Blogging's Deadly Sin: The Pause
Monday, October 8th, 2007 at 12:00 am
There are several unwritten no-nos in blogging, but I’m sure that many of you would agree – there is no greater sin than pushing your keyboard aside, and not blogging. Everyone knows that building a successful blog takes time and diligence. Even more important than posting frequently, is the quality of content. Attracting an audience and enticing them to subscribe is key to the growth of your blog, so you can’t afford to miss a beat! What would happen if you hit “pause” and stopped blogging – just for a while?
I have noticed that a number of my favourite blogs have gone quiet in the last couple of months. Even worse, some bloggers have resorted to writing about their lack of inspiration. This has actually caused me to delete a number of feeds from my collection! There could be several reasons for this blogging slump, but I think the most obvious is that the year has started winding down and many people simply find themselves flooded with all sorts of projects (work and home related), causing the blog to take a backseat.
Before I start hurling too many accusations, you may notice that this is my first entry in almost two weeks. Before this 11-day-silence I tried to maintain a rate of at least one or two entries per week. Now, bear with me while I interject with a quick joke (one of my all time favourites):
A Polar bear walks into a bar and says to the bartender, “I’ll have a gin…… and tonic.” The bartender asks, “What’s with the big pause?” The bear says, “I dunno, I’ve always had them.”
At this point, you probably find yourself asking me the same question the bartender posed to the bear. Well, basically I broke my blogging rhythm by going away for a couple of days. If I was the diligent blogger I spoke of in the first paragraph, I would have had a few posts on ice just waiting to be auto-published in my absence, but alas, I am no such blogger.
Another reason for giving Blogsolid a rest was perhaps just to see what happens. Since starting this blog I have felt a certain amount of pressure to keep rolling out fresh content, so the break in my schedule gave me an opportunity to just let go and experiment with “the pause”. Would this be a suicidal experiment for my blog? Would I lose half my subscribers? Would my visitor stats take a dive? All these questions begged answers, so here are my observations from the last 11 days:
- Approximately 8% less unique visitors in the last 11 days than during the previous period of 11 days. (Not too much of a tragedy if you ask me.)
- Number of subscribers has remained fairly constant. So they didn’t unsubscribe! (yet…)
- According to Technorati.com, seven different websites have posted links to Blogsolid. (So people have been talking behind my back!)
My conclusion: It is OK to take a break from blogging. Dont be too hard on yourself, the world will probably not go to pieces if you recharge your creative batteries for a couple of days. The way I see it, I gave readers a chance to catch up with some of Blogsolid’s older articles they may have missed. You can thank me in comments 
On a more serious note, if you feel that your blogging schedule is getting the better of you and you find it hard to keep up, don’t lose hope just yet. I recommend reading Leo Babauta’s article on “minimalist blogging”. It inspired me to adapt my approach to blogging and possibly even adopt a few Zen Habits.
So, what do you think – is taking a break from blogging really that bad? And how long is too long?
Julia Says:
October 8th, 2007 at 12:20 pm
Hey there Imar! I don’t think that just because someone doesn’t blog all the time everyone will unsubscribe. For example I collect my feeds with Thunderbird, and if some page hasn’t got an update for a while I probably wouldn’t even notice straight away. Sometimes I even forget to check my emails, and I won’t know of my feeds at all! So my conclusion is: the more time your readers spend on the internet, the more they want new content! But if you only every now and then, they might read your blog when it’s been updated, but read other stuff in between.
I rather unsubscribed with some blogs because I didn’t like anymore what they wrote, not because they didn’t blog enough.
Ryan Says:
October 8th, 2007 at 12:27 pm
If you’d been away another two weeks I probably would have unsubscribed, although I would have checked back on occasion to see if you had started back up again. I figured something was up as you’d been posting so regularly for a while, yet just randomly stopped all of a sudden. Good to see yer back on track again
Brian Says:
October 8th, 2007 at 1:24 pm
Ya, I was actually just about to hit that unsubscribe button, my mouse was hovering above it. Then I thought, let me just hit refresh one more time. So Blogsolid survives another day on my feeds list.
redwall_hp Says:
October 8th, 2007 at 3:45 pm
That was only 11 days? It felt like forever (I’m online every day, normally).
I wouldn’t unsubscribe after an 11-day pause, but maybe a 25-day lack of new posts. With a blog like this, I’d then check back in another month after unsubscribing to see if posting has started again.
BLOGGING TIP (for all bloggers): When a blogger takes a break from blogging, I tend to prefer if they post a note with an estimate of when they’ll start posting again.
Well, good to see you haven’t vanished off the face of the earth. Can’t wait for more posts.
Blogsolid Says:
October 9th, 2007 at 8:24 am
Hi Julia, good point. Maybe interesting content is more important than frequent posting.
To Ryan, Brian and redwall. Thanks for keeping the faith… and the feed!
Me blogging | doodlebox.de Says:
October 9th, 2007 at 11:30 am
[...] read an article on Blogsolid yesterday, and it made me think about the ‘routine’ blogging again. I still have not [...]
DR Says:
October 11th, 2007 at 3:25 am
This has been an issue I’ve struggled with, specifically, frequency of posts. I’ve concluded that quality is more important than quantity, which puts me at 2 to 3 posts per week. But when you look at some high traffic blogs that post several times a day, it does make you wonder.
A little link love - Week 24 » Ordinary Folk Says:
October 13th, 2007 at 11:14 pm
[...] Blogging’s Deadly Sin – Does everyone go away if you don’t post for a little while on your blog? BlogSolid took a little break to see what would happen. Is it okay to take a break once in a while? If you’re new here, please consider subscribing to our RSS feed. [...]
Bush Mackel Says:
October 14th, 2007 at 6:57 am
Hey, first time here and gotta say this theme is kicka$$!!! BTW, good post and interesting stats regarding how much things changed (or didn’t) during your little break.
Blogsolid Says:
October 15th, 2007 at 1:47 am
DR – I agree with your conclusion… No use publishing frequent yet “empty” content.
Bush – Welcome to Blogsolid!
Speedlinking October 14th 2007 Says:
October 15th, 2007 at 9:13 am
[...] you do, just don’t stop blogging. The pause can kill your [...]
Chase Says:
October 15th, 2007 at 11:47 am
I’ve definitely noticed that as long as you keep posting, people will keep coming. However, I’ve also seen that unless you do something special, the same number of people will keep coming. Just writing good stuff often doesn’t really guarantee that your traffic will increase, but stopping for a while is a sure way of getting it to drop right off
Oh ya I really dig your theme as well.
Blogsolid Says:
October 16th, 2007 at 11:24 am
Hi Chase. Good point! Keeping your blog updated keeps readers coming back, but does not necessarily grow readership… Hmmm.
Majd Mash Says:
October 22nd, 2007 at 1:06 pm
well….all i can say is welcome back
Blogsolid Says:
October 22nd, 2007 at 5:16 pm
Thanks Majd!
April Holle Says:
December 4th, 2007 at 5:42 pm
When I don’t blog for a couple of days I definitely see a drop off on visitors, but my subscribers stay constant. I think this is because the feed readers of today allow users to add multiple feeds, so they don’t tend to notice if you’re not there all the time, but they quit coming to the actual physical site to check on new content since nothing changes.
Valum » Blog Archive » Blogging’s Deadly Sin: The Pause Says:
May 6th, 2008 at 6:16 pm
[...] of you would agree – there is no greater sin than pushing your keyboard aside, and not blogging.read more | digg [...]
Joe Says:
February 5th, 2009 at 6:38 pm
I would say that “how” you take a break from your blog is more important than “if”.
If your blog is strictly for friends and family, they’ll understand if you take a break and would probably find out about the break through a casual phone call or email from you. Now, if your blog is read by the general public then your approach should be different. For example, my blog (abstractLatte…sorry, I promise that’s not a shameless promotion!) is read by the general public and is more involved than a simple update about my day. I take it seriously in the sense that I’m working on promoting it through independent coffee shops as well as through traditional means and online avenues. If I know I’ll be away from my blog for a few days, even a week, I’ll let my readers know through Twitter in addition to posting an entry that tells them when I’ll return.
Twitter is a great tool if used in moderation. Mine is used only for blog updates and it not only gives my readers another avenue through which to get updates but it shows my readers that I am making a solid effort to keep them updated. It also shows that I care about my blog and my readers. I’m not saying that Twitter is the best resource, but it’s definitely the quickest since they limit the amount of words you can use. For less serious bloggers, you could specify that your Twitter account is only used for updates when your blog is inactive for more than two or three days; that could definitely reduce how often your readers feel compelled to check it. But the bottom line is that you can use it however you’d like and it can serve as a great way to keep your readers informed.