
- Writing patterns
- Writing quality
Writing Patterns
We have all been there before with our blogs. Those streaks of time where we tell ourselves we are going to pump out great content day after day without fail and after day three we seem to lapse and a week or two goes by with nothing. Maybe we convince ourselves to try again or maybe we just give up. In any case, how often do you go through these streaks? If it’s on a couple of occassions you are definitely losing the consistency of your blog that your readers may be looking for. Whether we like it or not our readers come to expect content at certain intervals based on previous patterns.
Posting daily over a 3 month span will lead them to believe you will always post daily. Posting a couple times a month means a couple times a month. How consistent can you remain? A big issue I have is that it seems a ton of people that submit have a great amount of content and then for the previous 30-45 days there isn’t anything to show on the site. We aren’t going to troll through your archives to see what you have written if the homepage’s latest entry is from January.
Find your pattern and try your best to stick with it. Your readers will thank you.
Writing Quality
The best example that I can think of to signify my viewpoint on consistency of writing quality is John Gruber. When he writes a lengthy entry he always makes sure its top notch. It’s that little bit of extra effort that takes a good entry to a great one, but so many people seem to avoid that effort. How often do you produce good-to-great writing on your site?
One entry linked by Digg or Slashdot means nothing to us. How many entries actually bring readers back to your site is what is important. Are you content with writing one good thing and then posting blurbs for the next two months?
Now I understand producing something grand takes time and energy and not all of us are up to the task of doing it on a frequent basis, but that doesn’t mean each entry you produce can’t be at least good. Think of the sites you read and why you keep going back. If you were reading your site would you go back to it?
Overall be consistent with your site. We all experience downtime and many of our members have had stretches of time where their offline lives take precedence (as they should) and we talk about it. Your blog shouldn’t be your life, but if you are going to put one out there for the public to see why not try to be consistent with it?
April 25th, 2006 at 11:57 am
I can also guess that consistency means variety. So for instance if your site is about gaming and…cheese. Then you should probably post a little bit of about cheese every once in a while and not have small cheese bursts. I know challenge myself to cover all of my “categoriesâ€.
April 25th, 2006 at 12:14 pm
Michale: Agreed, but we also have the understanding that your interests may change over time. Many of our current members had very general sites in the beginning, but then found what they wanted their focus to be and have since narrowed the subject matter of their sites.
April 25th, 2006 at 12:24 pm
I am so thankful for these posts, not only to improve my site in hopes of acceptance to the network, but to improve my site in general. I would love to see a site dedicated to the subject of good blogging. Hmmm…
Can’t wait to read future posts!
April 25th, 2006 at 12:37 pm
We get a lot of emails from people asking how often they should be posting in order to make it into 9rules, and to be honest there is no set amount. Like Paul just said in this entry, it’s all about consistency. If you consistently write entries 2-3 times per week then that’s fantastic. If you consistently write 1-2 really great entries per week, then that’s good too. We’re looking for consistency, please don’t translate that into “9rules says I have to post 4 times per week, every single week, or I don’t make it” because that’s not what we’re saying.
Some other weblog networks may have a “minimum number” of posts per week, or even per day, but we’re not like that here. We want you to be fair to your readership and maintain their expectations, because that’s all we can ask for of you, or of ourselves.
April 25th, 2006 at 1:04 pm
When I started blogging around the middle of 2005 (on blogspot) I would never have thought that I would enjoy having those expectations put upon me by my readership. But now that I’ve been doing it for a little while I’ve found that I truly enjoy the fact that people expect me to post at regular intervals. It’s somewhat comforting to me in an S&M sort of way.
April 25th, 2006 at 2:18 pm
Thanks for reminding me the two most important qualities a good blog must have. After a year and half of blogging, I truly understand the challenges one must need to face in order to achieve satifactory quality in these two area. It means extra effort, and certain amount of time investment. However, the reward is not simply just a few more readers, but a sense of self-accomplishment that you only get through a good piece of writing.
April 25th, 2006 at 2:36 pm
The thing that has helped me is to adopt a variety of writing styles for my posts. That way I don’t feel like I have to write an essay each time.
There are many types of blog post, including reviews, tutorials, top ten tips to do x, top 20 or 50 sites on this or that, or even just a link with a brief writeup to another useful page or resource.
I find that ‘mixing it up’ in this way enables me to post more frequently and keeps the creative juices flowing.
April 25th, 2006 at 3:35 pm
That’s very true, Christian. I find myself being more excited about blogging when I don’t confine myself to one type of writing or one subject matter. Of course, that’s just me, some people really enjoy that type of writing.
April 25th, 2006 at 4:17 pm
Thanks to Scrivs for going into some of the ingredients that make a blog successful. It’s interesting for someone like me who’s started less than a year ago. Much of 9rules’ content is appealing to me because it’s personalised due to the nature of the network, and not commercialised material that’s on many other blog networks.
I was wondering if Mike or anyone at the network could clarify what criteria is set aside for personal blogs? I think it’s pretty self-explanatory what content the other communities carry, but it gets a little ambiguous with personal blogs. Most of us start with personal blogs and as Scrivs mentioned, they’re usually very general in nature.
Will blogging about a variety of subjects, including personal happenings and topics of interest to the author, be considered haphazard content? It would be interesting to know your views, since the main theme here is consistency in writing.
And does 9rules only consider current material on offer at blogs submitted or will you also take into consideration the author’s plans for the future, given that induction into 9rules would bring increased readership and with it, more scope to explore further content development which would benefit both 9rules and the author.
April 25th, 2006 at 4:47 pm
[...] decision whether to allow a blog or not and what they in fact look for (one of them being consistency in posting). I firmly believe I meet some of their desi [...]
April 25th, 2006 at 6:47 pm
I would like to second weisheng’s query as to what criteria is used for personal blogs. I write about a wide variety of things, but remain consistent with a few things week in and week out. I often intersperse some random thoughts, jokes, etc.
One other thing I was wondering about, I have very few people that leave comments and I mean very few. I use Mint so I know how much traffic I recieve and I see can see the repeat readers, etc. For some reason my readers tend to email me instead of leaving comments. Does this make an impact on the decision process?
April 25th, 2006 at 8:53 pm
[...] Technicolor 9rules leaflet. Paul Scrivs has added updates on the 9rules blog stating what entrants can do in order to prepare for the submission round. The ideas of “Writing [...]
April 25th, 2006 at 10:00 pm
Hey guys, the criteria for personal blogs isn’t set in stone (well, nothing we say is really set in stone!) so it’s tougher to nail down some guidelines.
Basically we look for the same type of stuff in personal blogs as we do with topical blogs: a passion for writing, interesting opinions or things to say, and a genuine goal of getting better as a blogger. If you write about the events that happen in your life from day to day in an interesting, consistent manner, then you have as good a chance as any to make it in.
April 26th, 2006 at 7:54 am
Along with Mike’s thoughts, I love personal blogs. So I’ll be having a lot of fun going through all the submissions this time around.
April 26th, 2006 at 10:34 am
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April 27th, 2006 at 12:48 am
Thanks for clarifying, Mike. Looking forward to the submissions.
April 28th, 2006 at 11:25 am
Paul,
I have to respectfully disagree with your charge of encouraging consistency of frequency in ones publishing of blog postings. I won’t clutter your comment list with all the reasons why, I wrote them up here:
http://www.scrollinondubs.com/index.cfm/2006/4/28/Pasteurized-homogenized-gradeA-thought
but the short of it is this: bloggers are not writers by trade, they are people in a variety of professions who do things that they are passionate about and take the extra time to read & write about them. This is a very different motive from that of a journalist whose task it is to report the facts.
I agree with your statement that consistent _quality_ of writing is important but being consistently inconsistent is arguably a compelling style and a reason for someone to read your blog (case in point, my buddy chris’ brainfuel.tv blog syndicated by you guys).
Anyways, bottomline is people should write when they’re inspired and not by a clock. That is the essence of blogging.
Sean
April 28th, 2006 at 1:44 pm
Sean: I still think over time you will show a pattern. Gruber didn’t use to post all the time, but you how often you should expect something to come. I do agree with you that blogging should be fun and done for your own benefit, but I have also found that whether it’s intentional or not a pattern forms over time.
May 8th, 2006 at 6:49 pm
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