If you are someone new to the world of blogging then I recommend that you focus your efforts on Quantity over Quality. Notice I did not say “quality” first I said “quantity.” When starting a blog I encourage clients I work with to put their efforts toward writing a lot of posts instead making them awesome.
I know this is not what most people are used to hearing and most other bloggers and writers will preach the opposite, Quality over Quantity. That's not necessarily the best thought process when you are starting a blog. The reason? You will get too concerned with writing great blog posts, when in reality it's not going to happen if you are new and not used to doing it.
Looking back at my first blog posts, I cringe. I was not that great of a writer but with effort, time, and lots of practice my writing has improved a lot. Now I am a member of the Washington Automotive Press Association (WAPA) and the International Motor Press Association (IMPA).
I want you to embrace the fact that your first blog posts are going to well… kind of suck. That is just the reality of learning to blog. Once you can accept that in your head you will be ready to focus on getting articles up, a lot. If you learn to do this consistently and develop what I like to call a ‘Blogging Rhythm' then writing killer blog posts will come naturally. Quantity over Quality is going to help you make this happen. Also you will get faster at writing which is an important skill to master.
For a second I want you to think back to your language classes in school. Remember when the teacher would ask you to say a sentence. You would try and then she would say, “No you are not using the correct noun.” You would try again and get something else wrong. The best way to learn a language is not how it was taught in textbooks or the classroom. The best way is total language immersion. This is where you either move to the country or the teacher doesn't speak a word of English to you. This forces a student to think harder and work on speaking a lot of say French. Total immersion language programs focus on the quantity of language instead of the quality in which you speak. Eventually, hopefully, you will speaking of French will improve over time.
In addition if you don't have many blog posts up to see what people are landing on, it's kind of hard to know what you should be tailoring your writing on. If you are working on quanity over quality, and not quality over quantity, of your posts you will have a better idea of what is working and not working for your blog. I am prepared for the nasty emails and comments for saying this, but it's true. Besides, I can tell you from experience running different sites that cover a range of topics.
I see a lot of clients say they struggle to come up with articles that will ‘engage' their audience. Well I hate to burst anyone's bubble but if your blog is brand new you don't have a readership base. You you have few posts up there isn't much reason for someone to find your blog, stay on it, and follow you. It's a hard truth but that is the reality.
I just want people to understand I am not saying to throw-up a lot of bad blog posts at the beginning. I just want you to realize that your first blog posts are not going to be perfect and I see too many clients I work with struggle. They spend hours refining a single blog post almost to the point they don't want to read it or write anymore. That's just not a good way to start your online career.
If you are not comfortable with my suggestion to put up articles as often as you can I understand. Coming up with content daily or several times a day is quite difficult. If it was easy though everyone would be blogging.
Few people are going to have a ton of success when they first start. I didn't and it's taken me several years to be able to get to this point. (I still have a long way to go.) While I would link-up to some of my past bad blog posts I am not going to and hope that you just don't visit or see them. 🙂
What do you think of my decree to focus on quantity over quality? Is this just crazy or are you going to accept my challenge?
