While at PubCon, a group of us were having a conversation about blogs and blogging. One of the fellows in the group made the comment that he had seriously considered starting his own blog... but he just wasnt sure if he could whip out some incredible information to post every single day. So he decided blogging just wasnt for him.
I commented that it really wasnt necessary to post something earth shattering every day... just 10-12 times a year at minimum. The rest of the days you can 'just post'. I believe Darren Rowse made a comment on this, calling this your pillar articles.
A quick search turned that up, and actually it was tips by Yaro Starak that were republished on Problogger.net. This is the piece I was referring to, specifically:
10. Write at least five major “pillar†articles. A pillar article is usually a tutorial style article aimed to teach your audience something. Generally they are longer than 500 words and have lots of very practical tips or advice. This article you are currently reading could be considered a pillar article since it is very practical and a good “how-to†lesson. This style of article has long term appeal, stays current (it isn’t news or time dependent) and offers real value and insight. The more pillars you have on your blog the better.
9. Write one new blog post per day minimum. Not every post has to be a pillar, but you should work on getting those five pillars done at the same time as you keep your blog fresh with a daily news or short article style post. The important thing here is to demonstrate to first time visitors that your blog is updated all the time so they feel that if they come back tomorrow they will likely find something new. This causes them to bookmark your site or subscribe to your blog feed.
You don’t have to produce one post per day all the time but it is important you do when your blog is brand new. Once you get traction you still need to keep the fresh content coming but your loyal audience will be more forgiving if you slow down to a few per week instead. The first few months are critical so the more content you can produce at this time the better.
Just look at some of my recent posts (affiliate birdnest, my daughter is a keyword stuffer, to name a few). If there was a such thing as Blog Police, I would have been in "traffic court" already for all those violations! 😆
If you have considered blogging, but hesitated because you were concerned about writing something profound every single day... I hope this has encouraged you to go for it anyway! (I did)
Technorati Tags: blogging, bloggers, writing, pillar articles, blog police
About Lynn Terry
It's a fair point to focus on quality over quantity, but it probably helps to ensure you have a good idea not simply of your own target market, but also your own Unique Selling Point.
I've been reading a number of blogs recently, and what I really notice is how generally they often seem to deal with both issues. I figure serious blogging needs to be treated as a business in this areas?
I'm more of a Yaro person than a Darren. They're both great bloggers but I find it too hard to keep up with Darren's style. Yaro, has a different approach and his advice, including the pillar articles, has just hit home with me. More for the part-time blogger. My pillar article, for example, have a higher PR than my homepage and brings in the bulk of my traffic. Even when I stop blogging for awhile, my pillar article will keep bringing in the traffic.
Don't you love the idea of a "Pillar" article - it describes so perfectly what it is.
Hey Bina - Darren really is a machine isn't he! I can't keep up with his blogging, he's like a one man newspaper. I actually don't recommend people try to emulate Darren's blogging since, well, you might get sick from the stress and lack of sleep from trying to keep up with absolutely everything happening online in blogging.
We should just be happy that Darren does it for us 🙂
Hey Lynn - nice blog, I've added you to my rss feed reader.
Thank you, Yaro - I'm a big fan of yours, and am subscribed to your blog as well. Great to see you here 😀
I like your new course/newsletter at Blog Traffic King too - great stuff!
Best,
Lynn Terry