Competition Keeps Bloggers Posting Frequently
Posted on October 3, 2006
Professional bloggers have to keep posting frequently because the competition is so intense and traffic tends to drop considerably if posts slow to a crawl or stop. This is especially true for entertainment and celebrity gossip blogs. The Editors Weblog has pieced together several articles in a post about popular blog personalities and web traffic.
Editors Weblog's post first notes the story in Chicago Business that says the Chicago Sun-Times traffic has plummeted 25% since Roger Ebert's departure to recover from his salivary-gland cancer surgery. Traffic to Ebert's own column has dropped 65%. Part of that drop could also be attributed to rather dull movies over the last couple months but a good percentage is definitely due to Ebert's temporary departure.
Editors Weblog then points to this Wall Street Journal story that discusses big traffic drops for several a-list bloggers when they took vacations even though they used guest bloggers. Editors Weblog gives two reasons why bloggers must continue constant posting.
The biggest risk to vacationing bloggers is probably missing a big breaking news story and not being there to blog about it. The Editors Weblog is correct that readers will look elsewhere and find other voices if you are not around, but that risk is always there whether you are on vacation or not. Most bloggers should be able to afford a week or two vacation. Traffic will drop but it should return to previous levels when the vacationing blogger returns. If you are really concerned you can always hire a guest blogger to keep posts on your blog going while you are away.
- Fans: Internet readers are fickle. If they get used to reading you and then all of sudden you disappear, there are plenty of other equally entertaining blogs and columns online that they will migrate to, soon forgetting about the enjoyment you used to give...
- Income: ...and once the fans are gone, don't expect advertising revenue to get any higher. If you're paying the bills with Google Ads, you'd better keep posting.