Review Me Today!

A few days ago I asked a question on some of the forums that I post on.  The question was, “What are your blogging resolutions for 2009?”.  My plan was to take all the responses I got, and write a a post titled The Top Ten Blogging Resolutions for the New Year.  But I didn’t get 10 Resolutions, or even 5.  I got plenty of responses to my question, but almost everyone had the same resolution.  What to do?  Write a post on the Top One New Years Resolution for Bloggers? That doesn’t sound right!

Top New Year’s Resolutions For Bloggers

The one goal that everyone shared was to post  good content to their blog more regularly.  I suppose I could break that down into two New Year’s Resolutions.

1. Posting Regularly
2. Post more Original Content

I thought it was very interesting that no one said they were going to try and post daily, or weekly. Just regularly. So that led to my next question. How often should you post to your blog? The answer is, that all depends on who you ask.

How Often Should You Post To Your Blog?

Darren Rowse, in an old post on Problogger (2006) writes that you don’t want to post too often, because you can burn out your readers. Too much information in too short of a time leaves reader’s feeling that they can’t keep up.  But at the same time you want to post often enough to keep your reader’s engaged.  How much is too much? How often is often enough? According to Darren, that all depends on how long your posts are, what the topic of your blog is, and who your readers are!

More recently, Seth Godin on Seth Godin’s Blog writes that you

…don’t publish it unless it’s good, You don’t write more blog posts than you can support…

Then he goes on to agree with Darren, in that the ideal amount of posting depends upon your blog and your audience. Seth does say that one post per day seems to work best for him.

On the other end of the spectrum Andy McDonald at Blogging Tips says that according to Technorati, the top 100 bloggers post on average 5 or 6 times PER DAY! Andy says that for maximum traffic you should post a minimum of 3 times per week, but it will take 3 posts per day to see a noticeable surge in traffic, (Google likes frequent updating).

Post Regularly

It turns out that the bloggers who responded to my question had it right. Posting regularly is more important that how often you post. You need to find a posting schedule that works for your type of audience and your type of blog. You need to post quality content on a regular basis. So three times a week, or three times a day, it doesn’t really matter as long as you post excellent content regularly.

Need an incentive to post regularly? I find that money is a good incentive! Today.com pays me to blog, and they will pay you to blog! I know that if I miss a day, I miss a payment. I rarely miss a day Check it out!

One of my favorite Bible stories is Genesis 18. In this story, Abraham and Sarah are an elderly couple with no children. God tells Abraham that he and Sarah will have a child within the next year. Then Sarah LAUGHS at God! She is basically thinking, “You’ve got to be kidding! I’m old and worn out. My husband is old.” OK, Sarah doesn’t laugh directly AT God, but she laughs. God calls her on it, “Why are you laughing?” Then Sarah LIES and says she wasn’t laughing. So Sarah laughs at God, and then she lies to God, and what do you think God does? We have to wait until Genesis 21 to find that God was “gracious” to Sarah and she became pregnant in her old age and bore a son. Then we finally come to one of my favorite Bible verses,

Genesis 21:6 Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.”

What this says to me is it is OK to be a Christian and to laugh and have fun.  That is why I like the blog, God’s Child.

This is a Christian blog, complete with memory verses and Bible lessons.  But it also has jokes, and funny videos and gratitude. And unlike many Christian blogs, this one is not annoyingly self-righteous.

I am not totally in love with this blog. I like funny, and sometimes I like cute, but I don’t like 20 different fonts on the same page.  I am also not fond of blog “glitter”, something this blog has way too much of.  The memory verse for 12/14 is unreadable because it has been transposed into some type of glitter font.  Maybe it is just me, but I think too much cute makes this blog look like the work of a 13 year old teenie bopper, not a woman who has led a life with some incredible challenges, and has a real message to share. (Read Cathy’s story ).

My recommendations for God’s Child. Keep the jokes, (especially keep that video!) keep the testimonials, keep the memory verses, and keep the bible lessons.  Pick just one or two fonts, don’t mix purple and red, and lose the glitter.

If you are a blogger, it probably goes without saying that you are a writer. Unless, of course, you have a video blog, or a photography blog, or do podcasts, or…. OK, so maybe you aren’t a writer. But if you are, you are probably always looking for ways to make money writing. Anything so you can quit the job that pays the bills and enjoy the freedom that life as a writer brings. Well, maybe that is not what you think, but it is what I think.

Freelance Home Writer is a blog of legitimate writing jobs. Right now the front page is featuring two sites that pay $25 per accepted article. (Not bad pay at all!) It also includes posts on marketing your writing services, advice for freelance writers, and scam alerts. One of my favorite articles is 10 Web Writing Tips for Newbies . Some of the article was the same old stuff, but there were a few tidbits in there that I think I will find really helpful. The paragraph on plagiarism had a nice resource for checking your material for accidental plagerism, and the paragraph on Evergreen content is a must for anyone who want to write material that will be relevant for a long time.

I really enjoyed this blog, and I will probably check back from time to time to see if there are any more writing jobs that I can apply for.