Behind the Blog: More Posts Vs. Quality of Posts

I set a goal for myself at the end of July that I wanted to be more consistent with the days that I posted.  Not only that I wanted to increase the amount of posts I was doing each week, from about three to five.  Five posts a week, I thought to myself am I mad? Can I do it?  I knew it could be done, other writers whose blogs I read have done it. Gretchin Rubin author of  the book "The Happiness Project" and the like titled website, built quite a following on her blog and promoted her year long project by posting everyday.  So it is possible for some, my question to myself though was would my content suffer from posting so many times a week, would my loyal followers (my family and friends) be annoyed by seeing a blog alert from me everyday?  I am dedicating this post to  examine these questions and to reflect back on my success, stress and mess from this self (inflicted) challenge.


I have learned a lot about myself since starting my blog.  I have learned that I not only like to write, I love it.  The more I write the more proficient I feel, the words are more fluid, the sentences more well crafted, my editing more accurate (well I still miss a lot).  I enjoy communicating with the readers (you guys and gals). I like receiving feedback, that check-in of "hey how am I doing" is so important to me.  I also have learned to set realistic goals and see them through to completion.


By challenging myself to write a post five days a week I have learned a few key things that helped me see my goal through.

1)  Staying organized is essential to completing a goal.  I created an editorial schedule that I planned out the week's postings on.  The schedule also served as a place to jot down ideas for future posts.

2) Be flexible and forgiving when you have to make adjustments.  There were times I would need to make changes, switch a post to a different day or plan a different post last minute because my first idea wasn't working.

3) Set specific times aside to work.  I found that when I planned a specific day and time to work on my blog it would help to get me into the frame of mind that I needed to write.  Previously I would sit down when I had a moment or if I felt like it.  While bursts of creativity are sporadic, planning time to write helped me be more productive, because it forced me to write something.  Even if I had to go back and edit later, I was still getting something down on the page. 

4) Have tunnel vision when researching online. The internet is a wonderful resource for inspiration, but it can also be a major distraction and time sapper.  When ever I went online I made sure I knew exactly what I was researching, again that goes back to the schedule, otherwise I could easily get distracted and end up wasting time.

5)  Be more aware.  Look for inspiration everywhere, not just online, but all around.  Maybe it will come from an article online or perhaps you see a woman at a store with a terrific pair of shoes.  Be more attuned to your environment and you will see that there is a wealth of inspiration all around.  Listen to suggestions from friends, family, other bloggers and readers (If you have something you want to see a post on shoot me an e-mail or leave a comment). Oh and make sure you have a pen on you to jot it down, don't want to forget those inspiring ideas.


Do you enjoy blogs where the writer posts more frequently or does the frequency come secondary to the content?  Do you think that the quality of my posts this month have been consistent even while posting more frequently?